#santoninodeatocha

[portraitsofsaints]

The Holy Child of Atocha (Santo Niño de Atocha)

13th century

Feast Day: December 25

Patronage: Mexico, children, pilgrims, prisoners, travelers

The devotion to the Holy Infant of Atocha originated in Spain during the Muslim invasion. In Atocha, the Moors kept the Catholic men imprisoned and would only allow children 12 and under to bring them food and drink. After fervent prayer from families of the town to the Mother of God under the title of Our Lady of Atocha, a child pilgrim miraculously appeared bringing a basket of food and a gourd filled with drink to the prisoners that never emptied. The townspeople realized that it was the Child Jesus. In the church, the shoes of the Infant in the statue of Our Lady of Atocha were worn and dusty. Each time the village women replaced them, they found them worn and dusty again.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[unicorngorillahybrid]

For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 NRSV-CI #feastoftheinfantjesus #senorsantonino #santonino #santoninodecebu #santoninodeatocha #infantjesusofprague #infantjesus https://www.instagram.com/p/BsqHWldntmb/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=13mma0wqbpxif

[dimexuno]

Santitos 1.0 Prints signed and numbered will be available for pre order. If you want to be one of the first ones to receive this 5 print package DM me. Your order will include the five original prints signed and numbered and we'll you know some goodies. Thank you. #dimexuno #jesusmalverde #sanjudastadeo #santamuerte #juansoldado #santoninodeatocha #vector #religion #catolico

[liftmeup1546-blog]

Praying & Santo Niño de Atocha

Hello here’s a few things that are in my mind currently… Prayer. It’s so beautiful, and let me tell you why. God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, Momma Mary, and all the angels and saints are literally our best friends. I mean what more could we ask for! They are all there at any moment in time and it’s such a wonderful feeling when we actually take the time to talk to them. I was just telling my friend, Holy Infant of Atocha, that I cannot wait until the day I go back to Mexico and visit him again. It’s crazy because every time as a child when my family and I would visit Mexico, we would always go to Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Mexico and visit El Santo Niño de Atocha. If you don’t know there’s a huge church and shrine there for Him and he’s in a small glass box. The tradition is to bring him a toy so that he can play with it whenever he likes. I’m crying right now thinking about it because I didn’t realize how truly Devine this really was. Many many people come to visit him, and people start crawling into church from the outside as a sacrifice to him. I also remember this area outside the church, it’s both in and outside, well it’s FULL of different miracles and prayers that the Holy Infant of Atocha has answered. It’s so amazing to see what prayer and devotion does in a persons life. Like I said before, I cannot wait until the day I get to see the Holy Infant of Atocha.

[dimexuno]

Santo Niño De Atocha. Poderosisimo Niño, Ayudenos. #dimexuno #latino #losangeles #mexico #mexicano #santoninodeatocha #santos #stickers #catolico #religion

[billpichette]

Accidental Discoveries

5/8/2014 – I spent two uneventful days in Ruidoso. I stayed out of the casinos and if they still have horse races, it was either off season or they only race on weekends-I don’t know because I couldn’t find a schedule. I finally slept on my second night there and caught up with the blog, but had a lot of problems posting almost thirty pictures of Carlsbad Caverns-hey, I took over 200 and most of them came out OK.

I finally came up with a plan for the next few days so I headed west to Tularosa then north to the Three Rivers area. The area has two campgrounds-one a Bureau of Land Management site and the other, closer to the mountains, a Forest Service site. I drove to both and checked them out. The FS site is just about to the base of Sierra Blanca which, at over 11,000 feet, is the highest point in New Mexico. But the BLM site had a better view, was cheaper (they give a camping discount for my parks pass, FS does not), and had a flush toilet. It also had a collection of hundreds of ancient petroglyphs left by pre-Puebloan Native Americans. These sites are amazing. Petroglyphs are usually on a rock with a certain type of finish, which is easily marked, but doesn’t wear down. They can have geometric, animal, or human forms and appear random. One thing that strikes me -the people who left them must have thought the place was special. This one is a group of small hills with the special boulders on or near the tops. I knew there was “rock art” here, but I wasn’t prepared for how much. The short trail-about a half mile is blanketed. Across the road, a Mogollan village had been found and there were interpretive signs and reconstructions of the different types of structures found there. Mogollan culture was well after the petroglyph artists and before or contemporary to the Anasazi. One of the structures uncovered and now restored to its foundations is a later house (Mogollans primarily lived in pit houses). I just finished a book on the Anasazi and Chacoans in particular. The structure’s story reminded me of the return to ancestral lands after the Chaco Anasazi culture collapsed, which the book discussed.

Another interesting stop in the area is the chapel of Santa Nino de Atocha. The sign says 1911 and the Diocese of Las Cruces website identifies it as a mission church. The story of Atocha is fascinating. In the 13th Century, the Muslim rulers of Atocha Spain tried to starve their Christian prisoners by decreeing that only their children under 12 could bring food. The women of Atocha went to pray for help at a statue of the Virgin Mary (with Jesus represented as a child). Reports soon surfaced of an unknown child bringing food to the prisoners who had no small children. He carried a basket and was “dressed as a pilgrim”. The ladies returned to the statue of Mary and the child Jesus to give thanks for her intercession and noticed a strange thing. The shoes on the child statue were dirty or worn. Out of devotion, they replaced them but returned only to find the shoes dirty again. Hence the Santo Nino-the Holy Child-of Atocha, who is depicted with a basket and dressed for travel. The chapel looks like a pilgrimage site-full of devotional items and depictions. What a beautiful discovery!

I sat around the campground/picnic area-5 tent sites and a handful of tables-until the last day trip visitors left. It was another windy afternoon, so if I was staying, I would wait until the last minute to pitch my tent. I thought it too late to move on, so I paid up my 3.50 and ate dinner. As I started raising the tent, I went back to the car for my other shoes, and there went my empty tent, end over end, into the mesquite. The poles were fine and hopefully I have no punctures from the sharp branches. Still, this is a great site-scenic and culturally significant. Tomorrow I’m headed through Alamogordo, planning to stop at a pistachio place and a winery, then on to another campground. I have the list of state parks in the area-I’m headed west/southwest, but I have a new resource. The volunteer camp host-the only other person here tonight-gave me a brochure on public lands in the state-attractions and campgrounds. I hope to check some of them out, but there is a lot to see and do in New Mexico and my time here is not unlimited.