Katechismus: Looking at the Church Community

Title page from Katechismus.

Last week, I examined my grandmother's booklet entitled Katechismus in order to learn more about it and how she used it.

This week, I continuing my study. Here's a few additional observations.

• Grandma was bilingual. This might seem obvious given that Grandma’s parents, John Simonik and Anna Tatar, were Slovak immigrants and spoke little English, according to family recollections. But while Grandma would sometimes say words or phrases in Slovak, I never heard her hold a conversation with anyone in Slovak. I never really realized that she could clearly read, write, and speak the language. But all the evidence is in this booklet.
• This booklet was written for children who did not attend parochial school, so it appears that Grandma attended public school and probably used this booklet in conjunction with a Catholic catechism class conducted outside of school hours.

In keeping with the material culture research process, after examining the booklet here's a list of possible study areas:

• Catholic catechism booklets in general
• How catechism booklets were used in Catholic instruction of public school students of the time
• The priest who compiled the booklet, the bishop who approved its publication, or the booklet publisher, Unity in Middletown, Pennsylvania
• The Slovak Catholic community of St. Polycarp Catholic Church in W. Leisenring where Grandma received her sacraments.

Before we go further, a few definitions for those who aren't familiar with Catholic sacraments. 

• First Communion is the sacrament when a child receives the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the form of bread and wine for the first time. It follows baptism and a child's first confession (now known as reconciliation). Children are usually in second grade or about seven to eight years old when they make their First Communion.
• Confirmation further strengthens a young Catholic by conferring the gifts of the Holy Spirit and makes them an adult in the eyes of the Church. Along with baptism and First Communion these sacraments are considered the rites of initiation into the Catholic church. Individuals are usually teens when they receive this sacrament.

Now that I understand that the booklet is a first confession and First Communion catechism and preparation booklet, I have a few new theories for why Grandma had the booklet and how she may have used it:

• Maybe Grandma was asked to provide service to others as part of her confirmation preparation. A common practice today is for teens in preparation for confirmation to be required to do community service hours. But here I must be careful to guard against presentism: While this is a practice today, it might not have been during Grandma’s time, and I cannot assume that it was. To counter this, I can educate myself on historical practices to see if my theory could be true.
• If it is true that she was helping others while preparing for confirmation, then: 
• Perhaps Grandma used the booklet to “coach” a younger sibling in preparation for their first confession and First Communion. Grandma had a younger sister, Josephine, who was born in 1916, and perhaps Grandma was helping her.¹
• Perhaps Grandma bought the booklet in order to assist younger children by teaching them the catechism in the book. Maybe she was helping a teacher or even instructing younger students herself.

To prove any of these theories, I need to find out more about Grandma’s church community. Based on the date she inscribed on her booklet—November 1925—I’ll focus on the years between her First Communion in 1921 and her confirmation on 11 July 1926. Both events were held at St. Polycarp Catholic Church in West Leisenring, Fayette Co., Pennsylvania.²

 

The Church in West Leisenring

In terms of the Catholic hierarchy of the time, the geographic area where Grandma lived in West Leisenring fell under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. In 1896, the diocese covered over 11,000 square miles and served a Catholic population of 225,000. At the time, the Pittsburgh diocese included “...214 churches, ten stations, and seventy-three chapels, with 306 priests, colleges, academics, seminaries, parochial schools for the education of 32,818 young people under its charge.”³

Finding more information about the St. Polycarp community was a challenge, as often is with churches that no longer exist. The church was active from 1917-1997, according to the Diocese of Greenburg, the jurisdiction which encompasses current-day West Leisenring.⁴

St. Polycarp was a mission church of St. John the Evangelist Church in Connellsville, Fayette Co., Pennsylvania.⁵ A mission church was one that did not have the full status of a parish and was supported by another entity.⁶ In this case, St. John would send their parish priests to St. Polycarp to hear confessions, say Mass, and confer various sacraments.

 

St. Polycarp was located in West Leisenring, while St. Vincent was in Leisenring, and St. John was in Connellsville. There was a relationship between all three Catholic churches in Grandma's day.

In 1921, when Grandma made her First Communion, the church at West Leisenring had two elements: 

• St. Polycarp, the mission church, was under the leadership of Rev. Stanislaus Moravek, pastor, and held services in West Leisenring.⁷
• There was also a station church in West Leisenring, under St. Vincent de Paul Church in Leisenring.⁸

A station church was temporary, without permanent facilities. "These...were a place where Catholics could gather to fulfill their religious obligations on a fairly regular basis—sometimes meaning a few times a year."⁹

Rev. Moravek is the priest named on both Grandma’s First Communion and confirmation certificates, so he traveled from St. John’s in Connellsville to preside over these sacraments for St. Polycarp parishioners.¹⁰

More research is needed to understand how there could be both a mission church and a station church in the same location and time in West Leisenring, and to find out what happened at each of them. Then I may be able to put the Katechismus booklet into better context.

Until next time…

© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2025. All rights reserved.

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NOTES

¹ Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Birth 46937 (stamped), Josephine Semonic, 17 March 1916; imaged, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60484/images/60484_03b738e3_1159-00314 : accessed 5 May 2025); citing Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission; Harrisburg.

² 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.

³ Henry E. Shepherd, Nelson's biographical dictionary and historical reference book of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : containing a condensed history of Pennsylvania, of Fayette County, and the boroughs and townships of the county :also, portraits and biographies of the governors since 1790, and genealogies, family histories and biographies of representative men of the county, Vol. 2 (Uniontown, Penns.: S.B. Nelson, 1900), 300; imaged, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/nelsonsbiographi02shep/page/n31/mode/2up : accessed 21 April 2025); citing University of Pittsburgh Library.

⁴ Dennis P. Wodzinski, Former Churches of the Diocese of Greensburg, no date, no publisher, p. 62; imaged, Diocese of Greensburg (https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1175&context=gf : accessed 5 May 2025).

 

⁵ The Official Catholic Directory for the Year of Our Lord 1921 (New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1921), 526-27, St. Polycarp, W. Leisenring, mission of St. John the Evangelist, Connellsville, Fayette, Pennsylvania; imaged, Google Books (https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Official_Catholic_Directory_for_the/TqIzAQAAMAAJ : accessed 3 May 2025; citing Pennsylvania State University. 

 

⁶ Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Church#:~:text=Mission%20church%2C%20in%20some%20Christian,Village%2C%20Alaska)%2C%20built%201917 : accessed 3 May 2025), "Mission Church"; last updated February 2024, at 18:04 (UTC).

⁷ The Official Catholic Directory for the Year of Our Lord 1921 (New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1921), 514, St. John the Evangelist, Connellsville, Fayette, Pennsylvania; imaged, Google Books (https://archive.org/details/officialcatholic1921unse/page/514/mode/1up : accessed 3 May 2025; citing Boston Public Library.

⁸ Ibid, 516.
 

⁹ A Catholic Mission (https://www.acatholicmission.org/7a-missions-stations-churches.html : accessed 3 May 2025), no date, "7A. Missions-Mission Stations-Churches."

¹⁰ St. Polycarp Catholic Church, W. Leisenring, Pennsylvania, commemorative first Communion certificate issued 14 August 1921 to Margita Semanik. Also, St. Polycarp Catholic Church, W. Leisenring, Pennsylvania, commemorative Confirmation certificate dated 11 July 1926 to Margita Katarina Semanik.