In more than 350 years of residency in Santa Fe, she has been known by several names - Our Lady of the Assumption, Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary and La Conquistadora.In this 500th year since Columbus planted the Spanish flag in the Americas, the icon of the Virgin Mary and relic of Spanish Catholicism has a new and truer name: Our Lady of Peace.It is said that ‘La Conquistadora’ never held any connotation of force. The wooden statue, carried into retreat during the Pueblo Revolt in 1680 and back across the Jornada del Muerto in 1692, was no battering ram for the one true Faith and the rest of a conquering culture. Instead she was a symbol of the power of Christian love to conquer the souls of unbelievers.We were asked by the Archdiocese to go to Santa Fe to make a television program on the annual procession in honor of Our Lady, which takes place the second Sunday after the Feast of Corpus Christi in June. We had been trying to go to Santa Fe for years, since 1997. Usually, we’re working on television programs in Europe towards the end of June, but this year, the Lord adjusted our itinerary, allowing us to go to Santa Fe for this most magnificent tribute to Our Lady. We want to share that gift with you, but as usual, we’re so excited we got ahead of ourselves. We cannot adequately describe the awe and wonder that is alive in Santa Fe, without first relating the story of the miraculous statue of La Conquistadora.
