Rating: 
Summary: Recommended reading.
Review: This book has long been recommended reading for those visiting the Land of Enchantment. Using the true story of Father Lamy (Father Latour in the book) as the vehicle, Cather takes us on a tour (hence, La-tour?!) of many of New Mexico's most popular destinations -- Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Abiquiu,and Laguna. Along the way, we're treated to a few legends to help keep our attention.A word of caution, while I was myself visiting Santa Fe's famous St. Francis Cathedral in 1998, founded by Father Lamy (Latour), I overheard a tour guide say to one of the members of her company that many of the things said about Father Latour in Cather's book were not true of Father Lamy in real life. Cather evidently didn't feel bound by historical accuracy. No matter, the book is an easy read and does introduce the reader to both New Mexico's people and special place in history.
Rating: 
Summary: Life Comes for the Archbishop
Review: A surprisingly excellent and moving story. The last chapter is especially magical.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent! A story of lonliness among Catholic pioneers.
Review: Growing up in New Mexico, I often took for granted the many things that make the American Southwest remarkable. Willa Cather vividly explored the vast landscape in a simple tale of two lonely missionary vicars filling the void in their lives. As two unwelcomed priests, Fr. Latour and Fr. Joseph, as different as night and day, tame the unbridled Catholicism of New Mexico for Rome. While merely serving out their simple roles, they begin a new page in New Mexico's history that still plays a role in daily life in 1998.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy going bedtime story
Review: This is a short novel that reads effortlessly. The story was interesting, not very busy- yet it held a certain pace. While reading it I often thought this book was intended for children, it is simple yet effective, bordering on lore. It is a tale, the type of book that captures you, takes you to a strange and distant land for light adventure and brings you back in one piece. This book might appeal to a wide age group, I think a sixth- grade reader could enjoy it. Cather creates a beautiful atmosphere with her words, and the story seems to take place on it's own.
Rating:
Summary: Strange... very, very, very strange
Review: I picked up this book in the library purely because of the title. There are certain book titles which, upon seeing, compel me to pick up the book and read it, no matter the content, and "Death Comes for the Archbishop" was one of them. I was expecting to read a dark, gothic novel with deep, philosophical discussions about the nature of good and evil, perhaps with Death and the Archbishop sitting down to a game of chess or something. Instead what do I get? Some thinly veiled Christian dogma set in an "Oh, California" textbook.
But here's the strange part... I actually LIKED this book. For no tangible reason, I couldn't put it down. Now, to reiterate, this was what I would have considered, by any normal standards, to be an extremely stupid, boring book. There is no plot, to speak of. There are pages and pages, entire chapters almost, devoted solely to describing how peaceful and beautiful the arid New Mexican landscape is. And although it spans almost fifty years, it moves at the pace of a lone French missionary jorneying through the desert. But despite all this, I found myself liking it more intensely than almost any other book I've ever read. I found myself caught up in its slow, quiet, undulating rhythm. In fact, towards the end, I practically had tears in my eyes from the beauty of it all.
I would have given it a ten, if I didn't find this whole thing so damn unsettling.
Rating:
Summary: A moving description of the travels of a missionary bishop.
Review: Even though Willa Cather was not a Catholic, she has created a moving description of the dedication of a missionary bishop in New Mexico, and the difficulties he encountered in his work. Carefully crafted writing and the integration of the historical facts make this a must-read.
Rating:
Summary: One of my top 5 picks (from almost 5 decades of reading)
Review: A very simple review . . . If I am blessed with the knowledge that my life will end within a predictable time frame, I will ask close friends to sit at my bedside and read to me aloud this story / this allegory / this magnificent, peaceful, evocative prose . . .
Rating:
Summary: A great story of harsh life in the wild west.
Review: I picked up this book during the summer of 1997 in Bandelier National Monument, near Santa Fe, NM. A park guide recommended it & said that Ms. Cather visited the park in the 1920's, when there were no roads to the park. This book will be a treat to anyone who has travelled to or has lived in Enchanting NM. The places that she describes (Pecos, Taos, Santa Fe, Albuquerque) are all very familiar places today. I could not put it down on my 4 hour flight back home from NM. Ms. Cather leads you on the Archbishop's adventures through the wild areas of NM. You will eat in the indian villages, the indian guides will lead you through a snow storm on horseback, you will sleep in a sacred cave and will have to swear to the indians that you will not reveal the secret, you will have a run in with an arrogant, corrupt missionary, you will happen upon a murderous loner in the desert and help his beaten wife escape the tyrant, you will even stay with Kit Carson for a grand dinner party!
Rating:
Summary: Death Comes for the Archbishop
Review: Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop is a deceptively simple but profound novel about two French missionaries in the Southwestern United States. These men are not terribly otherworldly and they are capable of enjoying good books, good wine, and good food. They are tough guys too, up to the task of traveling thousands of miles on horseback or facing down some bad guys. The religion they promote provides support and comfort to Mexicans, Indians, and some Anglo miners who need spiritual succor. The book presents us with several vignettes in the lives of these urbane priests, as well as some fables and Southwestern folklore. By living in harmony with God's law and the world he created, the men prosper. Eventually, they must part, and they must grow old and die. But death holds no horror for men like these who have spent their lives in service to others. Cather's writing is beautiful and direct. In the following passage, one of the priests and his friend spend several days traveling together: As Father Latour and Eusabio approached Albuquerque, they occasionally fell in with company; Indians going to and fro on the long winding trails across the plain, or up into the Sandia mountains. They had all of them the same quiet way of moving, whether their pace was swift or slow, and the same unobtrusive demeanor: an Indian wrapped in his bright blanket, seated upon his mule or walking beside it, moving through the pale new-budding sage-brush, winding among the sand waves, as if it were his business to pass unseen and unheard through a country awakening with spring. North of Laguna two Zuni runners sped by them, going somewhere east on "Indian business." They saluted Eusabio by gestures with the open palm, but did not stop. They coursed over the sand with the fleetness of young antelope, their bodies disappearing and reappearing among the sand dunes, like the shadows that eagles cast in their strong, unhurried flight. Her book also contains some beautiful ideas. In this passage, the two priests discuss Our Lady of Guadalupe: "Where there is great love there are always miracles," [Father Latour] said at length. "One might almost say that an apparition is human vision corrected by divine love. I do not see you as you really are, Joseph; I see you through my affection for you. The Miracles of the Church seem to me to rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always." This book has it all: fine writing, adventure, and some lessons for living. Most highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Command of the Written Language
Review: If I could only have four volumes to read for the rest of my life they would be: Death Comes for the Archbishop, Joyce's Ulysses, a Shakespeare folio, and the Bible.
Death Comes for the Archbishop is a novel of striking beauty, profound debth, and deceiving simplicity. The language employed is the most clear and beautiful I have ever read in prose--it's closer to poetry. The philosophy Ms. Cather espouses is simple enough for the peasant to understand, and too complex for the wisest scholar.
This book just baffles me: it's not a novel, per se, nor is it a biography--it's more like an etching of time and place; of ideas and people who travel through the arid, beautiful dreamscape of New Mexico.
Ms. Cather wrote part of this novel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She got the idea of the novel from seeing a statue of Archbishop Lamy in front of St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe, and meditating upon what his life must have been like from her balcony at La Fonda hotel that overlooked the Cathedral.
Ms. Cather spent months in New Mexico and the Southwest, and truly loved this land, which is reflected in her book; she was a woman of faith, which is also reflected in this book, and although not a book about religion, religion nevertheless permeates it. More, this is a book about the beauty of a life lived well, with hard work and faith, and the land which touches all who touch it.
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