THE HERMIT OF NEW MEXICO

A small bell tinkled each time his walking staff thudded into the dusty road. His gaunt frame was obscured by a long black cape and full beard. The eyes of Las Vegas, New Mexico turned in wonder to this mysterious figure: Holy man, miracle worker, or prophet, no one knew.

Giovanni Maria Agostini never claimed any such distinction. Born in 1801 of a noble northern Italian family, after his education he studied for the priesthood but dropped out because of disagreements with the Roman Catholic doctrine. He left his home in 1831 and spent five years wandering around Spain, visiting sacred sites. Next, he crossed the Atlantic to South America where he travelled for 20 years and met with Indians and lived in caves. His sojourn continued through Central America, Mexico, Cuba, and Canada, finally landing him in Council Grove, Kansas, in 1863.

Here Agostini joined a westward wagon train owned by Las Vegas resident Manuel Romero. But he declined to ride horse, mule, or wagon – he walked the hundreds of miles along the Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico.

Agostini accepted Romero’s invitation to stay at his roomy Las Vegas home, but slept on the ground and ate only cornmeal. When curious villagers began to swarm around him, Agostini slipped off down the Santa Fe Trail in search of a more peaceful abode. A few miles off, at the future site of Romeroville, he found shelter in a cave in a little canyon. But people came from miles away to see the cave dweller whom they called Juan Bautista or John the Baptist. The pilgrims sought guidance from the recluse, some of them camping outside the cave. Agostini soon became known among the Hispanic community as “El Hermitano” – The Hermit.

With the attention he was receiving, it soon became obvious that Agostini needed a more remote place to live. He cast his glance to Cerro del Tecolote in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Climbing up the 10,263-foot mountain, he moved into a cave a few hundred feet below the summit. Forever afterward, the mountain became known as Hermit’s Peak.

But Agostini still received visits from devoted friends. Some brought him cornmeal and sought his counsel. Others created a windbreak at the mouth of the cave to protect him from weather and predators. They even built him a cabin on the flat top of the mountain.

Periodically, Agostini left his perch to see Romero, Arthur Morrison, and Teodoro Pena in Las Vegas, and Samuel B. Watrous in La Junta, 18 miles up the trail. Agostini and Watrous had a system whereby the hermit would light regular fires on the mountain. Watrous could see the blazes from his home. If a fire didn’t appear on schedule, he’d know his friend was in trouble.

After living on the mountain for almost four years, Agostini returned to Las Vegas to recommence his wanderings. He parted with his friends and blended away south down the Santa Fe Trail.

Agostini was sighted in Mesilla and El Paso. He reportedly made another hermitage somewhere in the HuecoMountains. During this time he became friends with Colonel Albert J. Fountain, a lawyer and traveller who came to New Mexico in 1862 with the California Volunteers.

In Mesilla, in 1869, Agostini made known his plan to climb into the sharp, rugged OrganMountains. He’d light a signal fire when he reached the top. Ignoring cautions from Col. Fountain and others that he would be invading Apache country, the hermit set on his way.

Several days and no signal fire later, a Mesilla search party headed into the mountains. On May 10^th, 1869, The New Mexican reported that the “remains of the Italian recluse” were brought to Mesilla. He’d been killed by Apaches, and had been dead for several days. He was described as a “zealot . . . known by the Mexicans as the Hermitano.”

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Eric Bryan is a freelance writer.

This article originally appeared in The Santa Fe Sun.

Copyright © Eric Bryan