Bishop Eustace students visit cemetery to pray for all souls

PENNSAUKEN – Standing in front of his great-grandfather’s gravestone at Calvary Cemetery, Bishop Eustace Preparatory School senior Anthony Faust shared what he had learned from relatives about a man he never met.

Sebastiano Alfieri “was kind, gentle, caregiving, generous,” Faust said, before writing his ancestor’s name in a small book he had brought, pausing, and saying a silent prayer.

Turning his gaze from the headstone, Faust looked out at the quiet cemetery landscape. “You feel the presence of the souls here,” he said.

Faust joined two theology teachers and seven of his classmates the morning of Nov. 16 for a walking pilgrimage to Calvary Cemetery and Mausoleum to pray for All Souls during this Month of Remembrance.

“We wanted to offer a prayer for the deceased,” said Joseph Flood, who teaches theology at the school. Flood and his Religious Studies Department colleague Vincent Cacia led the students from the school and across the street to the cemetery.

Beginning with a Litany for the Holy Souls in Purgatory in the Calvary Mausoleum, students next visited the mausoleum and cemetery grounds, recording the names of noted school alumni, supporters and others.

The names were later attached to a Tree of Life in the school’s library and kept in prayer throughout November, Cacia explained, adding that “it’s important for students to know that this is a part of our faith.”

Kristen Coffman, a senior in Cacia’s theology class, said she understood the importance of the lesson. “It’s good to pray [for the souls], as often as we can.”

The visit ended at the grave of the school’s namesake, Bartholomew J. Eustace, first Bishop of Camden. Laid to rest next to Bishop Eustace are three of his fellow Bishops – McCarthy, Damiano and Guilfoyle.

Cacia led a prayer for these souls, as well as other clergy of the Diocese, asking that “God would welcome them to himself,” before sprinkling holy water on Bishop Eustace’s grave. 

A tall Celtic cross loomed over the gravestones, with the words, “Erected to the memory of the clergymen whose bodies rest in this mound. They served you in life, forget them not in death.”