Abstract:
This research project focuses on Willa Cather’s 1927 novel, Death Comes from the
Archbishop. The author argues that Cather’s protagonist, Father (later Archbishop) Latour
seeks to erect an extraordinary edifice of faith in the New Mexico Territory, not only to
establish a church, but also to import a representation of the Old World to the New World.
Importing a semblance of European models of beauty and reverence to the parched Southwest
of the New Mexico Territory might be a vision whose reach exceeds its grasp, but for a
dogged French immigrant priest, it is his time to stretch out his hand and touch the finger of
God.
In Cather’s juxtaposition of established religion (Roman Catholicism) and aesthetic
against the indigenous beliefs and designs of the Southwest engenders exertion of the body and
the mind, more often out of sync than in lockstep in this novel. Father Latour must uncover a
pathway between the tension of the Old and New Worlds and to build a hallowed space where
both can coexist. In this narrative, Cather grapples with the tensions of Euro-American
modernity, exploring the ways that old systems of belief and design can and cannot coexist with
the changes of a new era.
