Monuments and Latin

© Godric Godricson

The cemetery is a place where we 'monumentalise' the dead and record their positive virtues to the exclusion of all other traits. The dead become glorious and good and their weakness is forgotten and minimised. We make the cemetery into a place where the family and the community are re-united at least for a time in marble and, often, in a Latin that we no longer speak

Marble Flooring

© Godric Godricson

"Slow thro' the church-way path we saw him borne"



Jean de Narde (December 2011)

© Godric Godricson



Jean de Narde is an interesting story of a French Napoleonic prisoner of war who was shot trying to escape in East Dereham in 1799. His monument was placed there by the Vicar of East Dereham in 1858 and this event is recorded in the diary of the Vicar now online.

A Norfolk Diary.

“Feb. 17 1858. Today another cross was set up in the churchyard, the inscription under which will speak for itself.  'In memory of Jean de Narde, son of a Notary Public of St. Malo. A French prisoner of war, who, having escaped from the Bell tower of this church, was pursued and shot by a soldier. October 6th, 1799, aged 28 years.”

The obverse of the memorial reads.

"This memorial of his untimely fate has been erected by the Vicar and two friends who accompanied him on a visit to Paris as a tribute to that brave  and generous nation once our foes but now our allies and bretheren. Ainsi soit il. 1857"

Joshua Burroughs - Great Cressingham



d. September 25 1908

© Godric Godricson



Momenti Mori - Malta



Momenti Mori - Malta

© Godric Godricson



This is the sort of 'Momenti Mori' that you tend to see on the Island of Malta around older cemeteries and catacombs. this is a traditional Catholic motif and exhorts the people to a better life by reference to the coming judgement. This theological threat seems a little outdated although the image still has a power and relevance for some people. For me, the image is a way of connecting with the past without buying into everything that our ancestors believed.