SANTA FE, N.M., April 8 (UPI) -- Thousands of pilgrims flocked to an adobe chapel tucked deep in New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo Mountains for Easter Sunday.
Known as the "Lourdes of America," the chapel is home to the Santuario de Chimayo shrine that draws upwards of tens of thousands of pilgrims each year during Holy Week, The Washington Post reported.
Many of the pilgrims, estimated at up to 60,000 annually, travel to the chapel to use the shrine's alleged healing powers and others merely to honor their faith during the religious holiday.
The Rev. Julio Gonzalez of the nearby Holy Family Church said the annual trek endured by so many people over the holiday period is representative of a growing religious awakening in the United States.
"I actually believe the American people are very, very religious, and what we see here ... tells us that we cannot live only on bread, that we cannot live only by money, that we need something else," he told the paper. "These people are coming here moved by a special energy, by a kind of love that you only have in your heart. You cannot buy this in a supermarket or a store."
