As a Roman Catholic I have an interest in church policy and tradition. These articles are all from over a century ago containing information on Catholic Cemeteries, their care and conditions.
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From the New York Courier and Enquirer |
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And there-in silence till the judgment day- the orator, whose all persuading tongue had moved the nations with resistless sway." According to time-honored custom, the Catholic cemetery was yesterday the scene of solemn and interesting observances. The friendship and affection of the living, showed themselves in a thousand appropriate phases for the dead. Here burned tall tapered candles, typical of inextinguishable love; there were festoons of flowers, indicative of the youth and beauty of the departed one, over whose tomb they were wreathed. Here was a tomb arbored over with cypress, grief's insignia; and there another shrouded over with a dark mourning pall. A father might be seen, with tearful eye, bending over the grave of a beloved child; a wife weeping for him to whom her life and love had been plighted, or a child with the impress of youth and innocence on his fair face, offering up its orisons for a fond parent. Was not such a scene calculated to elevate our opinion of the living, and to cherish with more ardor our affection of the dead? The colored servants of the ancient population always form a considerable proportion of those who on All Saints' Day throng the cemetery; their conduct on such occasions is highly creditable to their feelings and to the kindliness of their nature. They remember with an intense affection, which only terminates with their lives, the master who in sickness succored them; the mistress whose goodness made life's burdens light; and the child, who, from infancy till the time of its premature demise, they nursed and watched over with little less than a mother's care. They deem it a duty, and esteem it a privilege, to repair to the cemetery on All Saints' Day, and dress and deck out the graves of those to whom they held such relation, which they do in a manner that does credit to their untutored taste, and to their innate affection.
But while the great majority of tombs in the cemetery bore evidence of the lasting remembrance of the living for those whose remains were inured beneath them, there were still many over which no lamp burned-before which no flowers were strewn. These graves were namesless-they were the graves of strangers.
If friends their tenants have, they are far away. |
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A Burial Made by the Order of the Courts in a Catholic Cemetery
Source: New Haven Register (New Haven, CT) March 3, 1884 |
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Strange Encounter between Two Funeral Parties in the Catholic Cemetery at Ansonia Ansonia, Conn., July1-In the Catholic cemetery yesterday, a scene was enacted that probably never occurred before. It was humorous and still pathetic and bid fair to become a warlike scene. Max Terle, a young German, died Sunday and yesterday the funeral occurred at 2:30 p.m.
It happened that the body of Rinardo, the Italian who was drowned down the river Saturday, was brought to the same cemetery for burial. Their grave was unfinished, the German's was completed. the Italians reasoned that one hole inn the earth was as good as another and proceeded to lower the body of their comrade in the German's grave. At this state of proceedings the German funeral filed into the yard and found the prepared resting place for their dead occupie4d by a son of Italy. They demanded an explanation. The Italians did not explain very readily, and for a few moments it looked as though a riot would be the outcome. Finally the more cool-headed Germans persuaded the others to take the matter philosophically, and wait until the grave intended for the Italian was finished and bury their companion, which they did. The Italians remained in the yard until every German had departed.
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Claim Jumpers After Catholic Ground in Leadville, Col. Leadville, Col., June 28-The Catholic cemetery here is surrounded by a guard of heavily armed men placed there for the purpose of keeping claim jumpers at a distance.
Some time ago the pastor of a Catholic church applied for a patent for the cemetery ground as a placer, but owing to some defect, the papers were returned, and as the matter stands now, the land is open to location.
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Priest Refuses to Permit Burial of Suicide in Catholic Cemetery. El Paso, Tex., March 9.-The refusal of a cemetery agent to honor an injunction issued by Judge James R Harper to prevent interference with the burial of a 16-year-old Soledad Armendariz, a Catholic girl who committed suicide here Sunday night, almost precipitated a riot at Evergreen cemetery this afternoon and resulted in the presence of deputy sheriffs during the ceremony.
When Father Pinto of a local church served notice on Faulstino Armendariz that his daughter could not be buried in the Catholic portion of the cemetery, the father went to the burial ground, presented a deed to
his family plot and prepared the grave for his child. He was ejected by D. H. Anderson, agent at the cemetery.
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