Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather, Part 3 (Photo Essay #2)

Last time I posted on Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop, I provided a photo essay of the landscape.  As it turned out I had a return trip to New Mexico, and having an afternoon to myself I went to Santa Fe to check out the Cathedral the Archbishop had built.  While the novel is fictional, it is a fictional recreation of real people and events. So the Cathedral truly exists.  While the Bishop is named Jean-Marie Latour in the novel, his real life name was Jean-Baptiste Lamy.  Lamy became the first archbishop of New Mexico and had the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi built in Santa Fe. 

The novel describes the cathedral in the style of “Midi Romanesque,” having simple geometric shapes and the beautiful stone from one of the local mountains. Here is the front face of the cathedral. 

In the front courtyard you will see three statues.  Framing the portal on the left is a statue of St. Francis of Assisi and on the right is that of Lamy.  Behind the statue of St. Francis is that of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American to be canonized.  Here are close ups of the three statues.

Looking down the nave toward the apse from the rear, the interior is very Romanesque..

The baptismal font with a little pool is located a third of the way down the nave and creates a sort of passage way across the nave.  Here is a picture of that, which captures some the windows, columns, and floor pattern, as well as a picture of a side aisle.

Looking rearward toward the narthex and porch, one can see the baptismal font and rose window.

Here is the altar and the apse.  Those are saints from the New World except for the one in the middle slightly obscured by the hanging San Dimiano Crucifix.

Here is a zoom in of the St. Francis of Assisi, which is an actual statue while the other saints are paintings.

The Cathedral has some side chapels, and I don’t have space for all those pictures, but here is a St. Anthony of Padua.  Clearly the Cathedral has a Franciscan theme.

The Cathedral boasts having the first Madonna brought to the United States.  She is called La Conquistadora (Our Lady of the Conquest), or today referred to as Our Lady of Conquering love.  It was brought to New Mexico in 1625.  

A close up of the Cathedral front doors. 

A close up of the north bell tower.

I hope you took note of the beautiful stone used.  There is a plaque commemorating the stone cutters, who came from Italy.

The cathedral had several alcoves and courtyards and gardens.  Some of the beautiful garden statues.  

One of the gardens had a modern sculpture of the Stations of the Cross by a certain artist named Gib Singleton.  I can’t post every statue, but here are Station 11, The Nailing, Station 12 The Crucifixion, and Station 14, The Entombment. 

Let me end with one more taken from about a block away.  The novel describes the Cathedral as being set against the Santa Fe Mountains.  Unfortunately I couldn’t get an angle of the building against mountains.  Perhaps you can get a slight glimpse of them above the church over to the left.

A truly magnificent visit and highly recommended if one visits northern New Mexico.  By the way, if you’re not aware, you can click any of the pictures and they should come up full screen size.