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Burials Margaret Brown, James Joseph Brown, John R. McGann | ||
The Cemetery of the Holy Rood is a Roman Catholic cemetery located in Westbury, New York. The 65-acre (0.26 km2) cemetery, established in 1930, is part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre.
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History
In the 1930s, the then-Diocese of Brooklyn established a 65-acre (260,000 m2) cemetery named for the Holy Rood. The grounds of the cemetery are considered part of the greater Hempstead Plains. In 1956, with the creation of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Holy Rood Cemetery's jurisdiction was transferred to the newly formed diocese. The cemetery also contains the burial grounds of Saint Brigid's Cemetery (formerly a part of Saint Brigid's Roman Catholic Church), a cemetery founded in 1856 that was eventually absorbed into the assets-management of Cemetery of the Holy Rood or Catholic Cemeteries.
In 1998, the Diocese of Rockville Centre caused a certain amount of controversy when it announced that mementos and toys could no longer be left on children's graves. Even though leaving such items on graves was always in violation of cemetery rules, officials had previously turned a blind eye to the practice in the children's section.
The Island of Hope
The cemetery contains a triangular grassy area called "The Island of Hope" for the burials of abandoned babies, nearly all of whom are the victims of neonaticide. It is owned by the Children of Hope Foundation, founded by Tim Jaccard, an ambulance medical technician with the Nassau County Police, to pay for funerals and marked graves for abandoned babies and children. As of 2007, 88 children were buried there.