《林貝卡》
Rebecca Lin
正文
different from other American cities that I have been. I did not see many
skyscrapers there. And the native architects were constructed by adobe-a
mixture of mud and straw that dried very hard and provided remarkable
insulation. Most of the roofs are flat. The new buildings in core
districts all conform to the traditional styles which contribute to Santa
Fe's timeless and special appearance.
There are so many museums and art galleries there. You can explore every
type of art under the sun while you stroll the city's historic streets: from
ancient Indiana artifacts to the world most innovative art.
What impressed me most there was Loretto Chapel. This elegant Gothic
Revival chapel, built for the Sisters of Loretto, houses a world-famous"
miraculous staircase", constructed with no nails or visible support. It was
told that this staircase was built by a mysterious carpenter. I bought two
scrolls in the gift shop near the chapel which I like very much. One scroll
is about Serenity Prayer. Another one is about Love.
Serenity Prayer
God...
Grant me the serenity
to accept the things
I cannot change...
courage to change
the things I can...
and wisdom to know
the difference.
Love
Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous.
Love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish.
Love does not take offense, and it is never resentful.
Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth.
Love is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever
comes love does not come to an end.
REF:IST CORINTHIANS 13
Well, so much about my trip to Santa Fe.
Rebecca Lin 2006 Summer In USA
.................................................
拉瑞多（ Loretto）教堂的魔梯 （轉載）
到聖大非（新墨西哥州 Santa Fe）旅遊的人，一定會去參觀拉瑞多（ Loretto）教堂，去參觀教堂的人一定會看一看世界有名的魔梯（Miracle Stairs)，看了魔梯一定要知道魔梯的故事。
140年前，聖大非隻是一個小鎮，居民大都是印地安和墨西哥人，那時天主教在美國勢力已很強大，駐聖大非的主教請了5個修女，從美國東部千裏迢迢到聖大非工作。
她們5月出發，第2年9月才到，途中主持修女已不幸病逝。 4位多病的修女住在臨時改建的修道院，辛苦工作，贏得了主教的嘉許。
1873年主教從法國和義大利請了建築師和工人，開始為她們建立一所歌德式的小教堂，25尺寬，75尺長，85尺高；是美國密西西比河西岸唯一的歌德式教堂。
快要完工的時候，卻發現唱詩班的閣樓高高在上，沒有與教堂通行的樓梯，要下來隻能用普通梯子或者把教堂拆了重建。
唱詩班的人既不願爬梯子，修女們也不願拆了教堂，她們隻有日夜祈禱，直到有一天，有位白發老木匠，牽了它的驢子，帶了個大工具箱，來見修女，並自告奮勇建樓梯，
6個月後，樓梯完成。
完工後，這位老人悄然離去，不留一點痕跡，修女們趕到當地木材商付錢，才發現這位老人從未買材料。
所以到今天，樓梯的建築仍是個謎，仍是個奇跡。
樓梯是雙螺旋形，260度一轉，由閣樓到教堂地板共轉2次，直上直下，沒有中軸支持，沒有用一根鐵釘，所有載重，全依賴雙螺旋的扶手；121年了，成千成百的唱詩班歌者，上上下下，到今天，樓梯依然如新。
所有來參觀的建築師認為這樣的造型，地心引力已不勝負荷了，不可能載半個人。
木材專家們鑒定，所用材料可能是長葉黃鬆木，但當地並不產這種樹，而能把扶手彎成這樣優美的曲線，
更是不可思議……。
每個人看了魔梯，知道了關於魔梯的故事，都會有不同的反應；我的第一個印象，卻認為此梯簡直就象雙螺旋的DNA分子結構，當天，買了張明信片寄給在台灣的一位生物學界朋友，寫著∶「你看這象不象華特森和克立克的DNA 構造？」
120多年前，那一個善良的老木匠，用絕頂的聰明，替修道院做了一樁善事，沒有名，也不為利，想不到百年之後卻成了教會的財源。
我去參觀的那一天，大擺長龍陣，2張進門票好象3元，我買了4張明信片(7角5分1張)，又用2元買了4頁的介紹單，不到1小時，共花了8塊錢，
當然每人花錢不一，8塊錢如果是平均數，每天1000人就收入8000元。
History of the Loretto Chapel （轉載）
The history of the Loretto Chapel began when Bishop Jean Baptisite Lamy was appointed by the Church to the New Mexico Territory in1850. As part of his mission to build churches and educational facilities, Lamy asked the Sisters of Loretto (a teaching order) to leave their home in Kentucky and establish a school for girls in the frontier city of Santa Fe.
The Sisters arrived in Santa Fe in 1852 and opened the Academy of Our Lady of Light (Loretto) in 1853. Despite the challenges of the territory (smallpox, tuberculosis, leaky mud roofs and even a brush with the rowdy Confederate Texans during the Civil War), the boarding and day school expanded and flourished.
It was decided that the school needed a chapel. Property was purchased and in 1873 work began on the Loretto Chapel.
Undoubtedly influenced by the French clergy in Santa Fe, the Gothic Revival-style chapel was patterned after King Louis IX's Sainte-Chapelle in Paris; a striking contrast to the adobe churches already in the area.
Stone for the Chapel was quarried from locations around Santa Fe including Cerro Colorado, about 20 miles from Santa Fe near the town of Lamy. The sandstone for the walls and the porous volcanic stone used for the ceiling were hauled to town by wagon.
The ornate stained glass in the Loretto Chapel also made part of its journey to Santa Fe via wagon. Purchased in 1876 from the DuBois Studio in Paris, the glass was first sent from Paris to New Orleans by sailing ship and then by paddle boat to St. Louis, MO. where it was taken by covered wagon over the Old Santa Fe Trail to the Chapel.
The Chapel was completed in 1878 and has since seen many additions and renovations such as the introduction of the Stations of the Cross, the Gothic altar and the frescos during the 1890s.
The Miraculous Staircase, which legend says was constructed or inspired by St. Joseph the Carpenter, was built sometime between 1877 and 1881. It took at least six months to build, and has two 360 degree turns with no visible means of support.
The Loretto Academy was closed in 1968, and the property was put up for sale. At the time of sale in 1971, Our Lady of Light Chapel was informally deconsecrated as a Catholic Chapel.
Loretto Chapel is now a private museum operated and maintained, in part, for the preservation of the Miraculous Staircase and the Chapel itself.
拉瑞多（ Loretto）教堂的魔梯
到聖大非（新墨西哥州 Santa Fe）旅遊的人，一定會去參觀拉瑞多（ Loretto）教堂，去參觀教堂的人一定會看一看世界有名的魔梯（Miracle Stairs)，看了魔梯一定要知道魔梯的故事。
140年前，聖大非隻是一個小鎮，居民大都是印地安和墨西哥人，那時天主教在美國勢力已很強大，駐聖大非的主教請了5個修女，從美國東部千裏迢迢到聖大非工作。
她們5月出發，第2年9月才到，途中主持修女已不幸病逝。 4位多病的修女住在臨時改建的修道院，辛苦工作，贏得了主教的嘉許。
1873年主教從法國和義大利請了建築師和工人，開始為她們建立一所歌德式的小教堂，25尺寬，75尺長，85尺高；是美國密西西比河西岸唯一的歌德式教堂。
快要完工的時候，卻發現唱詩班的閣樓高高在上，沒有與教堂通行的樓梯，要下來隻能用普通梯子或者把教堂拆了重建。
唱詩班的人既不願爬梯子，修女們也不願拆了教堂，她們隻有日夜祈禱，直到有一天，有位白發老木匠，牽了它的驢子，帶了個大工具箱，來見修女，並自告奮勇建樓梯，
6個月後，樓梯完成。
完工後，這位老人悄然離去，不留一點痕跡，修女們趕到當地木材商付錢，才發現這位老人從未買材料。
所以到今天，樓梯的建築仍是個謎，仍是個奇跡。
樓梯是雙螺旋形，260度一轉，由閣樓到教堂地板共轉2次，直上直下，沒有中軸支持，沒有用一根鐵釘，所有載重，全依賴雙螺旋的扶手；121年了，成千成百的唱詩班歌者，上上下下，到今天，樓梯依然如新。
所有來參觀的建築師認為這樣的造型，地心引力已不勝負荷了，不可能載半個人。
木材專家們鑒定，所用材料可能是長葉黃鬆木，但當地並不產這種樹，而能把扶手彎成這樣優美的曲線，
更是不可思議……。
每個人看了魔梯，知道了關於魔梯的故事，都會有不同的反應；我的第一個印象，卻認為此梯簡直就象雙螺旋的DNA分子結構，當天，買了張明信片寄給在台灣的一位生物學界朋友，寫著∶「你看這象不象華特森和克立克的DNA 構造？」
120多年前，那一個善良的老木匠，用絕頂的聰明，替修道院做了一樁善事，沒有名，也不為利，想不到百年之後卻成了教會的財源。
我去參觀的那一天，大擺長龍陣，2張進門票好象3元，我買了4張明信片(7角5分1張)，又用2元買了4頁的介紹單，不到1小時，共花了8塊錢，
當然每人花錢不一，8塊錢如果是平均數，每天1000人就收入8000元。
Source: http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/48a9ea0f010005jc
The history of the Loretto Chapel began when Bishop Jean Baptisite Lamy was appointed by the Church to the New Mexico Territory in1850. As part of his mission to build churches and educational facilities, Lamy asked the Sisters of Loretto (a teaching order) to leave their home in Kentucky and establish a school for girls in the frontier city of Santa Fe.
The Sisters arrived in Santa Fe in 1852 and opened the Academy of Our Lady of Light (Loretto) in 1853. Despite the challenges of the territory (smallpox, tuberculosis, leaky mud roofs and even a brush with the rowdy Confederate Texans during the Civil War), the boarding and day school expanded and flourished.
It was decided that the school needed a chapel. Property was purchased and in 1873 work began on the Loretto Chapel.
Undoubtedly influenced by the French clergy in Santa Fe, the Gothic Revival-style chapel was patterned after King Louis IX's Sainte-Chapelle in Paris; a striking contrast to the adobe churches already in the area.
Stone for the Chapel was quarried from locations around Santa Fe including Cerro Colorado, about 20 miles from Santa Fe near the town of Lamy. The sandstone for the walls and the porous volcanic stone used for the ceiling were hauled to town by wagon.
The ornate stained glass in the Loretto Chapel also made part of its journey to Santa Fe via wagon. Purchased in 1876 from the DuBois Studio in Paris, the glass was first sent from Paris to New Orleans by sailing ship and then by paddle boat to St. Louis, MO. where it was taken by covered wagon over the Old Santa Fe Trail to the Chapel.
The Chapel was completed in 1878 and has since seen many additions and renovations such as the introduction of the Stations of the Cross, the Gothic altar and the frescos during the 1890s.
The Miraculous Staircase, which legend says was constructed or inspired by St. Joseph the Carpenter, was built sometime between 1877 and 1881. It took at least six months to build, and has two 360 degree turns with no visible means of support.
The Loretto Academy was closed in 1968, and the property was put up for sale. At the time of sale in 1971, Our Lady of Light Chapel was informally deconsecrated as a Catholic Chapel.
Loretto Chapel is now a private museum operated and maintained, in part, for the preservation of the Miraculous Staircase and the Chapel itself.
Source:http://www.lorettochapel.com/html/history.html