Fray Angélico Chávez, 1910-1996

Fray Angélico Chávez was a priest, historian, author, poet and artist, well-known around Santa Fe for his trademark black beret and an appreciation of cigars and scotch. Before leaving primary school he declared his intention to become a Franciscan friar, and at age 14 went to Cincinnati to train at the Saint Francis Seraphic Seminary, where he made over 40 contributions of lyric poetry and humor, as well as essays on religious themes, to the student-run periodical.

In 1937 he became the first native New Mexican to be ordained a Franciscan priest. His first assignment was in Peña Blanca, where he renovated the church and painted murals of the Stations of the Cross on the church's walls that depicted himself, his family and parishioners. After his assignment to Jémez Pueblo, he began a pilgrimage with La Conquistadora, carrying her to 95 churches and preaching 85 sermons. In 1947, he obtained a copy of a document revealing that Father Alonso de Benavides carried to New Mexico with him in 1625 a crate that Chávez believed contained the bulto now known as Our Lady of Peace.

In 1954, Chávez published an important book called Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period. He left the church in 1971 after Vatican II, but three years later Archbishop Robert Sanchez named him official archivist, and in 1989 he moved into the St. Francis Friary.



Antonio José Martínez, 1793-1867

Ordained in Durango, Mexico, in 1822, he returned home to serve in parishes of Tomé, Abiquiú and Taos, where he was known as Padre Martínez. An advocate of religious freedom and active in both religion and politics, Martínez established the first primary schools in New Mexico and purchased a printing press that he used to print the first book printed in New Mexico — Cuaderno de Ortografía, 1835. He owned the first newspaper and established an academy in Taos to prepare students for seminary in Mexico. Martínez was often at odds with Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy over the archbishop's punishment of denying the sacraments to parishioners who did not pay church fees. He abolished tithing in Taos because of the poverty of the population. Lamy later excommunicated him — on what has been described as shaky legal grounds — but Martínez continued to minister to his flock in his family chapel in Taos.



Lobsang Lhalungpa, 1924-2008

The Tibetan scholar and Santa Fe Living Treasure became a monk at age 5, studied with the Dalai Lama's tutors, and in 1947 became director for Tibetan and Buddhist studies in the Indian Himalayan towns of Darjeeling and Kalimpong. He set up a Buddhist Cultural Center in Kalimpong and a school for local Tibetan children there, but never returned to Tibet. For 15 years he ran a Tibetan radio program to inform people about the conditions in India. He moved to Canada in 1970 and taught at the University of British Columbia. Upon moving to Santa Fe in 1989, he conducted meditation groups and worked on translations of sacred texts. A learned and compassionate man, he influenced many people in his adopted home, teaching them, through his own example, that "compassion is one of the most important things in life" and that "love is kindness," according to Kitty Leaken, a member of one of his meditation groups.



Leonard Helman, 1926-

Leonard Helman, a rabbi, tap-dancer, chess champion and guiding light for hundreds of Santa Fe Jews, moved to New Mexico in 1974, where he became the rabbi for about 40 families at Temple Beth Shalom and lawyer for the state's Public Service Commission. He also served as chaplain for the state Legislature. After retiring from the temple in 1991, he moved away, but returned to Santa Fe when local families invited him to lead Congregation Beit Tikva. Helman was known for his inspiring and often funny sermons, including one in which he relates biblical passages to Woody Allen movies. A "Life Master" in bridge (and member of a five-person team that won the Polish national championship), he donated $50,000 toward a new bridge center on Airport Road.



Robert Fortune Sanchez, 1934-

Robert Sanchez was the nation's first Hispanic archbishop — and its youngest — when he was appointed archbishop of Santa Fe in 1974 at age 40. Sanchez belonged to the Padres, a group of Mexican-American priests who advocated bringing Hispanics into the church's power structure. He was known for reviving religious traditions in remote areas of the archdiocese and reconciling the Penitentes. Fearing scandal, Sanchez also kept secret growing evidence that priests in the diocese had sexually abused children. His remarkable career ended in 1993 when he resigned in disgrace after several women accused him of sexual misconduct.



Katharine Drexel, 1858-1955

Canonized in 2000 by Pope John Paul II, St. Katharine was born into a wealthy Pennsylvania family and dedicated her life and fortune to Native Americans and blacks. She established a religious order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and financed more than 60 missions and schools. Her first school was St. Catherine Indian School in Santa Fe, where starting in 1887 students learned vocations such as tailoring and baking. The sisters imposed discipline. Students marched to class and to chapel, which was required in the early years. One of the things the Native people appreciated about Drexel, said Patrick Toya, the first Pueblo Indian ordained as a deacon in the Catholic Church and a former student at the school, was that "she never said anything about our Indian religion. She said we all pray to one God." The school closed in 1999, and the property was sold to an Albuquerque contractor in 2003.



Jean Baptiste Lamy, 1814-1888

After New Mexico became a U.S. territory, the American bishops asked the pope for a bishop for the Great Southwest. He created the Vicariate Apostolic of New Mexico and appointed a French priest, Jean Baptiste Lamy. In 1875, Lamy, subject of Willa Cather's novel Death Comes for the Archbishop, became the first archbishop of Santa Fe. He built new parishes and established schools, making a number of trips back to France to recruit priests and seminarians for the diocese. He was responsible for building the cathedral, called by the current rector, the Very Rev. Jerome Martinez y Alire, "the cradle of Catholicism for the American Southwest." According to Martinez y Alire, Lamy ran out of money while building the Romanesque cathedral and allowed one of his French priests to gamble with the soldiers at Fort Union. The priest won $2,000 to pay construction costs. Lamy is buried in a crypt under the sanctuary floor of the cathedral.



Mary Lou Cook 1918-

Mary Lou Cook, a hat-wearing teacher, minister, volunteer and peace activist who settled in Santa Fe in 1969, is also a founder of the Santa Fe Network for the Common Good, which, twice a year, designates elders from the community as Living Treasures. She herself was named a treasure in 1988. Cook was ordained a minister of the Independent Church of Antioch, which she said in a 1994 story "ordains people in the belief the world needs more ministers." She has performed all sorts of ceremonies ranging from weddings and memorials to land and house blessings to rituals like acknowledging a wonderful dog or getting over an illness.



Yogi Bhajan 1929-2004

In the early 1970s, Yogi Bhajan was given the responsibility to create a Sikh ministry in the West. He founded the ashram Sikh Dharma in 1972 in Española, became a friend to congressional leaders and governors of all parties (many of whom were regulars at his annual birthday party celebration), and traveled the world calling for world peace and religious unity. In 1985 he established International Peace Prayer Day. He also helped build a financial empire that came to include 14 corporations such as Yogi Tea and Akal Security (which guards many federal courthouses), opened schools to teach yoga and meditation, and published more than 30 books.