Most everyone has heard of Bonaventure Cemetery because of what Savannahians call the book (aka Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) and visit the spot but so many people miss the many other AMAZING cemeteries in town. Including this one!
The Catholic Cemetery in Savannah was opened on August 2, 1853 by Bishop Francis X. Gartland, after he was unable to persuade the City Fathers to set aside a specially consecrated Catholic section in the new Laurel Grove Cemetery. He purchased eight and one-third acres from the Rhinehart Plantation for the sum of $833.00. After the Cemetery opened in 1853, additional remains were exhumed from Colonial Park Cemetery and reburied in what is now the Old Section. Many stones and markers were also transferred around this time. Walking through the Cemetery today you will see stones that predate its existence. – source
It has an impressive collection of Victorian funerary art and many older graves nestled under some substantial oaks. Here are a few that caught my eye…
It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins! – 2 Maccabees 12:46
This verse is the foundational bedrock for the ancient Christian and Jewish practice of praying for the departed, and falls in line with the Catholic concept of purgatory. This was inscribed on more than one headstone but this one was the most stunning overall!
Eliza was a nurse and her stone has very sweet carving complete with a star, clouds and beams of light.
Prince, I love you. That is all.
I already wrote about Mother Mathilda Taylor Beasley, O.S.F.: Georgia’s First Black Nun and you can read that here. Have to give the nun a shoutout when covering the Catholic cemetery!
There was so much more to see but an active funeral was happening near the older section and I was doing my best to stay out of way out of sight. I’ll return again and hope to explore more but I will always bow out to give family their time…
