Diocese of Covington - The Catholic Cemeteries Office at 947 Donaldson Road, Erlanger, KY 41018-0548 US - Learn more About Us

 

Our Cemeteries

     Our  History

                   Our Faith

Our cemetries are a reflection of our faith.

They are a reflection of our history as well.

The ministry of the cemetery is rooted in the reality of the human person as an embodied spirit. That embodiment is sacred, for it locates the human spirit in history and in place. The cemetery is a sacred place where remembering can be fostered and centered.

It is perhaps in herent in us to derive comfort from the the thought of family members being together even in death. We bring the remains of our loved ones to our cemeteries for burial with other members of our families. We believe that death does not break family ties.

Many of our cemeteries were started before the formation the diocese in 1853. We were an immigrant people.  Catholics numberd perhaps 8,000 at the time. We were a small minority. We were the low class, many of us speaking German or Irish. We were struggling, but we were devoted to our family, our church, our faith.

Rural parishes started their cemeteries on land next to the church. where they remain to this day. The pressures of an exploding urban population made the "graveyard" next to the church unworkable for city parishes. The larger city parishes bought farmland out from the cities for cemetery use.

By 1850 St. Mary, Covington had established a parish cemetery in a portion of what is now Devou Park. In 1870 land was purchased for what is now St. Mary Cemetery in Ft. Mitchell. The remains of those buried on The Devou property were later reinterred at the current St. Mary Cemetery.

St. John "German Catholic Cemetery" was established as parish cemetery for St. John Parish, Covington in 1865. As the parishes were segregated into German-speaking parishes and English-speaking parishes, so were the Cemeteries. St. John for example, was German and St. Mary was Irish.

Italian Catholics were integrated in with Germans and Irish, particularly at St. Stephen Cemetery. (It is not unusual for cemeteries to have an "Italian Section," for example at New St. Joseph Cemetery in Cincinnati.)

At St. Joseph Cemetery, wilder a "Romanian" section was created in a corner of the cemetery.

As years went by this strict segregation eased. Now our cemeteries mingle German, Irish, Italian, Greek, French, Filipino, Chinese and Vietnamese -- a diverse people of one faith.

Our Cemeteries reflect our connectedness with past and future generation-- the communion of saints.

Our discipline, our industriousness, our concern for community have served us well, as has our faith in God.