Jean Baptiste Lamy

The Most Reverend Jean-Baptiste Lamy
Archbishop Emeritus of Santa Fe

Archdiocese	Santa Fe
In office	July 29, 1853 – July 19, 1885
Successor	Jean-Baptiste Salpointe
Other posts	Titular Archbishop of Cyzicus (1885-1888); Vicar Apostolic of New Mexico (1850-1853); Titular Bishop of Agathonice (1850-1853)
Orders
Ordination	December 22, 1838
Consecration	November 24, 1850 by Martin Spalding
Personal details
Born	(1814-10-11)11 October 1814 Lempdes, Puy-de-Dôme, France
Died	13 February 1888(1888-02-13) (aged 73) Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States

Jean-Baptiste Lamy (October 11, 1814 – February 13, 1888), was a French Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the United States. The American writer Willa Cather's novel Death Comes for the Archbishop is based on his life and career.

Lamy was born in Lempdes, Puy-de-Dôme, in the Auvergne region of France. He completed his classical studies in the minor seminary at Clermont and theological coursework in the Major seminary at Montferrand, where he was trained by the Sulpician Fathers (Society of Saint-Sulpice) He was ordained a priest on December 22, 1838. After a few months as an assistant priest in his native diocese, in 1839 Lamy asked for and obtained permission to answer the call for missionaries of Bishop John Baptist Purcell, of Cincinnati, Ohio.

As a missionary in North America, Lamy served at several missions in Ohio and Kentucky when, to his surprise, he was notified that Pope Pius IX was appointing him as bishop of the recently created Apostolic Vicariate of New Mexico on July 23, 1850. At the same time, he was appointed Titular Bishop of Agathonice. He was consecrated a bishop on November 24, 1850 by Archbishop Martin Spalding of Louisville; Bishops Jacques-Maurice De Saint Palais of Vincennes and Louis Amadeus Rappe of Cleveland served as co-consecrators. After an arduous journey on primitive transportation, Lamy reached Santa Fe in the summer of 1851.