Santa Fe: Celebrating 400 Years of Holy Faith

New Mexico’s Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis is rooted in faith and colorful tales of the Wild West.

by Marion Amberg

WHEN BISHOP JEAN-BAPTISTE LAMY, the first bishop and later archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico, ran out of money while building the city’s cathedral in the early 1870s, one of his French priests decided to use his talents for God. He took his parish’s Confirmation stipend for the bishop, gambled with the soldiers at Fort Union near Las Vegas, New Mexico, and won $2,000!

“That would be the equivalent of $200,000 or more now,” laughs Msgr. Jerome J. Martínez y Alire, rector of Santa Fe’s Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. “The priest had been a professional gambler before entering God’s service!”

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