Bishop Jean Marie Latour Timeline and Summary

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• Latour hears word from Rome that he's been reassigned from his job in Sandusky, Ohio to a new place in New Mexico, which has only been an American territory for a couple of months. He brings along his buddy Father Vaillant to help him out.
• After arriving in New Mexico, Latour tries to make a journey on horseback to see a local Mexican bishop, but he gets lost in the desert. It's only after praying to a cross-shaped tree that he stumbles across a Mexican family and finds shelter with them.
• Father Latour and Father Vaillant visit the local Spanish-speaking priests and Native American villages to let everyone know that Rome has put them in charge of the Catholic churches in the area. Most people receive them kindly.
• On the road one night, Latour and Vaillant have to stop in at a random dude's house. They don't like the guy's vibe from the beginning. And they decide to get out of there once the guy's wife makes a throat-slitting gesture and tells them to get away. Once they reach the next town, they learn that this guy is a murderer and have him arrested. Meanwhile, they send the guy's wife to live in a quiet school for nuns.
• Latour and Vaillant run into trouble with a couple of Spanish-speaking priests named Martinez and Lucero. These dudes aren't interested in giving up their power as priests, especially since one of them loves to have sex with young girls and the other loves to hoard his people's money. Eventually though, the two die of old age and Latour replaces them with more trustworthy priests.
• Latour is sad to learn that his best friend, Father Vaillant, is moving to Colorado to preach Catholicism to miners and prospectors.
• Now Latour is all alone to do his work in New Mexico.
• The book suddenly jumps several decades, and we look in on Latour as an old man. He builds a great cathedral in Santa Fe to help people remember him after he dies.
• One day, Latour gets sick and passes away. People come from all over New Mexico to visit his cathedral and pay their respects.