"This is the plaque that is set into the outside wall of the Varela Chapel, although like everything else in the Cemetery, it has moved around and was originally located elsewhere in the chapel. The translation into English reads: THIS CHAPEL WAS ERECTED BY THE CUBANS IN THE YEAR 1853 TO PRESERVE THE REMAINS OF FATHER VARELA.
And above the words is one of the more dramatic 19th century symbols of mortality: the winged hourglass. It is made even more dramatic by the fact that the wings look like bat wings. Its purpose is to remind the living that time flies and they should consider how they are using it."
--Tolomato Cemetery Blogspot (
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The actual inscription beneath the winged hourglass is in Spanish and reads: ESTA CAPILLA FUE ERIGIDA POR LOS CUBANOS EL ANO 1853 PARA CONSERVAR LAS CENIZAS DEL PADRE VARELA. More information about the plaque is available in a book by Matthew Kear titled "In Reverence: A Plan for the Preservation of Tolomato Cemetery, St. Augustine, Florida" (
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"Félix Varela, a Cuban priest and social reformer, was buried at Tolomato for 60 years until his remains were disinterred and taken back to Cuba."
--Wikipedia (
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"Father Varela in St. Augustine
Father Felix Varela y Morales was born in Cuba in 1788 but was brought up in St Augustine. He returned to Cuba and was ordained in Havana, but ended up spending most of his career working among impoverished Irish immigrants in New York City. He died in St. Augustine because he returned in his final years of illness. He was worn out by his work in New York and wanted to be close to his childhood home. His aunt and other members of his family had lived and died here. The chapel at Tolomato Cemetery was constructed by a group of his Cuban and New York admirers shortly after his death in February 1853.
Tolomato Cemetery was at that time still an active cemetery, belonging to what is now the Cathedral Parish. Varela, who had lived for three years in a small room behind a school building near the east courtyard of the Cathedral, was a well-known local figure, regarded as very saintly by St Augustine residents of all faiths and none at all. His funeral and burial were accompanied by large crowds, and he was initially buried in a now unknown location next to his aunt, Rita Morales.
Cuban craftsmanship
Plans were made immediately to build a chapel that would serve as a mausoleum for Varela and a funeral chapel for the cemetery. The cornerstone was laid a month later, with the dedication being attended by a delegation of Cubans and representatives of the bishop of Savannah and the Archdiocese of New York. The speeches were given in Spanish and English and were then placed in a metal box which was sealed into the cornerstone, where it is to this day.
The Cubans, working with Gaspar Papy as their contractor in St Augustine, ordered furnishings for the chapel, including a mahogany altar carved by Havana’s finest cabinetmakers and two pieces of Cuban marble. One was for a small stone to be set in the wall of the chapel explaining the reason for its construction. A translation of the Spanish text on the stone reads, “This chapel was built by the Cubans in 1853 to preserve the remains of Fr. Varela.” The other, larger piece of marble was to be used to cover the crypt.
Built of coquina, the chapel was completed in about a year, but there were delays in getting the furnishings, and it was not until January 1855 that the remains of Varela were transferred from their burial place in the cemetery to the crypt in the chapel. That was some 160 years ago, and the marble crypt door — as such stones are called — has been in place ever since, although it has been lifted several times.
The first time was in 1876, when the crypt was opened for the large metal casket containing the remains of Bishop Augustin Verot, the first bishop of St Augustine, who died suddenly in June of that year. Varela’s remains were then moved to a wooden compartment built at the back of the crypt. In 1911, after Cuba had gotten its independence from Spain and from the U.S. occupation that followed the Spanish-American War, a delegation from Cuba came to open the crypt and take the remains of Varela back to Cuba, since his writings about political theory and self-government had made him a hero to Cubans. His remains are now in an elaborate urn at the University of Havana."
--The St. Augustine Record (
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