Purple wild petunias dotted the grass between the gravestones at Historic St. Ignatius Church on July 31.
Rosaries, medals and small religious statues rested among them, placed there over the years by Ruth Sands, who has spent nearly a decade caring for the centuries-old cemetery in St. Inigoes in Southern Maryland.
“When I first came here, there was only one grave that had something on it,” Sands said. “I love to decorate the cemetery.”
Most of the items are donated. Others are treasures she finds in thrift stores. Sands carries them among the headstones until each one finds a home.
“I love this place,” she said. “It is one of my favorite places, and I feel nothing but good spirits here and good vibes here.”
The cemetery surrounded the small historic church as Catholics gathered inside to celebrate the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. Jesuit Father William George celebrated the Mass and reflected on one of the saint’s best-known spiritual teachings: “Find God in all things.”
“That might sound a bit pantheistic,” Father George said. “But didn’t God create everything? And God sustains everything that is in existence and has given us all of creation to care for.”
He drew upon the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit priest, philosopher, theologian, scientist and paleontologist whose work explored the relationship between faith, creation and the evolving universe.
Teilhard brought St. Ignatius’s teaching into conversation with the scientific discoveries of his era, Father George said. His ideas about evolution once drew restrictions from Church authorities, yet his writings later became influential among Catholics seeking to understand creation through both faith and science.
Quoting Teilhard, Father George told the congregation, “Love is the most universal, formidable and mysterious of cosmic energies.”
He connected Teilhard’s words to the Christian proclamation by St. Paul, that “God is love”, and invited worshippers to consider the energy present throughout creation: in the trees surrounding the cemetery, the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, the sun, distant stars and the vast reaches of the universe.
He then turned their attention inward.
“Look at your very self,” Father George said. “What energizes you? What gives you the ability to appreciate beauty, to just sometimes get a rush when you walk into a place?”
He described the awe of entering St. Peter’s Basilica, the moment a mother hears her newborn cry for the first time and the exhilaration of a first kiss.
“That’s the energy within you,” he said. “It’s your soul that gives you the energy of just exactly who you are.”
Father George pointed to the Transfiguration, when the disciples saw Jesus’ face shining with a brilliance greater than the sun, as a scriptural image of divine energy.
“Energy,” he said. “Interesting thought, isn’t it?”
Science teaches that energy is transferred rather than destroyed, he told the congregation. Through the eyes of faith, he said, the soul returns to God, “the source of all love.”
“Our souls are a genetic connection to God,” Father George said. “You are temples of the Holy Spirit. That’s God within you. It’s not a fiction. It’s not a feeling. It’s real.”
Following Communion and before the final blessing, Father George directed the congregation’s attention to a new bronze marker resting beneath the altar, with a statue depicting Christ in the tomb behind it.
He blessed the marker with incense and holy water, then spoke about the history it records.
“I think this is a very historic moment when we place this,” Father George said, “because we’re telling the truth about us Jesuits.”
The marker states that, according to historical records, approximately 200 to 250 people were buried in the cemetery between 1785 and 1936, when St. Ignatius ceased to be an active parish. In 1788, graves from an earlier chapel built in 1745 were transferred to the cemetery, including some burials dating to 1731.
Among those buried there are enslaved African Americans whose gravestones have been lost, including Louisa Mahoney Mason, who was buried in 1909.
Mason's story has become one of the best documented among those enslaved by the Maryland Jesuits. During the 1838 sale of 272 enslaved men, women and children to Louisiana, she escaped capture after Jesuit Father Joseph Carbery, who managed the St. Inigoes plantation, warned enslaved people that slave traders were coming. According to Georgetown University and previous reporting by the Catholic Standard, Mason and her mother hid in the woods until the slave ships departed, while her sister, Anna Mahoney Jones, and her family were sold to Louisiana.
Father George acknowledged that history directly.
Her burial is known because her enslaver was buried at the site, Father George explained.
"I apologize for the sins of my ancestors as Jesuits in this county," he said. "It was terrible that they enslaved people."
The marker also identifies the iron-fenced plots containing the graves of former pastors of St. Ignatius Church including Father Carbery and notes that ancestors of some of Maryland's earliest Catholic families are buried in the cemetery.
Father George thanked Sands, John Zyla and Marie Tarleton for their work. He credited Zyla with helping ensure the marker’s historical accuracy and Tarleton with helping guide the preservation society’s efforts.
The July 31 celebration also marked the first Mass held in the church after air conditioning was installed through the generosity of donors.
The July 31 celebration also marked the first Feast of St. Ignatius Mass in the historic church with air conditioning.
“This is the first Mass that the church has been air-conditioned,” Father George said, prompting laughter from the congregation. Having celebrated the annual feast at Historic St. Ignatius since 1975, he added, “I’m usually soaking wet by the time Mass is over.”
As the liturgy concluded, parishioners gathered around the newly blessed marker, reading its inscription and kneeling in prayer before leaving the church.
Father George left them with the invitation that had anchored his homily.
"Find God in all things," he said, "and you'll have the joy of knowing what it means to be a child of God."
Outside, Ruth Sands returned to the cemetery she has cared for over the past decade.
"I think I've actually inspired a couple other people to decorate their ancestors' graves," she said.
