As an annual custom in Italy, SSCC brothers Generalate community went to visit the cemeteries of our Sacred Hearts brothers and sisters in Campo Verano on All Souls Day, 2 November 2018. This year there are 5 brothers: Sergio Silva, David Reid, Remi Liando, Alberto Toutin, the new Superior General, and Joseph Raja Sebastian. The four new councilors had not yet arrived in Italy.
The brothers came prepared to clean the tomb before having a simple prayer liturgy for our departed brothers and sisters. After the flowers were placed and the candles were lit, the prayer was led by Alberto at the brothers’ tomb. The closing prayer was done at the sisters’ tomb which was only a short distance away.
The Verano Monumental Cemetery has been a burial site for at least twenty centuries, as demonstrated by the remains of a Roman necropolis known as the Catacombs of Santa Ciriaca. The name Verano refers to the fact that the land once belonged to the Verani, a senatorial family at the time of the Roman Republic.
Established along the Via Tiburtina consular road during the Napoleonic reign of 1805-1814, in accordance with the Edict of Saint Cloud of 1804, which stipulated that burial sites be located outside of city walls, the project was assigned to the architect Giuseppe Valadier in the years 1807 to 1812. The cemetery was consecrated in 1835, with work continuing during the papacies of Gregory XVI and Pious IX.
The Campo Verano Monumental Cemetery, with its rich heritage of art, stands as an open-air museum without equal in terms of the quantity and features of the works to be seen: an incalculable treasure from the point of view of history, art and culture.
11/02/2018