Willa Cather's novel Death Comes for the Archbishop is based on his life and career (albeit renamed to "Jean-Marie Latour" for artistic license), as is Paul Horgan's nonfiction work Lamy of Santa Fe.

[1] 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.

However, Juan Felipe Ortiz, a Spanish priest who was responsible for administration of the Catholic Church in New Mexico, told Lamy that he and the local clergy did not recognize his authority and would remain loyal to Bishop José Antonio Laureano de Zubiría of the Diocese of Durango, Mexico, who had visited Santa Fe just a few months before.

When his request was unanswered, he went in person to Durango to meet with Zubiría, showing him the papal document that appointed Lamy.

A bronze statue, dedicated in 1915, stands in his memory outside the front entrance of the Basilica,[8] and the village of Lamy, New Mexico,[9] was named after him near the source[where?]

The Archbishop Lamy's Chapel in Santa Fe, built in 1874, survives and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Willa Cather's novel Death Comes for the Archbishop fictionalizes his life, missionary journeys, and erection of the Santa Fe cathedral.