Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma has a large section set aside for our men and women who have served in our military.  The Star of the Sea Veterans section features a display of the United States flag, flags representing each branch of the Armed Forces, and a flag remembering our POWs and MIAs.  Each Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day, the members and friends of the South San Francisco Girl Scout Troop come to

decorate each veteran’s grave in this section with an American flag.  Afterwards, you can hear them in a patriotic sing-along.  They remind us that we have a responsibility to continue to tell our nation’s story of a quest for freedom and justice, and aresponsibility to honor the stories of our veterans.

With so many sales this weekend in our shopping malls and car dealerships, we hope that you make time to celebrate the true meaning of Memorial Day.  Please come to visit your loved ones at our cemeteries this Memorial Day weekend; please join with us in prayer at our Masses; and we encourage you to at least join in the National Moment of Remembrance at 3pm local time for a minute of silence in honor of those who have died in service to the nation.

The original designs were created by the Conrad Pickel Studios of Vero Beach, FL, Lyn Durham artist, in conjunction with former cemetery director Kathy Atkinson and San Francisco architect Irving Gonzales.

The use of mosaic as an art form can be traced back over 8000 years to Mesopotamia.  Mosaic art is the process of decorating a surface by laying small colored pieces of stone or glass in a permanent setting.  The artists and craftsmen select each color cutting the sheets of colored glass with a sharp hammer and fitting precisely each piece.  The pieces are glued to paper which is the full size drawing prepared by the artist. Once the gluing process is complete the visible mosaic is covered with a butter coat of cement and the section is lifted and set against the prepared receiving wall.  Slowly the paper backing is soaked off, gradually revealing in all its glory the beauty of the mosaic design and colors.  After each full size colored drawing was prepared by artist Lyn Durham, the drawings were sent to Pickel associates near Venice, Italy where the painstaking process of selecting and fitting each piece takes place.  Once glued to paper, the mosaics are returned to Pickel where the setting process into polished bronze frames takes place. Each mosaic may have literally thousands of pieces, as is the case for the Our Lady of the Rosary mosaics.  The artisans may spend weeks on each mosaic and may spend several days in composing just a single head.

The mosaic can last for centuries and the color will never fade.

Our Family Service Counselors will be happy to show you the new buildings and answer any questions you may have.  Single, tandem and companion crypts are available.