Lamy of Santa Fe

Jean Baptiste Lamy has indeed been fortunate to have two major writers present his life in so strong a light: Willa Cather in DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP, where Lamy is portrayed fictionally in the character of Jean Latour, and in this magnificent biography by Paul Horgan. It was Lamy's tremendous force of character, his inner strength in knowing to his bones what was right and being able to call up the courage to act upon it, that one gets from both Cather and Horgan. Lamy came to Santa Fe in 1850, having been a missionary and vicar in Ohio till then. Catholicism had stagnated in New Mexico, and Lamy instituted sweeping changes upon his arrival. His main goal was to re-establish the Church as the center of life in the southwest; to do so he needed to get rid of priests who were corrupt and spiritually counter-productive. Two of them, Jose Gallegos and Antonio Martinez, objected strongly to Lamy's ways, and caused much mischief for him. But Lamy, through his bravery, persistence, and authority in what he felt was right, became the spiritual light that illuminated the affairs of the southwest during the second half of the 19th century. Horgan's account of Lamy is as magisterial as his subject; his admiration and respect for the archbishop resonates in almost every paragraph. It's a wonderful achievement - a delight to read. A most deserving winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Apart from Paul Horgan fans, probably most people coming to this book will be doing so to learn more about the real life archbishop who inspired Willa Cather's great novel DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP. And just as Cather's novel concerns the friendship and work of two major characters--Archbishop Jean Latour and his vicar Father Joseph Vaillant--so Horgan's biography necessarily tells the story not only of Juan Bautista Lamy but also Joseph Machebeuf.Horgan's biography succeeds magnificently in two ways. First, for those who will be coming to the book from reading Cather, one will find vastly greater depth and detail than was possible in that novel. So, the book is a boon for Cather fans. Second, even if one has not read Cather, the book tells a magnificent story of a truly heroic man and his closest friend. Their story is also the story of the West as a whole, and Santa Fe in particular. There are biographies that record the rote facts about an individual, and unfortunately most fall into this category. And the there are biographies that almost manage to bring you into contact and introduce you to someone you have never met. Lamy emerges almost as someone you know, instead of someone you merely know things about. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in either history of the American West or in Willa Cather's great novel. Although I am not myself Roman Catholic, it would probably also be enjoyed by those whose main interest is in Church History. It is a tragedy that this book is not currently in print. With so many much weaker and less interesting biographies available, it is unfortunate that many of the truly excellent ones are not.

If there is proof that religion is cultural Paul Horgan demonstrates it in this work which is more than a single biography, but two. Lamy's initial dilemma, besides getting to his Santa Fe assignment, was to overcome the politics of Mexican Catholicism, and bend its will to his own. It was not the good Church defeating evil so much as it was Lamy's determination to arrange things in their proper order while at the same time creating an infrastructure to benefit his parishioners. His monument is the cathedral at Santa Fe in front of which is a stature to his memory as a man beloved by all. Still, Lamy shows a natural reluctance to relinquish habitual authority after retirement. The Archbishop was a man, after all, but a man with a calling he was determined to fulfill. Incidentally, when a character from one book shows up in another unrelated work (Lamy's eventual successor, in Tucson), 'On the Border With Crook,' it lends co-incident authenticity to both.

It would be difficult if not impossible to overpraise this book. As a narrative of what the southwestern United States was like during the nineteenth century, as a triumph of research into a multitude of different sources spread out all over the United States and western Europe, and as a biography of an undeniably great man (the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santa Fe, whose life this book tells from his departure from France around 1839 to serve as a missionary to the United States to his death in New Mexico the late 1880s), this book succeeds wonderfully. It's one of the best books I have ever read.

This outstanding book on the first Archbishop of Santa Fe - the French-born Jean Baptiste Lamy , details Lamy's tireless efforts at rebuilding the Catholic church in New Mexico from the state of shocking neglect which he found it to be in. It delineates the work Lamy did to improve both the spiritual and material lives of the people under his care. It also enumerates the many hardships Lamy endured. Evidence of the tremendous devotion, unwavering faith and sterling character of this man of God can be found throughout the book. If there is one word which can best describe Lamy, that word would be - Saint! Author Paul Horgan won a Pulitzer prize for this book and it is not difficult to see why. It was readily apparent that Horgan had done exhaustive research from the numerous details contained in the book. All in all, a meticulously researched book on a most remarkable individual of the American Southwest written by a diligent author.