A small graveside service took place Aug. 2 at Epiphany Cemetery in Coon Rapids. In this case, the number of deceased persons outnumbered those who came for their burial.

The parish cemetery participates in a ministry conducted by Sacred Heart Guardians and Shelter and its founder, Laura Elm. She collects remains of human embryos from in vitro fertilization (IVF) laboratories and cryopreservation facilities across the country and facilitates a communal burial for them. There were 42 deceased embryos buried Aug. 2, with more than 30 people gathered for a small prayer service by Father Andrew Jaspers, chaplain and board member of Sacred Heart Guardians who also is a chaplain at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale.

After the prayers, they processed to a plot at the cemetery designated for the embryo burials and prayed the rosary there after placing the container on the ground. Elm led the procession, walking alongside Sister Mary Lang, who carried a container with the deceased embryos. Sister Mary has belonged to the Missionaries of Charity for 46 years, but has permission to try and start a new order she wants to call the Infant Jesus Society. She travels from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she lives, to the burials. This was her sixth burial.

“These are children of God,” she said of the embryos, explaining her motivation to come. “It is worth one person coming from far away to be at their burial.

Since the first burial service in 2018, Sacred Heart Guardians has provided Christian burial for 855 deceased embryonic children. The burials take place every three months at a Catholic cemetery in Minnesota.