Posted April 20, 2020

Volunteers from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary rolled up their sleeves to bury those who had died from the influenza pandemic of 1918. See our photo gallery from the archdiocesan archives, and read a story on the Catholic Church’s response to plagues throughout history, here. (Photos courtesy of the Catholic Historical Research Center of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia)

  • Some 300 seminarians from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary assisted in burying victims of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million globally.

  • Due to high death tolls from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, seminarians from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood assisted in digging burial trenches at several Catholic cemeteries in Philadelphia. According to one contemporary chronicler, grave locations were carefully noted, and seminarians recited Psalm 130 (“De profundis”) during each burial.

  • During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, seminarians from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood assisted in burying the dead, as cemetery staff were unable to keep up with what one contemporary chronicler described as “a constant procession of hearses.”

  • Seminarians from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood assisted in burying victims of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed some 50 million worldwide.

  • Seminarians from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood assisted with burials and with hospital care during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million worldwide. (Photo courtesy of the Catholic Historical Research Center Digital Collections)