A Catholic funeral home serving the Diocese of Cleveland since 1928, working in coordination with your pastor and your parish.
Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.
The Order of Christian Funerals, promulgated by the Bishops’ Conference and observed across the Roman Catholic Church, is a three-station rite: the Vigil for the Deceased, the Mass of Christian Burial, and the Rite of Committal. We do not improvise. We follow it.
Held the evening before the Mass — most often at our chapel here on Euclid Avenue. The Vigil is the family’s first public moment together. The Rosary is prayed (a parish priest, a deacon, or a designated lay leader); Scripture is read; a brief homily or reflection is offered. There may be a viewing of the body, depending on family preference. We light the paschal candle, we place the holy water font, and we prepare the room as the liturgical norms call for.
For many Cleveland Catholic families, the Vigil is also when the wider extended family arrives — out-of-town cousins, the parish’s ministers of consolation, the bereavement committee. We hold the space for as long as the family wants it held.
The principal celebration. Held at your home parish — though when needed we coordinate with St. John’s Cathedral, the Shrine of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, and any of the seventy-some parishes in the Diocese of Cleveland.
We arrive at the parish ninety minutes before the Mass. We place the casket at the church door for the reception of the body; we drape the pall (the white linen, signifying baptism); we coordinate the procession. We work with your parish’s music director on the entrance hymn, the Responsorial Psalm, the Offertory, and the Communion music. We do not direct the liturgy — your priest does. We make sure it can happen.
If your family includes those who are not Catholic, we will gently explain the customs (when to stand, sit, kneel; what Communion is and is not) without pressure.
At the cemetery — most often Calvary Cemetery, Holy Cross, St. Joseph, or All Souls. The Rite of Committal is brief and structured: the prayer at the place of committal, the final commendation, the prayer of committal itself, the Lord’s Prayer, and the dismissal. We coordinate with the cemetery, the grave crew, and the family’s schedule for the procession from the parish.
Over four generations, we have served families from St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Casimir, St. Stanislaus, Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Little Italy), St. Rocco, Holy Rosary, Communion of Saints, St. Dominic, Conversion of St. Paul, and dozens more across the East Side, West Side, and Heights. We know each parish’s music director; we know which pastors prefer which version of the General Intercessions. We do not learn your parish on the fly.
The Catholic Church permits cremation but expresses a clear preference for the burial of the body. When cremation is chosen, the cremains are to be reverently interred or entombed in a sacred place — never scattered, never divided, never kept in the home. We arrange Catholic-appropriate cremation in coordination with your parish. We will not scatter cremains; we will not divide them. We are honest about this when families ask.
A traditional Catholic funeral with full Vigil, Mass, and cemetery interment at Calvary Cemetery typically runs $7,400 to $11,200 depending on casket selection, cemetery fees, and parish customs. We provide a written General Price List at our first conversation; we do not change it after the fact.