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 History
Saint Mary, a parochial cemetery established in
1845, set on approximately 80 acres, is one of the oldest Catholic
Cemeteries in the Archdiocese of Boston. We complete an average of
140 interments each year, and have a total of approximately 20,000
interments. We employ a staff of three full-time, and one seasonal
employees.
St. Mary’s is operated under the direction
of a Cemetery Council, comprised of five lay persons from the Parish.
The Pastor of St. Mary Parish serves as Pastor/Director of the Cemetery
and Chairperson of the Cemetery Council. Robert O’Connor serves
as Executive Director of the Cemetery and Vice-Chairperson of the
Cemetery Council. The Council meets several times a year to set policies
and review major concerns. The Council, over the past few years, has
focused on public awareness of the sacredness of our cemetery space.
We have addressed this by developing an informative brochure and Catholic
logo. We celebrate a Memorial Day Liturgy on the Cemetery grounds
with the theme of Holy Ground. Well over two hundred parishioners & visitors
attend this Annual Mass. We have also revised our monument policies
to reflect a more Catholic theme with regard to monument inscriptions.
One of our new challenges is meeting the changing
interment needs of the Catholic Community. We have
addressed this challenge by developing a Garden Mausoleum
with 320 crypt spaces.
We have incorporated the Lawn Crypt interment system,
which allows the cemetery to save valuable space and
provides a lower cost interment
option and the ability to maintain our garden-type
cemetery setting. In addition, we have added a Columbarium,
which provides interment
space and memorialization for 112 cremation urns.
Recently we received approval and permission to
develop an additional 15 acres of interment space including
a bridge to cross the Glovers Brook. This addition should bring us
well into
the new millennium. Construction began June 1, 2008,
and is slated for completion at the end of October, 2008.
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