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Book 7: The Month of Mary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Death Comes for the Archbishop, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Spirituality vs. the Material World
Friendship and Compromise
Humanity’s Relationship with Nature
Colonialism, Industry, and Loss
Memory, Death, and Afterlives
Summary
Analysis
Now it is December, and Vaillant has been gone for months. Latour is starting to feel depressed, as he often did in his youth. One night, Latour feels overwhelmed with a sense of failure. To shake himself out of this mood, he heads into the church to pray. As he does so, Latour reflects on the “twin” cassocks he and Vaillant both have, made of the same cloth; over the years, these cassocks have been retrofitted to suit each new climate they have traveled to.
These cassocks, handmade by Philomène, give tangible form to the long history Latour and Vaillant have shared together. And just as the bond between Angelica and Contento is visible in their matching white coats, Latour and Vaillant’s “twin” care for each other is represented in their matching outfits.
Themes
When Latour reaches the church, he notices a familiar woman there. Her name is Sada, and she is a servant to the Smith family, recently come to New Mexico from Georgia. The family is notoriously cruel: they had held enslaved people for a long time, and they treat Sada as a slave. But because they are Protestants, Latour has no relationship with them. Latour lets Sada into the church, and she falls at the feet of the Mary statue. Sada reveals that it has been 19 years since she has been able to be in a Catholic church.
Though the story takes place on the eve of the Civil War, this is the first time Latour or any of the characters even acknowledge slavery—a testament both to the remove of New Mexico and to the sometimes harmful narrowness of Latour’s priestly concerns.
Themes
It is well known that Sada is mistreated, but every time Latour or a neighbor tries to intervene, Sada shoos them away, explaining that she is scared of the Smiths. Nevertheless, Sada tells Latour that she has been praying with her rosary every night for these 19 years. Latour promises to pray for Sada during Christmas services, and he takes her confession.
Like Benito, Sada’s devotion even in the absence of ritual or routine shows just how powerful Catholic faith can be. And just when Latour feels most lonely for Vaillant, his interaction with Sada reminds him that connection can extend beyond geography—after all, if Sada can say her rosary for 19 years without ever going to church, Latour can be without his old friend for a few months.
Themes
Latour thinks that he has never seen religion act so powerfully on a person as it does for Sada. This woman’s pain makes him recall Christ’s famous words (“and whosoever is least among you, shall be first in the Kingdom of Heaven”). He wonders if only women can feel Mary’s true pain. Before Sada leaves, Latour gives her a little silver medal with a picture of the Virgin Mary on it.
As the story draws to a close, Latour begins to think about power and privilege in Catholic terms (he quotes here from the bible verse that includes the phrase, “the meek shall inherit the earth”). Later, Latour will apply that thinking more concretely to America’s twin evils of settler-colonial displacement and chattel slavery.
Themes
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