Casual Friday: Built Miracles

The Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is known for its spiral staircase.

Photo by Quincy D. Newell

Specifically, this is a spiral staircase built, apparently, in answer to a prayer by nuns. Built by a mysterious stranger who rode into town, built the staircase, and disappeared. Built in such a way that it still stands, even though the laws of engineering seem to indicate that it should have collapsed long ago.

In the West, it seems the focus is often on the natural landscape and the ways people find the divine in it. But people also see the divine in the built environment (as attested by the number of tourists who visit Loretto Chapel every day)!