Welcome to Saint Mary of the Assumption
a culturally rich and diverse Catholic family; through our worship, educational, youth and outreach ministries, we endeavor to welcome, to love, to evangelize and to serve, making Jesus Christ present in Word & sacrament.
In 1840, a plot of land on Cedar Street in Milford was purchased by the Catholic Church of Worcester for use as a cemetery for the faithful in Milford. This is recognized as the first Catholic cemetery established in Worcester County in what would be known as the Diocese of Worcester in 1950, over a century later. The first regular pastor of Saint Mary Church in Milford, Fr. George A. Hamilton (1850-3) added to this plot over time as well. Fr. Hamilton was followed by Fr. Michael Carraher (1853-4) and then by Fr. Edward Farrelly (1854-7). When Fr. Farrelly died on August 15, 1857, he was succeeded by Fr. Patrick Cuddihy who arrived in Milford on September 15th of that year and served the parish for forty-one years until his death in 1898.
Father Cuddihy who oversaw the construction of the new and larger granite church on Winter Street, realized in the 1890s that the cemetery was filling fast and running out of needed to space to bury the faithful. He purchased five or six acres of pine forest next to the parish cemetery with his own funds and donated it to the parish. Here, he leveled the land and began construction on a round tower, reminiscent of his homeland, that was sited next to an ornamental lake near the Cedar Street entrance.
Fr. Cuddihy, having purchased and donated the land, expected that his parishioners would provide the funding to clear the land, establish roads and cultivate grass on this site. When the collection was counted, from a parish of 3,500 people, there were only 869 single dollar bills. Fr. Cuddihy created a "sensation at Saint Mary's" according to the local paper on May 31, 1893 by challenging his parishioners for their stinginess. Fr. Cuddihy was succeeded by Fr. James Canavan, who died suddenly in August of 1899 and then by Fr. John P. Phelan, who served a short term before being replaced by Fr. David McGrath who developed this parcel into a fitting cemetery for the Catholic faithful of Milford.
At the turn of the 21st century, Fr. Raymond Goodwin realized that the cemetery would soon lack sufficient lots for burial for the needs of the parishioners of Saint Marys. In 2015, he contracted with a lumber clearing firm to thin and remove the large trees that were in a wooded section at the rear of the cemetery bordering Sulmone and Gillon Streets. Once cleared this area was cleared of stumps, graded and seeded for grass. The parish would wait two years for the grass to develop while it discussed the layout of the new area.
In the fall of 2018, it was decided to plot a driveway through the new area to provide access for burials and visitation to the graves. This required a review of drainage and environmental issues which were determined to be of no impact to the larger area nor in conflict with environmental regulations in the summer of 2019. In October and November of 2019, the driveway was installed and the section marked for the graves. This new area has four sections which will provide nearly 1,000 lots and over 2,000 graves. A new addition to this area are lots that are 4 feet by 4 feet to provide for the internment of cremated remains without the need to purchase a full lot. The smaller size of these lots means that they cannot have an upright marker though.
Directly behind the Saint Barbara section is a new Holy Family section. Behind that and adjacent to the Our Lady of the Rosary section is one named Regina Ceali (Latin for Queen of Heaven). Adjacent to Sulmone Street is the Immaculate Heart of Mary section and along Gillon Street will be the Resurrection section. These lots are available as of December 1, 2019. It is our hope that these new sections will give added use and life to the cemetery for several years to come.