CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — As part of its sesquicentennial celebration, the St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church history committee hosted a walking tour of St. John’s Cemetery that highlighted the site’s Czech roots.
More than 30 people attended the free tour on Saturday, Oct. 5, one of the events to mark 150 years since the founding of the church in 1874.
See photos of last week’s St. Wenceslaus Czech festival
A statue of St. John Nepomucene is seen inside the chapel during the tour at St. John’s Cemetery in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Ideal temperatures and sunny skies welcomed tour-goers to the cemetery, at 1340 17th St. SE. The original site belonged to the predominately Irish Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, with the first burial of a man with the last name of Flaherty and second, a woman with the last name of Sheehan, about 1865.
In the late 1870s, the Irish cemetery moved to what is now Mount Calvary Cemetery, 375 32nd St. Dr. SE, and the current site became the property of the Bohemian Catholics of Cedar Rapids, with the transfer of $900 through the Rev. Francis Chmelar of St. Wenceslaus Church, for $900.
Originally 5 acres, St. Wenceslaus trustees purchased an additional 18 acres for $12,500 in 1911, and in 1922, two members of St. Ludmila Catholic Church were added to the cemetery board, a partnership that continues today.
A crucifix and statues at the top of the hill at St. John’s Cemetery were contributed by the Charypar family. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Tour-goers were able to see inside the buff-colored sandstone chapel, dedicated in 1939 in memory of Josef and Josefina Kanka by their daughter, Julia Dvorak, and view the large crucifix with statues of the Virgin Mary and St. John on the hill in the older portion of the cemetery, contributed by the Charypar family, as the name was then spelled.
A sign at the 17th Street entrance is marked Hřbitov Sv. Jana, in Czech, with the English translation of St. John’s Cemetery on the other side, and some of the headstones are entirely in Czech.
As were many final resting places, St. John’s Cemetery was hard-hit by Iowa’s 2020 hurricane-strength derecho windstorm.
See photos of the derecho damage to cemeteries.
St. Wenceslaus parishioner Elaine (Poduska) Boes, wearing a family kroj with fabric smuggled out of then-Czechoslovakia, was one of the speakers during the tour. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
The tour highlighted the resting places of clergy and others in the history of the parish, with handouts provided to explain some of the Czech words on the headstones, such as odpočívej v pokoji, for “rest in peace,” and the months of the year to help decipher birth and death dates.
Founded in Cedar Rapids in 1874 by Bohemian immigrants, St. Wenceslaus is a Czech national parish, meaning any Catholic can be a member, regardless of parish boundaries.
A Sesquicentennial Mass will be celebrated at St. Wenceslaus Church, 1224 Fifth St. SE, Cedar Rapids, at 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19, with Archbishop Thomas Zinkula, which includes the choir singing Czech songs.
More: See photos of the Czech and Slovak presidential visit to Czech Village in Cedar Rapids and more from the cemetery tour, below:
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