Parishes across the state are considering creating columbariums or adding to their already existing interment gardens. It can bring peace to couples and families who must make these tough decisions about death.

Beth Snyder is the database administrator at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Simpsonville. She said the parish’s six-month columbarium project was dedicated in May.

“It is very serene,” she said. “We have a fountain in the center and a sitting wall around it.”

St. Mary Magdalene’s columbarium includes six structures, with a capacity to accommodate 1,008 urns. Snyder said the parish has sold 160 niches total, “and we’ve already interred 17.”

This is an excellent option for the faithful because currently there are no Catholic cemeteries in the upstate, and Catholics are meant to be buried in consecrated ground.

Spartanburg

“A lot of people want to be interred in a sacred spot,” said Rick Gilliam. He’s in charge of the columbarium at St. Paul the Apostle Church.

St. Paul dedicated its columbarium seven years ago, and it sits behind the church.

Like parishioners at St. Mary Magdalene, people at St. Paul can attend Mass then walk to the columbarium and visit loved ones.

“It’s pretty popular. We’re selling quite a few,” he added. “We have 258 in total, and we have sold over a quarter of them.”

Gilliam said a dual niche costs $8,000, and a single niche costs $4,000. Catholic cemeteries tend to be more reasonably priced than public ones, and he said the parish has not changed the price since the columbarium’s dedication.

“When you buy a niche, you are making a financial contribution to the church,” he added. “All your money is going to be used locally.”

Gilliam explained that cremation and funeral services are separate, however.

Murrells Inlet

Leasa Leewe, an associate in charge of the columbariums at St. Michael the Archangel Church, said they have been well received. Parishioners at St. Michael remember loved ones by holding prayer services at the columbariums once a month.

The biggest structure features 1,244 niches.

“It’s got a beautiful fountain with a statue of Jesus welcoming everybody in,” Leewe said. 

The second columbarium at St. Michael has 468 niches and features a statue of Mary. Both statues were commissioned and created in Italy. The columbarium with the statue of Jesus was consecrated on All Souls’ Day 2012, Leewe said. The one featuring the statue of Mary opened last year.

“We get about one to five calls a day asking us about our columbariums,” Leewe added.

She said she worked for a funeral home previously, so she is direct with inquirers about the details of interring a loved one. There are a few dos and don’ts.

“If there are any discrepancies, I have a sheet with the Vatican’s rulings. You can’t split the ashes. You can’t spread them. They have to be completely interred,” she said. Additionally, remains cannot be preserved in objects like jewelry or kept at home.

Leewe is used to guiding families through the process. 

“If a family calls, I ask, ‘Where is your beloved now?’” Leewe said. “Once they are at the funeral home, the coordination is between the funeral home and us.”

She also said the family picks the crematorium, but they keep both the funeral home and the parish involved. She said that the diocese and the Church prefer the full body to be present during the funeral Mass.

“Once the Mass is over, they go back to the crematorium, and then we have another service at the columbarium,” she said.

Leewe stressed the need for efficiency, with everyone working together for the sake of the family.

North Myrtle Beach

Cremation has become a popular option for parishioners at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church.

“We have an elderly population here,” said Linda Britzke, business manager at the parish. “They like it here. It’s a beautiful garden area,” she said of the parish’s columbarium.

The grounds have been expanded a few times, she added. “We started with the bell tower.”

Now the columbarium boasts a fountain and a walkway; last year’s expansion created all double niches. Husbands and wives are drawn to this option, Britzke said.

“Most of our parishioners already have” the dual niches, she explained. “They start thinking of the future. They see the columbarium, and they say, ‘Oh, this is a good thing.’”

Britzke also thinks it is a good thing, and she is leaning toward cremation and a columbarium in her planning.

“It would be looked after forever. In 100 years’ time, if Star of the Sea does not exist, the diocese would take care of it,” Britzke said of the urns in the columbarium.

With that assurance, surely more people are resting in peace. 

Learn more about Catholic columbariums and burial rites from the Office of Catholic Cemeteries at sccemeteries.org/burial-choices.