Day Three: Belvedere Cemetery

The headstone of
Michael Power

This week, Nora and I went out to Belvedere Roman Catholic Cemetery in search of the burial sites of those involved in the S.S. Florizel disaster. It was a very interesting experience, in terms of seeing the relationship between cemeteries and nature. The two cemeteries we had already visited, the Anglican and Catholic cemeteries by Quidi Vidi Lake, had quite similar feelings to them. That is, there were trees in certain places that had grown, the odd shrub that popped up, but for the most part, there was still very much a sense of 'this is a cemetery, an area that humanity claimed in order to lay their deceased loved ones to rest, and that will be the land's sole purpose from here on'.

This curious little guy
coming to see what's
happening

Many areas of Belvedere are full of trees, shrubs, and other plant life. There were moments where, if it weren't for the sound of passing traffic, we surely would have thought we had been transported out of St. John's. There was also a significant amount of wildlife there. We saw squirrels, caterpillars I have never even seen around town before, and even a rabbit (we also saw a rat which I thought was adorable but others, not so much). At Belvedere we also saw a fair amount of foot traffic with locals going on walks, and even a station set up for dogs to have a drink. We had seen people in other cemeteries but they were usually there to visit a particular grave or to work on the grounds. This was the first time we really saw people visiting for the sake of enjoying the atmosphere.

While I could not approach it due
to the overgrowth, to show how much
there is the crucifix in the middle
of the picture tops a grave that is
easily 8 feet tall (or more).

I can, however, understand why someone might not appreciate such greenery in a graveyard. For starters, it definitely made it harder to read some of the headstones, either through obscuring their faces or even directly damaging them. Since legibility is something of a primary function of a headstone, I can understand why this is a bad thing. Another matter was that it simply made it much more challenging to locate graves. There were entire paths on our maps lost to walls of shrubbery that certainly posed a challenge to our grave-finding efforts.

While this blog post hasn't really been about our Florizel findings, our experience of Belvedere led Nora and I to have some really interesting discussions on the relationship between cemeteries and the life around them—both wild and domestic. Places like Mount Carmel and the Anglican Cemetery have this certain reverence that lingers on in them in that they are so well maintained and cared for. You know exactly what the intended purpose of the place is: to pay your respects. Belvedere, on the other hand, just had this beautiful way of allowing nature and humanity to coexist in a space where some come to pay their respects and others come simply to take in the natural serenity of the place.

The view from Belvedere Cemetery
with the Confederation Building
in the distance.

I highly recommend you go and see the grounds for yourself, as they are gorgeous. There are also a number of very interesting and unique graves that I wanted to post pictures of but felt that you really should just go see them in person! As per usual, here are links to those who we managed to locate at Belvedere:

John Connolly: LINK

Michael Connolly: LINK

Patrick Laracy: LINK

Michael O'Driscoll: LINK

Michael F. Power: LINK

Fred C. Smythe: LINK

Gerald St. John: LINK

Michael S. Sullivan: LINK

-Tim