Death Comes For The Archbishop

Book 0: Penguin Vitae

by Willa Cather

Genres: Classics; Literary Fiction; Westerns

Synopsis

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - is a 1927 novel by American author Willa Cather. It concerns the attempts of a Catholic bishop and a priest to establish a diocese in New Mexico Territory. Plot summary The narrative is based on two historical figures of the late 19th century, Jean-Baptiste Lamy and Joseph Projectus Machebeuf, and rather than any one singular plot, is the stylized re-telling of their lives serving as Roman Catholic clergy in New Mexico. The narrative has frequent digressions, either in terms of stories related to the pair (including the story of the Our Lady of Guadalupe and the murder of an oppressive Spanish priest at Acoma Pueblo) or through their recollections. The narration is in third-person omniscient style. Cather includes many fictionalized accounts of actual historical figures, including Kit Carson, Manuel Antonio Chaves and Pope Gregory XVI. In the prologue, Bishop Ferrand, an Irish bishop who works in the New World, solicits three cardinals at Rome to pick his candidate for the newly created diocese of New Mexico (which has recently passed into American hands). Bishop Ferrand is successful in getting his candidate, the Auvergnat Jean-Marie Latour, recommended by the cardinals over the recommendation of the Bishop of Durango (under whose territory New Mexico had previously fallen). One of the cardinals, a Spaniard named Allende, alludes to a painting by El Greco taken from his family by a missionary to the New World and lost, and asks for the new Bishop to search for it. The action then switches to the primary character, Bishop Jean Marie Latour, who travels with his friend and vicar Joseph Vaillant from Sandusky, Ohio to New Mexico. At the time of Latour's departure for New Mexico, Cincinnati is the end of the railway line west, so Latour must travel by riverboat to the Gulf of Mexico, and thence overland to New Mexico, a journey which takes an entire year (and includes losing most of his supplies in a shipwreck at Galveston). The names given to the main proponents reflect their characters. Vaillant, valiant, is fearless in his promulgation of the faith, whereas Latour, the tower, is more intellectual and reserved than his comrade. Vaillant, described as being ugly but purpose-filled, is given the nickname "Blanchet" ("Whitey") as well as "Trompe-la-morte" ("Death-cheater") for his complexion and his numerous instances of bad health, respectively. While the narrative speaks of Vaillant positively, it also alludes to his willingness to acquire (he "forces the hand" of a landowner into giving him and Latour two prize mules, Angelica and Contento, chastises the widow Dona Isabella Olivares for refusing to assert her rights under her husband's will and thereby blocking the church from its testamentary share, and goes on frank "begging trips" to acquire money) and near the end of the novel his questionable financial behaviour receives an investigation from Rome.

Release date: November 14, 2023

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Print pages: 256