When I think of Bishop Jean Marie Latour in Willa Cather’s novel, Death Comes For The Archbishop, I think of a quote by Confucius, “Wisdom, compassion, and courage, are three universally recognized moral qualities of men”. Latour is smart always thinking on his toes, for example when they were on the road to Mora, and the girl told them to leave the house they did without question and with a feeling that something bad was about to happen. His courage can also be described in this scene because when the man wants to get violent with the Bishop, he does not hesitate to pull out his gun. “The Bishop drew his pistol. “No profanity, Senor. We want nothing from you but to get away from your uncivil tongue. Stand where you are””(69). The last word compassion can be seen in almost every part of the novel but the biggest thing that jumped out at me was in the beginning of book four when the Indian boy came to tell the Bishop that the village in the Pecos mountains had been struck with an outbreak of black measles and the Bishop left right away. “The Bishop rode out of Santa Fe two hours after the Indian messenger rode in” (118). This shows Latour’s compassion and devotion for his work.
Another one of Latour’s qualities is that he is strong and determined to succeed in whatever he does. One example of this is when it took him a solid year to reach his destination in the American southwest to work as a Bishop. Another example can be seen in book three when he brings the nuns back to start an all girls school, “The return journey was even slower, as he had with him the five nuns who came to found the school of Our Lady of Light”(81). This example proves that he is determined to spread his religion throughout the southwest and anyone who is going to travel from Washington to Santa Fe with five nuns has to be a strong and dedicated person.
The Bishops relationship with Jacinto is somewhat interesting because they seem to have a somewhat mutual respect for each other. Even though they have different views and beliefs each one respects the others religion. Both Latour and Jacinto share stories together as well as their quite time together, “As Father Latour sat by the fire and listened to the wind sweeping down from the mountains and howling over the plateau, he thought of these things; and he could not help wondering whether Jacinto, sitting silent by the same fire, was thinking of them too” (123-4). This shows how even though they were different they were similar sharing some of the same qualities like thinking about the Spaniards steeling from the village and going to look for the seven golden cities of Quivera.