Sunday, July 03, 2011

A Tale Of Two Crosses

 Cruz Negro

Cruz Blanca

La Morada de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe is a lay chapel established in the early 1800s by an ultra conservative Catholic sect known as the Brotherhood of the Penitentes.  That's penitente as in penance and there was penance aplenty suffered by the brothers at their own hands. 

Abutting Taos Pueblo the morada has an epic view of Taos Mountain.  If you picked a site for your dream house this would be it.  In contrast to the severe iconography of the black cross the white cross seems pure and hopeful as it rises from the decaying adobe.