Sunday, June 27, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Anthony Rebola

Behold, a rare cross motif:
Anthony Rebola, 1817, Arlington, MA
In Memory of
ANTHONY J.B. REBOLA,
Son of Mr, LAZARO & Mrs, ANN
Rebols, who died Aug. 28.
1817 Aged 14. Mon.
Here lies the fairest bud of hope,
To which the fondest wish was given
If thou wouldst know its happyer state
Repent and seek the flower of heven.

I am going to go out on a limb and speculate that there is a chance that Lazaro Rebola was Catholic.

3 comments:

Robert J. said...

Well, there must be an interesting story behind how Lazaro Rebola ended up in Arlington in 1817. Almost like finding a Patrick O'Hara in Lexington in 1750.

This fascinating stone reminds me of the ancient Roman coins that are occasionally seen where an emperor or other figure has had his picture carved over by hand with a Chi-Rho.

Unknown said...

I love the difference in carving depth of the main motif of urn/willow and the tacked-on crosses. Never seen the template deviate like this. Thanks for posting!

Jim Blachowicz said...

I wonder if the "J.B." is "John Baptist" ("Giovanni Battista" is very common in Italian men's names of the period). This is the very latest stone I found carved by English-born Robert Hope of Boston, who died 7 months after Rebola. Also, there are some early stones with a cross as the central feature in Boston's Central burial ground--I know those for Edmund Malone (1804) and John Chandler (1804), both carved by Benjamin Hodgdon while employed by John Just Geyer, Sr. There are more out there, but I don't know which the earliest are. I wonder if anyone has looked into the earliest Catholic memorials of old New England?