St. Augustine Chapel and Cemetery in South Boston began a year-long bicentennial celebration with a ceremony and Mass on Sept. 15.
The cemetery, dedicated in December 1818, was the first Catholic burial ground in Boston, and the chapel is the oldest surviving Catholic church in the Boston archdiocese.
After the cemetery was opened, many Catholics arranged to re-inter the bodies of relatives on its grounds. About 1,000 people are buried there.