BACK ROW: Mother Arsenia,  Sister Victoria
FRONT ROW: Sister Cecelia, Sister Veronica

The nuns of Monongah

It began in Edmonton, Canada with Mother Arsenia and Sisters Cecilia, Veronica and Victoria.


From Edmonton, the sisters moved to North Dakota.
Later, with approval of the Bishop in Wheeling, these Sisters of the Auxiliaries of the Apostolate came to Scarboro and Monongah, West Virginia to educate the children of coal miners.

 

Sister Cecilia, by the way, was a whiz-bang sculptor who provided statues for St. Stanislaus and Our Lady of Pompeii churches in Monongah and other churches in the area. Most of her sculptures were much taller than her.

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. It later was renamed Sts. Peter and Paul School.

Ava Curry Cogar, later married to Fred Cogar and living on Cottage Avenue, was the lay assistant.

In 1938, I began first grade at what became Sts. Peter and Paul. There was no kindergarten when I attended the Catholic school, but it was added later.

From East Monongah, Brookdale, Traction Park, West Monongah Thoburn and Tower Hill the children flocked to these angels in black and white habits.

Those who switched from public school to the nuns’ school found that they were up to two years behind what those of the same age had learned from the nuns.

They also wielded a mean one-hole (venial sins) and two-hole (mortal sins) paddles for those of us who crossed the behavior line. I speak from personal experience, mostly from whackings by Sister Ursula and Sister Agnes, the best grammar teacher I ever had who got me started toward a 43-year newspaper career.

The first time I complained to my mother about the paddling, my mom, Lena Futten Olesky, gave me another spanking. I got the message and never tattled again and tried not to piss off the nuns.

Former Monongah resident John Brzuzy, who later starred in football and basketball for Fairmont West, was a legend among the students. He took a wooden paddle from the nun whacking him and ran away.

Sister Agnes would read Nancy Drew Mystery books till she got us hooked, and then put it away on the shelf, forcing us to read it to find out what happened. I was the class’ designated reader, and reported to my classmates how Nancy solved another mystery.

Sister Agnes also whizzed by the Olesky house on Church Street in her brother’s Jeep. Saint Christopher was kept pretty busy keeping the leadfooted Sister Agnes from a major collision.

Sister Ursula, built like a Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, was a tough cookie. No nonsense around her.

Sister Dolores was one of two Michna daughters who became nuns.

Monongah’s sisters were in a long line of nuns in current-day America, starting with 14 French Ursuline nuns who arrived in New Orleans in 1727 and opened Ursuline Academy, which today is the oldest continuously-operating school for girls in the United States.

Nuns worldwide went from 900 in 1840 to a peak of 200,000 in 1965, falling to 56,000 by 2010.

In Canada, the Sisters of Saint Anne were founded in 1850 in Vaudreuil, Quebec, Canada, by the Blessed Marie Anne Blondin. The Annes expanded into the United States in 1867 at the request of the Bishop of Buffalo, opening with a school in Oswego, New York.

The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul were founded as the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph in 1809 in Emmitsburg, Maryland by Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton.

The Sisters Auxiliaries of the Apostolate terminated in 2013. With only three nuns still alive and very old, the school and surrounding buildings at 689 Maple Terrace were demolished in 2011.

Their phone number, for trivia buffs, was (304) 534-3081.

These are women who educated the coal miners’ children for decades, for only the roof over their heads and food in the kitchen and a love of God and children.

The nuns and Father Everett Briggs in 1961 founded St. Barbara Nursing Home, taking care of the parents of the children they had educated.

Every Catholic child who grew up in Monongah owes the nuns a mountain-sized debt of gratitude and appreciation for teaching us extremely well, and trying to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Thanks, Sisters!

COMMENTS

Thanks, John.  I can't tell you how much I enjoyed your blog on the Monongah nuns.  Although I never had Mother Arsenia and Sister Cecilia as teachers, I remember them around the convent when I went to school there in the 50's.  I had never seen the picture of the four nuns and enjoyed the article on Sr. Cecilia and the background info on the nuns.  Sister Clara was my first grade teacher and perfect for first grade.  Thanks for the memories. 

-     - - Patty Sawyer Skeen '65