Those who die with no family will have mourners at their funeral thanks to Bellarmine’s St. Joseph of Arimathea Society.
The new RSO assists with indigent burials, which are funerals for those with no money or family to bury them. The organization gets its name from St. Joseph, who according to the Christian Gospels, was the man who buried Christ when no one else would.
Society president Lily Miller explained the purpose of indigent burials. “Our goal is to honor and celebrate the lives that are overlooked,” she said. “Every life deserves to be remembered and honored, and even if we don't know the person, there were people who knew them at some point, even if they're not present at their deaths.”
This RSO is the latest in a series of similar high school and college organizations around the city that are dedicated to assisting in indigent burials. Every Thursday, students meet at Meadow View Cemetery to carry the casket as pall bearers or simply attend the service. Bellarmine students rotate duties with students from St. X, Trinity, DeSales, Sacred Heart, Assumption and Presentation Academy.
Dr. Amy Tudor teaches classes on death and dying at Bellarmine, and she has experience attending indigent burials.
Tudor attended the burial of a homeless man with no family or money to pay for a traditional service. “It was one of the most moving experiences I've ever had,” Tudor said. “Imagine the circumstances of this man's death, you know, he dies homeless, he’s been on the street alone for much of his life, but then, here’s this this group of people that are there to honor him.”
Louisville’s indigent burial program has been running since the 1980s, but it has changed hands many times. The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office first ran it, but it is now the responsibility of Catholic Charities of Louisville.
Catholic Charities Indigent Burial Coordinator Matthew Whisman said the indigent burial program is important to him because his mother passed away while he was in college and he had no money to bury her.
“Luckily, I had family that did. But being an only child, you know, if I wouldn't have had that support system, I would have been in a situation similar to many of the people I help here,” he said. "It's just one of those things we do as Catholics, you know? Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, bury the dead."
Although the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society’s namesake comes from the Catholic tradition, Miller said no one has to be religious to get something out of the club.
“Some members are very religious,” Miller said, “but most of the people who have signed up for this society so far are actually in circles that I know don't practice or are agnostic or something like that. We’re not going to preach anything to you in this club. We're just giving everyone a space to express their ideas about death.”
The space Miller is referring to is the club’s secondary function of hosting what it calls “death cafés.”
“That's the other, more fun part of the experience,” Miller said. “So, while we have the serious components of indigent burials, we also want to make sure we have death cafés. Free, guided discussions that we want to make sure that students have a place where they can bring any thoughts they have.”
Miller said the group brings in speakers who are from notable careers that deal with death, such as health care communities or religious systems that have different views on death than what a person would typically find at a Catholic university. Then, they eat cake.
The club is looking for people to assist with indigent burials and for more attendees at their next death café. For more information, email Miller at lmiller@bellarmine.edu.