The Great Gift of St. Joseph of Arimathea

The Great Gift of St. Joseph of Arimathea

By a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures

Dear Henry,

Lately, because of my time spent with the Old Lick Cemetery project, I’ve learned more about historic burials and cemetery law than I ever imagined I would. Most of what I’ve learned about indigent burials has been heartbreaking.

The Old Lick Cemetery was once two separate burial grounds: one belonging to the Black congregation of the First Baptist Church, and the other a city-owned, free burial ground for the local Black community, which was then referred to as a potter’s field.

By all accounts, the free burial ground was, before being razed for I-581, a grim place. Learning that led me to research the broader history of indigent burials in America, and that, Henry, was even more disheartening.

"When someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death and is executed, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse must not remain all night upon the tree; you shall bury him the same day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you for possession."

- Deuteronomy 21:22-23

Before the 1950s and 60s, potter’s fields across the nation were neglected and poorly managed. Graves were reused, records were rarely kept, and few sites were ever marked. Many of these cemeteries were located near medical schools, where “body snatching” for research was a genuine concern. Thankfully, Old Lick does not appear to have suffered that fate, but I still wonder how many were interred there simply because no other place would have them.

Sadly, things haven’t changed as much as one might hope. Though many communities have shifted toward cremation and better recordkeeping, indigent remains are still often buried in mass graves or scattered on communal grounds. An estimated 273,000 people a year in the U.S. are laid to rest this way, quietly, without ceremony, without name.

“When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph… He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus… Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb.”
— Matthew 27:57-60

As I read more, I kept returning to St. Joseph of Arimathea, the man who gave up his own tomb for Christ’s burial. By custom, Jesus should have been laid outside the city walls in a potter’s field. The story of the Resurrection would have unfolded very differently if not for that one selfless act of compassion.

Our dead are essential. They connect us, as philosopher Avner de-Shalit wrote, in a “transgenerational community,” a bond between the living and those who came before. To value the dead is to value our culture and our shared humanity.

I don’t know how to solve the problem of indigent burials, but I hope, through the intercession of St. Joseph of Arimathea and the work of communities, we can find a better way to honor every life, even in death.

xoxo,
a.d. elliott

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a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller living in Salem, Virginia. 

In addition to her travel writings at www.takethebackroads.com, you can also read her book reviews at www.riteoffancy.com and US military biographies at www.everydaypatriot.com

Her online photography gallery can be found at shop.takethebackroads.com

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