It's only Father Time that can take care of this dude, since he eventually dies of old age. The dude is totally corrupt, but also charismatic enough to keep people obeying him. He's interested in having sex with young girls and then marrying them off to his young male servants. Martinez isn't just interested in having sex with a wife. 'Celibacy may be all very well for the French clergy, but not for ours.' (5.1.20)īut let's get something straight. Death Comes for the Archbishop sprang from Willa Cathers love for the land and cultures of the American Southwest. 'Nothing is decided once and for all,' Martinez declared fiercely. Now Padre Martinez wouldn't be such a problem if he weren't so dead-set against the Catholic rule saying that priests can't have sex. They're going to fight to keep what they think of as theirs. Death Comes for the Archbishop is often considered Willa Cathers masterpiece and is on several lists as one of the greatest novels of the twentieth. Padre Martinez and his devoted followers aren't going to hand over power to a couple of white dudes just like that. Death Comes for the Archbishop is a novel by American author Willa Cather, published in 1927.

Indeed, before Father Latour's entrance upon the scene, Martinez had been dictator to all the parishes in Northern Mexico, and the native priests at Santa Fe were all of them under his thumb. Padre Martinez is having none of that, though, as the narrator tells us:

Now that the United States has taken over New Mexico, it's Latour and Vaillant's job to replace the Spanish-speaking priests of New Mexico with white folks who can speak English. Padre Martinez is a real thorn in the sides of Father Latour and Father Vaillant.

Death comes for the archbishop