Summary For the first year after arriving in Santa Fe, Latour has been traveling on business that takes him away from his diocese. He now wishes to learn about the people in his diocese. With a young Indian guide, Jacinto, he visits Indian missions. His first stop is Albuquerque, where […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 3: Chapter 1Summary and Analysis Book 2: Chapter 2
Summary Father Vaillant and Father Latour are on the third day out toward Mora. Rain and cold make the journey difficult, and they hope to find shelter for the night before going on to Mora, where they will help refugees from an Indian massacre. They find a house that is […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 2: Chapter 2Summary and Analysis Book 2: Chapter 1
Summary The chapter begins with Father Joseph Vaillant returning from a visit to Albuquerque. He contemplates the people of Santo Domingo, who will come to hear but will not allow their children to be baptized. The Spanish have mistreated them long ago, and they do not forget. Father Joseph rides […]
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Summary Latour remembers his first morning in Santa Fe after his trip to Durango. He awakened to the ringing of the Angelus, making him first dream of Rome, then of the East. He is told by Vaillant that the bell is of Spanish origin and dates from 1356. The bell […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 1: Chapter 4Summary and Analysis Book 1: Chapter 3
Summary It is Christmas Day. Latour has been busy since his return to Santa Fe nine days previous. His return was marked by a friendly welcome from his diocese due to the work of Father Vaillant, who had endeared himself to the diocese. The Mexican priest who had overseen the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 1: Chapter 3Summary and Analysis Book 1: Chapter 2
Summary The Mexican village that Latour is led to by his horses is called Aqua Secreta, or Hidden Water. He is hosted by the kindly Benito and his family. Benito tells Latour that the Virgin Mary must have led the priest from his path in order for him to baptize […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 1: Chapter 2Summary and Analysis Book 1: Chapter 1
Summary It is an autumn afternoon in 1851, and Jean Latour is lost in the New Mexico desert. He remembers his year-long trek from Cincinnati, Ohio, and a series of misadventures en route. His worldly possessions, except his books, were lost in a shipwreck in Galveston harbor. On the trip […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book 1: Chapter 1Summary and Analysis Prologue
Summary Three Roman Catholic Cardinals@ — a Frenchman, an Italian, and a Spanish-English@ — from the Vatican convene in an Italian estate garden with an Irish-born missionary bishop from America in the mid-1800s. The missionary requests that a bishop be appointed to the United States’ newly annexed territory on New […]
Read more Summary and Analysis PrologueCharacter List
Father Jean Marie Latour A French Jesuit missionary priest who first serves the Church in Sandusky, Ohio, and is named the Vicar Apostolic of New Mexico and Bishop of Agathonica. He is physically handsome, generous, and a gentleman at all times. He finds it difficult to make new friends and […]
Read more Character ListAbout Death Comes for the Archbishop
Cather first conceived Death Comes for the Archbishop in 1912, during a visit to the American Southwest. She had set previous fiction in the region, including the 1909 story “The Enchanted Bluff” and portions of the novels My Antonia, Song of the Lark, and The Professor’s House. Cather preferred to […]
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