Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
One of the first truly comforting things that Father Latour hears after arriving in New Mexico is the sound of a church bell ringing. Strangely enough, there is something both familiar and unfamiliar about the sound ringing in his ears. As the narrator tells us:
Before the nine strokes were done Rome faded, and behind it he sensed something Eastern, with palm trees,—Jerusalem, perhaps, though he had never been there. (1.4.1)
Like many things, the bell reminds Latour of what is familiar (Europe, Catholicism) while also letting him know that there is something strange and unknown in his new home of New Mexico. But hearing the bell makes Latour realize that that which is unfamiliar can also be bigtime holy.
For many religious people, it's hard to get holier than Jerusalem, and Jerusalem—with its heat and palms and desert landscape—would be really exotic to most people from Northern Europe or North America.