Saint Joseph Cemetery is a Corporal Work of Mercy of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Manchester, New Hampshire.

For more than twenty years, Father McDonald administered the cemetery from his rectory office at Saint Anne's Church.

In 1889, he had the first committal chapel erected on the grounds just inside the Main Gate on the north side of Donald Street.

A description of the rites to be performed appeared in the Manchester Union on November 25, 1889: "On the day before a cemetery is blessed or consecrated, five crosses are erected in it, a large one in the center and a smaller one in each corner.

The three candles, not yet lighted, represent the imperishable germ of life placed in our bodies by the three persons of the blessed Trinity.

The cross in the center of the field is higher than the others, and represents our Lord Jesus Christ, who, having vanquished death, has become for us the resurrection and life.

From their places in the four extremities of the field the four smaller crosses proclaim that the life-giving God of Calvary has flowed to the four quarters of the globe, to bring life on the day of resurrection to all men, no matter in what age or clime they may have died.

Even the most costly and elaborate monument, if lacking this sign, can in no wise be compared with the ornament which a simple wooden cross affords to the resting place of the Christian.

To accommodate the growth of the Catholic population and in order to minister to its need for a place to bury its dead, Bishop George Albert Guertin acquired an additional 82 acres (330,000 m2) in the town of Bedford, a half-mile west of the Old Cemetery.

The Spanish Influenza, the flu epidemic that followed America's soldiers home from the trenches of France and Belgium, took so many lives that there was no time for most families to plan for and acquire lots.

The practice of funeral Masses for the dead was suspended to allow for swifter burial, and committals, called “Dispensations”, took place right at graveside.

Wyrick suggested several sweeping changes which, once they were adopted, made Saint Joseph Cemetery a regional model.

The pastors of the cathedral and the bishops of Manchester have also taken great care to make the cemetery both a place of reverent remembrance and civic pride.

Since no one parish in the area has its own cemetery, the clergy and the people of the cathedral have been, in essence, a board of trustees acting on behalf of all the Catholic faithful whose loved ones are interred here, and they have taken this responsibility seriously.

Bishops Ernest Primeau and Leo O’Neil and a half dozen of their brother priests are buried on the grounds of this chapel, just to the south its main entry.

In 2006, Father Joseph Cooper, pastor of the cathedral, appointed lifetime parishioner John Kelly to succeed Elizabeth Merritt as Director of the Cemetery.