Gravely Speaking

The stained and painted glass windows found in the back of many of the mausoleums in large urban city cemeteries are great works of art rarely seen by most people who walk by. Most do not peer into the windows in the doors of the mausoleums to view the windows in the back of the crypts. It feels a bit like trespassing. I do it so you don’t have to!

Stained glass is a thousand-year old art form first produced to enhance the windows of great churches and mosques. The stained glass is produced by mixing metallic salts into glass to make glass of various colors. Tiny pieces of the glass are cut and pieced together using strips of lead to create spellbinding designs. Painted glass is often added to enhance designs and add details to the figures and scenes in the windows.

This stained glass window found in a mausoleum in the Rock Creek Cemetery at Washington, D.C., depicts a woman looking toward Heaven while kneeling in front of a white cross in prayer. The portrait is surrounded by a deep blue, red, and yellow band design that frames the kneeling figure and the cross. The face and arms of the praying woman are painted glass, gently modeled to great effect. The window speaks not only to the power of prayer but to the importance of the cross as a symbol of Christianity.

Currently there is a meme being posted in social media that only begins to express the power of the cross and its deep meaning for Christians in the following acrostic:

Crowned Jesus with Glory

Reconciled us to god

Overcame the World

Shed Blood for our Sins

Saved us from His Wrath

Lakeside Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The symbol of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross is called a crucifix. This cross demonstrates the suffering of Christ. The word crucifix is from Latin and is the combination of two words—cruci and fixus—which translates to one fixed to a cross.

HARRIET TYLER

WIFE OF

ROBERT STRETTLE JONES

FISHER

BORN WILMINGTON VERMONT

OCTOBER 21 1839

DIED

OCTOBER 16 1905

The cross surrounded by lilies at the top of this round-top gravestone in the Rock Creek Cemetery at Washington, D.C., is called a Staurogram or monogram cross. The cross is a combination of two symbols—the tau “T” and the rho “P”. The combination of symbols was a form of early Greek shorthand for the word “cross”. These two symbols were imbued with meaning—the tau referred to salvation and the rho represented Christ the Messiah.

SALLIE M.

Daughter of

Wm. M. & JUDITH A.

DISMUKES

Born

March 18, 1842

Died

May 10, 1864

Aged

22 Y’rs. 2 Mo’s & Days

Not dead but sleepeth.

On this plain rounded-top white marble tablet in the Springhill Cemetery at Nashville, Tennessee, the anchor cross is carved into the oval inset at the top of the gravestone. The anchor cross is an ancient Christian symbol that has been found in catacomb burials as early as the First Century and as late as the Third Century.  Romans persecuted early Christians—feeding them to the lions, forcing them battle to the death in the arenas, or burning them at the stake. The Christians who hid in the catacombs and practiced their religion in secret left messages of hope carved next to the anchor cross symbols.  In this way, the anchor was used by early Christians as a disguised cross.

Some Church historians believe that the anchor cross was adopted when Emperor Trajan had Saint Clement tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea for proselytizing and converting Romans to Christianity. Others believe it was a clever way to disguise the most Christian of symbols—the cross.

Over time, the anchor served as a symbol of Christ and his anchoring influence in the lives of Christians.  Just as an anchor does not let a moored boat drift, the anchoring influence of Christ does not allow the Christian life to drift. The anchor cross is also called the Mariner’s Cross. It is viewed as a symbol of hope. It can also represent a “fresh start”.

The Russian Cross, marking the grave of Michael Boyer 1867 – 1953 in the Lakeside Cemetery at Erie, Pennsylvania, is also known as the Orthodox Cross, the Byzantine Cross, and the Suppedaneum Cross. The features that distinguish the Russian Cross from the Latin Cross are that it has three horizontal crossbeams instead of one.

The top crossbeam originated from the Greek tradition that says that Pontius Pilate nailed it to the top of the cross above Jesus Christ’s head with the message, “King of the Jews.”

Jesus was nailed to the second crossbeam.

The third crossbeam which is pitched upward to the right by tradition is where those hanging on a cross would have rested their feet. In this representation of the cross, however, the crossbeam rises to the right. There are two competing theories about why that is. One theory suggests that it points upward toward Heaven, while the left side points downward toward Hell. Most believe that the footrest points to the right to where St. Dismas, the thief hanging next to Christ was, who confessed and asked for forgiveness. On the left side was the unrepentant Gestas.

SABRINA A. TAYLOR 1815 – 1882

MOTHER OF L.M. TAYLOR, M.D.

GEORGE WM. AND WALTER ORR

INFANT CHILDREN OF L.M. AND ROSE M. TAYLOR

MARIE JOSEPHINE TAYLOR

BORN MAY 16, 1873 – DIED MARCH 19, 1927

A cross with a crown sitting on top of it tops the large gray granite Taylor Family monument in the Rock Creek Churchyard Cemetery at Washington, D. C. The crown is a symbol of glory and victory over death.  The reward awaits in Heaven where the victor will receive a crown of victory. The cross represents the suffering of Jesus.

CHRISTINE WILLIAMS BIDDLE

Born August 28, 1860

Died January 24, 1944

The plain white marble Latin cross marks the grave of Christine Williams Biddle in the Laurel Hill Cemetery at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Latin cross is universally recognized as the symbol of Christianity. Though it may look simple to the eye, the symbol is imbued with deep meaning to all Christians. In 1928, the Georgia Marble Company of Tate, Georgia, published a book of monuments titled, Memorials: To-Day for To-Morrow by William Henry Deacy, which describes the symbolism of the Latin cross on a three-step base, “Faith had brought Him to Calvary. The Betrayal, the Trial, the piercing Crown of Thorns, the tortuous road to Golgotha, the cruel weight of the Cross, the hour of Crucifixion—through all these Faith had led Him on. What wonder, therefore, that he Cross of Calvary, instrument of the Passion, has been throughout the ages a memorial of the Faith, the Chosen Symbol?”.

The Latin Cross, however, is not the only symbolism in the monument, which may be lost on many viewers. In this monument, the cross rests on a foundation of three progressively larger stones as a base. Each represents a different virtue—“Faith in the will of God…Hope for the dawn of that yet more glorious day and Charity toward all men.”