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Angelica and Contento
There is stone everywhere in Death Comes for the Archbishop, from the natural rock formations dotting the deserts of the American Southwest to the manmade churches that Latour and Vaillant inspect and then help to create. In both cases, stone symbolizes something holy and ancient. Initially, Latour feel closer to god’s “first Creation”; the heavy rock feels at once enduring and “antediluvian” (from a time before the Biblical flood), forcing both Catholic Europeans and indigenous characters like Jacinto to reckon with a timespan beyond what they can comprehend. But while native tribes like the Ácoma build their lives around existing rock formations, finding a natural expression for the “universal human longing for something permanent,” Latour and other colonizing priests aim to construct their stone monuments artificially. As Latour approaches old age, for example, he becomes obsessed with building a cathedral in the French Midi Romanesque style; he devotes much of his energy to deciding what color and kind of stone will be most aesthetically effective, prompting Vaillant to express surprise at his spiritual friend’s seemingly “worldly” fixations. Therefore, even as stone and rock formations seem to link Catholic religious beliefs with indigenous ones, the priestly fixation with transforming rock once more reflects the settler-colonial fixation with landscaping.
Stones and Rock Formations Quotes in Death Comes for the Archbishop
The Death Comes for the Archbishop quotes below all refer to the symbol of Stones and Rock Formations. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 3: The Rock
Quotes
The rock, when one came to think of it, was the utmost expression of human need; even mere feeling yearned for it; it was the highest comparison of loyalty and love and friendship. Christ Himself had used that comparison for the disciple to whom he gave the keys of His Church. And the Hebrews of the Old Testament, always being carried captive into foreign lands,—their rock was an idea of God, the only thing their conquerors could not take from them.
Already the Bishop had observed in Indian life a strange literalness, often shocking and disconcerting. The Ácomas, who must share the universal human yearning for something permanent, enduring, without shadow of change—they had their idea in substance. They actually lived upon their rock; were born upon it and died upon it.
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Book 6: Don Antonio
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Bishop Latour had one very keen worldly ambition: to build in Santa Fé a cathedral which would be worthy of a setting naturally beautiful. As he cherished this wish and meditated upon it, he came to feel that such a building might be a continuation of himself and his purpose, a physical body full of his aspirations after he had passed from the scene.
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Book 9: Chapter 7
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It was [Latour’s] own misguided friend, Kit Carson, who finally subdued the last unconquered remnant of that people; who followed them into the depths of the Canyon de Chelly, whither they had fled from their grazing plains and pine forests to make their last stand […] This canyon had always before proved impenetrable to white troops. The Navajos believed it could not be taken. They believed that their old gods dwelt in the fastnesses of that canyon; like their Shiprock, it was an inviolate place, the very heart and center of their life.
Carson followed them down into the hidden world between those towering walls of red sandstone, spoiled their stores, destroyed their deep-sheltered corn-fields, cut down the terraced peach orchards so dear to them. When they saw all that was sacred to them laid waste, the Navajos lost heart. They did not surrender; they simply ceased to fight.
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Stones and Rock Formations Symbol Timeline in Death Comes for the Archbishop
The timeline below shows where the symbol Stones and Rock Formations appears in Death Comes for the Archbishop. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1: A Bell and a Miracle
...boy asked for proof of her existence, Mary told him to gather roses near the rock. Though it was winter, a lush crop of roses miraculously appeared, proving the boy’s story...
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Book 3: Jacinto
...with baptisms, but first, Latour and Jacinto want to spend the night camping on the rocks.
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Book 3: The Rock
As Latour approaches Ácoma, he is amazed by the giant rocks that rise, cathedral-like, from the flat ground; each rock also seems to be mirrored by...
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...distance, Latour can just barely make out the outlines of the village on the hard rock surface. Though Latour cannot fathom why any group would set up camp on such an...
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Latour notes the strange literalness of this rock: “the Ácomas,” he marvels, “must share the universal human longing for something permanent,” but “they...
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...except for in the churchyard; the rest of the houses are grouped together on the stone. Latour also notices the giant stone church, which depresses him with its rigidity and lack...
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...either spiritual aspiration or the desires of the Ácoma people. After all, all that heavy rock and giant timber had to be carried from miles away, and then up all of...
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...closed their eyes and pretended they were in the Pyrenees, rather than on this remote rock. As the sun goes down, he feels homesick for Europe. He resolves to learn more...
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Book 4: Stone Lips
After an exhausting hour, the men arrive at their destination: a cave that looks like stone lips, protected from the storm. Jacinto helps Latour get into the cave, which is freezing...
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...hole and hears rushing water, a river “moving in utter blackness under ribs of antediluvian rock.” Latour reflects that this sound is “terrible.”
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...up and listen to the river again. But Jacinto spends the whole night against the rock, pressed as close to the hole in the wall as he can get.
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Book 8: Cathedral
...an old friend from France, and that he has figured out a plan for sourcing stone. When Vaillant is surprised at all this planning, Latour apologizes: “I hope you do not...
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