Vera Cruz Cemetery: heritage, faith and devotion

Abstract

The present work aims to demonstrate the importance of the Vera Cruz Municipal Cemetery as a space of memory, sociabilities, rituals of passage, devotional practices, that is, a material and immaterial patrimony of the Passo-Fundense community as a place of veneration “Popular saint” Maria Elizabeth de Oliveira. The cemetery was inaugurated on January 1, 1902 and was the city’s first municipal cemetery, it was developed following the urban growth and removing the dead from the center of the city. Often the “last dwelling” demonstrates in its architecture the interests and preferences of the deceased while alive, as well as those of his own family, thus leaving registered his socioeconomic level or even his social position. In this context, having a grave rich in ornaments, large, full of sacred symbols and sculptures can mean divine protection, an eternal rest, in peace and even its social distinction, since this cemetery even being a holy field is also a private space and that it spends some economic investment. In this cemiterial space to get a good place to be buried or even acquire a land is a way to guarantee a material heritage, but also to build a place of memories and socializing practices such as burials, wakes, a place to be visited and worshiped by family members. The Cemetery, the devotion to Mary Elizabeth, as well as several graves of the Vera Cruz cemetery stand out as local heritages, a historical place, a place full of memories, memories, architectural value, art, devotion and beauty.