Thursday, January 29, 2009

Death Comes for the Archbishop

No, this isn't a news flash, or a devout prayer that Such-and-such receive his reward very soon...  (For such, BTW, one sings the Media vita, or has a Requiem sung.)

Rather, I've just taken delivery of a favourite book of mine, which I've read over and again, but one of which I've never actually owned a copy: Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather (originally published 1927).  It's an evocative, elegaic work about two French priests come to the South-West of the United States to reawaken its slumbering Catholicism and erect new dioceses among the Indians, Spanish/Mexicans and Americans there.  I thoroughly recommend it to all.

While I'm not so interested in reading most of her œuvre, I think I may buy a copy of Shadows on the Rock, set in 17th century Quebec...

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