Shadows of the crosses--III

Campo Santo at old San Geronimo church at Taos, which was destroyed in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.

Crosses of every shape and form dominate the ruined San Geronimo church at Taos Pueblo. The cemetery is holy ground, where hundreds of years of believers lie. Only Taos Indians may enter this area, while others may take photos from outside the adobe walls.
If you get on the backroads of the state, you find more little churches and capos santos and crosses everywhere, all decorated and remembered by the faithful, but especially during Holy Week in New Mexico. And the gravestones only multiply in size and variety of portraying the cross.

Church at Canoncito, near Santa Fe

Gravestone at Canoncito

Crosses at Canoncito

At Canoncito

Gravestone at Truchas, Penitente Morada in background

Cemetery near Penasco on High Road to Taos

Holy Ground

Old cemeteries captivate me, and the little campo santo at the small church at Canoncito at Apache Canyon, where the old Santa Fe Trail emerged from Glorieta Pass is one of them. Most people zoom by on I-25 on their 75 mph way to Santa Fe just around the bend, ignoring the exit and perhaps only seeing the church out of the corner of their eye, if at all.

Huddled by the old Las Vegas highway, it is one of those places you have to want to go, and on my recent spiritual return to Santa Fe, it seemed an appropriate delay to the traffic of Santa Fe. And here I found wonderful old headstones, and weathered wooden crosses, with inscriptions in Spanish. Most of the burials seem to have been before New Mexico statehood, and only about 40 years after the Civil War battle was fought nearby. Oh the stories that could be told.  Life was much slower then. Stopping here slowed me down.