While in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the highly-regarded American novelist Willa Sibert Cather was captivated by the story of Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy and his friend, Father Macheboeuf. She was so enchanted by these two men that she decided to write a novel based on the events of their lives serving as Roman Catholic clergy in New Mexico. Her 1927 novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop, tells the story of Bishop Jean Latour and his friend, Father Joseph Vaillant, as they travel to New Mexico in the mid-nineteenth century to strengthen the Catholic faith of the natives. In Death Comes for the Archbishop, the natives of New Mexico are devout, but their religion has been corrupted by superstition because there have been no priests to instruct them on their faith. “This country was evangelized in fifteen hundred, by the Franciscan Fathers. It has been …show more content…
allowed to drift for nearly three hundred years and is not yet dead” (Cather, 6). The historical setting of Death Comes for the Archbishop helps Willa Cather show how hard it was for Father Latour to convert the natives. In a way, the setting is a character unto itself in this book. It is the year 1851. Santa Fe has recently been annexed to the United States. “The old mission churches are in ruins. The few priests are without guidance or discipline. They are lax in religious observance, and some of them live in open concubinage” (Cather, 6). A French Jesuit missionary priest named Father Jean Marie Latour is serving in Sandusky, Ohio until the Vatican assigns him to this territory in New Mexico and promotes him to bishop. Father Latour, accompanied by his old friend Father Joseph Vaillant, sets out for Santa Fe charged with reviving the Catholic Church in the region after nearly three centuries of neglect. Although the region still pitifully calls itself Catholic, the faith has been corrupted by priests who live immoral lives. On the contrary, they have broken their vows of celibacy and of poverty, and they have not treated the natives of New Mexico with the respect that Jesus Christ would have showed them. Father Latour and Father Vaillant face a formidable task, made more difficult by Padre Gallegos in Albuquerque, Padre Antonio Jose Martinez of Taos, and Padre Lucero of Arroyo Hondo. These three are powerful priests long in control of the area who will not abandon the corruption into which they have fallen. For instance, Padre Gallegos is the priest of Albuquerque, but he constantly breaks his vows by gambling, dancing immodestly, and being slothful. Because of him, all of the Holy Days of Obligation, which are meant to honor the mysteries of the Lord, the Virgin Mary, and the saints, have turned into festivals. In addition, Padre Antonio Jose Martinez is the priest of the Taos parish, but he is suspected of breaking his vow of celibacy and of arranging the Bent massacre, in which many were viciously slaughtered, for his own greedy purposes. Lastly, “Padre Lucero of Arroyo Hondo is a stingy friend and sometimes enemy of Padre Martinez. With Padre Martinez, he forms a schismatic church in defiance of Father Latour.” In spite of these obstacles, Father Latour and Father Vaillant are able to succeed because of their perseverance and unshakable faith. Ultimately, they clear away all of these immoral priests, “reclaim the region and bring its far-flung communities under the guidance of a single diocese.” Over four hundred years ago, early in 1598, a miner and Spanish adventurer named Juan de Oñate, along with five hundred settlers and their servants, seven thousand farm animals, and ten priests, traveled north in search of riches. However, the fact that ten priests accompanied Oñate on this journey proves that the search for gold and silver was not the only motive in this push northward. It is a clear sign that Christianizing the native peoples was also a leading motive. Indeed, many missions were later constructed in New Mexico. After a difficult journey up the Rio Grande, Juan de Oñate claimed New Mexico for Spain. Moving to an Indian pueblo, or town, called Okhay, Oñate and his colonists, including the priests, soon set about building the first Spanish settlement and mission church. Not only did they drive the natives out of their homes, but they also renamed the pueblo San Juan de los Caballeros. As the pueblo’s first governor, Oñate then divided New Mexico into seven districts. Each distinct was assigned to the ten priests, or padres, who had accompanied Oñate on his expedition. Between the years 1598 and 1680, about fifty missions were established throughout New Mexico. Unfortunately, the ten padres encountered many problems which made converting the Indians very difficult. First, the padres did not speak the same language as the Indians. This made preaching the good news of Christ hard. Second, the Indians already had their own religions. They believed in and prayed to many nature gods. In addition, some of them would hunt an animal and then pray to the dead creature’s spirit. They also did not believe in saints or angels, but they did respect the earth whom they believed to be their mother. The Indians were so accustomed to worshipping multiple deities that they were not immediately attracted by the unfamiliar idea of worshipping the One True God. Third, the padres had no specific training in construction, so they forced the Indians to build churches for them. Not surprisingly, some of the Indians refused to cooperate. They did not want to waste their time and energy in building churches when they did not even believe in Christianity. Lastly, establishing missions in New Mexico was a dangerous job. The Spaniards knew what they were getting themselves into because they had heard stories of padres who were killed by hostile natives. Nevertheless, the ten padres carried on, spreading the gospel and teaching the natives about God’s everlasting love and mercy. Believing they were doing God’s work, they saw no obstacle as an excuse to back down. Eventually, they were able to convince some the Indians to accept Christianity. The setting of Death Comes for the Archbishop was not chosen randomly. Willa Sibert Cather chose the setting of New Mexico for a particular reason. Before she wrote Death Comes for the Archbishop, Cather travelled to New Mexico in the year 1912, and she immediately fell in love with its rich history and beautiful landscape. During later visits, she was captivated by the story of Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy who was chosen by Blessed Pius IX to restore the Catholic faith in New Mexico territory. In the year 1925, while staying at La Fonda Hotel in the center of Santa Fe, Cather turned her mind to the novel. “She gathered reminiscences from Spanish settlers and handed-down Indian tales in the pueblos, researched the church biographies, and traveled through the countryside that had once been the Archbishop's domain” (Mitgang, “Trailing Willa Cather”). She did not change any of the major facts of history, but she rewrote Archbishop Lamy's life when it suited her artistic purpose, sometimes rearranging detail and altering circumstances. In a letter after the novel appeared, Willa Cather wrote: The longer I stayed in the Southwest, the more I felt that the story of the Catholic Church in that country was the most interesting of all its stories. The old mission churches, even those which were abandoned and in ruins, had a moving reality about them; the handcarved [sic] beams and joists, the utterly unconventional frescoes, the countless fanciful figures of the saints, no two of them alike, seemed a direct expression of some very real and lively human feeling (Mitgang, “Trailing Willa Cather”). A large portion of Willa Cather’s 1927 novel is devoted to its setting.
Throughout Death Comes for the Archbishop, New Mexico is described as a very harsh environment, especially for those who are not used to living in it. Unlike the Native Americans and the Mexicans who had lived there for a thousand generations, Father Latour does not know his way around and ends of getting lost in the New Mexico desert, which was “so featureless—or rather, that it was crowded with features, all exactly alike” (Cather, 17). The New Mexico desert is not only “featureless,” but also very brutal. According to Father Latour it is “… like a country of dry ashes; no juniper, no rabbit brush, nothing but thickets of withered, dead-looking cactus, and patches of wild pumpkin—the only vegetation that had any vitality” (Cather, 88). A major theme of Death Comes for the Archbishop is perseverance. For instance, Father Latour did not let the harshness and brutality of New Mexico stop him from planting the seed of Catholicism. He kept preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins until this seed had grown in the strange and “featureless”
place. In conclusion, the harshness of the desert parallels the difficulty Father Latour had in converting the natives of New Mexico to Catholicism. There is not a whole lot of stuff that can grow in New Mexico apart from only the heartiest of plants. This is kind of like a metaphor for humans, too. In other words, only a tough sort of person can live in a place like New Mexico and really thrive. The natives were tough and sometimes a little stubborn. That is why it was difficult for Father Latour to revive the Catholic Church in the region. At first, Father Latour did not feel comfortable in the new area, but he eventually changed his opinions about the New Mexico landscape and decided that it was actually really beautiful. Similarly, the Native Americans did not like the idea of worshipping just one god, but they eventually changed their opinions about the Catholic faith. In the end, Father Latour was able to convince the Native Americans in the area that Catholicism was the right way to go.
In Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather first portrays the dichotomy of the highly cultured Old world, and the primal beauty and history of the New world. Cather goes on to show the successful merging of the two worlds, through the centralization of the church and the creation of a European-style cathedral against the New Mexican landscape. Religious order and duty are central themes within the novel, and consequently various religious symbols and allusions appear throughout the text.
Willa Cather's Death Comes to the Archbishop: A Narrative Though many reviewers of Willa Cather's, Death Comes to the Archbishop, had difficulty classifying the book, Cather herself preferred to call it a narrative rather than a novel. I tend to agree with Cather. One definition from Webster's New World College Dictionary defines "narrative" as "a story", which is then defined as, "the telling of a happening or connected series of happenings, whether true or fictitious". A novel on the other hand is defined as having, "a more or less complex plot or pattern of events." Where most books tend to follow certain guidelines as to plot, Cather chooses to take a different route.
In Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop, the heroic ideal whose definition began with Moby-Dick is again viewed. Father LaTour is clearly seen as having an elevated status, concern and understanding for the people, and a desire to make a lasting mark on the land that becomes his home. These characteristics were seen in differing ways in both Ahab and Jo in Little Women. In The Red Badge of Courage, the concept of courage in the hero was addressed. This quality too is seen in Father LaTour. Father Vaillant also displays many of these characteristics. Both priests are fully consecrated, they just live it out differently. They have committed themselves to self-sacrifice for the sake of those whom they seek to serve and exhibit strong inner courage in the setting aside of self. However, Father Vaillant's very presence has hinged upon the influence of Father LaTour in his life, thus ultimately pointing back to Father LaTour s the heroic figure in the novel.
Mexico is described as tragic-those who are of Mexican descent are often very traditional in thought. Rodriguez’s father held the traditional beliefs that old men are wise, that life is disheartening, and near one’s death is the point where one must look back on their life. However, he also feels that Mexico is a happier place, with sweeter children and more lavish funerals. Perhaps he views Mexico as the tragic place because it represents a lost heritage to him. He, who in his middle age, finds himself agreeing with the Mexican ideals, nevertheless finds himself affected by living in America. Instead of being raised with the ideas of Mexican culture, he was raised with Protestant optimism characteristic of California. He was forced to abandon the way of life of his ancestors, even if only partially. America-more specifically, California, conquered the Mexican ways, and in so doing, lost the opportunity to reconcile the Catholic South and the Protestant North. Thus, Mexico emerged as the tragic hero and California as the laughing victor. California is comedic because it is a place where it is possible to start anew, to defy the traditional.
The theme to this story is that people will always be different and you cannot force your ideas into them. In this story the priest is ignorant to the fact that these Indians do not want to have a Catholic burial and that they only want to use the holy water to bring rain. All the priest is interested in is gaining parishioners, while the Indians just want to pay their respects to the old man by staying true to their heritage.
The Clarion Herald states, “Philip Matthew Hannan fifth of eight children of Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Francis Hannan, was born in Washington, D.C.” (Clarion Herald 1). Archbishop Hannan was born on May 20, 1913 where he spent most of his young life. Tom Benson told the Clarion Herald, “Archbishop Hannan once told me that the New Orleans Saints were part of the unique culture and social fabric of our city. The same can be and must be said of him,” (Clarion Herald 35). New Orleans mourned the death of Hannan on Thursday, September 29, 2011.
The portrait of Mexican Americans is layered in shades of ambivalence. Aside from the fact there is evidence that they can not really be classified as a migratory culture in that the land where they tend to migrate once belonged to Mexico, they can also lay an earlier claim to the land as Native Americans. The Spanish Europeans who settled in the area that became Mexico evolved as the dominant culture over the oral culture of the Native Americans. Nevertheless, there is evidence of ambivalence among the Native Americans to the dominant culture of the Spanish in what is arguably one of the Mexico's basic texts, the story of the Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531. The Virgin of Guadalupe does not fit the usual model of the Virgin as she appears to believers, the biggest change being her native appearance. She is of the dominant culture's religion, and yet she is not. Her appearance is one of only eight worldwide that have found acceptance by the Catholic Church (Apparition 48). Moreover, she is a symbol of the native culture as well and has reverence in the eyes of both Mexicans and Mexican Americans that remains evident to date.
Hackel speculates that “With each passing year Junipero Serra exerted less influence on the overall shape of the colony itself. In the final years of his life, above all else, the baptisms and the confirmations he could provide to California Indians gave his life direction and motivation” (142). Hackel aims, not to create a sort of idealistic image of Serra as a saint, but rather one which portrays him as a man who was dogmatic, with imperfections and faults, who categorized, captured and reflected the time and culture of “colonial enterprises”.
Willa Cather's Death Comes For The Archbishop is a novel set in the nineteenth century in New Mexico. The story follows the adventures of Father Vaillant and Father Latour, two refined French priests on a mission to promote Catholicism in Santa Fe. The story follows each man's experiences in these unrefined surroundings causing them to go through dramatic changes as they experience the westward movement of the frontier. Through the struggles and journeys of a host of characters, we discover the underlying tensions of worldly distractions that can create a divided character between oneself.
The biblical references throughout the Chronicle of a Death Foretold help identify the characters, Bayardo San Roman, Maria Cervantes, Divina Flor, and the Vicario children, and add depth to the death of Santiago. Without the many religious symbols such as, the Divine Face, the murder of Santiago, the cocks crowing, and the characters, there would be little weight placed on the reactions of the townspeople towards the knowledge of Santiago’s impending death. The religious symbols solidify the idea that Christ has come again in many different forms and ideas, yet dies to renew the people’s covenant with the Lord. “Give me prejudice and I will move the world” (Márquez 100).
Myriad syncretic spiritual forms evolved during the era of colonial Mesoamerica, expressing both public devotional practices and private household rituals that many times were veiled from Church scrutiny (Carmack 308). These rituals, born in indigenous culture and adapted to the drastically changed socio-economic and political landscape of colonial life, represent some of the few remaining links to the region’s spiritual and historical past.
Two such authors, searching for…well, searching for that certain enlightenment and repose that can only be found in nature, were Henry Miller and Jack Kerouac. And despite the fact that Big Sur, California, is the chosen destination for revelation for both authors and that both authors are torn between the introspective qualities of being ‘secluded,’ and the desire for connectedness to society, they were from (moderately) different lifestyles and backgrounds and viewed the revelations that nature bestowed to them individually quite differently. By contrasting the situations and temperaments of the two authors, one can begin to see why their experiences differed so greatly.
I arrived at Sacred Heart Cathedral for my first day of high school. As my friend’s mom drove through the populous streets of San Francisco, I sat in the back seat of her car running through the pages of the planner I had received at orientation. As the thick, smooth pages ran through my fingers, I worried over finding my classes, being on time to my classes, and having time to out my books in my locker. I found the page dated August 24th, my first day of high school. I had all six classes that day, French, English, Honors Algebra, Physics, World History, and lastly Scripture.
It all started when I was in eighth grade. My decision was Cardinal Hayes. Cardinal Hayes was the school my brother was attending and my brother had told me so much interesting things about Cardinal Hayes. My brother told me about their trophy room and how successful the school was. He also told me how much fun they had there. My friend was telling me about Fordham Prep, but I had payed him no mind. If my friend wasn’t there I would not currently be in Fordham Prep. After I stopped being stubborn and started to listening to my friend about my friend about Fordham Prep I noticed that it wasn’t bad, but actually good.
The first time I heard about Bishop Carroll was early September. I heard that it is not like the other schools where students learn in a class, people told me that the student gets to learn by themselves. I remember thinking to myself “what kind of school allows students to learn by themselves? Wouldn’t that be difficult?”. Now that I’ve talked to my counselor and been to the open house, I am more informed and educated about what Bishop Carroll is really about. It’s about learning how to become independent and being in the driver's seat of my own learning, but of course with the help of a teacher. I think that Bishop Carroll is for me because I am the independent type of learner. I like working in pairs but I feel like I work better individually because I can focus more on the topic given to me.