Anton Docher

Father Anton Docher with the Order of Leopold and the French Colonial Medal

Birth house of Anton Docher in Le Crest 1900

Father Anton Docher and Tiwa friends; Tomas Chavez on the right

King Albert I of Belgium and the Queen during their visit in Isleta pueblo 1919 with State Governor and Anton Docher

Anton Docher in front of his house in Isleta with Tomas Chavez and beehives

Isleta church 1895

Mass of funeral of Father Anton Docher in the church of Isleta Pueblo-December 1928

Anton Docher Isletan house

Painting of a funeral procession in Isleta in the 1900s featuring Father Anton Docher, by Lucille Joullin

Anton Docher (1852–1928), Antonin Jean Baptiste Docher (pronounced ɑ̃tɔnɛ̃ ʒɑ̃ batist dɔʃe), was a French Franciscan Roman Catholic priest, who served as a missionary to Native Americans in New Mexico, in the American Southwest of the United States. He served 34 years with the Pueblo of Isleta, and was known for defending the Indians.

Following academic studies and years of military service, in 1887 Docher traveled to the United States, where he was first assigned to the Cathedral of Santa Fe for a few years and was ordained. He worked briefly at Taos, but served the Pueblo of Isleta in New Mexico for 34 years until his death. In the US, his first name became Americanized as Anton. (In the American literature, he is referred to also as Antonin, Antonio, Anthony, Antoine, Antonine or Antonino.)

Biography

Anton Docher was born in 1852 in Le Crest, a small wine-growing village of Puy de Dôme in Auvergne, France. He had three brothers and their father died when they were young. Together with his brothers and widowed mother, during his youth Docher worked in the vineyards of the area. At the age of 18, he became a student at the "Petit" Seminary of Saint Sauveur in Puy de Dôme, studying there for eight years to prepare for life as a priest.

At the age of 27, during his first year studying philosophy in the "Grand" Seminary of Clermont-Ferrand, Docher was conscripted for military service. He served in North Africa, in Tunisia. Next he served in Cochinchina (now Vietnam) where he fought for five years in the colonial army, achieving the rank of sergeant. Docher was wounded and decorated with the Colonial Medal for bravery, but his experiences led him to conclude that colonialism was immoral. He had contracted lung disease whilst in North Africa, and returned to France after being in Indochina. He resumed his studies at the "Petit" Seminary as a Prefect.

Long interested in working as a missionary, on October 21, 1887, he left France for New Mexico. After two years of additional studies, including local Native American languages, he was ordained as a priest in the Cathedral of Santa Fe by J.B. Salpointe. He served two years in Bernalillo and in Taos.

In 1891 Docher was transferred to the Pueblo of Isleta, arriving on December 28 of that year. A community of Tiwa Indians, the pueblo is situated on the left bank of the Rio Grande, south of Albuquerque. During Docher's decades in Isleta, he also served as a priest in Laguna, Acoma, Los Lunas, and Peralta.

In Los Lentes, in 1893 Docher acquired a massive ancient bell for the chapel, which he had installed in a prominent central belfry.

Known as "The Padre of Isleta," Docher spent 34 years with the Tiwa people. He was a very close friend of Adolph Bandelier, Charles Fletcher Lummis and Pablo Abeita.

Like anthropologist Bandelier, Docher collected Indian objects during this period (kachinas, pottery, basketry and weapons), some of which have been preserved by the Docher and Morvan families. Respected by the Isleta for his open-minded attitude to their customs and ancestral faiths Docher was called Tashide, which means "little helper" in Tewa language. He was known for owning a parrot named Tina, which used very foul language. At Isleta, Docher created a beautiful and luxuriant garden.

During his long residence in Isleta, Docher met several prominent figures who visited the Pueblo. People were fascinated by the American Southwest and visitors included the royal family of Belgium, who gave him the Order of Leopold; American author Willa Cather, and George Wharton James, among others.

Father Docher raised an Isletan orphan boy named Tomas Chavez. When the adult Chavez married Lolita Delores, Father Docher gave the couple five acres and a house in Los Lunas as a wedding gift. Chavez developed a vineyard on this land and supplied wine to the Isleta and local churches. Chavez died in 1925, three years before the Father. His widow Lolita Delores was left with nine children. Father Docher paid for two girls, Stella and Margaret, to attend the Sisters of Loretto Orphanage school.

Docher became a naturalized United States citizen. Close to the people he served, Docher referred to himself as an "Indian" in the letters which he sent to his family.

In September 1912, Fr. Docher presided over the funeral mass of Solomon Luna, a powerful businessman and politician of New Mexico. He had died mysteriously at his ranch on August 30, 1912. The mass took place at the Immaculate Conception church of Albuquerque, because the parish church Los Lunas was far too small to accommodate the large crowd expected, given his prominence.

In 1923, Father Anton Docher undertook a major remodeling of the San Agustín de la Isleta Mission (previously named San Antonio de Isleta), constructing prominent French gothic spires on the adobe walls. He also constructed a sloping roof in order to avoid the water leaks which repeatedly had damaged the altar. Part of the Pueblo Isleta Historic District, the mission church has been restored to a more accurate, historical design. This historic district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Last years

Suffering a long illness, Father Docher lived the last three years of his life as a patient at the St Joseph Hospital (Albuquerque), where he died at the age of 76 on December 18, 1928. Albert Daeger, archbishop of Santa Fe, presided the mass of funeral in the church of Isleta (see photo below). Father Docher was buried in the church by the side of previous missionary Father Juan de Padilla.

Representation in other media

• Willa Cather used Docher as a model for her protagonist Padre Jesus de Baca in her novel Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927). Cather met Father Docher during a visit in Isleta near the end of his life.
• Docher was portrayed in a historical novel by Samuel Gance, Anton ou la trajectoire d'un père (2013); the author conducted considerable research on his subject. The book fictionally portrays Docher's childhood in Auvergne, his military period in Tunisia and in Indochina, his ordination and service in New Mexico. It explores his friendships with Charles Lummis, Adolph Bandelier, and Pablo Abeita.
• His life was explored in the biography, The Padre of Isleta (1940/reissued 2009) by Julia Keleher and Elsie Ruth Chant.
• Docher was included among 231 notable pioneers of the American West by Mary Ellen Snodgrass.

History and legends

The life of Docher was tied into the legends of Isleta. An earlier missionary, Padre Juan de Padilla, who was buried in the village church, was said to leave his grave and roam the village in the evenings. One day (April 25, 1895), Antonin Docher decided, to investigate this ghost's appearance in the presence of other witnesses and opened the grave of Padre Padilla. During this operation Anton Docher injured his arm and the gangrene settled down so much that the doctors recommended amputation. The native inhabitants evoked the intercession of Padre Padilla. Antonin Docher prayed to Padre Padilla for a cure, and the wound disappeared.

Bibliography

Novels and biographies 

• Samuel Gance, Anton ou la trajectoire d'un père, L'histoire romancée du père Anton Docher. L'Harmattan, Paris, 2013, 208 p. ISBN 978-2336290164

References 

• Hollenback, Amelia; Straw Cook, Mary Jean. Immortal summer. Museum of New Mexico Press, 2002.
• The Indian Sentinel.(1913)-(vol.1-1918)-(vol.2-1920)-(vol.9-1928-29).
• The Guardian, Little Rock, Arkansas, 12 Jan 1929. P. 1-4.
• United States Catholic Historical Society, U.S. Catholic Historian, Volume 16. 1998.
• Vecsey, Christopher. On the Padre's Trail. University of Notre Dame Press, 1996. ISBN 0268037027.
• Vecsey, Christopher. Pueblo Indian Catholicism: The Isleta Case.U.S. Catholic Historian. Vol. 16, No. 2, Native-American Catholics (Spring, 1998), pp. 1–19. Published by: Catholic University of America Press.