[3] 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.

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.

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

He was a very close friend of Adolph Bandelier,[10][11] an anthropologist; Charles Fletcher Lummis[12][13][14] and Pablo Abeita, who became governor of the pueblo.

[15] Like anthropologist Bandelier, Docher collected Indian objects during this period (kachinas, pottery, basketry and weapons).

Respected by the Isleta for his open-minded attitude to their customs and ancestral faiths [16] Docher was called Tashide, which means "little helper" in Tewa language.

Prominent visitors included the royal family of Belgium, who gave him the Order of Leopold; American author Willa Cather, and George Wharton James, among others.

When the adult Chavez married Lolita Delores, Father Docher gave the couple five acres and a house in Los Lunas as a wedding gift.

Suffering a long illness, Father Docher lived the last three years of his life as a patient at the St. Joseph Hospital in Albuquerque, where he died at the age of 76 on 18 December 1928.

[5] One day (25 April 1895), Antonin Docher decided to investigate this ghost's appearance in the presence of other witnesses and opened the grave of Padre Padilla.