THE MIRACLE STAIRCASE THAT OUTSHINES MODERN ENGINEERING
No One Knows who the Carpenter was!
It is called "the miracle staircase!" It stands, although no one knows how, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in a little Catholic chapel. Some technical engineers, not knowing what to think of the impossible construction, even call it "advanced engineering", as the staircase design defies all construction rules, and even gravity? One architect said: "It seems to defy the rules of carpentry,"
In 1872, the Catholic bishop of Santa fei ordered the buliding of a small chapel. After quite a while the construction almost being finished, the architect died. Then it was gradually discovered that there had been a mistake in the original design; There was no staircase to the choir loft, except a simple ladder, and there was not enough room to built one, without severely disfiguring the looks of the chapel.
Thus the nuns, set out to sincerely pray for a solution, and even called on the patron saint of carpenters, St. Joseph, the adopted father of Jesus of Nazareth, as he was a carpenter by profession! After their nine days of desperate prayer had ended, a shabbily dressed man with a donkey and just a toolbox, appeared at the door, looking for work. When he was taken to see the loft, he offered that he knew how to built a stairway, on the condition that they would let him have total privacy.
He locked himself in and for three months working non stop. When he opened the doors and let the Mother Superior see the result, she almost fainted at the beautiful sight.
There, incredibly, in the corner stood a wonderful freestanding wooden spiral staircase built without screws, glue or nails, without attachments to the wall, and without a center pole to support it, going around 360 degrees twice! The carpenter had only used a few pegs to hold the thing together. He came without wood, and no one knows where he got it, as no one saw him get any and the wood he used was unknown to the region.
And what happened to the carpenter? According to the nuns, when they wanted to pay him, he had disappeared without a trace!
Incredibly, the sisters discovered the wood had not been purchased locally. They offered a reward for locating the carpenter, even putting out an add in the local newspaper. No one ever came forward to claim it.
Architects from all over the country still come to inspect this unique and marvelous piece of craftsmanship. They are puzzled also by how it has withstood more than a hundred years of use, every section just perfectly fitted together in their own groove. Another interesting fact is that the staircase has 33 steps or risers -- the same number as Christ's age when He died.
It is thought that the unknown carpenter was none other than St. Joseph, in whose honor the Sisters had received Communion every Wednesday that he might assist them in building a staircase. There is no doubt that the prayers of those nuns were answered in a most remarkable way.