Linda Benton had been a loyal and talented force for good at our mission. She has become a world famous artist, especially with her painting of the "Tohatchi Cross" which is now in the papal quarters in Rome. Replicas by the thousands are worn and hung on walls of very grateful friends over the world.
Her portraits and paintings grace the walls or our mission. Her painted windows are blazing signs of her devotion in our church.
Each week she worked hard with Father John to produce what is probably the best church bulletin in the Diocese of Gallup.
Linda Benton due to ill health retired to her home in Syracuse New York before passing on to be with our savior.
Thank you Linda, for what you have accomplished and most especially for who you were!
Holy Spirit "Rose Window"
The round window depicts the Holy Spirit. The one on the left is a beautiful rendition of Chief Manuelito who is a local hero and ancestor to half our parish. The Third is Saint Katharine Drexel, foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who was canonized in October.Chief Manuelito
Manuelito is a Navajo Headman who is a heroic figure in our New Mexico section of the Navajo Reservation. Half of our parishioners are offspring of Manuelito, his statue graces Gallup, New Mexico, his grave is hidden in the weeds of Coyote Canyon, New Mexico. No marker, no monument. I have not yet seen the secret grave site. But I know Manuelito is revered around here as a hero of the Navajo people. He was the last Navajo headman to surrender to the U.S. Cavalry in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Mike and Isaac Allison are two brothers and elders of the Navajos from this area. They are staunch Catholics. Mike is 99 and Isaac is right behind him. Isaac has spoken to me through an interpreter about Chief Manuelito. "He told our family to join the Catholic Church. The best of our Navajo way of life will be preserved in the Catholic Church." The Mexicans and other Catholic people of that time were enemies of the Navajos. The rifle in the lap of Manuelito in our window was not used just for hunting. It was used to protect his people from the raiding of the Mexicans and the depredations of other Americans. Somehow, Manuelito had a vision of the authentic Catholic Church protecting his culture and spirituality and his grandchildren know this. He also knew the education offered to his children would be extremely valuable for the future of the tribe. He encouraged his children and his children's children to get an education. Love of his enemies seemed to play a part in his vision of the future. Manuelito will never be a canonized saint. Perhaps he was never baptized and I believe he had more than one wife, as was the custom in those days. But he deserves his spot on the window of our church. I am pretty certain he had a baptism of desire and that he deserves to be one of the heroes of the Navajo people. He is one of my heroes, too.Saint Katharine Drexel
Mother Katharine Drexel is the Foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. She was canonized in Rome October 1, 2000. She is very much a local heroine, the only canonized saint to set foot on the Navajo Reservation. St. Katharine was a very wealthy Philadelphian who used her fortune to better the lives of Native and African Americans at a time when it was not a very popular thing to do. At the turn of the twentieth century she founded schools in the Southwest some of which are in the Dioceses of Gallup. St. Michael's school is still flourishing. She invited the Cincinnati Province of Franciscans to St. Michaels and from there they moved out to establish many missions in New Mexico and Arizona. The daughters of Mother Drexel, many of whom are from the Navajo Nation and Pueblos, also spread out to little missions and institutions on the reservation. In that sense she could be called the foundress of the Dioceses of Gallup.Father John at St. Mary's
P.O. Box 39
Tohatchi, New Mexico 87325
(505) 733-2243