Nonprofit provides dignified memorial services, burials for unclaimed children
More than a dozen people gathered at Calvary Cemetery on April 21 to bury an infant none of them knew.
Baby Pier Giorgio was stillborn on Nov. 27, delivered at home, weighing 2 pounds and measuring 16 inches long. His mother had a brain injury and was not aware that she was pregnant before giving birth.
His simple wooden casket rested on a table in front of the altar in the cemetery’s mausoleum chapel as those in attendance prayed for his soul and for his parents, entrusting him to God’s loving care.
When we encounter a tragic situation like this one, our natural inclination is to ask God why it happened, Deacon John Marino said during the service.
“There’s no simple answer, certainly not an answer that is understandable to us,” he said. “But there is one certainty: That certainty is our hope in God’s mercy, which is infinite and beyond our comprehension.”
The casket was carried to a gravesite where baby Pier Giorgio was laid to rest in a plot alongside other children buried with the help of Garden of Innocents.
Garden of Innocents is a nonprofit that provides dignified memorial services and burials for unclaimed infants and children in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Since its founding in 2003, the organization has buried more than 50 infants and children without any next of kin who otherwise would not have had a proper burial, founder and president Rebeca Navarro-McKelvey said.
“This is a tiny little person. I think it’s always important to remember that all of us were like this years ago,” she said. “He’s a person, and that’s why we’re here to commemorate his life and give thanks for it and mourn (him) as a member of our community.”
Garden of Innocents buries an average of one or two children each year who are considered unclaimed and are in the care of area medical examiners. (In baby Pier Giorgio’s case, his mother was not well enough to make arrangements and no other family was willing to take responsibility.) Most of them are infants who died before birth, but some have been victims of homicide or abandoned by mothers experiencing mental health or substance abuse issues, Navarro-McKelvey said.
The children are buried in a special plot at Calvary Cemetery, marked by a memorial stone with each of their names inscribed. The site was donated by the late Msgr. Robert L. McCarthy, who served as director of Catholic Cemeteries when the organization was founded.
Volunteers sew layettes to dress the babies, put together floral arrangements, provide transportation and perform other tasks to make the services possible. High school students crafted the caskets, engraved on top with the Garden of Innocents emblem. Musicians Mark Rice and Cathy and Chuck Phillips lead the singing; on April 21, they were joined at the gravesite by Tim Monahan playing “Amazing Grace” on the Great Highland bagpipe.
Rice learned about Garden of Innocents from his sister, Pam, who had volunteered to sew funeral gowns. He’s been leading music for the memorial services for about 20 years, he estimates, but plans the song selections according to each individual child.
“We reflected on the death of (baby) Pier Giorgio, and he didn’t really have a chance to be held,” said Rice, who attends St. Ferdinand in Florissant. “So we were looking for ways to have music that would help embrace him as a child of God, as God lifts up him in the palm of His hand to eternity.”
Since most of the children they receive do not yet have a name, Navarro-McKelvey, a parishioner at St. Peter in St. Charles, prayerfully chooses one after a patron saint or virtue.
St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, canonized recently in September, was a young Italian man who gave generously of himself to others before dying at age 24. Other recent names chosen for baby boys were Carlo and Dominic, after other young male saints Carlo Acutis and Dominic Savio.
During the memorial service, Navarro-McKelvey shares what she knows about the deceased child’s life, and then a short summary of the saint they are named after. Afterward, she’s often had people who attended share with her that they were inspired to learn even more about the saints and their heroic examples, she said.
“Our ministry says a lot about the sanctity of life but also is a really good way to evangelize,” she said. “There’s a lot of wonderful people that maybe don’t have any kind of faith life or religion who just want to come, and they feel compassion for these children. But being in a religious setting gives them an opportunity to think about the spiritual realm that they might not otherwise have had an opportunity to.”
Employees from the St. Louis City Medical Examiner’s Office and the Regional Medical Examiner’s Office of St. Charles, Franklin and Jefferson counties attended baby Pier Giorgio’s service and burial.
“This is one of our cases, so we want to be here to give our respect to the deceased. We refer these types of cases (to Garden of Innocents), so we always want to see it through and be here to honor the baby, because their parents and family aren’t here,” Regional Medical Examiner director of operations Kathleen Hargrave said.
Hargrave, a parishioner at St. Justin Martyr in Sunset Hills, has been with the medical examiner’s office for 35 years and has attended a number of burials with Garden of Innocents. After the gravesite service, she scanned the memorial stone for all the names she remembered.
“Every human being deserves a respectful burial and that recognition, because their lives matter,” she said.
Garden of Innocents
The public is invited to attend burial services for children laid to rest by the organization. The group also welcomes volunteers to assist with services.
For more information, visit Garden of Innocents on Facebook, gardenofinnocents.org or email volunteer@ gardenofinnocents.org.
