About Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission · Cañon Plaza, New Mexico
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission (Nuestra Señora del Carmen) is a small Roman Catholic mission chapel in the high-country hamlet of Cañon Plaza, Rio Arriba County, northern New Mexico, at an elevation of about 7,770 feet on the edge of the Carson National Forest. The mission at 1875 NM-111 is served from San Juan Nepomuceno Parish in El Rito within the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and stands as one of nine rural chapel-missions (El Rito, Ojo Caliente, Tres Piedras, La Madera, La Petaca, Las Placitas, Las Tablas, Servilleta, Vallecitos) that the El Rito pastor circulates among on a rotation. Mass is offered seasonally on Friday evenings from June through September as the priest travels the mission circuit, and the chapel continues to serve as the spiritual, sacramental, and burial center of the Cañon Plaza community — complete with a Catholic cemetery where parishioners such as the late Roselio "Rusty" Varela were laid to rest.
- Patron
- Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Nuestra Señora del Carmen)
- Rector
- Rev. Joseph Van Tao Nguyen (Pastor of San Juan Nepomuceno Parish, El Rito, under whose pastoral care Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission, Cañon Plaza, is served)
- Diocese
- Archdiocese of Santa Fe (Metropolitan Archdiocese of Santa Fe)
Why belong here
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission is the spiritual and cultural center of Cañon Plaza, a small Hispano village in the highlands of Rio Arriba County, and belongs to a centuries-old New Mexican tradition of mountain-mission chapel life tied to San Juan Nepomuceno Parish in El Rito. A visitor or parishioner is welcomed into a community that still gathers at the chapel for the seasonal Friday-evening Mass on the El Rito mission rotation (June–September), for the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on 16 July, and for the great family sacraments — baptisms, weddings, funerals — that the small cemetery beside the chapel bears witness to. It is the kind of rural mission where the rosary is prayed at the local morada, where generations of the same families are buried, and where devotion to Nuestra Señora del Carmen, long carried by santero art such as José Benito Ortega's 1880s retablo, remains a living thread.
Mass times at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission
Weekly Mass schedule
Confession times
- Saturday: 3:00 p.m. at San Juan Nepomuceno, El Rito (mother parish)
- Thursday: after Mass at San Juan Nepomuceno, El Rito
Adoration times
- Adoration at the El Rito-area missions: not listed for Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Cañon Plaza (entry blank in Archdiocese parish directory)
Identity and Location
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission is a Roman Catholic mission chapel at 1875 NM-111 in the small Hispano village of Cañon Plaza, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico (postal address Cañon Plaza, NM 87581). The hamlet sits at about 7,772 feet elevation on the edge of the Carson National Forest in the upper Río Grande country. It is one of nine chapel-missions of San Juan Nepomuceno Parish in El Rito, all within the Northwest Deanery of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
- Address: 1875 NM-111, Cañon Plaza, NM 87581
- Elevation ~7,772 ft, Carson National Forest fringe
- Rio Arriba County, northern New Mexico
- Mailing/parent parish: PO Box 7, El Rito, NM 87530
Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel
The chapel is dedicated to Nuestra Señora del Carmen — Our Lady of Mount Carmel — under the title celebrated in the Carmelite tradition since the late 15th century and extended to the universal Church as a memorial of Mary in 1726. The feast (16 July) commemorates the 1251 apparition of the Blessed Virgin to St. Simon Stock and the giving of the Carmelite scapular. Across New Mexico, santero painters carried this image into village chapels from the colonial period onward; a late example is the hand-carved retablo of Our Lady of Mount Carmel made by the santero José Benito Ortega in the 1880s, today held at the Museum of International Folk Art.
- Feast day: 16 July — Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
- Carmelite scapular devotion
- Connection to the New Mexican santero tradition of retablos of Nuestra Señora del Carmen
History
Cañon Plaza's Catholic life is rooted in the Spanish colonial mission frontier and in the centuries-old practice of lay brotherhoods sustaining chapel life between priestly visits. While the exact construction date of the chapel has not been published online, it appears in Archdiocese of Santa Fe parish directories as Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission Church, Cañon Plaza, served from San Juan Nepomuceno Parish in El Rito — the mother parish for the surrounding mountain communities since 1832. Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel at the chapel links the village to the wider santero tradition documented across northern New Mexico from the 1820s through the early twentieth century. In modern times the mission continues to host community sacraments such as baptisms, weddings, funerals, and burials in the adjoining Catholic Cemetery.
- Mission fronted by San Juan Nepomuceno Parish, El Rito (established 1832)
- Dedication under the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
- Documented contemporary funeral and burial ministry at the chapel
Architecture
Specific architectural details (architect, construction date, dimensions, materials, bell tower, artwork) for the Cañon Plaza chapel could not be verified online. As a vernacular Hispano plaza-chapel in the mission tradition of northern New Mexico, it sits within a region whose rural chapels were typically built of adobe with thick walls, few window openings, a single bell tower, choir loft, and small transepts, and accoutrements (santero retablos, santos, colonial-era imagery) assembled by the community and visiting priests. The chapel is paired with the Catholic Cemetery of Cañon Plaza.
- Small rural mission chapel, vernacular New Mexican mission style
- Adjacent Catholic Cemetery of Cañon Plaza
- No published architectural documentation located online
Parish Cluster (San Juan Nepomuceno, El Rito)
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission is one of nine rural missions served by San Juan Nepomuceno Parish in El Rito within the Northwest Deanery of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Parish leadership is provided by the pastor of El Rito together with parish staff such as Deacon Michael Illerbrun. The phone number, mailing address, and office of record for the cluster is the El Rito parish office (575-581-4714, PO Box 7, El Rito, NM 87530).
- San Juan Nepomuceno Parish, El Rito — mother parish (established 1832)
- Rev. Joseph Van Tao Nguyen, Pastor (2018 directory)
- Deacon Michael Illerbrun
- Phone: 575-581-4714
Cluster Mission Chapels
The missions rotating with Our Lady of Mount Carmel form a ring of small chapels through the mountains and high mesas of Rio Arriba and Taos counties.
- Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission — La Madera
- Our Lady of Sorrows Mission — Vallecitos
- Nuestra Divina Pastora Mission — La Petaca
- Immaculate Conception Mission — Tres Piedras
- St. Anthony Mission — Servilleta
- San Luis Gonzaga Mission — Las Tablas
- St. Anthony Mission — Las Placitas (Placitas)
- St. Mary Mission — Ojo Caliente
Sacramental and Community Life
The mission's sacramental reach goes beyond Mass. Rosaries, funeral Masses, and burials at the Cañon Plaza Catholic Cemetery are documented in recent community obituaries, and devotion extends to the nearby Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Morada "El Llanito" in La Madera, where Penitente Brotherhood prayers are recited in connection with funerals. Baptisms, weddings, quinceañeras, and anointing of the sick are coordinated through the El Rito parish office. The annual round centers on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on 16 July, All Souls and Día de los Muertos at the cemetery, Holy Week devotions, and Christmas posadas.
- Funeral Mass and burial at the chapel and adjoining cemetery
- Rosary at the morada in La Madera and at the chapel
- Carmelite novena and scapular enrollment around 16 July
- Día de los Muertos remembrance at the Catholic Cemetery
Frequently Asked Questions
Practical questions visitors and parishioners most often ask about the mission.
- Mass: Friday 5:30 p.m., June–September (rotation).
- Confession: Saturday 3:00 p.m. at El Rito; Thursday after Mass at El Rito.
- Pastor: Rev. Joseph Van Tao Nguyen, pastor of San Juan Nepomuceno, El Rito (2018 directory).
- Address: 1875 NM-111, Cañon Plaza, NM 87581.
- Parish office: 575-581-4714, PO Box 7, El Rito, NM 87530.
Pastors & rectors through the years
- Unknown — historic visiting priests and pastoral administrators under San Juan Nepomuceno, El Rito (established 1832)
The mission at Cañon Plaza has historically been served by the pastors of San Juan Nepomuceno Parish in El Rito on a rotating basis. A complete verified succession of Cañon Plaza clergy was not found online.
- Rev. Joseph Van Tao NguyenListed as Pastor of San Juan Nepomuceno in the 2018 Archdiocese of Santa Fe parish directory
Listed as the pastor with pastoral care of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission Church, Cañon Plaza, and the other El Rito-area missions.