For the second year, Knights of the KTGPA rallied to support the United States’ largest Christian pilgrimage. Held each year during Holy Week, pilgrims of all denominations will gather outside Santa Fe, New Mexico to walk to El Santuario de Chimayo, a small Catholic Church built in the 1840s. With legends similar to that of Lourdes in France, the ‘Holy Dirt’ at Chimayo is said to sometimes heal those who sprinkle it on themselves.
The result is that between 30,000 to 100,000 people will walk, some for hundreds of miles, to honor the Lord for Good Friday. Many pilgrims will build crosses and carry them to the church as a show of penance.
This year, Knight Commander Patrick Harrington of the Priory of St Martin in Wyoming, Knight Commander James Matthews and CAA Virginia McGill, of the Priory of the Holy Trinity in North Carolina, as well as their families traveled to New Mexico to set up an aid station and support the pilgrims on their way to Chimayo.
This part of Northern New Mexico generally sits at between 5000’ and 7000’ elevation which many visitors to the area are not used to. One of the main approaches to Chimayo, while it follows a paved road, there is very little other than open desert. This is where the Templar set up an aid station. There, they set up a tent, and handed our free water, fruit, snacks and gatorade to anyone needing them to ensure their safety and supporting them as they traveled.
The Templar contingent estimates that they saw between 2500 and 5000 pilgrims on Good Friday, 2025 and directly supported around 250 people as they made their walk.
