The Cathedral of St. Frances of Assisi was built to serve Santa Fe's Spanish community, it was the first church between Durango, Mexico and St. Louis to attain the status of cathedral. Archbishop J.B. Lamy, the model for the main character of Willa Cather's novel"Death Comes for the Archbishop", is buried beneath the main altar. Others interred in the cathedral are Fray Zarate of Picuris and Fry Geronimo de la lama.