The Bishop and the Cathedral

By Eilene Lyon

Several years ago, my local book club read Death Comes for the Archbishop by one of my favorite authors, Willa Cather. It’s a fictional story of two real men, missionaries from France, who arrived in Santa Fe in 1851, not long after New Mexico became part of the United States.

Cather calls them Bishop Jean Marie Latour and Father Joseph Vaillant. Their true identities are Jean-Baptiste Lamy and Joseph Machebeuf. They became friends as young men in France and came to America together to serve as missionaries in Ohio.

In the fictional account, Cather vividly brings the New Mexican frontier to life with its Native American and Hispano residents. The weather and harsh terrain are antagonists as much as any persons. The Bishop and Vicar are introduced to some of the more mystical religious beliefs of the people as they work to convert them to the Catholic Church.

In 1850, Lamy was elevated to become the first bishop in New Mexico Territory, with Machebeuf as his Vicar General. The area had previously been served by priests answering to the bishop in Durango, Mexico. Lamy’s territory encompassed what is now New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, part of Utah, and the area around El Paso. The southernmost portions were contested by the Mexican bishop for decades.

An arduous journey that included a shipwreck, where he lost most of his belongings, brought Lamy to Santa Fe in the summer of 1851, where he was warmly welcomed by the people—but not by the Mexican clergy, who had no intention of letting this Frenchman take over their parishes!

Not long ago I learned, via historian David McCullough, about the biography Lamy of Santa Fe by Paul Horgan, a Pulitzer prize-winning book published in 1975. I found a copy at the local college and slowly absorbed all 400 pages, which includes some wonderful historic photographs.

I’m not religious, and have no connection to Catholicism, but Lamy impressed me with his dedication to his faith and to the people he served. He elevated their quality of life and provided them with inspiration toward a moral existence.

His Vicar General, Joseph Machebeuf, later became the first bishop in Colorado. I wrote about him in my book What Lies Beneath Colorado. He is buried in Mt. Olivet Catholic Cemetery in Wheat Ridge. The two men contrasted in almost every way.

Lamy was tall, but suffered from periods of debilitating health issues. He had a subtle way of dealing with people. Machebeuf was a small, wiry, but tough man. He proselytized with passion and warmth that endeared him to the people he served.

The interior west that was previously “controlled” by Mexico (but more by the Navajo, Puebloans, Apache and Utes), had long been a place where people lived on the margin. There were no educational institutions, and the clergy were corrupt in every possible way: drinking, gambling, stealing, and even adultery.

Lamy changed all that, but not without difficulty. He relied on Rome and his church in France to support his mission in America for many decades. He brought in nuns and priests from Europe and eastern states. They created educational institutions and built churches throughout the southwest.

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi was another major accomplishment, though it was not quite completed in Lamy’s lifetime. An earlier adobe church stood on the site, the last in a line of primitive structures dating back to the founding of Santa Fe in 1610.

Lamy hired an architect from France and stonemasons from Italy. The builders located stone quarries within 20 miles of Santa Fe. They constructed the new church, built in Romanesque Revival style,  around the adobe one, then removed the adobe after the outer portion was completed. Only one small portion of the original remains as a side chapel.

Interior of the cathedral facing east

Interior north

Interior south

Saints of the world screen behind the altar

Construction began in 1869 and the cathedral was dedicated in 1887. Pope Benedict XVI elevated it to a Basilica in 2005. Lamy became archbishop in 1875. He retired in 1885, died in 1888, and is buried within the sanctuary.

You can find a virtual tour of the cathedral online. When we visited, a docent shared many stories with us. We learned that the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, made in Spain in the 1400s, was brought to America in 1625. She is the oldest such icon in the country.

The cathedral is a beautiful testimony to the life and spiritual improvements that Archbishop Lamy brought to the people of New Mexico.

Feature image: Bronze likeness of Archbishop J. B. Lamy in front of St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe.