Holy
Sepulchre Cemetery, now over a 125 years old, was an early creation of
the first bishop of Rochester, Bernard J. McQuaid (1823-1909). Installed
as bishop on July 16, 1868, he dedicated the cemetery in 1871.
THE
BEGINNINGS
The First Catholic parish in Rochester, St. Patrick's, opened in 1823,
had a small downtown graveyard which it quickly outgrew. After that, local
Catholics bought burial space in the common cemeteries until 1839, when
a second St. Patrick's Cemetery of twenty-one acres was blessed on Pinnacle
Hill, on the south side of the city. Even though this belonged to St.
Patrick's Church, it served all the local "Irish" parishes.
Four German Catholic parishes acquired their own cemeteries. SS. Peter & Paul's
on Maple Street, had six acres, and dated from 1844. St. Joseph's, East
Main Street at Goodman, was a fifty acre tract opened in the 1850's. St.
Boniface', on South Clinton Street near the Pinnacle, was a small two-acre
cemetery opened in the 1860's. Holy Family, also on Maple Street, was
a four-acre cemetery, opened in 1864.
Shortly after his arrival in Rochester, Bishop McQuaid decided that having five local cemeteries was both impractical and inappropriate. He therefore determined to start a single Catholic burial ground that would serve for decades to come the needs of local Catholics of every nationality.
Early in 1871, the Bishop secured a tract of farm land
on both sides of Charlotte Boulevard (now known as Lake Avenue). It
was four miles from downtown Rochester. He paid $200 per acre for the
110 acre plot, but this flat, sandy, riverside land was ideally suited
to his purpose. Having chosen "Holy Sepulchre" as the name
for the new cemetery, he solemnly consecrated one east-side section
on September 10, 1871. An estimated 10,000 people attended the consecration,
an indication of how well the Catholics of Rochester thought of the
project. Eight days later the first burial took place: Claude Martin
Duffy, the child of a prominent Rochester couple, Walter and Theresa O'Dea
Duffy. According to the initial plans, 5,000 bodies were soon transferred
from other Catholic graveyards to this new cemetery. However, the last
of the transfers would take place only in the 1950's.
A PLACE OF BEAUTY
Bishop McQuaid, ever a careful planner, saw to it that
the new cemetery started off with the proper managerial policies and environmental
standards so necessary to maintain order and beauty in a cemetery.
First
of all, Holy Sepulchre Cemetery was incorporated as a religious corporation
by an Act of the New York State Legislature on April 24, 1872. The directors
of the corporation were to include the bishop, his vicar general, a few
pastors and several laymen. Bishop McQuaid had already studied the rules
of Calvary Cemetery in New York, Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts,
and Mt. Elliott Cemetery in Detroit. From these, with some local additions,
he formulated the rules and regulations, as well as the pricing structure
for land and services. One of the more interesting rules was the limitation
to twelve of the number of carriages for each funeral. This was done to
avoid worldly show; strict, but quite a bit more liberal than the policy
of McQuaid's predecessor, Bishop Timon of Buffalo, who had allowed only
six carriages.
HOLY SEPULCHRE TODAY
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery continues to be the largest and most active of
Rochester cemeteries, comprising 332 acres. The rate of interments progressed
from 780 in 1886, to 1026 in 1900; 1675 in 1940; 2217 in 1960; 1882 in
1980 and approximately 1800 per year in the 1990's. The moderate decline
since 1960 is attributable to the fact that the Diocese of Rochester now
permits Catholics to be buried in general cemeteries.
Under a succession
of able managers following Pierre Meisch, the cemetery has been kept in
good trim. In more recent years new and innovative burial sections have
been added, the cemetery office building has been enlarged and renovated,
and a new Operations Building erected. When Archbishop Mooney was bishop
of Rochester, he authorized the building of a new bishops' crypt in the
base of the chapel tower. Dedicated in 1938, it houses today the remains
of Bishop McQuaid, Bishop Thomas F. Hickey, Bishop John F. O'Hern and
Bishop James E. Kearney. A granite slab set up outside this crypt carries
the coats of-arms of these four bishops and of the three who were buried
elsewhere: Cardinal Edward Mooney (1933-1937), interred in Plymouth, Michigan;
and Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1966-1969), interred in St. Patrick's
Cathedral, New York City and Bishop Joseph Hogan (1969-1978) in Lima,
NY . The most recent addition to the chapel grounds is the bronze statue
of the founder, Bishop McQuaid, the work of the Joseph Sibbel Studios,
This statue, a gift of the priests of the diocese, was unveiled at St.
Bernard's Seminary on October 16, 1930. St. Bernard's was closed in 1981
and the statue was re-erected in the cemetery in 1982.
Most Notable among
the recent structures are the Resurrection Garden and All Saints Mausoleums.
They were constructed by the J.C. Milne Company of Portland, Oregon with
Robert Monahan, of Rochester was the consulting architect. The faceted
glass windows and the mosaic cross are the work of the Pike Stained Glass
Studios of Rochester. The first structure was completed in 1978 and building
continues as additional space is needed. To date over 10,000 crypts have
been built. The original building in Resurrection Garden Mausoleum includes
6 crypts in the tower for bishops. Two of them contains the remains of
John E. McCafferty Auxiliary Bishop of Rochester, 1968-1980 and the remains
of Dennis Hickey Auxiliary Bishop of Rochester 1968-1989.
In 1994, the beautiful Garden of the Sepulchre was
created at the Lake Avenue entrance. This feature area which includes
walking paths lined by the Stations of the Cross is intended to clearly
identify Holy Sepulchre as a Catholic Cemetery.
PURPOSE ACHIEVED
Prominent Rochesterians
buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery include: Patrick Barry, horticulturist;
Mother Hieronymo O'Brien, founder of St. Mary's Hospital; Col. Patrick
Henry O'Rorke, Gettysburg hero; Al Sigl, noted broadcaster and humanitarian;
Lawrence Ennis O.B.E., international bridge builder; and Catherine DeValera
Wheelwright, mother of Eamon DeValera, premier of Ireland. Most of those
interred, however, are just "every-day" Catholics
who await in faith the resurrection of the dead.
That is what Bishop McQuaid foresaw and desired. As
he said in 1871 "The
intention is to make the cemetery of the Holy Sepulchre such a one as
the whole Catholic body of Rochester will be proud of as the last home
of their deceased family and friends."
Indeed, this lovely cemetery is one in which all Rochesterians can take
justifiable pride.
