Father Francis Olszewski (8 Dec 1869 - 24 Feb 1955), a Polish immigrant, formed the Sisters Auxiliaries of the Apostolate in St. Albert Canada in August 1903 under the leadership of Bishop Emile Legal from France. 

In 1917, Rev. Lawrence Michalski established a parochial school at St. Stanislaus with an enrollment of 55 children. In 1918, he left the area to become a chaplain with the Polish Army in France. He later returned to the area after the war.

The Sisters of the Auxiliaries of the Apostilate moved to New Cumberland, West Virginia in 1923, the year that the Jay Lee Jones Hotel in Monongah was purchased by the Diocese of Wheeling.

·        In 1924 St. Stanislaus Church priest Father Lawrence Michalski asked Mother Mary Ursula, Mother Mary Arsenia and Sister Mary Clara to begin St. Stanislaus School. Ava Currey, who later married Fred Cogar & lived on Cottage Avenue in Monongah, was their lay assistant. The school had grades kindergarten through eight.

Later, as the bishop tried to quell the Polish/Italian divide in Monongah, the name was changed to Sts. Peter and Paul School and the bishop sent an Irish priest, Father John McNulty, to serve both the Polish St. Stanislaus and the Italian Our Lady of Pompeii churches, instead of having a Polish priest for St. Stanislaus and an Italian priest for Our Lady of Pompeii, as had been done for decades.

The Polish/Italian split was so entrenched that women who married someone from the other camp switched attendance to their husbands’ church and ladies aide society the next Sunday.

Nineteen of the Sts. Peter and Paul nuns are buried in Monongah’s Mount Calvary Cemetery on Park Avenue. Father Olszewski is buried in Wheeling, home of the Diocese.

·        Most Rev. Emile Joseph Legal, OMI, D.D. Born in Saint-Jean de Boiseau, France in 1849. Served as Coadjutor Bishop of St. Albert, Canada from 1897 - 1902, then as Bishop of St. Albert from 1902 to 1912. He later served as Archbishop of Edmonton from Nov 30, 1912 until his death on March 10, 1920.

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·        It was under his term that the Sisters Auxiliaries of the Apostolate was established in Edmonton, Canada in 1902 by Father Olszewski, who was incardinated into the Diocese of Wheeling in 1921. Shortly thereafter, he welcomed the sisters to his parish in New Cumberland, West Virginia.

I’ve often credited Sister/Mother Mary Agnes, who drove her brother’s Jeep wildly on Church Street at times, with my successful career. She taught me grammar and a love for reading. And she wielded a wicked paddle, 1-holer for venial sins (in her opinion) and 2-holer for mortal sins. 

It worked for me.