Lamy of Santa Fe Read online

  Lamy of Santa Fe

  by Paul Horgan

  NOVELS

  The Fault of Angels • The Habit of Empire • No Quarter Given

  The Common Heart • Main Line West • Give Me Possession

  A Lamp on the Plains • Memories of the Future • A Distant Trumpet

  Far from Cibola • Whitewater

  Mountain Standard Time

  (containing Main Line West, Far from Cibola, and The Common Heart)

  Mexico Bay

  THE RICHARD TRILOGY

  Things As They Are • Everything to Live For • The Thin Mountain Air

  OTHER FICTION

  The Return of the Weed • The Saintmaker’s Christmas Eve

  Figures in a Landscape • Humble Powers • The Devil in the Desert

  Toby and the Nighttime (juvenile)

  One Red Rose for Christmas

  The Peach Stone: Stories from Four Decades

  HISTORY AND OTHER NON-FICTION

  Men of Arms (juvenile) • From the Royal City

  New Mexico’s Own Chronicle (with Maurice Garland Fulton)

  Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History

  The Centuries of Santa Fe • Rome Eternal • Citizen of New Salem

  Conquistadors in North American History

  Peter Hurd: A Portrait Sketch from Life • Songs After Lincoln

  The Heroic Triad: Essays in the Social Energies of

  Three Southwestern Cultures • Maurice Baring Restored

  Encounters with Stravinsky: A Personal Record • Approaches to Writing

  Lamy of Santa Fe: His Life and Times

  Josiah Gregg and His Vision of the Early West

  COLLECTIVE VOLUME

  Of America East & West

  Selections From the Writings of

  Paul Horgan

  LAMY

  OF

  SANTA FE

  Paul Horgan

  Wesleyan University Press

  Middletown, Connecticut

  Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT 06459 www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

  Copyright © 1975 by Paul Horgan

  All rights reserved

  Published by arrangement with

  Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC

  First Wesleyan University Press edition 2003

  ISBN-13: 978-0–8195–6532–7

  Printed in the United States of America 5 4 3 2

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Horgan, Paul, 1903–

  Lamy of Santa Fe, his life and times / Paul Horgan.

  p. cm.

  Originally published: New York : Farrar, Straus and

  Giroux, 1975.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 0–8195–6532–6 (pbk. : alk. paper)

  1. Lamy, John Baptist, 1814–1888. 2.

  Catholic Church—New Mexico—Bishops—Biography. I. Title.

  BX4705.L265 H67 2003

  282'.092—dc21

  [B] 2002033055

  In Homage and Affection

  to

  Henry Allen Moe

  and

  to

  the memory of

  Harriet Christy,

  a promise fulfilled

  Contents

  I. FRANCE • 1814–1839

  i.

  The Fugitives

  ii.

  Caesar and Vercingetorix

  iii.

  Romanesque Heritage

  iv.

  Auvergnats

  v.

  The Home Village

  vi.

  The Two Friends

  vii.

  To Go

  viii.

  America

  II. THE MIDDLE WEST • 1839–1850

  i.

  Cincinnati

  ii.

  To the Forests

  iii.

  The Pattern

  iv.

  Those Waiting

  v.

  Self-Searchings

  vi.

  The Materials

  vii.

  Private Concerns

  viii.

  Machebeuf’s Intrigue

  ix.

  The War

  x.

  To Covington

  xi.

  Lamy to France

  xii.

  After the 1846 War

  xiii.

  A Bishop for New Mexico

  xiv.

  These Two Vicars

  III. TO SANTA FE • 1850–1851

  i.

  New Orleans

  ii.

  S.S. Palmetto

  iii.

  Interlude at Galveston

  iv.

  The Wreck at Indianola

  v.

  San Antonio

  vi.

  To the Rio Grande

  vii.

  Triumphal Entry

  IV. THE DESERT DIOCESE • 1851–1852

  i.

  Defiance

  ii.

  The Society

  iii.

  The First Needs

  iv.

  The Durango Journey

  v.

  Confrontation in Durango

  vi.

  Disciplines

  vii.

  The Plains Eastward

  viii.

  Westward Prairies

  V. THE ANTAGONISTS • 1852–1856

  i.

  The Pastoral Letter

  ii.

  Rebellion

  iii.

  Diocesan See

  iv.

  Trouble at Albuquerque

  v.

  Disputed Boundaries

  vi.

  The Old Dean

  VI. SCANDAL AT TAOS • 1852–1861

  i.

  Martínez Rampant

  ii.

  The Advocate at Rome

  iii.

  Martínez, Gallegos, Politics

  iv.

  Machebeuf and Company Returning

  v.

  The Excommunications

  vi.

  Schism

  VII. THE COLONISTS • 1858–1863

  i.

  Niceties of Geography

  ii.

  The Poisoned Chalice

  iii.

  Quest in Sonora

  iv.

  Again to Auvergne

  v.

  Quarrel with Durango

  vi.

  “Pike’s Peak,”

  vii.

  Marie, the Convent, the Country

  viii.

  The Civil War and Santa Fe

  ix.

  Emergencies—Denver and Return

  VIII. THE PAINTED LAND • 1863–1867

  i.

  Across Arizona

  ii.

  Hospital and Schools

  iii.

  Christmas Eve: Attempted Murder

  IX. ROME AND BATTLE • 1867

  i.

  Rome—An Accounting

  ii.

  Madame Bontesheim and Bureaucracy

  iii.

  Homeward

  iv.

  Prairie News

  v.

  The Battle of the Arkansas Crossing

  X. INCREASE • 1868–1874

  i.

  A Quiet Conscience,

  ii.

  Two New Bishops

  iii.

  Vatican Council

  iv.

  Follies and Dangers

  v.

  For the Pueblos

  vi.

  Hard Times

  XI ARCHBISHOP • 1875–1880

  i.

  The Archbishop

  ii.

  Jubilation

  iii.
>
  A Mile a Day

  iv.

  Styles

  v.

  Atmospheres

  XII. GARDENER AND APOSTLE • 1880–1885

  i.

  Relief

  ii.

  The Gardener

  iii.

  The Apostle

  XIII. DAY’S END AT SANTA FE • 1884–1889

  i.

  Changeover

  ii.

  The Old Men

  iii.

  Day’s End

  iv.

  Two Summertimes

  Sources Consulted

  Notes

  Acknowledgements

  Index

  Illustrations

  map spread across

  Travels of Lamy and Machebeuf in America 1839–1884

  following page 140

  SANTA FE LIFE IN THE LAMY EPOCH

  The old adobe parish church and first cathedral of Santa Fe

  [Museum of New Mexico]

  A soldier’s sketch of Santa Fe, c. 1846–1850

  [Museum of New Mexico]

  Caravan waggons of the Santa Fe Trail in the plaza

  [Museum of New Mexico]

  The pastoral look of life in Santa Fe

  [Museum of New Mexico]

  The Plaza of La Mesilla, c. 1860s

  [Museum of New Mexico]

  The Plaza of Santa Fe, c. 1870s

  [Museum of New Mexico]

  The carved eighteenth-century stone reredos of Santa Fe

  [Museum of New Mexico]

  The chapel of Our Lady of Light

  [Museum of New Mexico]

  Lamy’s country retreat, Villa Pintoresca—exterior

  [Loretto Motherhouse Archives, Kentucky]

  Villa Pintoresca—the chapel

  [Loretto Motherhouse Archives, Kentucky]

  The stone cathedral of St Francis under construction

  [Museum of New Mexico]

  The completed cathedral as it stands today

  [Museum of New Mexico]

  following page 280

  PORTRAITS OF LAMY AND OTHERS

  The young Bishop Lamy of Santa Fe

  [Loretto Motherhouse Archives, Kentucky]

  Marie Lamy

  [Loretto Motherhouse Archives, Kentucky]

  Mother M. Francesca Lamy

  [from “Light in Yucca Land,” Barbour and Jaeger, Santa Fe, 1952]

  Colonel Kit Carson

  [Museum of New Mexico]

  Bishop Joseph Priest Machebeuf of Denver

  [Colorado State Historical Society]

  The aged and ailing Archbishop Lamy

  [Loretto Motherhouse Archives, Kentucky]

  Archbishop Lamy lying in state

  [Courtesy of John Gaw Meem]

  Lamy’s statue in Santa Fe

  [Photo by David Young]

  Note: Many of these photographs came from Miss Isabel Echols, who received custody of them from the estate of E. Dana Johnson, the distinguished editor of The Santa Fe New Mexican.

  Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini

  I

  FRANCE

  1814–1839

  NOTE

  Letters by Lamy have been transcribed here without alteration in any way. He always expressed himself plainly, and often eloquently; but his English, except when polished for public use, did not always conform to common usages of capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. However, his mild aberrations in a language not native to him seem to bring his presence more immediately before us; and out of respect for this advantage, I have felt justified in letting them stand.

  P. H.

  i.

  The Fugitives

  DURING THE HOURS BEFORE SUNRISE on 21 May 1839, Jean Baptiste Lamy, accompanied by his closest friend and former school-mate Joseph Priest Machebeuf, made his way on foot through the silent streets of the old Roman town of Riom, in the Massif Central of France. With his companion he was walking toward the Paris highway, crossing the northern arc of the great drive which circled the city after the manner of roads laid upon buried Roman fortifications. Within the town were small dark enclaves of medieval stone—gray, damp, impregnated with rank airs from the barnyards on the green hillsides all about. Beyond in the dimness sat the low, small-timbered mountains of Auvergne.

  Lamy was not well. He had recently risen from a sickbed to join his friend in Riom, but his determination was calm. The better not to be noticed, he was dressed as a layman, and so was Machebeuf. In their usual dress, since they were both priests, they would be marked that night if anyone should see them. Lamy, the younger, was twenty-five years old and had been ordained only six months before. Machebeuf, twenty-seven, had received final holy orders two years and five months earlier. Their states of mind and emotion were high. With baggage for a journey of thousands of miles, they were going to the open highway in the pre-dawn twilight to await the fast coach from Lyon to Paris, and the first stage of an expedition.

  In spite of their care, they were even at so early an hour seen and recognized by a former fellow student. He queried them. They now risked telling him of their plans, shaking hands in farewell. Their interceptor later reported their emotion as they parted—the unexpected friend perhaps on his way to early Mass, the other two walking to the outskirts, where there were houses to pass even after the new travellers should be safely aboard the coach.

  They were fugitives from home who understood that if their plans were known, one of them might have to face obstacles which would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to overcome. As in every joint exploit, one was the mover, the other the recruit. In this case it was Machebeuf, small and impulsive, who had laid the long train of arrangements which brought them both to the coach stop, and whose consequences were to last their lifetimes. But it was the other, Lamy, taller, deliberate and mild, who was destined to become the leader in lifetime terms. What these were to be, they could not foresee except in the most general way, yet were compelling enough to make the young men take flight. For occasions of defeat or hazard, the patois of their homeland had a proverb which made people laugh in self-recognition when they heard it spoken—“Latsin pas!”—and behind it lived the spirit which moved the fugitives to set aside, for their own purposes, home and those they loved, for it meant, “Never give up.”

  The coach came and bustled to a halt, they entered, and rolled on. There was one more peril—the road led directly past the house of Machebeuf’s father, who was Riom’s leading baker. Day was now breaking. Machebeuf had the impulse to halt for a moment to take leave; but higher obedience prevailed, and passing his father’s door he threw himself to the floor of the coach in the rue de la Charité to avoid even the chance of recognition. Lamy knew how he felt, for, though his parents were aware of his plans to go, he himself had come away without saying an outright farewell to them when he had seen them the day before in their village of Lempdes, to the south, below Clermont. Now he tapped Machebeuf on the shoulder to sustain his resolve. Soon it was safe to come up off the floor of the diligence and face toward Paris—a drive of over two hundred miles—and the future.

  Within them rested a rich cumulation of history, tradition, belief, inherited ways, which had made them what they were; and despite the shocks of change they would meet in a new world, they took with them out of the past all to empower them for the life ahead.

  ii.

  Caesar and Vercingetorix

  AUVERGNE—the people today bound it as “tout le Massif Central”—is a great plain raised above surrounding France. It reaches south toward the borderland of the ancient Languedoc region, and in its place names, pronunciations, and patronymics, continues to echo the hard, clicking style of Languedoc speech, as against the more elegant and fluid idiom of the old Langue d’Oïl of Paris and the northern provinces. Great hill systems, with woods, ravines, glens, wide meadows, keep a bucolic aspect, all set off by ranges of distant wooded mountains whose dominant peak is the noble cone of the extinct volcano Puy-de-Dôme, after
which the political district is called.

  Under so much open sky, settlements remain sparse and far apart. Their distance one from another seems matched in the people by a reserve perhaps imposed by a history of separation. To reach each other, as Caesar wrote, the early Gauls, when they had matters of note to communicate in that landscape, shouted over meadows and through districts, asking neighbors to continue the relay afar, across high green acres where voices could carry on long cries. Early Gallic settlements were rough stockades, in high ground for protection against raid and for periodic market gathering. Life came from the earth and even in spirit returned to it. Caesar saw the Gauls as the most “religious” of men. Rivers, woods, springs, and mountains, in their various mysteries of source and atmosphere, all had their gods. It would not be strange to see the isolated rise of the Puy-de-Dôme itself as a great altar, whether almost lost in summer haze or lighted by clear winter. To live, propitiate, propagate, and die, remote from the sophisticated Roman energies which stirred to the south toward the Mediterranean; to take the earth’s yield and defend the land when necessary—such tasks and impulses governed life in the ancient Averni of pre-Roman Gaul, and seemed eternal.

  But in a half century before Christ the Roman drive across Europe under Caesar intruded its superb array into Auvergne. Independence was threatened. The Averni resisted, and found their leader in the son of their king. He was Vercingetorix, who, making a coherent force out of what Caesar dismissed as “rabble,” stalled the conqueror. The tribal prince reached to the spirit of his people, led them to heroic measures, such as burning their own rude stockade towns to deny the invader protection and stores, and defeated Caesar’s attempt to take Gergovia (Clermont) in 52 B.C. The defenders put the torch to more than twenty of their own towns in a single day in one district. Other states did much the same. “In every direction,” wrote Caesar, “fires were to be seen.”