Gravely Speaking

HERE RESTS

THE RIGHT REVEREND MONSIGNOR

MICHAEL DAVID CONNELLY LLD

PASTOR OF ST. BASIL’S CHURCH

SAN FRANCISCO

MEMBER OF THE ARCHBISHOP’S COUNCIL

WHO FELL ASLEEP IN THE LORD

AUGUST 19 1932 IN THE FIRST YEAR OF HIS LIFE

AND

THE FIFTY FIRST YEAR OF HIS PRIESTHOOD

“THE GREATEST THE NOBLEST PRIEST WE HAVE

EVER KNOWN”  — ARCHBISHOP HANNA

MAY HE REST IN PEACE

The monument for Monsignor Connelly in the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California, pays tribute to the priest with a reproduction in stone of Leonardo DaVinci’s famous masterpiece of “The Last Supper.”

Da Vinci began the work in Milan in 1495.  It was a time in Da Vinci’s lifetime when he had earned a reputation of not being able to finish a work for which he received a commission.  Da Vinci needed this commission and he needed to complete it to redeem his much-sullied reputation.

The work he completed is a depiction of Jesus’s last meal with his disciples.  During that meal he revealed that one of the 12 would betray him.  He also instructed the disciples to drink the wine and eat the bread in remembrance of Him—which became the basis for the Eucharist.  This event in the Bible is so important that all four of the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—write about it.

The work itself is a nod to Da Vinci’s love of order and symmetry.  The painting was laid out on a horizontal line with Jesus in the middle of the design—side to side and bottom to top. In addition to that, the painting is well balanced, with six of the disciples on one side of Jesus and six on the other—everything perfectly in balance and harmony.  The painting is imbued with symbolism as well, much of it well known and much of it speculative.  Judas, for instance, is the disciple who is shown next to a split container of salt.  Spilled salt, like many symbols, has more than one meaning and, thus, open for interpretation.  Consequently, the spilled salt could symbolize bad luck, or a lack of faith, or that Jesus was and is the salt of the Earth.  Judas was also the disciple who betrayed Jesus—was the salt Da Vinci’s way of revealing that?

Unfortunately, Da Vinci, while in complete control of his composition skills, was not a master fresco painter.  Because of that, Da Vinci experimented by painting on dry plaster whereas an experienced fresco painter would have applied the paint directly on wet plaster.  His experiment has not passed the test of time—his original is badly damaged, with paint flaking off.  Many attempts have been made to restore the iconic painting but it continues to deteriorate.  DaVinci’s Last Supper is one of the most reproduced works of art in history—including reproductions that were made shortly after the original was completed.  Hopefully, those reproductions, as well as the one in stone in the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery, will help Da Vinci’s original live on.

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

REV. WM. P. KIRBY

BORN IN LISTOWEL

APRIL 15, 1860.

ORDAINED MARCH 17, 1883.

DIED FEB. 2, 1904.

R. I. P.

The marker for the Rev. Kirby in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, California, is a Celtic cross.  The two main symbols on the staff of the cross are the chalice and the lamb.

The chalice is a symbol of the Holy sacraments and is flanked by grapes and wheat—symbols of the Eucharist—the blood and body of Jesus Christ.  This also speaks to the profession of the deceased because the chalice is a “tool of his trade” so to speak.

There are many gravestone symbols that seem to be ubiquitous—the lamb is one of them. Walk into nearly any American graveyard and you will find tiny little lambs marking the graves of mostly children. The lamb symbols come in many sizes and positions—often sleeping. The lamb is the symbol of the Lord, the Good Shepherd. It also represents innocence, likely the reason why this motif usually adorns the tombstones of infants and young children. Most often the lamb is lying down, often asleep and sometimes with a cross behind the lamb.

The letters IHS are what is referred to as a “Christogram.”  The three letters represent Jesus Christ as they are the first three letters of His name in Greek.  But, through the years various other meaning have been assigned to the letters:

in hoc salus: there is safety in this

in hoc signo: by this sign

Jesus hominum salvtor: Jesus, Savior of Mankind

IN

memory of

Eliza Hammond

who Departed

this life … 18^th

1854, in the 17^th

year of her

…

Remember friends as you pass by

As you are now, so once was I,

As I am now so you must be

Prepare for death and follow me.

One of my favorite graveyard symbols is the willow.  The willows come in all sorts of the forms—some realistic, others highly stylized—and sometime they are combined with other objects, such as gravestones, weepers, and quite often, urns.  And, they can be found nearly everywhere—the willow motif is ubiquitous in 18^th and 19^th Century American cemeteries.

The willow represents a turning away from the harsh symbolism of death found on Puritan gravestones to a softened approach as America moved into the Romantic era.  In their groundbreaking article, “Death’s Head, Cherub, Urn and Willow,” James Deetz and Edwin S. Dethlefsen, wrote that the willow first made its appearance in cemeteries in the early 18th century. The motif represented a break from the stark and cold reminders that death would bring that the Puritans carved into their gravestones—flying death’s heads, skulls and crossbones, and gravedigger’s equipment. In addition to the grim reminders of the inevitability of death Puritan gravestones often accompanied the haunting imagery with blunt words such as, “Here lies the body.” Nothing subtle there. The willow and the urn, however, represented a more sentimental view of death. There was a softening of Puritan views during the Great Awakening and the beginning of the Romantic Era.  Often the willow motif is accompanied with words like, “In memory of” or “Sacred to the memory of.”  This represented a softer approach to the funerary arts.

Like many symbols found in the cemetery, they can have multiple meanings, and there can be disagreement about the meaning of the motif—including the willow. Christians saw the ability of the tree to live seemingly no matter how many of the branches were cut from the tree as a symbol of immortality. And, point to the Bible verse, Psalm 137.:2, “We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.” As a reference to its Christian origins, though few biblical scholars believe that the willow was the tree quoted in the passages as the willow is not native to the Middle East.  Others suggest that the willow motif predates Christianity going back to the time of the Greeks. The willows in Greek mythology was associated with the Underworld. Orpheus carried a willow branch with him when he traveled there to rescue Eurydice from Hades. Whether Greek or biblical, the motif coincided with a neo-classical revival that took place in the mid-18^th Century in America.

The two examples of willows on gravestones from the Fairview Cemetery in New Albany, Indiana, in this post display two of the many different styles of willows that can be found in graveyards.  In both cases the willow fills the tympanum and is intricately carved.

In the example above, the limestone tablet is elaborately carved with an architectural look to it—columns on the sides with Ionic capitals, holding up the top of the third of the stone.  Inside the arched tympanum is the willow which takes on almost human characteristics—it is bent over in grief and agony, its long thin branches enveloping the tombstone topped with an urn.  The tablet is weathered in an unusual way—with an effect in the lower third of the face of the stone with a bubbling like blur that meanders up through the inscription.

The example below, also from the Fairview Cemetery in New Albany, Indiana, also has a willow tree in the tympanum of the gravestone.  In this gravestone, the willow offers shade to the newly marked grave of Mary Eliza Goodrich.  The weathered gravestone is difficult to decipher.

SACRED

To the memory of

MARY ELIZA

Daughter of

Cornelius & M[ ]inda

GOODRICH

who departed this life

July 2^nd 1887 aged 17

years & 5 months

Dangers stand thick thro’ all the ground

To push us to the tomb

And fierce diseases wait around

To hurry [to sorrow’s] home.

As a feeble tribute to her memory

This inscription is humbly

Dedicated by an affectionate friend.