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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Remembering the dead
By Jessica Dyer
Journal Staff Writer
A lot can be forgotten over the course of 400 years, but Monsignor Jerome Martinez y Alire thinks it's time to do some remembering.
The rector of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, Martinez y Alire said a newly erected memorial on the north side of the cathedral will remind parishioners and visitors alike that the site is also a cemetery.
Given that the cathedral is celebrating 400 years as a faith community, Martinez y Alire said it's an ideal time to recognize the thousands of people buried under and around the cathedral.
Such burials were the custom for more than 200 years.
Santa Fe Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan will bless the new memorial on the north side of the cathedral following Sunday's noon mass.
"We're going to be celebrating that (400th) anniversary for an entire year and since it is the Feast of All Saints and All Souls (on Sunday) we thought it would be appropriate to bless a marker reminding us of where the original settlers of Santa Fe are buried," Martinez y Alire said. "From 1610 to 1860, Santa Feans were buried underneath the floor of the cathedral or around the cathedral and the purpose was that mass would be constantly offered for them."
Records of the burials are incomplete, since anything predating 1680 was destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt.
Martinez y Alire estimates there are thousands of graves on the premises, noting that there are remains buried two and three deep.
A Santa Fe native, Martinez y Alire said he doesn't recall ever seeing any kind of grave marker on the cathedral grounds but said that's hardly surprising given how long ago the burials took place.
"There must have been many (markers). In those days, the people were rather poor and they would make them out of crosses — wooden crosses — and they'd fall apart after time," he said.
The new memorial is far from fragile. It is a 4-foot-tall stone cross with a bronze figure of Jesus mounted on a steel-reinforced concrete base. The cross weighs 1,382 pounds and its mounting required the use of a 100-foot crane. The crucifix was donated by the Catholic Cemetery Association.
Lanterns were installed on each corner of the memorial and were inspired by similar lighting at a monument in Spain — Cristo de los Faroles or "Christ of the Lanterns."
"We thought that's a very nice touch," Martinez y Alire said.
Jim Jackson, chair of the Friends of the Cathedral organization that helped raise funds for the project, said the memorial will give visitors to the cathedral a little more perspective.
"I think it adds another piece to the history of Santa Fe that's important and also recognizes in a small way our ancestors' part in making Santa Fe the beautiful city that it is," he said, adding that many locals also might be surprised when they see the marker. "I think there will be people who live here all their lives and for many generations who did not necessarily know this is a cemetery."
Martinez y Alire hopes that changes soon.
"That's the sad thing. Most people have forgotten — even people who are Santa Feans," he said. "We want to make sure we never forget them, we never forget our ancestors and we continue to pray for them."
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