In 1934, Patras began to scribble an epitaph on the crosses. Usually it is a short poem written in the first person, dotted with archaisms, vernacular phrases and...spelling errors. The sculptor-poet's source of inspiration is the two-three-night wake. The relatives of the dead person do not mourn, but drink and make merry. The entire life of the village is featured in this cemetery. The shepherd, the farmer, the wood ranger, the wood cutter, or the pupil stand side by eternally, with the weaver, the spinner, the housewife, the merchant, the carpenter, the doctor, the musician or the drunk. This collective memory of Sapanta, this ensemble of colorful graves where each dead person recounts humbly his/her existence with its joys and sorrows, creates a serene and merry atmosphere, a sort of challenge to death, a hymn to life.
The creative spirit of Stan Ioan Patras still haves over the Merry Cemetery of Sapanta even if today most of the crosses are made by his students. His heir now is Dumitru Pop. Born into a poor family, he studied with Patras since he was nine, and during his holidays he sculpted miniature crosses and frescoes. He went then to a vocational school in Timisoara and returned to Sapanta in 1977, after the death of Stan Ion Patras. Ever since Dumitru Pop has been living and working in the shadow of his master, inhabiting the maestro's old home.
It is now sixty years since craftsman Stan Patras has been cutting crosses for the dead to chase away the dread of death. When one of his fellow villagers asked him why people order him so many crosses, he answered: "Maybe they want a keepsake of myself that sees this side of death". And Stan Patras invented nothing; he just showed people what they could not see by themselves. And the "reminders" he has left at Sapanta are superb indeed. The cemetery will bridge over all times as a museum of the triumph of life upon death, here in the north, in the Maramures land, an ancient area of wood civilization, a museum where people will talk about the "blue" of Sapanta as they talk about the already famous Voronet blue; a warm, smooth, almost phosphorescent blue. Asking the craftsman what inspired it, he replied plainly: the sky. "Next to the other four colors to be seen everywhere - black, red, yellow and green - blue is the fifth color of the Maramures land.
The phrase "merry cemetery" may seem paradoxical if not even touching impiety. And yet, it stays true in all its simplicity and depth devised by Stan Patras. His crosses make up a whole world, a live chronicle of a community that succeeds generations through times. The likeness of the deceased, carved and colored, usually catches one of his lifetime's characteristic attitudes, surrounded by floral arabesques, above a funny, with epitaph. The verses are written in the first person, as if uttered by the deceased himself for he who may read it. The one who went the way of all flesh tells who he was. A true kaleidoscope of dances, crafts, songs, serious, thoughts, songs to Mother Nature - that is the meaning of these crosses that surround a small church.
In craftsman Patras's golden book, Swiss Honore Bayard writes: "Life is beautiful, very beautiful! But in this place, even death after life does greatly please, thanks to you, craftsman! Thank you for this moment of truth!”.