Bishop Cummings

Bishop Cummings
Affiliation	92nd Division
Occupation	Preacher
Biographical information
Place of birth	Louisiana
Date of death	Near the end of World War II
Place of death	Bornacchi, Italy
Physical description
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Appearances
Portrayed by	Michael Ealy
Appearance	Miracle at St. Anna

Bishop Cummings (or Mason June) is a major character in James McBride's novel Miracle at St. Anna.

Character

A member of the 92nd Division, Bishop was formerly a bishop in Kansas City before his service in World War II. Despite this, Bishop gambles (with many people, including Sam Train owing him money), is self-serving, greedy, and is generally somewhat irritable.

History

Bishop was born in Louisiana, where he was swayed away from church service due to his father beating his mother. Bishop was arrested for fraud and theft and had to spend six months at Parchman Penitentiary. While there, Bishop (out of a desire to escape a world of crime being taken over by "big-city pimps" and seeing easy money) learned the word of God and began to preach in Kansas City.

Bishop worked his way from preaching near a plumbing supply store to nearly getting his own church. During this time, Bishop gained the name "Walking Thunder". Right before Bishop could establish his church, he was drafted by the Army for World War II and sent to the Arizona training camp that the other members of Company G went to. He was sent to Italy and played cards with several soldiers, including Sam Train (who lost a large sum of money to Bishop).

After Sam Train found a young boy after Company G's commander was killed, Bishop followed him hoping to regain his money. The quadrangle ended up in the village of Bornacchi, where Sam Train (under the rapturous spell of a bust of St. Anna) embraced Bishop briefly before Bishop yelled at him. While in Bornacchi, Bishop set up with the other survivors of Company G and began sleeping around with various women, including Renata. Shortly before the Germans began shelling Bornacchi and Captain Nokes arrived, Bishop argued and then fought with Hector Negron.

After Nokes was killed by German artillery, Company G made their last stand. Bishop was the last person to see Sam Train alive and was tasked by Train to bring the boy (Angelo) to safety (despite having seen the boy seemingly killed) and was shot in the back while carrying Angelo's body. The last moments that Bishop spent alive were in a rapturous state due to the bust of St. Anna.