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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSIn 1851, a young French priest named Jean Marie Latour is appointed the first Bishop of the newly created Vicarate of New Mexico, a vast and largely unmapped territory recently annexed by the United States. He arrives to find the local Mexican clergy refusing to recognize his authority, his credentials lost somewhere between Rome and the far-off Bishop of Durango, and a landscape so disorienting that he nearly dies of thirst before his first week is out. With his closest friend, the fiery Father Joseph Vaillant, at his side, Latour sets out to bring order and faith to a land of ancient pueblos, hostile frontier priests, and a people whose devotion runs deeper than any church wall.
Free Battle of the Books questions for Death Comes for the Archbishop
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about Death Comes for the Archbishop. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a terrified woman silently draw her palm across her throat to warn two travelers away?
✓ Answer
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
On the lonely road to Mora the two priests stop at the cabin of a snake-necked American named Buck Scales. His Mexican wife Magdalena silently mimes a throat-cutting from the doorway, saving their lives.
- First half
In what book does a young guide seal an oval hole in a cave wall with stones and mud?
✓ Answer
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Sheltering from a blizzard in a hidden ceremonial cavern, Jacinto carefully plasters over an oval opening in the rear wall. The Bishop never learns what was meant to stay sealed inside.
- First half
In what book does a Padre argue at supper that celibacy is unnatural for a priest?
✓ Answer
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Padre Martinez of Taos argues at supper that nothing is decided once for all, and a priest must know mortal sin to know forgiveness. The Bishop tells him the matter was settled centuries ago.
- Second half
In what book does a sixteen-year-old boy survive seven arrow wounds and walk sixty miles without water?
✓ Answer
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Manuel Chavez is the lone survivor of a Mexican raiding party slaughtered by Navajos at the Canyon de Chelly. Left for dead in a pile of corpses, he crawls to safety and walks for two days, eventually slicing cactus pulp to fill his stomach.
- Second half
In what book does a Bishop wrap his fur-lined cloak around a shivering woman in a snowy doorway?
✓ Answer
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Father Latour finds old Sada weeping in the snow with no stockings beneath her cast-off rawhides. He puts his fur-lined cloak around her despite her terror at the gift and leads her into the Lady Chapel to pray together.
- Near the end
In what book does a Bishop insist his Vicar take both mules along because the two animals love each other?
✓ Answer
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
On the eve of Father Vaillant's departure for Colorado, Father Latour insists he take both Angelica and Contento because one cannot explain a separation to mules. A drop of water splashes onto the violet ink of Vaillant's letter to his sister.
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