Death Comes For The Archbishop

Death Comes For the Archbishop by Willa Cather was written in 1927. I had never read it nor had I intended to. A member of one of my book groups had recommended another of Ms. Cather’s books and I headed to the library to find it. It wasn’t there, but Death Comes for the Archbishop was there, so I decided to read it. I am glad that I did.


Death Comes For The Archbishop by Willa Cather was written in 1927. I had never read it nor had I Death Comes For The Archbishop was there, so I decided to read it. I am glad that I did.

The book is a novel about the first Archbishop of Sante Fe, New Mexico. In the novel, Fr. Jean Marie Latour was from France where he went to Seminary and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest. Soon afterwards, in 1848, he was assigned to come to the United States…priests/missionaries were needed in Ohio, so Fr. Latour and his good friend Fr. Vaillant arrived in Ohio and took up there work. Soon, the United States won New Mexico in the Mexican-American War and Fr. Latour was made Bishop and sent to New Mexico to establish the diocese there. He took Fr. Vaillant with him as his vicar.

The novel tells the story of Bishop Latour’s years there as he worked to convert the people, and rein in some of the priests who had been on their own out there for years, and had strayed far from the Catholic teachings. In the end, Archbishop Latour was there for thirty-eight years. He retired there and died there.

The book is very slow moving and I was impatient with it for a bit off and on, but by the end was very moved by the whole story.

(The novel is based on the life of the first Archbishop of Sante Fe, Jean Baptist Lamy….I am sure that the reading of his life would be quite interesting)