At the wake of a member of the Bishop Justin J. Mc Carthy General Assembly, you will notice the members of the Color Corps dutifully standing at the head and foot of the casket in respect for our departed member. If you arrive early, you might see another ceremony; that is a member of the Assembly bringing into the viewing area a gold Chalice and Paten and placing it on display. If you were there at the end, you would see members of the Assembly retrieving the Chalice and Paten and returning them to our Faithful Pilot who then stores them until they are needed again. I also learned that a sum of money, approximately equal to the value of the vessels, was donated, in the deceased person’s name, to a charity that was designated by his family. This money comes from a fund set aside by our Faithful Purser and is called “The Chalice Fund”. After the funeral, the Faithful Purser writes a check and sends it off to the designated charity and it becomes a minor footnote in the logbooks.

This custom intrigued me, so I decided to do some research, and with the help of the Internet, I found that the custom of putting a chalice in the coffin of the deceased went back to very early times. It was already an old custom in 560 AD. The earliest documents connected with the life of St. Patrick, reveal the fact that the artificers of chalices and bells had a certain status. The chalice in a particular way was identified with the priesthood. This sacred vessel, which by then stood upon the priest's coffin during his obsequies, recalls the time when a small chalice of metal or of wax was buried with him in his tomb; and the chalice which is the recognized emblem of so many saints -- e.g., St. John the Evangelist -- suggests in many instances the promise made by Christ to His followers, "if ye shall drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt you".

Over time, this custom changed from the Chalice of the priest to one that was given to the Church in memory of the deceased. A side note ~ proper etiquette required the name of the individual to be engraved on the bottom of the chalice. Not out of modesty as you might think, but so that the priest, when during the most solemn part of the Mass, has the chalice raised high and is looking toward heaven, could not help but see the name of his benefactor. You can see that eventually the Church basement would soon be cluttered with sacred vessels. Therefore, the custom evolved from giving a gold cup that would only collect dust, to one of “use the money for a more practical cause”. You now see a similar custom evolving in obituaries that say “rather than send flowers (most end in the Funeral Director’s garbage within an hour after the funeral) make a donation to a particular charity in the name of the departed person”.

The history lesson being finished, I decided to trace were our money from the Chalice Fund goes. Normally, it is to some charity that will put it into their general ledger and it disappears, hopefully to be of some benefit to mankind. However, recently, one of our members, and a good friend, Gregory Buonomo passed away. His family designated that the money was to be given to his Knights of Columbus Council, Saint Peter’s Council 6375 in Merchantville, NJ. Here things changed and we can see the results of our donation. The Council, rather than put the money into their general fund, where it would be spent for such mundane things like postage and fixing their home, decided to use it as seed money to build a badly need maintenance facility for their church, and to dedicate it to Greg and all of their fallen members.

Sir Knight Gregory Buonomo

THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST CHAPTER. THE STORY DOES NOT END HERE. PROGRESS BY COUNCIL 6375 WILL BE FOLLOWED, AND I WILL UPDATE THIS WITH PERIODIC PROGRESS REPORTS.

~ Al Mac Elrath

CHAPTER II - PICKING OUT THE BUILDING

Here are some views of the proposed building.