The episodic, nearly plotless narrative of Death Comes for the Archbishop begins with a Prologue in which the Vatican assigns Father Jean Marie Latour, a French Jesuit missionary priest serving in Sandusky, Ohio, to the New Mexico territory following the region’s annexation to the United States. Latour is elevated to bishop, and sets out for Santa Fe with Father Joseph Vaillant, a personal friend from the pair’s schooldays.
Latour and Vaillant are charged with reinvigorating the Catholic Church in the region after nearly three centuries of neglect. Although the region can still be considered predominantly Catholic, the faith has been usurped by rogue priests who have taken mistresses with whom they have fathered children, abused the Mexican and Indian natives, and exhibited greed.
Latour sets out to impart a disciplined approach to Catholicism in the Southwest, meeting resistance from Padre Gallegos in Albuquerque, Padre Antonio Jose Martinez of Taos, and Padre Lucero of Arroyo Hondo. Gallegos is a hedonistic glutton and gambler, Martinez a promiscuous libertine, and Lucero a greedy liar.
It takes Latour nearly a year to travel from Ohio to New Mexico, traveling down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, and then on to Galveston by steamboat. He loses most of his possessions in Galveston, when the steamboat is wrecked, but continues to travel by land across Texas and into the New Mexico territory with a mare and a pack mule.
Upon arriving in Santa Fe, the Mexican priests refuse to acknowledge Latour’s authority. In order to clarify the matter with the Archbishop of Durango, Latour sets out on a 3,000-mile journey. On his way, he gets lost. He is rescued by a little girl who leads him to Agua Secreta (Hidden Water). Here he learns that the priests of the region have charged exorbitant amounts to perform the Sacrament of Marriage, causing many of the natives to take wives without benefit of marriage. While admiring the craftsmanship and artistry of the native church, Latour recognizes that the natives have allowed their own superstitions to permeate their Catholic faith.
Latour returns to Santa Fe with documentation of his Vicarate, and finds that he has endeared himself to many of the town’s residents as his presence has prompted some corrupt priests to resign their posts. Vaillant sets out for Santo Domingo and Albuquerque, in order to perform baptisms and marriages. The Indians of Santo Domingo, however, are suspicious of Latour due to the ill treatment they received from Spanish conquerors centuries ago. In Albuquerque, he meets Manuel Lujon, a wealthy landowner, with whom he barters for two mules.
While traveling to Mora together, Latour and Vaillant stop at a house to escape bitterly cold rain and to seek a warm place to rest. The house is inhabited by an older man and his young Mexican wife. The wife warns the two priests to leave as soon as possible because she fears her husband will kill them. When they arrive in Mora, they are followed by the woman. She tells the priests her name is Magdalena and her husband’s name is Buck Scales. She reports that Buck killed four travelers on the Mora trail. Scales is subsequently arrested and hanged, and Kit Carson takes Magdalena to live with him and his wife near Taos.
Latour and his guide, Jacinto, travel west to the Indian missions. They spend time in Albuquerque with Padre Gallegos. Gallegos, afraid that Latour will ask him to accompany him on his visits to the West, wraps his foot in bandages and complains that he has gout. Latour and Jacinto push on to the pueblo of Isleta, where they meet Padre Jesus de Baca. The elderly priest lives in poverty among the Indians of the pueblo, claiming only one possession—a wooden parrot. He tells Latour that the Indians of Acoma own a portrait of St. Joseph that possesses the miraculous power to bring rain.
