Background
John Baptist Lamy was born at Lempdes, France, of a family which had given many servants to religion. His parents were Jean and Marie Dié Lamy (the name was originally l'Amy).
(Noted scholar, student of New Mexican culture, and teache...)
Noted scholar, student of New Mexican culture, and teacher Father Tom Steele has tracked down all the existing manuscript sermons of Jean Baptiste Lamy (1814–88), the first bishop of Santa Fe and the model for the title character of Willa Cather’s novel Death Comes for the Archbishop. Lamy has been the subject of devotion, rumor, and attack for over a hundred years. In this new book Steele selects important and characteristic sermons and uses them to decipher the real Lamy, public and private. This book builds on previous scholarly work about Lamy, including Paul Horgan’s Lamy of Santa Fe, and presents new information and insight based on Lamy’s own writings. A fully searchable CD-ROM (for both PC and MAC) of Lamy’s complete sermons in English and Spanish is also available.
https://www.amazon.com/Archbishop-Lamy-His-Own-Words/dp/1890689106?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1890689106
John Baptist Lamy was born at Lempdes, France, of a family which had given many servants to religion. His parents were Jean and Marie Dié Lamy (the name was originally l'Amy).
He was educated at the Seminary of Montferrand.
He was ordained a priest at Clermont-Ferrand by Bishop Louis Charles Ferron, December 22, 1838. The next year, having been made assistant to the rector of a parish in his native diocese, he volunteered to join Bishop J. B. Purcell, of Cincinnati, in mission work in lower Ohio. Upon reaching the United States, he was stationed at Wooster and Danville, Ohio, and later at Covington, Ky.
When Mexico ceded the southwest territory in 1848, the bishops of the United States petitioned Rome for a transfer of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Accordingly Father Lamy was named vicar apostolic of New Mexico and consecrated bishop of Agathon. The ceremony took place at Cincinnati on November 24, 1850, the celebrant being Bishop M. J. Spalding. Though the trip west was made via New Orleans and thence in company with a government caravan, it was hazardous and the Bishop almost lost his life in a serious accident. He arrived to find the Catholics of his territory (which included all of what is now New Mexico, the greater part of Arizona, a section of Colorado, and some districts in Nevada and Utah) scattered and inclined to resent, with the native clergy, the coming of an American bishop.
Thereupon Bishop Lamy rode on horseback to Durango, Mexico, to visit Bishop Zubiria and to establish friendly relations. In order to forestall further trouble and to secure financial assistance, he then journeyed to France and Rome (1853). On July 29, 1853, he was named bishop of Santa Fé, and in 1875, archbishop.
Laboring with great vigor and kindliness to spiritualize a somewhat turbulent population of Spanish and Indian Catholics, he undertook almost incredibly difficult journeys, preaching and catechizing. During 1852 he had attended the First Plenary Council of Baltimore, and on his way had induced the Sisters of Loretto, Kentucky, to send six of their number westward into New Mexico. One died on the way and another, becoming ill, went back, but the rest established a school in Santa Fé. Seven years later the Christian Brothers likewise made a foundation in the city, and the Jesuits arrived in 1867. Meanwhile, the Gadsden Purchase (1854) had added the southern part of Arizona to the diocese, and in 1860 Denver and the adjoining section of Colorado were also annexed. Much of the administrative work was confided to the Rev. Joseph Machebeuf, an indefatigable missionary, whom Bishop Lamy had appointed his vicar general. Apart from one or two brushes of minor importance, the Civil War did not affect the diocese.
A report to Propaganda in 1865 revealed progress in every sense, and estimated the number of Catholics at 100, 000, with flourishing churches and schools. On July 18, 1885, Bishop Lamy resigned to become titular bishop of Cyzicus. He died in Santa Fé.
Lamy was a pioneer Catholic missionary in the United States. He was responsible for the construction of the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi (commonly known as St. Francis Cathedral) and Loretto Chapel. His efforts were directed to reforming the New Mexico church, the building of more churches in the territory, the creation of new parishes, and the establishment of schools. He also ended the practice of concubinage. His memory has been revived in "Death Comes for the Archbishop" (1927), a novel by Willa Cather which is largely based upon the records of his career.
(Noted scholar, student of New Mexican culture, and teache...)
Lamy was simple of heart, generous and resolute, and his spare frame and austere profile testified to the hardships he had endured.
