As mentioned in a previous Key Moment article, Cemetery – the early years , Fr.  Samuel Kavanagh took a special interest in beautifying the cemetery grounds during his pastorate. Pastor from 1902 until his death in 1923, Fr. was instrumental in creating gardens and walkways throughout the cemetery – to such a degree that he drew the attention of the local and not so local newspapers. When St. Peter’s was referenced in a newspaper article, it was not uncommon for there to be a corresponding reference to the Parish having one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the country.  In 1915, the Baltimore American ran a full page pictorial of the grounds of St. Peter’s, which highlighted the cemetery, and showed many plantings and walkways constructed under his direction and Fr. could often be seen walking the cemetery, saying his daily office.  In 1918, when our Parish was not quite 100 years old, the cemetery saw its first increase in size.  James M. Sappington (great grands...

Decades prior to the organization of a Respect Life Ministry at St. Peter’s, a Memorial to the Tombless Dead was erected by Fr. William H. I. Reaney in our Cemetery.  Located in the Holy Family section of the Cemetery, th is memorial was built 132 years ago in 1890, and was etched with an inscription from Revelations at the top right-hand side of the front of the structure (covered with ivy in this picture):  In Memoriam of the    TombLess Dead "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord" Also etched on stones at the bottom right hand side of the edifice (and also covered in ivy in this picture) is Fr Reaney’s name and the year the Memorial was constructed: W H I            AD REANEY    1890 This 1890 structure stood in the cemetery for just over 100 years, until Patrick (Pat) Spielman, (Parish maintenance manager from 1990 to 2015), declared the structure unsafe in 1998 – it was crumbling.  Pastor Jo...

  “I am the Immaculate Conception.”  That declaration of the Virgin Mary in response to a question from an uneducated and sickly youngster, Bernadette Soubirous, in Lourdes, France on March 25, 1858 is engraved on the tablet that caps the replica Grotto of Lourdes on the hill overlooking our church.  That apparition occurred a dozen years after the Catholic bishops of the United States of America at the First Council of Baltimore in 1846 chose Mary under the title of her Immaculate Conception, (whose feast is celebrated on December 8) as the patron saint of our nation. Former St. Peter’s pastor Fr. Samuel Kavanagh commissioned the building of the "Grotto of Lourdes" in 1914 to replicate the grotto in France.  It was constructed on a small tract of land adjoining the cemetery, which was donated by James Sappington of S. and Mittie V. Sappington, his wife.   In March 1914 The Citizen newspaper of Frederick reported that “this tract is wooded with excellent oaks a...

William Bunke was born on September 18,1891 [1] and his younger brother, Richard was born on December 28, 1895.  According to descendants of William’s brother, shortly after Richard’s birth, the brothers tragically lost their parents and were placed in a Baltimore orphanage.  By 1900, at age 9, the 1900 census shows William living and working on the Edward Hobbs farm outside the town of Liberty.   When William was 16, Charles Smith, a Catholic, married Edward’s daughter Juliette and in the 1910 census was living with his wife on the Hobb’s farm.  As a result, William was introduced to Catholicism and in 1915, 8 years after meeting Charles, was baptized by Fr. Kavanagh, Pastor of St. Peter’s, into the Catholic faith at age 24 [2] . William was called to serve during WWI and on July 25, 1917, two months before his 26th birthday, he   joined Company A of the 115th Infantry at the Frederick City Armory.  After a training period in Alabama from...

Located adjacent to the church where we worship each week, is St. Peter’s Cemetery, an integral part of the history of our parish.  In addition to being the final resting place for many who attended at St. Peter’s before us, numerous memorials in the cemetery tell a story about the spirit of our forbearers. Ground for the original graveyard was gifted from James M. Coale, son of Richard and Catharine Coale, formalizing the donation by his father. While there are no known records to confirm when the first burials took place, we know that some Catholics who died in earlier years were buried elsewhere and later reinterred to St. Peter’s Cemetery.   One such example is Catharine McSherry Coale.   Her headstone contains an inscription that upon her death in 1815, she was buried at the church yard in Conewago, Pennsylvania and moved to St. Peter’s in October 1860. Early burials are located in the St. Peter’s section of the cemetery, the section closest to Route 75.   Som...