Villa Maria, The Sisters of The Humility of Mary Cemetery.
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I want to recognize all of the people who follow this page, Thank You for being here!
I wanted to share some photos from a project a few weeks ago. I was asked to clean some headstones and statuary at a cemetery just over the state line in Pennsylvania, literally a half mile over the state line. The place is called Villa Maria, and the cemetery is the Sisters of the Humility of Mary Cemetery. Villa Maria Convent was founded in 1864 by John Joseph Begal and Mother Magdalen Potier of France. This has been the final resting place for over 600 nuns since the 1860’s. The ages for these ladies range from 18 to 102 years old. And since these burials are largely in chronological order, you can definitely see trends in the ages as you progress through.
In the 12 days I worked there I cleaned 600 gravestones of nuns as well as those of the founder and his nephew the chaplain. I also cleaned marble decorative panels, a beautiful cross and a statue of the Archangel Michael. I had various people both in the cemetery field and outside tell me that I was crazy for cleaning all of these by hand, down on my hands and knees as these are very modest gravestones just over a foot tall. However, I do not believe that a pressure washer has a place cleaning marble gravestones, or any gravestones for that matter.
If you are reading this you have no doubt visited a cemetery in your lifetime, but maybe not like this one. The Sisters of the Humility of Mary Cemetery has a slightly different feel to it. I liken it to a military cemetery such as Arlington, as these ladies made the decision to devote their lives to serving God and helping other people. To me, this selfless act is very much like serving in the military and fighting to defend people you don’t know. They don’t do it for the recognition, they do it because they feel it’s the right thing to do.
I hope I can visit here again next year and see the transformation once the D2 has done its job removing the biological staining. If you’re in the area, just east of Youngstown, Ohio, stop and visit. Take a seat on one of the benches and enjoy the peacefulness while you listen to the wind chimes.
A special Thank You to Sister Winefred who kept me focused on the fact that this project was to Honor these people who devoted their life to selflessly helping others.
