October 5, 2008
R&S, what are your thoughts on the miraculous staircase in Santa Fe, New Mexico?
“In 1873 in Santa Fe New Mexico, construction of a church called ‘Our Lady of Light’ began. When it was almost completed, a grievous error was discovered. They had forgotten to include an access to the very high loft.
The nuns decided to start a Novena to St. Joseph in hopes of
finding a solution to this oversight. On the last day of the Novena, a stranger arrived and offered to build a staircase. The nuns accepted his offer.
The only tools he had were a hammer, saw, and T-square.
Several months later, the man completed it and he promptly vanished. The circular staircase makes two 360 degree turns and has no center supporting pole. No nails were used and the wood did not come from the local area. Engineers cannot account for the seemingly miraculous staircase, which, having no center support should collapse.”
Here’s a picture:
http://home.inreach.com/bstanley/stair.htm
Do you believe it’s a miracle? Do you believe the staircase was built by St. Joseph himself?
Or is it simply an architectural wonder, and the man who built it a 19th-century genius?
Silent: I’d never heard of the Taos Hum. Just Googled it right now. Interesting.
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Comments on R&S, what are your thoughts on the miraculous staircase in Santa Fe, New Mexico? »
I don’t believe it was St. Joseph himself.
Yes, I lean toward the 19th century genius woodworker. A true genius. That, in its own way, is a miracle.
I do believe in miracles
but the bible says that a dead men do not come back and we are not to pray or conjure them.
I have always thought it was Jesus Himself……why not? I am not Catholic but I went to college in Santa Fe.
New Mexico is full of all kinds of weird things. The fact that something is unusual doesn’t imply that it’s a miracle.
Out of curiosity, which saint would you attribute the Taos Hum to?
An architectual wonder? Possibly. Looking at the snopes.com article linked above, doesn’t sound as great as it could have been. Won’t meet the fire codes either.
Niether. The helix shape of the stair has such a tight spiral center that it serves the same way as a central pole would in support. Also, the stairway is not especially well built, and has not been used in several yeasr because it’s shape (as a spring) leads the structure to give with each step. Also, because the original staircase was built without a rail on the outer side, the nuns who commissioned it seldom used it, or if they did, crawled up and down on their hands and knees.
Finally, engineers are not confused nor do they have difficulty accounting for the staircase’s structure. In fact, most would not ahve built it as it was because of it’s structural integrity is lacking in design.
It’s wonderful, although they didn’t even ask they guy’s name? How weird. And he built it in several months…hm. Well, it does look beautiful that’s for sure, and we don’t always see the simple things. It looks simple and elegant and if you weren’t an engineer, who would know?
That’s pretty subtle.