Father Gaspar said Cardinal Medeiros was the first Boston cardinal not to receive a galero from the pope.

Traditionally, in cathedrals around the world, galeros are hung from the ceiling to honor cardinals who died while serving their respective dioceses, Father Gaspar said. Already hanging over the altar of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross were galeros that once belonged to Cardinals William O’Connell and Richard Cushing.

Galeros are typically hung by a string, and Father Gaspar said that Catholic legend has it that when the string breaks and the galero falls, the late cardinal’s soul has passed into heaven.

When asked about this legend, Father Gaspar chuckled, noting that the “strings” used for the galeros hanging in Boston’s mother church are really steel cables.

Since Cardinal Medeiros did not have a galero of his own, Cardinal O’Malley purchased one while visiting Rome earlier this year, Father Gaspar said.

Recently, a galero was hung at Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral to honor the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin and at Fordham University to honor Cardinal Avery Dulles. Cardinal Bernadin died in 1996 while serving as archbishop in Chicago and Cardinal Dulles died in 2008 while serving as a theologian at the Jesuit university.

Cardinal O’Malley announced the hanging of a galero belonging to his predecessor at the archdiocese’s Chrism Mass the following day, March 30.

“It’s our way of memorializing his many, many years of ministry in the archdiocese,” Cardinal O’Malley said in his opening remarks at the Mass.