Holy Cross

The Holy Cross garden's central feature is a one and one-half times life-size replica of Michelangelo's Pieta. Dulaney Valley's Pieta was carved using marble quarried in Carrara, Italy—the same region where Michelangelo obtained the marble for his enduring masterpiece.

La Pieta

The "Pieta", weighing 20,000 pounds, was placed in the Holy Cross Garden in 1965. Ordered in 1960, the Dulaney Valley feature was carved from a 729 cubic foot block of Carrara White marble. The feature is the body of Christ in the arms of His Mother after the descent from the Cross. The base of the "Pieta" feature contains 224 crypts providing aboveground entombment. Atop the base, two stone walls enclose the new Pieta Cremation Garden set aside for placing cremated remains in the area surrounding the awe-inspiring structure.

The Catholic Church now accepts cremation as an appropriate means of burial. The Church requires that cremated remains be buried or entombed—not separated, scattered, stored or displayed.