Catholic Cemetery, formerly known as the Stone Street Cemetery, is a historic

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

located in Mobile,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. It was established in 1848 by

Michael Portier Michael Portier (September 7, 1795, Montbrison, France – May 14, 1859, Mobile, Alabama) was an American Catholic bishop who served as the first Bishop of Mobile from 1829 until his death in 1859. Portier emigrated from France in 1817, a ...

, a native of Montbrison,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and the first

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 ...

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of Mobile. The cemetery contains roughly 18,000 burials and has plots dedicated to various

religious institute In the Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public religious vows, vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, a ...

s, including the

Brothers of the Sacred Heart The Brothers of the Sacred Heart () is a Catholic lay religious congregation of Pontifical Right for Men founded by André Coindre (1787–1826) in 1821. Its constitution was modeled upon that of the Jesuits, while its rule of life was based upo ...

, Daughters of Charity, Little Sisters of the Poor, and

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...

.Sledge, John Sturdivant. ''Cities of Silence: A Guide to Mobile's Historic Cemeteries'', pp. 66–79. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2002. It was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on July 3, 1991, as a part of the

Historic Roman Catholic Properties in Mobile Multiple Property Submission The Historic Roman Catholic Properties in Mobile Multiple Property Submission is a multiple property submission of Roman Catholic properties in Mobile, Alabama, that were listed together on the National Register of Historic Places. The submissio ...

History

Catholic Cemetery was established by the

Archdiocese of Mobile ''Former names: Apostolic Vicariate of Alabama and the Floridas (1825-1829), Diocese of Mobile (1829-1954; 1969-1980), Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham (1954-1969).'' The Archdiocese of Mobile (Latin: ''Archidiœcesis Mobiliensis'') is a Latin Church ...

on December 18, 1848, when the first acreage was purchased north of Three Mile Creek by Bishop Michael Portier. It was founded to serve the needs of Mobile's

citizens after the Catholic section of Church Street Graveyard was filled to capacity after various yellow fever epidemics struck the city in the 1830s. The 1848 section covers and features an unusual design consisting of three large concentric rings, instead of the more typical east–west configuration. The circular design surrounds a square plot dedicated to the Daughters of Charity, with a large marble monument in the center commemorating their sacrifices during a yellow fever outbreak in 1853. It was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted in this manner under the direction of Portier and was possibly executed by Claude Beroujon, who designed Mobile's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception a decade earlier. The vast majority of burials predate the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. By January 1866 the older section of the cemetery was full, prompting Bishop John Quinlan to purchase an additional adjacent to the existing area. The new section was planned with a grid configuration, with the grave plots oriented to a new central drive. This section contains the plots for the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, Little Sisters of the Poor, and Sisters of Mercy. It contains the graves of Father Ryan and Admiral

Raphael Semmes Raphael Semmes ( ; September 27, 1809 – August 30, 1877) was an officer in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War. He had served as an officer in the United States Navy from 1826 to 1860. During the American Civil War, Semmes was c ...

, which made it an important

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

pilgrimage site during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This area of the cemetery was expanded numerous times by land purchases in 1903, 1910, and 1921. In keeping with its main purpose as a religious burial ground, a permanent altar with a tall bronze

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

scene was added by 1929 for the

All Soul's 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 Christianity, Christians on 2 November. In Western Christianity, including Catholic Church, ...

Mass and Rosary. The New Catholic Cemetery was opened to the rear of the older burials in 1948, greatly expanding the total acreage of the cemetery as a whole. This newest section offered perpetual care, something lacking within the older sections. The oldest areas of the cemetery became neglected, vandalized, and overgrown after this period, as family members died or moved away. Efforts to tame this area began in 1984, but it had become overgrown again within a decade. The archdiocese hired a crew to keep the cemetery clear of overgrowth in 1998 and 2006 saw the formation of the Friends of Catholic Cemetery, an organization dedicated to restoring the cemetery to its former state.

Notable interments

Tommie Aaron Tommie Lee Aaron (August 5, 1939 – August 16, 1984) was an American professional baseball player and coach. He played as a first baseman and left fielder in Major League Baseball. Aaron was the younger brother of Hall of Fame member Hank Aa ...

, baseball player, coach and brother of

Hank Aaron Henry Louis Aaron (February 5, 1934 – January 22, 2021), nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin' Hank", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976. Considered one ...

. * Timothy Meaher, a wealthy 19th century shipyard owner and shipper. He owned the infamous slave ship '' Clotilda''. * John L. Rapier, owner of the ''

Mobile Register The ''Press-Register'' (known from 1997 to 2006 as the ''Mobile Register'') was a newspaper serving the southwest Alabama counties of Mobile and Baldwin. The newspaper is a descendant of one founded in 1813, making the ''Press-Register'' Alaba ...

'' and

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

of Mobile. * Father

Abram Joseph Ryan Abram Joseph Ryan (born Matthew Abraham Ryan; February 5, 1838 – April 22, 1886) was an Catholic Church in the United States, American Catholic poet, priest, journalist, orator, and former Congregation of the Mission, Vincentian. Historians disa ...

, widely known as the "Poet-Priest of the Confederacy." * Admiral Raphael Semmes, captain of the famous commerce raider CSS ''Alabama''.

References

{{Mobile, Alabama National Register of Historic Places in Mobile, Alabama Cemeteries in Mobile, Alabama Roman Catholic cemeteries in Alabama Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile Cemeteries on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama 1848 establishments in Alabama Cemeteries established in the 1840s