Fr. Bryan Stitt: The Miraculous Staircase of Loretto: Trust in Our Lady & St. Joseph

By Fr. Bryan Stitt, Catholic Exchange, May 3, 2022

Father Bryan Stitt has been the pastor of St. Mary’s in Canton, New York since June of 2017. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Ogdensburg in 2003. …

Last year marked 140 years since the completion of the most famous staircase in our nation. It’s in the chapel of Our Lady of Loretto in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I hope that you know the story. In the 1870s in New Mexico, despite all the surrounding structures made of adobe, it was decided that a Gothic Church in the Gothic revival style would be built there in Santa Fe—with all the spires and the buttresses, even stained glass windows brought in from France.

It was beautiful – small but beautiful – save one crucial flaw. There was no staircase to the choir loft. You see, the architect died late in its completion and the excuse was, in that time, it just slipped through the cracks. And that loft was so high and the Church so narrow that a conventional staircase could not work. Despite this major flaw, the chapel was consecrated in 1878 with, yes, no stairs. …

Continue reading >>>>