Moving Around the Earth

This has been a very busy year for my friends and acquaintances. A surprising number of them have switched jobs. Some have moved from one city or state to another. A number of others have made moves that are out of this world.

Literally.

One group of friends that moved earlier this year are monastics. Following the centuries old traditions of Western religions they built an enormous crypt underneath the chapel of their former abbey. My memories of it are of a cool, quiet, peaceful subterranean catacomb. Over a period of almost one hundred years the crypt had become full of those whose earthly days had passed. Not all were buried in the crypt. Some had been buried in a nearby cemetery. Over the course of the last year or two those in the cemetery were joined by the remains of their fellow monastics leaving the crypt for a more permanent home.

Eventually the monastics completed the removal of their old friends and companions to their new resting place. Soon after that point the old property was relinquished to its new owners. The old abbey was not suitable for further habitation and was torn down. That took place as the monastics began the process of unpacking their belongings from the move in their new abbey in a nearby town.

The use of crypts is anything but a relatively new occurrence in our modern society. It goes back to ancient times. Archeologists have found many religious sites from prior millennia where the bodies of those who lived among the local populace were entombed. More recently…