Lazarus Community Monthly Memorial Service

When a person dies in Bexar County and has no resources for a funeral, the county contracts and persons are buried three to a grave, sometime listed as unidentified. As one of the Corporal Works of Mercy, we honor those who are buried here, and express, as a community, our love.

The Lazarus Community meets  on the third Saturday of the month at  First Memorial Park Cemetery, 20567 State HWY 16 at 11 am to honor, in a memorial service, those who have died and have had no service. We are an interfaith community. We pray, we sing Amazing Grace and place flowers on the graves. We meet new friends and read articles.

In Paradisum, an ancient Gregorian Chant is sung to ask the angels and the holy martyrs to carry our sisters and brothers to paradise, where the poor man Lazarus is embraced by Abraham.

After years of hospice work attending funerals to support family members and friends, it occurred to us that maybe there were persons who did not receive a service. In April, we learned that there were twenty one persons who had died since the beginning of the year, most of whom were abandoned in hospitals, who had no service. In May the number was thirty six.

It has been said that many families have an individual who disappeared and no one knew what happened. Perhaps we are honoring a member of our own family. This is a gesture of reverence and echoes the many efforts of those organizations who support us: Abode Contemplative Care for the Dying; Catholic Worker House; the peaceCENTER; OLLU Center for Women in Church and Society; Worden School of Social Work.