ABQJOURNAL NORTH: Church Rededicated on 175th Anniversary

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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Church Rededicated on 175th Anniversary

By Andy Stiny
For the Journal
          ARROYO SECO — Father Titus Augustine, pastor of La Santisima Trinidad Church, points out a triangle-shaped rock on the rough wooden floor of this 175-year-old adobe structure that is the heart of this community hard up against El Salto Mountain.
        Legend has it that a little white dove — following an older and younger man never seen in the area before — led early Taos County settlers from the Martinez family to the rock. The rock shone with a brilliance and beneath it the settlers found a bulto, or statue, depicting God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit — the Trinity that gave the church its name. On the breast of the Holy Spirit figure was a white dove.
        "They fell to their knees and decided to dedicate the entire valley to the Most Holy Trinity, because the Trinity itself had chosen the valley as its home," according to an article by Larry Torres, associate professor of languages and culture at the University of New Mexico-Taos.
        The church was finished in 1834. But as early as 1806, the village had put down roots, although the first settlement was closer to El Salto Mountain. Cristobal and Jose Gregorio Martinez from Abiquiu were the first settlers, getting permission to plant their crops from the Lucero de Godoy Land Grant, Torres wrote.
        Today, Holy Trinity parishioners and Father Augustine, Archbishop Michael Sheehan of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and other church dignitaries will celebrate the church's 175th anniversary with a rededication ceremony at 4 p.m.
        "The archbishop will come and bless it and rededicate it to the people," said Father Augustine. A reception and dinner follow.
        For Torres, who was born and raised in the village, and, for many others here, their roots and the church's are inextricably intertwined — as inseparable as straw and adobe. Torres has prepared a video with narration and Gregorian chant for the rededication.
        "The church is the home for all of us; that's the cornerstone of the community," he said in a telephone interview from Memphis, where he teaches Russian every summer.
        Torres is not just speaking of a spiritual home. According to local archives, in 1915 a tremendous downpour and flood forced families from their homes below El Salto Mountain. (The mountain is named for the waterfalls that pour off it.)
        "The rain wouldn't cease, so they went to sleep inside the church," Torres said. "It saved them one night from destruction."
        The rains washed away part of a church wall. In the choir loft, those who had sought shelter documented the adventure by writing it down on what was at hand — one of the vigas.
        The church also has a personal meaning for Torres. "The house where my mother grew up is still standing in front of the church. It was a play area for her."
        The Trinity Church is unique in other ways. "Every church in the archdiocese is dedicated to a saint. This is the only one dedicated to God himself," Torres said.
        The church was closed in 1962 when a new one was built nearby. It was not reopened to the public until 1996, when it was being renovated, according to Torres. A volunteer worker noticed that the damaged altar screen resembled one described to her by local resident Trudy Valerio-Healy as being painted by Valerio–Healy's grandfather, Jose de Gracia Gonzales.
        "The minute I walked through the door of the church, my eyes filled with tears. I recognized my grandmother in the faces of both the Madonna and the Christ child," Torres says Valerio–Healy told him. Gonzales had painted the screen in 1861 over the previous work of a santero.
        Gonzales also painted other screens in churches in Trampas, Llano Largo and Santa Barbara, near Peñasco. But "La Santisima shows his most mature work," said Torres. Gonzales also designed the staircase for the Denver home of silver heiress Molly Brown — the "unsinkable" Molly Brown who survived the Titanic sinking, he said.
        The church "was built in a style similar to that of the earlier mission churches of New Mexico, with a single nave with a choir loft over the front entrance and a square sacristy off to the right of the sanctuary," according to Torres.
        "It was constructed of adobe brick with sturdy, thick walls 5 feet thick at its base, tapering off to 3 feet at the top. Over the walls was a ceiling of rough, flat boards lying across heavy pine vigas. These rested on hand-carved wooden corbels." A flat roof and dirt floor finished off the early structure; a wooden floor and the existing pitched roof were installed around 1915.

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