photo #8472450

“The Loretto Chapel Staircase…stairway from heaven…when Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was nearing its completion in the late 1880s, the architect died before he was able to design a staircase that could access the choir loft. When other carpenters were brought in to fix the issue, they all concluded that it would be too difficult, if not impossible, to construct a staircase in the small space. Instead, they recommended that the nuns who tended the chapel use a ladder to reach the choir loft. Hoping for another solution, the Sisters made a novena — a prayer made nine days in a row — to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. The legend claims that on that ninth and final day, a man arrived with a donkey and toolbox and offered to help with the staircase. As described ind History of Yesterday, he did not give his name and had one condition: that he be alone when he worked in the chapel. The mysterious carpenter was not only able to construct a staircase, despite the fact that other men had believed it to be impossible, but also managed to do so in the space of days or a few short months, depending on the source. But the story doesn't end there. After the lone carpenter completed the staircase, he allegedly disappeared before the Sisters could pay him or find out his name. The legend claims that they even ran a newspaper ad to find him, to no avail. But the man who constructed the staircase was not the only mystery. The wood that was used was completely unknown and the construction was a marvel. According to the official website of the Loretto Chapel, the spiral steps have two full 360-degree turns and yet don't appear to have a visible source of support. Moreover, it was created solely with wooden pegs, with neither nails nor glue, and out of a material that is either completely unknown or not native to the region. The combination of the mysterious builder, perplexing construction, and the unknown wood led the Sisters to believe the staircase was an example of divine intervention and credited St. Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus Christ, as the man who had helped create it.”