Ardeth Wood must be remembered for who she was and is, and not for the tragic circumstances of her death, mourners were told at her funeral yesterday.
Ottawa's Archbishop Marcel Gervais told more than 600 family members, friends and community leaders such as Mayor Bob Chiarelli and police Chief Vince Bevan that "the way she died will not overwhelm all the things she did.
"May you all remember her as a wonderful daughter, granddaughter, neighbour and friend. The one who loved you in this life continues to love you. She lives in the light of God," he told her family.
The 27-year-old graduate student in philosophy was killed after setting off Aug. 6 on a 90-minute bicycle ride along the parkways of east Ottawa. Her body was found in Green's Creek three days later, and police continue to sort through hundreds of tips from the public about possible suspects in her death.
Ms. Wood's family attends St. Clement's, a church near the University of Ottawa that was one of the few in the world to retain the use of Latin in the 1960s, when most Catholic churches around the world dropped it in favour of contemporary languages.
So her uncle, Rev. William Ashley, celebrated her funeral mass yesterday in Latin, a language rarely heard today amidst the gilded sculptures and sky-blue ceiling of Notre Dame Cathedral. And video cameramen shared the choir loft with the choir, whose members sang Gregorian chants.
Father Ashley said her death was the work of the devil, but not even Satan can rob her of eternal life.
Her unknown killer "no doubt felt absolutely free to do whatever he wanted," said Father Ashley.
And he quoted an article by Ms. Wood in which she wrote that the lesson of Adam and Eve is that "with God they were truly free, and without him, they found themselves inclined to evil, and slaves to passion." Ms. Wood cited writer G.K. Chesterton as describing the result of this slavery to passion as "a dance of raging destruction."
Copies of her essay and of a compilation of her poems were made available to mourners at the funeral.
Father Ashley said "freedom has come to be a choice between good and evil," and the result has been growing violence, abortion and more deaths in war during the 20th century than in all preceding centuries.
The funeral mass lasted two hours. Ms. Wood's closed casket sat up front until the end, when it was sprinkled with holy water and the scent of incense. Then pallbearers escorted the casket out the front door of the cathedral to the wailing sound of pipers.
As the casket was brought onto the steps of the cathedral, a reverent hush fell upon the crowd outside. Sussex Avenue had been closed to other traffic, and ropes separated onlookers and worshippers from the black limousines waiting to take Ms. Wood's family along on her final journey to Notre Dame Cemetery on Montreal Road.