Katechismus: A Bridge Between Sacraments

Grandma's 1921 First Communion certificate from St. Polycarp Church.

 

Over the past two weeks I've been looking at my grandmother Margaret Katherine Simonik's booklet, Katechismus, a Slovak/English catechism that she dated November 1925. I want to find out more about it and how she used it.

I've received some good theories from readers and others about how Grandma used the booklet. One reader indicated that many Slovaks had no opportunity for education in the early 1900s and that perhaps my grandmother bought the catechism for herself as it would be a comfortable read. Another thought that the booklet could have been given to her as a gift after her First Communion. I've even thought that perhaps Grandma helped her parents—both non-English speaking immigrants—to understand the Mass and the church catechism better with the booklet.

I did a little reading this week and have discovered some historical background which has shed some light on Catholic teachings and practices around the time Grandma received her sacraments.

Until the 13th century even infants were given communion at their baptism, a practice which died out with the Latin Church. The thought then was that children should only receive the sacrament when they reached the age of reason and understood what the sacrament meant. What that age was became a matter of interpretation in different churches over time, however. Consequently, some churches withheld the sacrament until children were 10, 12, even 14 years old.¹

In response to some of these discrepancies Pope Pius X issued a decree called "Quam Singulari" in 1910 which revolutionized how the sacrament of First Communion was given in the Catholic church. He noted that the practices of the varying churches "deprived children of their food of interior life..." and that "...the fact that in ancient times the remaining particles of the Sacred Species were even given to nursing infants seems to indicate that no extraordinary preparation should now be demanded of children who are in the happy state of innocence and purity of soul, and who, amidst so many dangers and seductions of the present time have a special need of this heavenly food."²

Pope Pius X therefore codified the age of discretion for the sacrament of confession as, "the time when one can distinguish between right and wrong, that is, when one arrives at a certain use of reason, and so similarly, for Holy Communion is required the age when one can distinguish between the Bread of the Holy Eucharist and ordinary bread—again the age at which a child attains the use of reason." He specified the age of discretion as "about the seventh year, more or less," and "from that time on begins the obligation of fulfilling the precept of both Confession and Communion."³

Another point Pope Pius made—which particularly bears on why my grandmother may have used this booklet so long after she had received her First Communion—was this: "A full and perfect knowledge of Christian doctrine is not necessary either for First Confession or for First Communion. Afterwards, however, the child will be obliged to learn gradually the entire Catechism according to his ability."⁴ So, while Grandma was likely preparing for her confirmation in 1925 when she purchased the booklet, it could be she was continuing to learn Catholic church doctrine, prayers, and traditions with the help of the book long after she had made her First Communion.

During Grandma's time, the basic structure of communion practices was fixed, though there were some regional and ethnic variations.⁵ Katechismus was one example of the types of catechisms produced after "Quam Singulari" was decreed, as catechists then needed new tools to instruct their younger students about the sacraments.⁶

• With both Slovak and English text, Katechismus is a great example of an ethnic variation designed to serve the needs of the Slovak American community in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, where Grandma lived. It helped them understand church teachings, prayers, sacramental practices, and more, in their own language.
• Catechists of the time also taught lessons about elements of the church building to help their students become comfortable in their surroundings.⁷ This correlates with the hand-written vocabulary lists that Grandma wrote in Katechismus: one noted areas and elements of the church building and one was a list of priestly vestments. Perhaps Grandma even took a field trip to a church to become more acclimated to the space and its contents, as became popular at that time.
• Catechists also use a question-and-answer format to easily and succinctly convey the teachings of the church.⁸ Katechismus included 109 questions and answers such as: "How many divine persons are there?", "How and when did Jesus Christ institute the Blessed Sacrament?", and "What is the first and greatest commandment?"

 

One of the lists Grandma wrote in Katechismus (below), included various priestly vestments such as a maniple, cincture, and alb.

 

Grandma wrote this vocabulary list inside Katechismus.

All combined, it appears that Grandma benefited from the lowering of the age of First Communion, as well as the rationale for doing so, as decreed by Pope Pius X in 1910. She received the sacrament in 1921, just over a decade after the decree. She was just over eight years old and likely at the end of her second-grade year in elementary school. Perhaps she did not know every prayer or all the Catholic doctrine when she made her communion that she would eventually know, but she had reached that "age of reason" that helped her distinguish the consecrated host from ordinary bread, and to understand the meaning of the sacrament. 

Though Grandma was already well on her way to understanding and receiving the Catholic sacraments by the time she purchased Katechismus in 1925, she continued to learn about the church environment, prayers, and Catholic church teachings using the booklet, perhaps in preparation for her confirmation in 1926, when she would be expected to have a better understanding of this final rite of initiation. 

Grandma's confirmation certificate from 1926.

Katechismus seems to have been a bridge between Grandma's First Communion and her confirmation and an important tool which helped her understand the faith of the Catholic church.

Until next time...

© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2025. All rights reserved.

IMAGES

St. Polycarp Catholic Church, W. Leisenring, Pennsylvania, commemorative First Communion certificate issued 14 August 1921 to Margita Semanik; privately held by Nancy Gilbride Casey, [address for private use,] Tioga, Texas, 2025. This certificate was passed from Margaret Simonik Kozlina to her daughter, Anna Margaret Kozlina Gilbride, from whom the author inherited it.

 

Louis La Ravoire Morrow, "A Diagram of a Catholic priest putting on liturgical vestments," 1949; image, Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Catholic_priest_vesting_(La_Ravoire_Morrow_-_My_Catholic_Faith,_1949).png : accessed 13 May 2025).

 

Katechismus, inscription of vocabulary words, inside back page, written by Margaret Simonik, about 1925; privately held by Nancy Gilbride Casey, [address for private use,] Tioga, Texas, 2025. This booklet was passed from Margaret Simonik Kozlina to her daughter, Anna Margaret Kozlina Gilbride, from whom the author inherited it.

 

St. Polycarp Catholic Church, W. Leisenring, Pennsylvania, commemorative Confirmation certificate dated 11 July 1926 to Margita Katarina Semanik; privately held by Nancy Gilbride Casey, [address for private use,] Tioga, Texas, 2025. This certificate was passed from Margaret Simonik Kozlina to her daughter, Anna Margaret Kozlina Gilbride, from whom the author inherited it.

NOTES

¹ Pope Pius X, "Quam Singulari: Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments on First Communion," 1910; Papal Encyclicals Online (https://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/p10quam.htm : accessed 12 May 2025). 

² Ibid. 

³ Ibid. 

⁴ Ibid. 

⁵ Carrie T. Schultz, "Do This In Memory of Me: American Catholicism and First Communion Custom in the Era of 'Quam Singulari.'" American Catholic Studies, Vol. 115, No. 2 (Summer 2004), 48; imaged, JSTOR (https://www.jstor.org/stable/44194820 : accessed 12 May 2025). 

⁶ Ibid, 50.

⁷ Ibid, 53.

⁸ Ibid, 54.