This cemetery is actually two cemeteries. The original (oldest) section is called Santa Barbara and the newest part just called Mt. Calvary. In 1869, the Jesuit Fathers in Albuquerque announced they would be building a new  chapel and new cemetery.  The old cemetery near the San Felipe de Neri Church would no longer hold burials.  Father Donato Gasparri found a better site three miles from the Old Town site.  The greater number of the bodies from the old grounds were carefully moved in 1869.

The first recorded interment was August 1870.  The earliest existing monuments are those of Vicente Otero (1877), Jesusita Baca de Romero (1877) and Diego Armijo (1878).

In 1936, the Reverend Libertini chaired a committee to modernize and beautify the cemetery.  In 1938, a solemn high mass dedicated the new chapel and cemetery.  The parishes of San Felipe and Immaculate Conception used Santa Barbara Cemetery which later became a part of the newer larger Mount Calvary Cemetery.

The new cemetery consisted of an additional eighteen acres of land north of the older Santa Barbara portion.  I new chapel was built in 1992 as well as a mausoleum.  The original business office is now a columbarium for cremated remains.

Mount Calvary is a non-sectarian perpetual care cemetery.  A monthly mass is celebrated on the first Saturday of each month by various priests in the city.  The cemetery is dedicated to fostering a spirit of peace, joy, love, unity, communication, cooperation and service as well as being responsive to the ever-changing needs of the people it serves.
- Cheryl Harris