Roadside Memorials

Reflections for All Souls' Day

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Enjoying a couple of road trips this past summer, I was struck by the prevalence of roadside memorials to deceased loved ones. From a simple cross to elaborate, continuously updated shrines, roadside memorials are an iconic part of the American landscape. Commemorations of a fatality at the site are found on street signs, telephone poles and overpasses, from rural areas to cities. While a gravestone marks the site of the burial of the person’s body, these sites mark the last place on earth the person was alive.

The custom is believed to stem from Catholic funeral processions of Spanish colonists and American Indians. On the way from the church to the cemetery, pallbearers would stop to rest while carrying the coffin and place a cross or stone where they stopped. The Southwest is particularly abundant in roadside shrines. However, Greece and Poland are also home to such memorials, including tiny chapels (called kapliczki in Polish) built to thank a saint for a blessing in the village. Spain, Mexico, Ukraine, Australia and the United Kingdom are also places where roadside memorials can be found.

While a cross is the most common memorial marker, not all are religious, and not all mark a car accident. Some are the site of a murder, including drive-by shootings. Others mark motorcycle accidents. Still others are bike fatalities, sometimes marked by an actual bike at the scene. Often the person’s name, a photo and flowers are there. The Blessed Mother is frequently honored in depictions of Our Lady of Guadalupe or Our Lady of the Rosary, sometimes with rosary beads strung from the memorial. 

Not far from my home is such a memorial to a teenage girl. Focused around the tree which her car hit, this touching memorial is one of the larger ones I’ve seen and is regularly updated. For Christmas, it has a wreath and lights. For her birthday, it features balloons. On Memorial Day, an American flag can be found. In the summer I’ve even seen a beach chair and flip-flops. Another memorial I sometimes pass has a statue of the Blessed Mother, flowers and a photo of the man who died there.

These are obviously much-loved and very missed people. Yet I’m struck by the fact that these memorials, while surely beautiful and comforting for the families, offer nothing to the person who, sadly, died there.

The only thing that can and does benefit someone we loved who has died and may be in purgatory is the Mass, or offering prayers, sacrifices or sufferings for them. These intercessory offerings can assist souls on their way to heaven.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a “purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven,” which is experienced by those who die in a state of grace but are still not pure enough for admittance to heaven. The purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches, nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in heaven (Revelation 21:27). Even with our mortal sins forgiven, there can still be temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven. This temporary time in purgatory can be partially remitted by our suffrages.

“From the beginning, the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic Sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1032).

From the liturgy, “Remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and all who have died in your mercy: Welcome them into the light of your face. Have mercy on us all, we pray, that with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with the blessed apostles and all the saints who have pleased you throughout the ages, we may merit to be co-heirs to eternal life, and may praise and glorify you through your Son, Jesus Christ.”

There’s simply no benefit to the deceased whatsoever to a roadside shrine. While these memorials, as well as memorial scholarships, golf memorials, schools, gyms, auditoriums and the like are beautiful reminders of someone we have loved, the comfort and memory they bring do nothing for the deceased person.

Only the Mass and our prayers can do that. 

Patty Knap writes from

Long Island, New York.