Cemeteries

St. Gertrude Cemetery

St. Gertrude Cemetery is located on Hancock Avenue, a few miles away from St. Gertrude Church. Individuals interested in purchasing a plot should contact the parish office.

Cemetery Rules & Regulations

1. ​Lots shall be held subject to the conditions mentioned in the deed of transfer.
2. The right of burial on any lot is restricted to the deed holder’s family and direct heirs.
3. The deed to the right of burial cannot be sold or alienated.
4. Only those entitled to Christian burial according to the laws of the Catholic Church shall be buried in the cemetery.
5. The lot holder shall not enclose the same with a wall, curb, fence, or hedge; neither shall an enclosure be placed about a single grave.
6. The lot holder shall not place an construction or obstruction, shrubs, trees, boxes, vigil lights, bottles, candles, etc., on a single lot or single grave.
7. No other landmark but the markers provided by the cemetery shall be erected.
8. No mound shall be raised on the graves. All graves must be level of the lot.
9. All persons are cautioned against digging ground or sods within the limits of the cemetery or otherwise destroying or defacing cemetery property.
10. In the event an interment must be made before a deed is delivered on a lot held in agreement or on option, a sufficient payment must be made to cover the pro-rata portion of the purchase price of the lot to be occupied by the interment. The maintenance assessment must be paid before interment permission shall be issued.
11. The written consent and approval of the director of the cemetery is required for erecting tombstones, monuments or markers, which consent and approval will not be given until the deed to the right of burial has been delivered, and a bonded guarantee for the said tombstone, monument or marker has been recorded at the cemetery office.
12. St. Gertrude Cemetery is closed to all visitors from sunset to sunrise. All violators shall be judged to be trespassers and will be prosecuted accordingly.

General Provisions

1. ​Decorations are removed when they fail to conform to size and/or material limitations stated herein.
2. Decorations that become unsightly or withered are removed weekly on a regular schedule for the best appearance of your lot and the cemetery. Someone must make this decision, and we hope you will appreciate that we make it as carefully as we can. We have no desire to displease you, and we leave the decorations on as long as their appearance is presentable.
3. Decorations are removed when there are several placed on a grave at one time. Quality, not quantity, makes beauty. If there are many persons to place decorations, please arrange a schedule amongst yourselves so that only one decoration is placed at a time. On monument lots, a single decoration in front of the monument is preferable rather than on an individual grave.
4. Thousands of people visit the cemetery each year; hundreds may visit in a single day. Because the cemetery is open to the public, it is very difficult to control the activity of each visitor. We regret that we cannot guarantee decorations from damage or disappearance.
5. All pots and boxes should be set on the lawn, not dug into the turf. Boxes and pots within the measurements noted afford sufficient stability to prevent overturning. Digging into the turf results in unsightly appearance of the grave when the decoration is removed. Pots and boxes should normally be set in front of and close to the memorial. They may be placed on the marker as long as they do not stain the marker.
6. For safety reasons and to eliminate potential hazards to visitors and workmen, the use of stands or metal legs to elevate pot and box decorations, and the use of metal hooks to keep pots erect, is strictly prohibited.
7. Where monument is erected, annual plants may only be placed in bed directly in front of the raised family memorial. Beds may not exceed the width of the memorial or extend further than 10 inches. Families must provide regular care of plantings, which will be removed if they become unsightly. Unless the lot is under income care, annual care charges must be paid to date. All other plantings are strictly prohibited and will be removed. This includes unauthorized trees, bushes and evergreens.
8. Flags (except for veterans) may be placed on graves only on Memorial Day, Independence Day and Veterans Day. They may be placed for three days prior to the holiday and will be removed the first working day after the holiday.

Decorations for the Growing Season (Apr. 15 – Oct. 15)

1. ​Artificial decorations are not permitted during the growing season
2. Natural cut flowers in approved temporary pin-type vases. Permanent vases are not encouraged. Where installed they may be used, but must be lowered to ground level after the growing season. Such vases are vandalism and damage prone; the cemetery cannot accept responsibility for their loss or damage.
3. Potted plants in six-inch or eight-inch pots. Other sizes are not suitable for cemetery use.
4. Boxed plants cannot exceed 15 inches in length or eight inches in width. Size limits are strictly enforced as larger sizes are difficult to move and replace in the cemetery operations. Flower boxes should be wooden. Boxes of metal, crockery, glass or similar material are not permitted, as they present hazards from breakage or rust stains on memorials.
5. Please remember that all decoration regulations are zoning regulations. They exist more to protect the conscientious lot holder than to hinder him. if there were no regulations, both the cemetery and the contentious lot holder would find  good efforts useless. While we all cannot agree completely on decoration rules, the cemetery has tried to establish the fairest set of rules for all necessities and enforces them fairly and uniformly on all.
6. Please do not outline graves or memorials by stripping a border of sod around the grave. Also, outlining graves or memorials with metal frames or crushed stone is not permitted.
7. Sodding of the new interments is don as soon as ground and weather conditions permit. Spring and fall burials are generally sodded within two weeks, while those of winter and hot summer periods must frequently be deferred for longer periods.
8. The use of the rubbish containers throughout the cemetery for debris disposal will be appreciated.
9. Only fresh flowers used in the vases provided by the cemetery are permitted at the mausoleum. All other decorations, without exceptions, will be removed.