Councils 1616 & 15439 Cemetery Clean-up Discovery
- Wed, Apr 21, 2021 7:54 AM
Annually, typically in late October or early November, after the final leaves have fallen, the Knights of Columbus council 1616 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, under the direction of their Grand Knight Dan Barnett, have banded together for the annual cemetery cleanup. They have done this for the last several decades; a corporal work of mercy in the spirit of burying the dead.
It’s a time when brother Knights gather with rakes, tarps, and leaf blowers in hand to remove what seemed like tons of leaves from the Catholic section of the public Riverside cemetery. The last few years, St Augustine Cathedral council 15439, led by Grand Knight Drew Uryga, established only 10 years ago, has join in the cleanup crusade.
During the most recent outing in the late fall of 2020 as the leaves cleared, the band of brother Knights noticed one, lone toppled headstone with the name “Luby” on it. The rest of the inscription was buried underneath. A small papal flag stood next to it.
With our local Cathedral Rector and Kalamazoo Diocesan Chaplain, Fr. Robert Creagan, joining us, we asked, “why the flag?” He told us that he placed it there knowing the local history of Fr. Thomas Luby, the only priest buried in this Catholic section of the larger public cemetery. It sits just over the hill from Borgess Hospital, established in the 1880s to care for the sick by the Sisters of St. Joseph.
Several of us thought, well, for a priest from many years ago who served our diocese here, and as part of our corporal works of mercy, we should restore the headstone and give it the respect it deserves.
It turns out that the 95th anniversary of Fr. Luby’s death was just a few weeks away in December. The Knights thought how great it would be to pursue this project and complete it in time to commemorate his passing.
After connecting the dots with the local funeral home director and the monument company, the council was able to work with them to raise the stone and put it back in its rightful place, appropriately remembering death, or Momento Mori.
On a brisk Saturday morning a couple weeks later, a few of the Knights were there to greet the worker with the monument company coming from Grand Rapids, MI. His truck was decked out with the hydraulic lift needed to tackle a project like this. From the hands of vandals to the care of workers, the 1-ton stone was ready to be raised and placed on its base.
Something wasn’t right, though the etchings dated on the stone were still covered in dirt they didn’t match the name and dates of Fr. Luby. Some further research confirmed this was actually the site of Lawrence Luby, his uncle. Nonetheless, it was gratifying to fix the damage.
But then where was Fr Luby? We were eager to find out.
With a little sleuthing through county records, an image was found online of his gravesite. It was indeed in the cemetery and had to be somewhere nearby.
One of the Knights began walking the nearby hill, and it wasn’t long before he was able to find the actual site of where Fr. Luby rested. There he was on a steep hill, next to a tall Shagbark Hickory tree with weeds overgrown around it. With an etching of a chalice noting the memory of a priest stood the lost stone of Reverend Thomas Luby.
With a little bit more searching, we found the stone of Michael and Mary Luby, his devoted parents buried only a few feet away as well.
So, on December 12, 2020 and on the 95th anniversary of Fr Thomas Luby's death, Fr. Bob from Saint Augustine Cathedral Parish, on a windy and rainy day blessed the headstone and remembered a local brother parish priest who served our diocese so many years ago.
This simple corporal act of raking leaves in a forgotten section of a cemetery led two councils to fulfilling our Knights of Columbus principles. As so much time flew by, we labored together and still remembered a devoted priest’s life & death.
Tempus fugit, momento mori.
Ed Amat Council 15439