HALIFAX 1843
A seasoned mariner navigated his schooner into the placid waters of Halifax Harbor. As he stood at the helm, his eyes scanned the landscape that had become familiar to him in his many years plying the Atlantic's turbulent expanses between coastal ports.
There were granite spires of St. Mary's and St. Matthew's churches, the stone buildings that reminded him of European ports he had visited, the grassy slopes of Citadel Hill and its fortress reigning over all, and the thick woods that marked the city's boundaries. The day was August 31, 1843.
CHAPEL CONSTRUCTED
An ambitious crew quickly unloaded the cargo they had carried to Halifax. It was nearing dusk as the captain raised the sails and set out the harbor once again.
Automatically, he gazed out over the city that was one of his favorite calling places. He noted once again the spires, buildings, the fortress and the surrounding lands. He looked again. With disbelief he stared at a site that only that morning had been a grassy hill in the city's south end. It was no hallucination. There was a chapel standing proudly in the last rays of a beautiful summer day. There seemed to be great hordes of people ringing the edifice and their combined voices reached his ears as congratulatory cheers. He had seen it himself - that chapel had been built during the day.
The captain could only speculate on the amount of organization that would be involved in such a feat. A more accurate indication is contained in a published account of the days happenings. It appeared in the Register, dated September 7, 1843. The article first referred back to July 26, 1843, when preliminary work for the chapel was completed in a day. On that day, a group of volunteers answered Bishop Walsh's plea for workers to clear the ground, layout walks, erect a fence, level the hill, build a bridge and prepare the foundation. The superb organization of workers into groups performing specific tasks enabled the work to be completed before sunset. The same organization marked the August
31 accomplishment. Volunteers, numbering 1800 men, gathered for a brief benediction at St. Mary’s before performing a procession to the chapel site.
REGISTER DESCRIBES SCENE
"The colors floated as gaily along the line - the spades, pick-axes and shovels were in as great requisition as ever - and the thirty-six (36) Wardens with their wands of office looked as active and were as active as on the memorable 26th of July ...many Indians with their squaws and papooses were scattered around, giving a picturesqueness and interest to the view that rendered it highly attractive."
"Among the intended phenomena of the day, fifty-five feet long and twenty-five broad with raised roof, roofed on the spot which in the morning represented nothing hut the small foundation wall of such a building. This was emphatically the miracle of the day."
Work progressed rapidly, cheerfully and efficiently. The spectacle of 1800 men at work around one building attracted a large group of interested spectators.
"About four o'clock, the ground became thronged with visitors. Many of our Lunenburg friends contemplated the spectacle with delight, military gentlemen and civilians combined in giving their meed of praise to the mighty efforts they saw making around them. Numbers of well-dressed females, too, contributed by their presence to give an interest to the scene while the wearing day seemed to infuse new energy into our countrymen, who were determined to give old time tale after this day's travel, such as he rarely could have related before ..."
"At length about a quarter after seven, the signal for cessation was given by the Right Reverend Bishop. The roads had been nearly completed - the inequalities of the surface had entirely disappeared - a beautiful gate had been erected at the entrance of the cemetery - and a beautiful and commodious place of devotion stood within the precincts of the church year."
Bishop Walsh congratulated the volunteers for their contribution to the religious life of the city, and according to the Register, "we will not attempt to describe the enthusiasm that broke forth at the end of his lordship's speech."
HOLY CROSS CEMETERY
Enthusiasm was replaced by pious dedication the following Sunday morning when the entire Catholic population of Halifax gathered at St. Mary’s Church to form a procession to the new cemetery and participate in its consecration. It was a colorful ceremony. Here is how it was described in the Register:
"As we approached the cemetery, the scene was one surpassingly beautiful. It had been decided by the committee that the female portion of the congregation should be admitted at an earlier hour than that decided upon for the procession. Consequently, upon our approach, we could perceive the beautiful rising grounds of the cemetery covered with ladies elegantly attired. At the foot of the uniform mound which runs along the eastern extremity of the cemetery, and nearly midway across, rose a splendid cross nearly twenty feet in height. Four smaller ones occupied the other part of the church yard. On the hill before us and overlooking all, was the exquisite mortuary church, beautifully finished, and now prepared for consecration. The paling all around the cemetery had been painted pure white, and the entrance by a spacious Gothic gate supported the two wickets of the same order of architecture, each surmounted by the symbol of redemption, finished the beauty of the whole. "
"And now the procession entering at the gate filed off to the right and as many as to the left, so that the crowd would be uniformly disposed. When the whole population had been thus distributed and the Bishop and clergy slowly directed their steps onward through the masses, and took up their position at the foot of the Great Cross, the eye never rested in a scene more strikingly engaging. There could not have been fewer that six thousand persons on the grounds."
It is not reasonable to assume that most of those present at this impressive ceremony are now buried in this same cemetery. Between the dates of November 26, 1843 and December 31, 1903, cemetery records show that nearly 18,000 persons were buried there. It is estimated that the total number of persons buried in Holy Cross Cemetery has reached 23,000.
The history of mid-nineteenth century Halifax is reflected in the stones marking the graves in this cemetery. The first point one notices is the high percentage of graves with Irish names - an indication of the Emerald Isle's important contribution of the city's development.
Holy Cross Cemetery is the final resting place for many notable persons, including a Prime Minister of Canada. A large grey tombstone shaped like a cross marks the grave of Sir John Sparrow David Thompson, who was the Canadian Prime Minister from December 1892 to December 1894.
Near the chapel is "Bishop's Row" where seven archbishops and one bishop, as well as many senior clergymen, are buried. Included is the same Archbishop Walsh who directed the building of the chapel in 1843. Between the chapel and the South Street fence are rows of graves of some of Halifax's earliest religious women, the Sisters of Charity and the nuns of the Order of the Sacred Heart.
Several persons whose contributions to Halifax were memorialized in the city street names are buried in Holy Cross. Included are Tobin, Swain and Kline.
The ancestors of many prominent Nova Scotians are remembered on tombstones here. So are two of the four men executed for murder and piracy committed aboard the barque "Saladin."
A foretaste of space flight is evidenced in this odd inscription on one
stone: “William's divine spirit took its flight from this planet, on Sunday evening, May the 22nd, in the year 1848. His mortal part lies buried here ..."
