Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1991
Abstract
The early sections of this very readable history of the Catholic Church in Colorado will be of special interest to fans of Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop who are interested in the historicity of her character Father Joseph Vaillant, based on Joseph Projectus Machebeuf, first bishop of Colorado. The author mines Howlett's Life of Bishop Machebeuf (one of Cather's sources), other ecclesiastical histories, and the local church archives for interesting information, some of it significant and some trivial, about Machebeuf and the problems he faced in Colorado. For instance, did you ever suspect that the effectiveness of Machebeuf's preaching "may have been diminished by his frequent use of a spittoon" during his long sermons?
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 11:4 (Fall 1991). Copyright © 1991 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.