History

The St. Joseph of Arimathea Society was established by His Eminence, the Most Reverend Archbishop Stephen J. Enea, Primate of the Italo-Greek Byzantine Orthodox Catholic Church in 2007 to provide infants, children, and adults who have been left behind by their families with proper Christian funeral rites and burials, and to provide, as well, financial assistance to those families who do not have the financial resources to provide a deceased loved one with a proper funeral and burial.

Since its founding and establishment in 2007, the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society has helped many families, who otherwise could not afford to provide their deceased loved ones with a proper funeral and burial, with financial assistance to enable them to do so. The Society has also taken into its care a number of infants, children, and adults who had been unattended, forsaken, or abandoned by their families at the time of their death. For these souls, the Archdiocese, through the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society and assuming all the expenses related thereto, provided them with a proper and dignified funeral and burial, 

Our Mission

The mission of the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society is to ensure that all Christians are provided a proper and dignified funeral and burial as befitting a being created in the image and likeness of God and whose body was a temple of the Holy Spirit. In concert with this, our goal is to educate people and change their attitudes toward death and dying, so that what will result is a return to a more Christian understanding of this life-change event and, more importantly, the sacred character of the human body as being a temple of the Holy Spirit. This change in understanding of the human body - from merely an organic element subject to corruption and decomposition to something sacred, holy, venerable, and worthy of all respect - will hopefully restore more traditional views and practices related to dying and death in the Christian community.

Our Work

The primary work of the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society is two-fold. First, we provide free funerals and burials for deceased infants, children, and adults who have been unclaimed or abandoned by their families. Second, the Society provides financial assistance to those families who would like to but do not have the financial resources to provide their loved one with a proper funeral and burial.

The work of the Society are acts of mercy, charity, and love, undertaken in a spirit of prayer and reverence for the deceased and upholding their dignity as beings created in the image and likeness of God, thus acknowledging them in the fullest sense as children of God.

Families that utilize the services of the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society are as diverse as the Christian communities throughout the United States and Canada. Some are affiliated with the Orthodox Catholic Church, some are not. Some are members of other Churches and ecclesial bodies, some are not. Some are Italo-Greek Orthodox Catholic Church members, but most are not. Some are practicing their Christian faith, some do not. But in every case, the Italo-Greek Church recognizes that all men, women, and children are children of God and thus are deserving of all respect, reverence, and honor not only while they are alive, but also when they die.

What We Do and How We Do It

The St. Joseph of Arimathea Society is not a funeral home or funeral service. It is, however, a funeral and burial ministry, or apostolate. It is more akin to being a burial society, but it is so much more. The Society primarily provides financial assistance to families who do not have the financial resources to provide a funeral and burial for a loved one who has died. When a death occurs, families, or funeral directors, contact the local Italo-Greek Byzantine Orthodox Catholic parish and ask for help. If the individual meets our criteria for financial assistance, the Society will pay all funeral and burial expenses selected by them from the funeral home within the budget established by the Society. The Society pays the funeral home directly; no funds are given to the survivors of the deceased.

When an infant, child, or adult dies without any family to care for them, parishes, missions, and congregations of the Italo-Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of the Americas and Canada will claim the body and provide them with a proper funeral and burial. In such cases, the parish, mission, or congregation becomes the "family" of the deceased and assumes all responsibility for arranging and paying for the funeral and burial. In such situations, the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society pays the funeral home on behalf of the parish, mission, or congregation.

When a family requests assistance from the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society, it is not limited merely to financial assistance. The Society also provides pallbearers when pallbearers may not otherwise be available. In addition to the foregoing, the Society also provides a post-funeral Mercy Meal as well as annual grave care. All these services are provided free of charge.

In order to provide its services, the Society raises money through fundraising events, private donations, parish donations, and grants from the Italo-Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of the Americas and Canada. No public funds or government money is used to pay for the ministry.

The St. Joseph of Arimathea Society, in cooperation with the Society of the Holy Myrrhbearers, provides members for the funeral choirs as well as readers and cantors for the funeral liturgies. The Society also helps prepare and serve the Mercy Meals.

Cremation

The St. Joseph of Arimathea Society is a ministry of the Italo-Greek Byzantine Orthodox Catholic Church - Holy Metropolitan Archdiocese of the Americas and Canada. As such, the Society is governed and operated in accordance with the teachings of the Orthodox Catholic Church. The Orthodox Catholic Church discourages cremation as it is inconsistent with the teachings of the Church regarding the sacredness of the human body as a temple of the Holy Spirit and the resurrection of the body at the Last Judgment. Therefore, the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society does not pay for cremation (and resomation), when such a decision has been made voluntarily as the preferred choice of final disposition.

In those cases where cremation must be done as a matter of local law or ordinance, the Society may pay for the cremation. However, two conditions must first be agreed to and met. The first is that the local bishop must give his blessing and express permission for the body to be cremated. It is not to be assumed that this permission is automatic; each case will be evaluated and decided on its own merits and needs by the bishop alone. Second, the complete funeral rites and services must be celebrated before the body is cremated/resonated. If the deceased has no survivors, cremated remains must be turned over to the local parish for inurnment in the parish church or burial in the parish cemetery, if there is one.

Indigent Persons

An indigent person is one who dies without a surviving spouse, parent, or emancipated child. Accordingly, the Italo-Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of the Americas and Canada defines an indigent decedent as a person who is unclaimed or unidentified and dies without leaving an ascertainable estate sufficient to pay part or all of the person’s burial expenses and whose burial expenses are not payable by a state or federal program. In those cases where such relationships exist, the local medical examiner, hospital, or nursing home may contact an Archdiocesan parish, mission, or congregation or the Archdiocese directly to make arrangements for the funeral and/or burial of an indigent person.

Indigent Veterans

Deceased indigent veterans with no next-of-kin or insufficient resources may be entitled to burial funds provided by the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society. If it is determined that the indigent veteran was an honorably discharged veteran, the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society will provide a complete funeral and burial service, including full military honors, for the deceased veteran.

Law Enforcement, Firefighter, and EMS Personnel

Law Enforcement Officers, Firefighters, and EMS personnel who are practicing members in good standing of their Church (Orthodox, Catholic, Polish National Catholic, and Oriental Orthodox), who die in the line of duty, are eligible to have their funeral and burial expenses paid for in part or in full by the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society. A request for assistance must be made directly to the Director of Program Services of the St. Joseph of Arimathea Society at the Chancery Office of the Archdiocese. The request must be accompanied by a letter from the deceased's diocesan ruling bishop that he or she was in good standing with both their archdiocese/diocese and parish at the time of death.

Funeral Home Partnerships

In cities in which the Italo-Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of the Americas and Canada has an ecclesial presence, the Archdiocese may have established working relationships with a local funeral home. Funerals for abandoned, forsaken, or unclaimed bodies are handled exclusively by these funeral homes.

When financial assistance is requested by and provided to families who cannot afford to bury their loved ones, families may use a funeral home of their choice. However, families are advised that said funeral homes may not be participants in the St. Joseph of Arimathea Charity Funeral and Burial Program of the Archdiocese and may not accept or agree to one or more of the Program's benefits and services.