Welcome to St. Boniface

 

St. Boniface gives the impression of being a Catholic cemetery devoted to an immigrant group, probably Germans. I found a new type of monument here and became quite curious about it.

I saw enough versions of the above monument to recognize a style without being able to grasp its meaning. It is a carved stone tree trunk with a broken branch and possibly other decorations (like the crucifix and plaque). Not shown above is the portion of the "bark" that is peeled down with the name of the deceased carved into the "wood." Judging from the names and their frequency in Catholic cemeteries, this style may be from southern Germany or Austria. If you have any idea what the symbolism means, please let me know.

 

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 © 1997 Joe Kelley


 

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