Mysterious Staircase

It all began over 100 years ago. The Sisters of Loretto, brought to Santa Fe by Bishop Lamy to teach the people, needed a school and a chapel. Mexican carpenters completed the school and then plans were made to build a chapel.Because Bishop Lamy was from France, he wanted the Sisters to have a chapel designed in the same style as the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. French and Italians masons went to work on the chapel, and although there were some financial worries, the chapel progressed without difficulty and with the aid of prayers by the Sisters to Joseph, the carpenter saint.

It wasn't until the very last stage, that the terrible design error was revealed. There was no way to get from the chapel to the choir loft, which was exceptionally high, and there was no room for ordinary stairs to be built.
Many carpenters were called upon, but they all shook their heads, saying a stairway required much more space than was available, and suggested two alternatives; use a ladder or tear the whole thing down and start over.

But the Sisters, being women of God, were not discouraged. Once again they called upon St. Joseph with a novena, and on the tenth day an old gray-haired man, carrying only a toolbox, appeared on a donkey, and asked if he could build the staircase. The Sisters, ecstatic and grateful, gave their consent.Inside the old man's toolbox was only a hammer, a saw and a T square. It took him eight months to complete the beautiful and sturdy spiral staircase using NO NAILS and NO CENTER SUPPORT.

He had done it in a very small space, making two complete 360 turns with mysteriously perfect (how did he do it with the tools he had?) curves, and using pegs to hold the 33 steps together. Knowing they had been blessed, the Sisters gave thanks, but when they went to pay the carpenter, he had disappeared, and when they went to to the lumber company, no one knew of any purchase, nor did they carry the type of wood that was used on the staircase. The church, is cautious about spreading rumors of supernatural intervention, but the Sisters know that the miracle staircase is an answer to their novena to St. Joseph. Some even think the gray-haired man on the donkey was St. Joseph himself.