Calvary Cemetery is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

cemetery that the

Archdiocese of Los Angeles The Archdiocese of Los Angeles (, ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the southern coastal portion of the U.S. state of California. The archdiocese's cathedra is in Los Angeles, and the arc ...

operates in the community of

East Los Angeles, California East Los Angeles (), or East L.A., is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census designated place (CDP) situated within Los Angeles County, California, United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, ...

. It is also called "New Calvary Cemetery" because it succeeded the original Calvary Cemetery (on north Broadway), over which Cathedral High School was built.

History

Old Calvary

When

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

was originally surveyed and mapped under the leadership of Gen.

Edward Ord Edward Otho Cresap Ord (October 18, 1818 – July 22, 1883), frequently referred to as E. O. C. Ord, was an American engineer and United States Army officer who saw action in the Seminole War, the Indian Wars, and the American Civil War. He comma ...

in 1849, its graveyard was at the upper end of Eternity Street. At the lower end of Eternity was the first church in Los Angeles, the

Placita In the early Middle Ages, a (Latin for "plea") was a public judicial assembly. origins can be traced to military gatherings in the Frankish kingdoms in the seventh century. After the Frankish conquest of Italy in 774, were introduced before th ...

. In between lay a part of town flanked by adobe houses, citrus trees, and

Coast Live Oak ''Quercus agrifolia'', the California live oak, or coast live oak, is an evergreen live oak native to the California Floristic Province. Live oaks are so-called because they keep living leaves on the tree all year, adding young leaves and sheddi ...

s suitable for traditional funeral processions escorting believers to eternity. The land allotted to the cemetery lay between a creek a half block north of College Street and the toma (intake of the

Zanja Madre The ''Zanja Madre'' (, "Mother Trench") is the original aqueduct that brought water to the Pueblo de Los Angeles from the Río Porciúncula (Los Angeles River). The original open, earthen ditch, or '' zanja'' was completed by community laborer ...

) beyond the northern edge of town. That cemetery was named ''Calvary.'' All the important magnates of the country around Los Angeles were buried at Calvary, such as Gen.

Andrés Pico Andrés Pico (November 18, 1810 – February 14, 1876) was a Californio who became a successful rancher, fought in the contested Battle of San Pascual during the Mexican–American War, and negotiated promises of post-war protections for Calif ...

, the hero of the Battle of San Pascual, and Don

Abel Stearns Abel Stearns (February 9, 1798 – August 23, 1871) was an American trader who came to the Pueblo de Los Angeles, Alta California in 1829 and became a major landowner and cattle rancher and one of the area's wealthiest citizens. Early life Stea ...

, a man of many ranchos. The ravine sloping down from the west took its name; it was called "Cemetery Ravine" (now ''

Chavez Ravine Chavez Ravine is a shallow canyon in Los Angeles, California. It sits in a large promontory of hills north of downtown Los Angeles, next to Major League Baseball's Dodger Stadium. Chavez Ravine was named for a 19th-century Los Angeles councilm ...

,'' home of Dodger Stadium). Later, a Protestant cemetery for Los Angeles was laid out atop Fort Hill, where

Grand Arts High School Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation), s ...

and the

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (), informally known as the COLA or the Los Angeles Cathedral (), is the metropolitan cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles, California, United States. It opened in 2002 and serves as the mo ...

are now. As Los Angeles swelled with settlers, so also did old Calvary Cemetery grow in size and importance, and a chapel was built. Large in scale for the desert

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

of Southern California, that chapel was dedicated to the memory of a patron, Andrew Briswalter, who died in 1885. When conditions led to the founding of a new, even bigger cemetery on the other side of the Los Angeles River in 1896—in East Los Angeles—the property of the historic cemetery was put to other uses. At the time, many Italians began moving into the north side of Los Angeles, where they founded a new church on north Spring Street. So many Italians moved in, that the upper part of town became known as "Little Italy." As it grew, a new, more permanent church building was sought, so parishioners bought the chapel of old Calvary Cemetery. The first child was baptized there in September 1904. The chapel was formally established as a church when Fr. A. Bucci dedicated the chapel of the old cemetery as St. Peter's Church on July 4, 1915. Old Calvary's historic chapel survives today in the parish and buildings of St. Peter's Italian Catholic Church, 1039 N Broadway. Historic old Calvary Cemetery was built over and much of it is now occupied by Cathedral High School.

Current plots

The current site across the river and uphill, measuring 137 acres, was dedicated in 1896. All Souls

Chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

was built on the grounds in 1902, and was dedicated on

All Souls' Day All Souls' Day, also called The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, is a day of prayer and remembrance for the faithful departed, observed by Christians on 2 November. In Western Christianity, including Roman Catholicism and certain p ...

of that same year. Bishop

George Thomas Montgomery George Thomas Montgomery (December 30, 1847 – January 10, 1907) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the first American-born Bishop of Monterey-Los Angeles (1896–1902) and later served as Coadjutor Archbishop of San Fra ...

offered a

Solemn Pontifical Mass A Pontifical High Mass, also called Solemn Pontifical Mass, is a Solemn or High Mass celebrated by a bishop using certain prescribed ceremonies. Although in modern English the word ''pontifical'' is almost exclusively associated with the pope, a ...

on a temporary altar at the site, and afterwards presided at the setting in place of the cornerstone. It was designed as a replica of the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

of St. Giles in the rural town of

Stoke Poges Stoke Poges () is a village and civil parish in south-east Buckinghamshire, England. It is centred north-north-east of Slough, its post town, and is southeast of Farnham Common. In 2021, it had a population of 5,067. Geography Hamlets withi ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, in England. That church is believed to have been the setting of the famed 18th-century poem ''

Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard ''Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard'' is a poem by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. The poem's origins are unknown, but it was partly inspired by Gray's thoughts following the death of the poet Richard West in 1742 ...

''. The chapel became one of the most visited places of worship in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

after its opening. All Souls Chapel is now used primarily for burial services. The Main

Mausoleum A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A mausoleum without the person's remains is called a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type o ...

, with a new chapel, was built in 1929. It was designed by architect

Ross Montgomery Ross Montgomery (born 16 October 1962), nicknamed The Boss, is a Scottish former professional darts player who competes in World Seniors Darts (WSD) events. He formerly participated in both World Darts Federation (WDF) and Prof ...

.Online Archive of California: Ross Montgomery
/ref>John Chase, ''Glitter Stucco and Dumpster Diving'', Verso, 2004, p. 61
/ref> Two additional mausoleums, Our Lady's Garden and

Gethsemane Gethsemane ( ) is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus Christ underwent the Agony in the Garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. The garden is ...

, have since been built. The cemetery has its own

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secular institution (such as a hospital, prison, military unit, intellige ...

and daily

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

is offered in the chapel of the Main Mausoleum.

Notable burials

References

External links