As the sun rises over San Antonio each morning, it is greeted by members of the Society of Mary who have given their lives to the order and to St. Mary’s University. Nearly 170 men and women have taken their places in the Marianist Cemetery on the campus.

The cemetery has undergone changes since the first Marianist was buried there in 1908. “When I started school here in 1931, it had a little fence around the edge with stone pillars,” said Brother John Totten, S.M. “Now it’s bigger and set in relation to the chapel.”

The main change came even before the cemetery went into service. Originally the cemetery was to face campus buildings to the south but Brother Ferdinand Leimkuehler, S.M., suggested an eastward gaze for the departed. He got the configuration changed, but we can only assume he’s facing east. Even though Leimkuehler has a gravesite, he is not buried here because he died in Baltimore and is buried there.

Leimkuehler’s grave at St. Mary’s is one of two that are empty but marked with a headstone. The other belongs to Timothy O’Neill who died in 1853 and was buried in San Antonio, long before the opening of the campus cemetery. He is honored with the 130th headstone in the campus cemetery, but the whereabouts of his actual grave are unknown.

The first Marianist laid to rest on campus was Brother Charles Francis. However, several members of the Society who died before Francis were moved from other San Antonio cemeteries to the site at St. Mary’s.

In addition to Marianists, six lay people and a Marist brother are buried in the cemetery.