Gravely Speaking

Erie Cemetery, Erie, Pennsylvania

Many Christian symbols have been appropriated because of the qualities of the animal or the plant are held up by the religion.  The peacock, for example, became a symbol of the resurrection because the feathers on the male peacock grow back each year more beautiful than the year before.  It was a symbol of the incorruptibility of the flesh because of a mistaken belief that peacock flesh did not rot.  Just as the peacock became a Chrisitan symbol due to its natural qualities, so, too, did the century plant (Agave americana).  It was mistakenly believed that the century plant lived to 100 years or more.  Because of that, the misnamed “century plant”, which only lives 10 to 30 years, was adopted as a symbol of immortality.

Erie Cemetery, Erie, Pennsylvania

Calvary Catholic Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri

Even in the stylized version of the peacock above, one of the first elements that is noticeable are feathers with the “eyes” that surround the body of the peacock, suggestive of the all seeing eye of God.  The feathers are regenerated each year, and each year, the male peacock has larger, more brightly-colored feathers.  Early Christians adopted the peacock as a symbol of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and eternal life because of the peacock’s ability to shed and regenerate its stunning plummage.  Images of the peacock have been found in the catacombs in Rome as early as the Third Century.

Born out of an ancient legend that the peacock’s flesh did not decay, and St. Augustine’s belief in the antiseptic qualities of peacock flesh, the peacock also became a symbol of immortality and the incorruptability of the flesh.

Peacock at the Castelo de St. Jorge, Lisbon, Portugal

Calvary Catholic Cemetery, Fresno, California

There are gravestones in which the motif is coupled with the epitaph to help illuminate the meaning of the written word, just as an illustration in a book is often used to reinforce the text.  The rounded-top white marble tablet gravestone of Walter, the son of W.C. and S.A. Reid, found in the Calvary Catholic Cemetery, in Fresno, California, is such an example. 

Walter was born February 11, 1881, and died less than two weeks before his first birthday on January 30, 1882.  To illustrate his “tender” age, three rose leaves and one rose bud is carved into the circle at the top of the tablet.  The three leaves represent the Holy Trinity–the Father, The Son, and the Holy Ghost.  The rose bud symbolizes a young life.  Just as the bud has not “bloomed” into a rose, young Walter has not bloomed into an adult.  His life was cut short by an early death.  The metaphor of the flower representing the little baby boy is further reinforced in the epitaph:

The icy hand of death

Has touched the tender flower

And borne away its breath

Within a fleeting hour.

Walter Reid's gravestone

Chambersville Cemetery, Chambersville, Indiana

The very shape of some gravestones have meaning.  For instance the obelisk, one of the most common gravestone shapes seen in our cemeteries, is an ancient Egyptian representation of a ray of sun.  The broken column represents a life that has prematurely ended.  The arch represents a triumph of life over death, victory over the darkness of the grave.

The gravestone in the photograph above, displays an open book, the Bible.  The message is most likely victory over death through the Word of God.

Chambersville Cemetery, Chambersville, Indiana

Clear Creek Christian Church Cemetery, Clear Creek, Indiana

The anvil gravestone pictured above is a near perfect carving of an actual anvil.  It accurately portrays all of the main parts of the anvil, including the level top called the “face” which is depicted with a block of metal and a hammer laying on top.  At the posterior is the “Hardy hole“, which is used by metalsmiths for bending and punching.  The other end shows the “horn” or rounded part of the tool, with a notch cut between the horn and the face called the “step.” 

Anvils have been used for thousands of years and have appeared in literature as early as 800 B.C. in Homer’s Iliad:

“He [Hephaestus] cast durable bronze onto fire, and tin,/Precious gold and sliver.  Then he positioned/His enormous anvil up on its block/And grasped his mighty hammer/In one hand, and in the other his tongs./He made a shield first, heavy and huge, /Every inch of it intricately designed./He threw a triple rim around it, glittering/Like lightening, and he made the strap silver.”

Just as a blacksmith uses an anvil to bend and shape metal into objects, the anvil is a symbol of universe being forged and created.  Searches on the Internet also list the anvil as a symbol of martydom. 

Of course, it can also mark the grave of a blacksmith.

Clear Creek Christian Church, Clear Creek, Indiana

Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery, Phoenix, Arizona

The lovely daffodil sometimes pops up so early that it peaks through the snow as one of the first arrivals in the spring showering the garden with bright hues of gold, yellow, and orange. 

The daffodil is in the genus of Narcissus.  A name which most haven’t heard since our 9th-grade lit class where we were told the Greek story of the handsome young hunter who saw his own reflection in the mirrored waters of a pool.  Narcissus was so enraptured with his own image that he shunned the lithe and beautiful nymph, Echo.  He could not bear to pull away from his reflection and as he drew near to the water in the pool displaying his image, Narcissus fell into the water and drowned, becoming a symbol of self-love.

The daffodil, however, does not represent self-love when it is seen on a gravestone, but instead, the death of youth and beauty. 

Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery, Phoenix, Arizona

Oak Hill Cemetery, rural Indiana

On the corners of the gravestone above are two inverted torches.  The flames coming from the bottom of the torches are curling toward the center of the gravestone.  The flame or fire is symbolic of the soul.  Here the inverted torch represents a life that has been extinguished.

Fairmont Cemetery, Denver, Colorado

Now turn the torch upright with the flame atop as depicted below on a mausoleum door  and the flame represents life.  The torch is also seen as an instrument that illuminates the darkness representing enlightenment.  It can symbolize zeal, liberty, and immortality.

Washington Street Cemetery, Casey Township, Clark County, Illinois