Saint Josephs Staircase!

In 1873 the sisters of Loretto operated a girls academy in Santa Fe, New mexico. The academy was very successful, so the sisters wanted to build a new chapel. They hired a well known architect to complete the job. The building project took five years to complete. However once the chapel was finished, the sisters realised that the chapel lacked a way to get into the upper choir loft without the use of a very long ladder, the choir loft was twenty feet above the main floor. Climbing such a ladder was very difficult for the sisters who wore a floor length religious habit. They also realised that there was no room left in the main chapel area for a staircase to be built because of the many pews, and the sisters could not rehire the man who built the chapel because he died shortly after the chapel was completed. What were they to do? Well the sisters prayed to St, Joseph for help. They began a novena to St. Joseph asking him to send a carpenter to help them. Remarkably, on the final day of the novena, a mysterious man arrived at the convent and stated that he was interested in building a staircase to the choir loft for the sisters. The gentleman had only one request: He wanted to work alone and behind closed doors. The sisters readily accepted his offer and hired him.

Saint Joseph, Foster Father of Jesus built this staircase

It took the man three months to build the staircase. Once the project was completed he could not be found. He simply vanished from the town. No one saw him leave, and no one knew who he was. The sisters looked for him everywhere but could not find him. They even ran an ad in the local newspaper to try and locate him it did not work. Unsuccessful the sisters went to the lumberyard to enquire about the lumber and who obtained it for the staircase, as well as to pay for the lumber. When questioned not one person at the lumberyard knew what they were talking about. The sisters were informed that the lumberyard had never sold any wood to a man building a staircase for a chapel.

Saint Joseph, New Mexico

Perplexed, the sisters remembered how odd it was that the man had only a t-square, a saw, a hammer, and a few other basic tools. Come to think of it, none of the sisters ever did see how the lumber arrived at the chapel either. Intrigued, the sisters and others from the town inspected the staircase and realised that the mysterious man had constructed something quite unique. It was a spiral staircase that didn't interfere with any of the pews on the main floor in anyway. It had 30 steps no centre support or load bearing column, and appeared to be floating in air. It also contained no nails. It was found to be held together by square wooden pegs. The staircase is an architectural wonder. Its a carpenters masterpiece.

So where did the wood come from. Well in 1996, a study was done by Forest. N. Easley, a forester and wood technologist for the United States Forest Service and the United States Naval Research Laboratory. Hos extensive study found that the wood of the staircase is spruce, but unlike any other spruce in the world. Additional studies were undertaken, and it was determined that the spruce that most resembles the kind found in the spiral staircase is only found in Israel. Who was the mysterious man who built the staircase? The sisters of Loretto believe that it was St. Joseph. After praying and asking their spiritual father to send someone to construct a staircase for them, St Joseph came himself and built it for the consecrated virgins. The staircase remains intact to this day.