Catholic Cemeteries of Halifax

One of the most important things that you can do is to plan your estate, funeral and final burial arrangements within the guidelines of your faith.

Our approach is pressure-free, because our staff do not work on commission and have no vested interest in your decisions.

You can pre-arrange, and pay for, your ground lot or cremation niche. Cremation can also be pre-arranged and paid for.

There are a number of benefits to pre-planning your cemetery and funeral arrangements.

• Pre-planning will greatly relieve your family of the emotional stress of making difficult decisions at the time of death. To pre-plan is an act of kindness to those we love.
• Pre-planning will relieve your family of the costs associated with making arrangements at time of death. Pre-planning is a essential part of estate planning. It allows you to make informed decisions concerning your burial decisions and memorialization options.
• It allows families to work within a budget that they can afford at today’s prices no matter how many years in advance the purchase is made.
• Interest free monthly payment plans are available
• Pre-planning provides direction to the executor of your estate.
• Secures a final resting place in consecrated ground.

• A good first step is a meeting with one of our staff members. This is best done by appointment.
• Our staff can give you a tour of any cemetery and explain the options and costs involved.
• When you make a purchase, a contract is drawn up, and the pertinent details, including the cemetery by-laws, are provided to you.
• Talk to your family about your decisions or preferences. Even if you do not purchase anything in advance, your family should be aware of what you want, and don’t want. If you fill out an Estate Planning Guide, make sure your family knows where it is kept.

In our modern society, it is our responsibility to treat human remains (including cremated remains) with dignity and respect, and to place them on property dedicated for that purpose. Today's burial grounds, or cemeteries/memorial gardens, serve as a central location for survivors to visit, to reflect, to remember and to heal.

Cemeteries also provide a link with history. Many people visit pioneer or veterans' cemeteries to remember, and be inspired by ancestors who developed our communities and served our country.

The cemeteries are open to all.

Cremation Burial Options

Cremation Columbaria are granite structures with niches where urns with cremated remains may be placed. Memorialization of the deceased is engraved on the granite front of the niche.

Cremation Garden in ground burial provides for the cremated remains to be placed in a protective and commemorative urn and buried with the same ritual as a traditional burial.

Cremated remains may also be placed in an existing family grave when space and burial rights allow.

Memorial Urns are available for purchase at the cemetery office. We offer the finest collection of urns in a variety of unique colours, materials and designs. Both single and companion urns are available.

Ground Burial Options

In-ground burials describe traditional burials for casketed or cremated remains which are buried in the ground. A final resting place for you and/or your loved one also provides the comfort of knowing family and friends have a place to visit and reflect that’s in a beautiful, peaceful, serene setting that is maintained throughout the year.

Cremation has been an acceptable option for Catholics since 1963. Today, an increasing number of Catholics are choosing cremation as opposed to casket burial or entombment in a crypt. The cremated remains must be treated with respect. They should be interred or entombed. We don’t provide scattering gardens because separating cremated remains ins contrary to Catholic teaching.

We offer a variety of choices for cremation, all of them in keeping with the requirements of the Church. All of our Catholic cemeteries have graves for burials of cremated remains, as well as outdoor niches for the placement of cremation urns.

People choose cremation for many different reasons:

• Cultural or family tradition
• Personal preference
• Cost

We strive to balance individual and family decoration choices with the overall administration of a large cemetery system to assure order, beauty and tidiness. By our policies we strive to avoid subjectivity and assure objectivity in handling decorations. Please see our Rules and Regulations, Boundaries and Care of Lots for more information.

Cremated remains can be interred in existing family graves (depending on permission being given by the current lessee of the exclusive right of burial). Maintenance and Care fee applies as follows: Upon the sale of a single lot a Maintenance and Care fee will be charged. Upon the interment in a lot which was sold prior to the establishment of the Maintenance and Care Fund the current fee for Maintenance Care will be charged, and Interments in excess of one in a single lot will each be charged a Maintenance and Care fee. Please see our Rules and Regulations.

For those individuals who have chosen cremation there are various options. Gate of Heaven, Holy Cross and Mount Olivet Cemeteries offer a niche in a columbarium or an in-ground grave option in the cremation gardens.

This is the outside container into which the casket is placed. A burial vault is designed to protect the casket and keeps the grave surface from sinking in. Concrete burial vaults are available for purchase at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery.

The interment fee includes administration and permanent record keeping (determining ownership, obtaining permission and the completion of other documentation which may be required, entering the interment particulars in the interment register, maintaining all legal files); opening and closing the grave (locating the grave and laying out the boundaries, excavating and filling the interment space); installation and removal of the lowering device; placement and removal of artificial grass dressing at the grave site, leveling, tamping and re-grading.

A portion of the purchase price of the grave is contributed to a maintenance and care fund. Income from the maintenance and care fund is used to provide regular care and maintenance at the cemetery. Regular care and maintenance activities can include: cutting grass, regrading of graves, planting and caring for trees, roads, drainage, etc.

The owner has exclusive and permanent right of use through an Indenture. Beyond the owner's spouse, who has full control and the first right of burial, this right passes to direct blood heirs immediately after the death of the original owner. A married couple is considered a joint owner.

Written permission of the heirs may be required for burial. Beyond children, it is often very difficult to establish control and permission. Therefore, we strongly encourage all owners of burial rights to complete a Burial Right Assignment Form to make official burial assignments prior to their death. This will prevent unnecessary stress at the time when permission is essential. The document can be easily amended if new circumstances arise.

No. Catholic Cemeteries of Halifax does not recognize the sale of burial rights between private parties. However, burial rights may be transferred to another person, preferably a family member, by written notification to our office.

Our 150-year historical databases are not updated to reflect generations beyond the original owners of burial rights. Contacting all owners, heirs of burial rights and other interested parties is, therefore, not possible. We make significant effort to communicate policy changes.

When you purchase a grave you are in fact purchasing the right to designate who may be interred in the space, rather than purchasing the grave itself, which remains the property and responsibility of the cemetery. You will receive a copy of the Rules and Regulations for the cemetery. You also have a right to place a memorial on the grave site.

It is very helpful for family members to:

• meet with their parish priest as soon as possible after the death of their loved one in order to plan the funeral celebration in accordance with Archdiocesan policy.
• the priest is ready to meet and support the family by offering the consolation that comes from faith and expressing the care and concern of the entire parish community.
• contact their choice of funeral home.
• contact our cemetery office  at (902) 429-9800 ext. 308

At this time, we are unable to fulfill genealogy research requests.

Please visit the following resources to assist you in your search:

1. Holy Cross Historicial Trust
2. Nova Scotia Archives
3. Find a Grave