Historic Sites of Manitoba: St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery / Chapel and Winter Vault (506 Osborne Street, Winnipeg)

This Roman Catholic cemetery on Osborne Street in Winnipeg was established on 12 September 1884 and a restoration program began in 1951. It was consecrated on 11 September 1960.

A small brick building designed by local architects Samuel Hooper and Charles Henry Walker, and constructed in 1906 by contractor James McDiarmid, is a chapel and winter vault used when frozen ground prevented the digging of graves. It was demolished in February 2024.

At ground level around the chapel are plaques commemorating noteworthy Roman Catholic priests: Joseph Everett Cahill, Maurice Alonzo Cournoyer, John Homer Delaney (1919-1963), James Henry Fitzgerald (1905-1975), George Bernard Flahiff, Percy Joseph Holloway (1892-1973), William John Holloway (1893-1973), Anthony Henry Kerklingh (1912-1976), Ladislas Joseph Kreciszewski (1897-1951), Joseph Paul Kurys (1896-1964), Roland Lavoie (1916-1985), Bernard Martin Linscott (1912-1980), Francis Xavier Macaulay (1891-1972), Angus Kennedy Macdonell (1906-1962), James Kenneth McIsaac (1903-1980), Adolf Michael Mikolas (1910-1964), Ethelbert Mullally (1900-1956), Eugene Ludwig Oroskovits (1910-1979), Joseph Lorenzo Paulhus (1895-1980), Amedee Roy (1874-1962), Louis Gaston St. Jacques (1897-1966), Alfred Arthur Sinnott, Francis Paul Strozewski (1907-1969), Mecislaus Stanislaus Trzaskoma (1907-1979), Charles Vachon (1906-1980), Leonard James Edward Wall, Jan Kanty Warczak (1906-1962), and Ignatius Edward Zielonka (1894-1972).

Among the noteworthy people buried in the cemetery are Nicholas Bawlf, William Richard Bawlf, Thomas William Morton, and Patrick Shea.

Shea mausoleum in St. Mary’s Cemetery

Entrance to St. Mary’s Cemetery (August 2023)
Source: George Penner

Shea mausoleum in St. Mary’s Cemetery

Shea mausoleum in St. Mary’s Cemetery (September 2018)
Source: George Penner

Chapel and winter vault in St. Mary’s Cemetery

Chapel and winter vault in St. Mary’s Cemetery (September 2018)
Source: George Penner

Commemorative plaques beside the winter vault in St. Mary’s Cemetery

Commemorative plaques beside the winter vault in St. Mary’s Cemetery (August 2023)
Source: George Penner

Site Coordinates (lat/long): N49.86676, W97.13568
denoted by symbol on the map above

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral (353 St. Mary Avenue, Winnipeg)

Memorable Manitobans: Samuel Hooper (1851-1911)

Memorable Manitobans: Charles Henry Walker (1855-1927)

Memorable Manitobans: James McDiarmid (1855-1934)

Sources:

Building Permit No. 872, 1 May 1906, City of Winnipeg Archives.

A list of burials in this cemetery is available from the Manitoba Genealogical Society, including a searchable online database available to members at the MGS Manitoba Name Index (MANI). Some additional information is contained in the 1996 MGS publication Carved in Stone: Manitoba Cemeteries and Burial Sites, revised edition, Special Projects Publication, 106 pages.

We thank Nathan Kramer, George Penner, and Tracy Groenewegen for providing additional information used here.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 26 February 2024

Historic Sites of Manitoba

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