Pioneer Bishops of New Mexico

This blog will discuss bishops that served in New Mexico up to 1900.  For more information about New Mexico, see my blog of September 3, 2018.

Intrigued by stories of the fabled Seven Golden Cities of Cibola, Spanish authorities directed Franciscan Friar Marcos de Niza to travel from Mexico to what is now New Mexico and Arizona.  Reaching his destination in 1539, de Niza claimed the land for Spain and dedicated it to St. Francis of Assisi.  Franciscan missionaries continued to come to the area to try to convert the Native American tribes to Christianity.  Some of the missionaries were successful, others were martyred.  No permanent Spanish settlements were made until 1598, when a group of less than one thousand colonists, led by Juan de Onate, established San Juan de los Caballeros, about 30 miles north of present day Santa Fe (which was founded in 1610).  Spanish colonization and Franciscan missionary activity continued until 1680, when the Native Americans rebelled against Spanish rule and killed hundreds of Spanish colonists, chased the 2,000 survivors into Mexico, and destroyed the Spanish settlements and missions.

Diego de Vargas completed the reconquest of New Mexico by 1695, and settlements and missions were reestablished.  New Mexico became part of Mexico in 1821 and was claimed for the United States by General Stephen Kearny in 1846.  It officially became part of the United States in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (except for a portion of southwestern New Mexico, which was annexed by the United States in 1853 as part of the Gadsden Purchase).  Congress established the Territory of New Mexico in 1850, which included also Arizona and parts of Nevada and Colorado.  The Territory had a population of 60,000 at that time, most of whom were Catholic.  New Mexico became a state in 1912.

In 1850, Pope Pius IX created the Vicariate Apostolic of New Mexico for the Catholics in the Territory and named Jean Baptiste Lamy to be the first vicar apostolic.  The vicariate apostolic was raised to the status of a diocese in 1853 and became the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in 1875.  In 1936, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli viewed northern New Mexico and northern Arizona from an airplane and became concerned about how best to serve the Native Americans scattered over such a vast territory.  Three years later, as Pope Pius XII, he created the Diocese of Gallup, which includes 4 New Mexico counties and 2 Arizona counties.  The Diocese of Las Cruses was established by Pope John Paul II in 1982 to serve Catholics in southern New Mexico.

John B. Lamy was born in France in 1814 and ordained a priest there in 1838.  The following year he came to the United States to serve in the Diocese of Cincinnati, Ohio.  His success as a pastor led him to become the first Vicar Apostolic of New Mexico in 1850 and then later the first Bishop (1853) and first Archbishop (1875) of Santa Fe.  Upon coming to Santa Fe, he had immediate problems with some of his nine clergy, partly because of their morals and partly because of a cultural clash—he was French and they were Spanish.  He was successful in bringing new priests (mostly French) and nuns to his diocese, which by 1867 had a population of 140,000 in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado.  He invited religious orders to establish schools and a hospital and traveled often around his archdiocese on horseback.  He was highly respected by Catholics and non-Catholics alike.  He served as the model for the title character in Willa Cather’s 1927 novel, “Death Comes for the Archbishop.”  Archbishop Lamy retired in 1885 and died three years later.

John B. Salpointe was born in France in 1825 and was ordained a priest there in 1851.  He came to the United States in 1860 and was assigned to the parish in Mora, New Mexico—a parish that covered 200 miles north to south.  As pastor, he brought in the Sisters of Loretto and the De La Salle Christian Brothers to establish schools.  In 1864, the Jesuits, who had been serving in Arizona, were recalled by their Order leaving Arizona without clergy.  Bishop Lamy of Santa Fe sent Salpointe to Arizona with two other priests in 1866.  Arizona had about 6,000 settlers as well as an indigenous Native-American population.  Salpointe built churches, schools, and hospitals.  Salpointe was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Arizona in 1868.  He was named coadjutor Archbishop of Santa Fe in 1884 and became Archbishop the following year.  Archbishop Salpointe invited St. Katherine Drexel’s religious order to start a school for Native American children.  He retired in 1894 and returned to Arizona.  Salpointe wrote a history of the Church in the Southwest and died in 1898.

Placid L. Chapelle was born in France in 1842 and attended seminary in France and Belgium before coming to the United States.  He completed his seminary training at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1865.  During his early years as a priest, he served as pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, St. Joseph’s in Baltimore, and St. Matthew’s in Washington, DC.  Chapelle was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Santa Fe in 1891 and became archbishop in 1894.  Archbishop Chapelle invited the Sisters of Charity to establish a hospital in Las Vegas, New Mexico.  He was appointed Archbishop of New Orleans in 1897 and he died from Yellow Fever in 1905.

Peter Bourgade was born in France in 1845 and received his education there.  While still in seminary in France, Bourgade was recruited (along with five other seminarians) by Bishop Salpointe to come to the United States.  He arrived in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 1869, and was ordained by Salpointe.  Bourgade first served as pastor in Yuma, New Mexico, but ill health forced him to return to France in 1873.  He returned in 1875 and served in parishes in Texas and New Mexico.  Bourgade was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Arizona in 1885 and became Bishop of Tucson in 1897 with the creation of the Diocese.  He was appointed Archbishop of Santa Fe in 1899.  Archbishop Bourgade invited the Franciscans to minister to the Navaho people and other religious orders to establish schools and hospitals.  Bourgade also helped establish the Catholic Church Extension Society.  At the time of his death from heart failure in 1908, there were 45 parishes and 340 missions in the Archdiocese.