Remembering Our Deceased Oblates

One of the practical but necessary considerations Oblate missionaries have always had to encounter when they established a new mission was finding a place to bury the members of the community upon their death.

Some of the missions were very hard on the pioneer Oblates.  So many missionaries died in the early days of the Oblate presence in Texas that St. Eugene de Mazenod, the Oblate Founder,  referred to the mission as “cruel, cruel Texas.”  

Oblate cemeteries today are usually located close to a center of Oblate missionary activity, especially in conjunction with the five former United States Provinces. Buffalo, NY, is the site of some of the earliest Oblate endeavors in the USA and the site of a burial plot for Oblates.

The Oblate burial plot at Holy Cross Cemetery in Buffalo, NY, holds the remains of 19 Oblates.  The earliest burial there was Bro. John Kearns (1868) and the most recent was Fr. Thomas Cantwell (1991).

Every month, the Oblates of the Buffalo District concelebrate a suffrage Mass for all of our deceased.  In November, the month of commemoration of the deceased, they went to the Catholic cemetery for a graveside prayer service followed by Mass in the nearby Basilica of Our Lady of Victory.

For a virtual tour of this century-and-a-half old Oblate burial ground, visit the website: (www.buffomi.org) and click on Holy Angels Parish/Events/Oblate Cemetery visit.

Other Oblate burial grounds are located in San Antonio, TX, Lowell, MA, Belleville, IL, Tewksbury, MA, and San Fernando, CA.  There are also Oblate burial sites in various other cemeteries as missionaries asked to be buried close to the people whom they served.

Buffalo information and photos courtesy of Fr. Eugene Tremblay, OMI

On an overcast November day, district superior Fr. Terry O'Connell, OMI, leads the community in prayer for the deceased Oblates.

Gathered around the cross at the Oblate burial plot, l-r: Frs. Steve Vasek & Marty Walsh, seminarian Ray Cook, Frs. Terry O'Connell & Harry Winter, seminarian Feliciano Lopez, Frs. George Kirwin & Dan O'Leary, Bro. Richard Coté, & seminarian Webert Merilan.