The Catholic Cemeteries in Mendota Heights, MN

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Opened in 1961, when New Hope was in the transition from a rural to suburban community, the 80-acre cemetery is the newest of our cemeteries. Nearly 13,000 burials have taken place at Gethsemane since its founding.

Originally designed in the memorial-park cemetery style, distinguished by flat, ground-level grave markers, Gethsemane also offers sections with above-ground monuments as well as above-ground burial options.

The Gethsemane Chapel Mausoleum was opened in 1995, offering more than 1,000 crypt spaces and some 1,000 cremation niches. The carpeted year-round chapel is used for family services as well as an annual Christmas Mass of Remembrance, which draws several hundred people each December.

In 2007, the Gethsemane Cremation Garden opened, providing space for up to 1,000 cremation burials. The garden is designed around the theme of the five sorrowful mysteries of the rosary. At the center of the garden is a life-size bronze statue of Christ kneeling in the garden of Gethsemane.

 Dedicated in 2008, the Children’s Memorial and Prayer Garden offers a focal point of ministry to bereaved parents, grandparents, relatives, friends or anyone seeking healing following the death of a child. Nestled in a pine tree grove adjacent to the Chapel Mausoleum, the Garden is a gift of Don and Linda Warner of Eden Prairie in memory of their daughter, Angela. Paving bricks that border the walkway are available for inscription to memorialize a beloved child.

More than 40 parishes in the cities of Crystal, Brooklyn Park, St. Louis Park, Minnetonka and other Hennepin County communities regularly have burials at Gethsemane. Yet Gethsemane retains an ecumenical flavor because many area residents see Gethsemane as their community cemetery. A reflection of the area’s growing diversity is a cemetery section developed in cooperation with St. Joseph Hien, a Vietnamese Catholic parish in north Minneapolis.

Each Memorial Day, Gethsemane’s Memorial Day Mass attracts hundreds of people for a morning outdoor service, followed by refreshments.