Lamy of Santa Fe

X. Increase • 1868–1874

x INCREASE 1868-1874 • z. A Quiet Conscience LIKE HIMSELF, SO LONG AGO, coming in his youth to the alien land of Ohio, his newcomers were soon assigned to duties, whether in church, mission, school, convent, hospital. Time, in his absence, finally brought peace to Taos, for three weeks before his return, so Lamy was told, Padre Martinez had died in Taos on 27 July. The New Mexican declared him "universally loved by all who knew him. Taos county has lost one of her most worthy citizens and will sadly lament his loss." He had been buried, according to his wish, in his own oratory , with Father Lucero "acting as pastor of the schismatics." In his will, listing his property and its disposition, Martinez revealed himself as one of the richest natives of New Mexico, for his holdings of farming and grazing land, and sheep, cattle, and goats. In a codicil made a month before his death, he reaffirmed his view of himself. "... I have complied with my ecclesiastical ministry with fidelity and good faith, in whatever I could, to the best of my knowledge; many years I dedicated myself to interested study of the science of religion, to learn to serve my God, Creator, and Saviour, that my body may descend in tranquillity to the silence of the grave, and my soul may appear and rise up to the divine tribunal, with clear satisfaction that I have done all that I could to teach the minds of my fellow citizens, bringing them temporal good, and, above all, their spiritual benefit; all because that is the way it has been dictated by my Christian religion that I profess, convinced of its truth and sanctity. My conscience is quiet and happy. God knows this to be true. If any of my fellow citizens and neighbors complain that I have injured them this may have been through mental error; but not with the intention of my heart. A human creature is weak but I have never had any intention of injuring anybody. In my nature I have been inclined to do good. I will present the testimony of my works in documents, So Help Me God." 353 354 INCREASE • 1868-1874 .. IZ. Two New Bishops By THE NATURE of where he worked, the bishop's life showed a constant alternation between the physical life of the outreaching land and a binding duty to the desk in his whitewashed office in the adobe house on the cathedral grounds where, almost entirely in his own hand, he kept up a flow of letters to Paris, Lyon, Cincinnati, St Louis, Rome. Soon after his return he was reporting to Paris that he was immediately opening in very important places two new schools for boys, with the four new Christian Brothers who had come home with him. Counting the one already at work in Santa Fe, this made three such schools. In Santa Fe and elsewhere the sisters already had four schools and were about to open a fifth. The hospital was progressing, if with "mediocre materials." In mid-autumn thirty priests assembled from all quarters of the diocese for a pastoral retreat-some came through dangerous territory from as far away as a hundred fifty and two hundred miles to attend, and two of the new Jesuits had given a mission in the cathedral city with the church full, day and evening. With all such successes to recount, Lamy felt justified in citing the extraordinary expenses of his latest journey westward, which had been ruinous: he was obliged to ask for an advance of twelve thousand francs out of the Society'S allotment to him for the next year. He had a good record of repayment; and his work spoke for itself. Of Barnabo, at year's end, he felt it was time to ask whether the proposed separate establishments of Colorado and Arizona each with its own bishop, as proposed by Baltimore and discussed at Rome, had been approved. The reasons had already been given, it was clear that no single bishop could properly attend to the growth of the three territories together. There was a limit to any man's strength. Lamy would continue to spend his as long as it was there; still sinewy, strong, and effective, he was prematurely worn; and the robust good looks which gleamed forth during his early times as bishop were now tempered by permanent...