Praying for the deceased.

Funeral and Interment

A HandmaidHISTORY

Funeral for Mother David Marie, H.P.B. and Interment for Handmaids of the Precious Blood at New Home in Tennessee

Throughout the summer, we were working to move our entire cemetary in NM to our new house in TN. Ultimately 40 remains needed to be disinterred and transported across the country. While some were able to be shipped by normal means, our Bishop in Knoxville took the extraordinary and unprecedented step of flying all the way to NM and driving the remaining cremains back to TN by himself. Bishop Stika personally wanted to be part of this special moment in Handmaid history and we cannot thank him enough.

What is more, the day he arrived in Knoxville with the cremains, our very last pioneer Handmaid, Mother David Marie of Our Mother of Sorrows, passed away peacefully. So she was able to join all her fellow Sisters when they too came home to Benton, TN. She led our community for 18 years as the Mother General and was instrumental in obtaining our pontifical status as a cloistered community.

Never in Handmaid history has there been a funeral and commemoration quite like this one and we are grateful to the entire Diocese of Knoxville, the Knights of Columbus, Saint Mary’s Parish in Athens, the family and staff of Bridges Funeral Home, the Chattanooga Wilbert Vault Company, and Mr. Bill Garren as well as the many, many people who gave of themselves so generously to make this funeral and interment so unique and special.

All are in our prayers of deep gratitude.

Special thanks to Stephanie Richers for providing the photography services. Photo Gallery Below.