THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
Ill 
St. Rochs’ Chapel, New Orleans. 
The Chapel of St. Rochs, (pronounced St. Rox), 
is one of the sights of New Orleans. It was built 
in 1875 by Father Davis — whose tomb is beneath 
the floor in front of the altar — as a mortuary cha- 
pel, and stands in Campo Santo Cemetery. The 
cemetery is only two blocks in extent, and is divi- 
ded by a street so that the ground is in two separ- 
ate sections, each inclosed by a brick, cement cover- 
ed, wall, with quaint, low towers or bastions at the 
corners. It fronts on Washington Avenue, away 
out on the edge of the swamps in the third district 
of the city. The surroundings are unprepossessing 
and apparently unwholesome. Stagnant water 
stands in the open drains that are cut through the 
ST. ROCHS’ CHAPEL, NEW ORLEANS. 
waxy black soil on both sides of the streets, and 
the entire appearance of the vicinity suggests mala- 
ria, yet the streets are fairly built up with dwellings 
quite out to the cemetery walls. 
The main entrance is overhung by a large weep- 
ing willow that droops about the iron gates, and 
partly shrouds a little lodge just inside, where an 
attendant is always at hand to sell at five cents 
each, candles, of which dozens are constantly burn- 
ing before the chapel altars. 
The chapel itself has been likened by some one, 
(Charles Dudley Warner, I think), to a kitchen 
clock, and when seen from the front, its tall, nar- 
row outline does give it an odd resemblance to an 
old fashioned clock, the bell opening far up the 
front of the gable standing for the dial face. It is 
dressed in living green, its covering of Ficus repens 
clinging so closely that the walls of concrete are al- 
most hidden and the roof will soon be smothered in 
foliage. Altogether it wears an old world aspect 
that sets it apart from the general run of American 
cemetery architecture. 
The interior of the building is even more con- 
tracted than the exterior leads one to expect, be- 
cause the slight projections on either side, like ru- 
dimentary wings, are tiers of tombs, the inner clos- 
ed ends of which form the side walls of the narrow, 
high room. The blue domed ceiling is sprinkled 
with golden stars that show faintly in the dim light 
filtering through windows of stained glass. A small 
gallery above the entrance is used by a choir for the 
infrequent chapel services, of which the principal 
one is the annual celebration of the Feast of St. 
Rochs, held on August i6th, St. Rochs’ Day. 
Although built as a mortuary chapel, St Rochs’ 
was turned into a votive shrine by the public dur- 
ing the Yellow fever scourge of ’78, (St. Rochs 
being the patron saint of the sick and troubled), 
and has grown famous in its new role. Persons 
from the most distant parts of the city make Nove- 
na there when desiring relief from illness or sorrow. 
They come in person for nine successive weeks, 
(always on the same day of the week), to burn can- 
dles and say prayers before the altars. The inter- 
ior of the chapel is decorated with paintings illus- 
trating the principal events in the life of St. Rochs, 
who, according to tradition, or Church history, was 
born at Montpelier, France, in 1312, of noble par- 
ents, being the only child of a mother who had long 
prayed for a son. He was found at his birth to 
bear on his left breast a red cross, and was conse- 
crated by his mother to a holy life. But his own 
heart seems to have turned from earliest childhood 
in love and pity to the sick, the poor, and the af- 
flicted; to these he gave not only his time and 
strength, but his inheritance — himself wearing the 
garb and living the life of a member of the order of 
St. Francis. After suffering poverty, sickness and 
distress, he was mistaken for a spy on his return 
from a pious pilgrimage to Rome, and being thrown 
into prison, died in 1337, alone and uncared for in 
a dungeon. On the site of his prison, the original 
Chapel of St. Rochs was built. 
The popularity and efficacy of the patron saint 
of illness and trouble find abundant proof in this 
new-world chapel of St. Rochs in the numerous 
canes and crutches abandoned there by persons res- 
tored to health; by occasional waxen feet and 
hands that are hung on the altars as thank offerings, 
representing the restoration of the use of those 
members; and especially by small marble tablets in- 
scribed with “Thanks” or “Merci” that are so nu- 
merous as to face the fronts and sides of the altars, 
and the walls in their vicinity. Some of these marks 
of gratitude also bear the names of the donors. 
Most of the tablets are about six inches square. 
