The Oldest Church In The Continental United States

Welcome to the San Miguel Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. San Miguel Chapel is known in Santa Fe simply as “The Oldest Church”, and it is referenced in Wikipedia as the oldest church in the continental United States.
The chapel is located in the Barrio de Analco, a national historic district of Santa Fe. Oral history holds that the barrio was founded by a group of Mexican Indians from Tlaxcala. The adobe church was constructed under the direction of Franciscan friars to serve a small congregation of soldiers, laborers, and Indians who lived in the Barrio de Analco. It was partially destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The present building dates from 1710, although it has undergone significant structural changes.

For a travel guide to the authentic Santa Fe, visit Santa Fe Selection.

“San Jose Rogad Por Nosotros Agosto 9 de 1356/1856”

History of San Miguel Chapel

San Miguel Chapel is the oldest Catholic Church built in the United States part of whose original walls are still standing and which is still used regularly for religious services. It is the centerpiece of El Barrio de Analco National Register Historic District in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Adobe buildings like this chapel, historically, were not exclusively used for worship and ceremonies. Their size and location within the community allowed for a variety of gatherings.

During the 400+ years, first under the rule of imperial Spain, then Mexico, and finally the USA, the Chapel, dedicated to Archangel Michael, has been many things to many people. It has served as a place of worship for diverse groups of Native Americans; an infirmary for Franciscan missionaries; a target for autocratic officials and exploited Pueblo groups; a military chapel; a unique venue for talks, concerts, celebrations and ceremonies; and a sanctified space for Sunday Mass in Latin and English. Today and into the future, this treasured, privately owned, but ever-fragile structure requires constant vigilance and expert use of traditional construction methods and culturally authentic materials.

San Miguel Chapel first appears in the surviving historical written record in 1628. Construction my have begun by 1610 according to oral history, simultaneous with, or prior to, the official founding of Santa Fe. According to archeologists, this Franciscan-designed house of worship rests upon an early Pueblo settlement from circa 800-1300 CE.

The Importance of Oral Tradition: Few question whether or not the San Miguel Chapel in Santa Fe is the oldest Church in The United Staes, but many do question just how old it is. It’s no easy task to sift historical fact from traditional belief. Oral history holds that San Miguel Chapel was built around 1610, and it has been rebuilt and restored several times over the past 400 years. Oral tradition, stories told throughout the generations by local families and communities, remains a binding fabric of identity and historic pride for local people.

Official documentation stored in the Chapel was destroyed by fire during the revolt of 1680. However, many documents had previously been sent back to Mexico and Spain as reports to officials. Even today, documents naming San Miguel Chapel are being discovered all over the world, the latest one in London.

What follows is a timeline of the chapel.

Inside SMC

Outside SMC

Photo Credits: Wikipedia, Cowboys & Indians Magazine

San Miguel Chapel – 400 Years Old

Preservation of San Miguel Chapel


San Miguel Chapel is one of the best examples of preserved adobe architecture in Santa Fe. St. Michael’s High School, which used San Miguel as its chapel from 1859 to 1967, is the proud owner and caretaker of this historic treasure. In 2008, St. Michael’s entered into a collaborative relationship with Cornerstones Community Partnerships for the preservation of San Miguel Chapel. Cornerstones has provided the technical and grant expertise for a major preservation effort. Starting in 2010, the Portland cement stucco was removed, adobe was repaired, and an adobe plaster finish coat was applied.

Now that San Miguel is a totally adobe building again, ongoing maintenance and preservation work will be needed. With the volunteer labor and financial contributions generously given, San Miguel Chapel will continue to be preserved by the Santa Fe community and guests and visitors throughout the United States and the world. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the preservation of San Miguel over the past 400 years and into the future!

All About the Art Inside San Miguel Chapel

The San Miguel Chapel Retablo

Historic Art Works & Altar Screen: From 1710 to the end of the century, a simple all-adobe altar arrangement featuring decorative painting and a two-tiered niche with the statue of Archangel Michael above, and a tabernacle below held meaning in the Chapel.

In 1798, Lieutenant Jose Antonio Ortiz gifted the present carved and painted wooden altar screen. This trend-shifting piece is attributed, along with seven others, to the Laguna Santero – name unknown. Between 1801 and 1809 this anonymous craftsman created the exquisite altar setting as Laguna Pueblo’s San Jose de Gracia, and another for the imposing church at neighboring Pueblo San Esteban de Acoma.

The Statue of Archangel Michael: duly equipped with silver helmet and sword, but missing his emblematic scales of justice – dates no later that 1709, when it was carried throughout New Mexico to solicit donations for the Chapel’s 1710 reconstruction. The flanking New Mexican-made bultos (sculpted, painted, wooden saints) were donated by a 20th century patron, as were the hide-paintings on the side walls of the nave – portable visual aides for itinerant missionaries.

An inventory from 1776 lists “eight not very large oil paintings on canvas of saints” surrounding the statue; the current four may be part if that set. In the 1860s, when the chapel became an oratory for the French teaching order enlisted by Bishop Lamy, five layers of white paint concealed the colors of the retablo. For 70 years, the place of honor on their “neo-Gothic” altar was occupied by the Byzantine-style Our Lady Of Perpetual Help, blessed by Pope Leo XIIIi n 1887.

Also of note are the painted cross-shaped sword, reportedly the only survivor of a colonial era Stations of the Cross series and, in adjacent glass-fronted wooden case, a painted wooden crucifixion by noted northern New Mexico saunter Jose Rafeall Aragin (c.1790-1862). In 1995, the Christian Brothers decided to reassert the chapel’s Hispanic New Mexican origins, arranging for restoration of the retablo and associated art works. The tin sconces and set of 14 carved Stations of the Cross date from that effort.

Artworks on the Altar Screen

(From viewers’ left to right, bottom to top)

Bulto #1: unidentified saint, New Mexico, XIX
Bulto #2: Archangel Michael/San Miguel, New Spain, XVIII
Bulto #3: likely Saint Anthony/San Antonio. New Mexico, early XIX

All from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, XVIII:
Oval #1: Saint Francis of Assisi/San Francisco
Oval #2: Saint Louis IX, King of France/San Luis Rey
Oval #3: Saint Terese=a of Avila/Santa Teresa
Oval #4: Saint Clare of Assisi/ Santa Clara
(Contemporary of Saint Francis and co-founder of the Franciscan order of nuns, the Poor Clares (This portrait was previously identified as Santa Gertrudis/Gertrude the Great of Germany)

Painting #1: Christ the Nazarene/Jesus Nazareno (New Spain, XIX restored)
Painting #2: Archangel Michael/San Miguel (New Mexico, c.1755, restored)
An early work by Spanish-born artist, mapmaker, and civic leader Bernardo Miera y Pacheco (1713-1785, commissioned and gifted to the ChaPel by patron Manuel Saenz de Garvisu)

Experience San Miguel Chapel


Photo Credits: Carla D. Abeyta