“This work and the people supporting it are so close to our hearts.”
After a special chemical is applied to dissolve years of dirt and corrosion, a worker from Fred Donatelli Memorials powerwashes headstones in St. Francis Cemetery on July 5, 2024.
A Monumental Task
CEMETERY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
gets UNDERWAY WITH SUPPORT
FROM GENEROUS BENEFACTORS
Earlier this year, we told you about The Lasting Legacy Project, an effort by our Sisters to restore and improve access to St. Francis Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pa., the final resting place of more than 140 of our Sisters. Time has taken its toll on the headstones and statues in the cemetery, and its sloping location has proven increasingly precarious to navigate for aging visitors.
In the time since we announced the project, we have been blessed by enthusiastic response from our Sisters, alumnae, benefactors and the families of many deceased Sisters. You and they have come through with donations large and small to help fund the renovation project, which will cost more than $60,000. With this support, we’ve been able to partner with local businesses to begin the work. Already, quick progress has been made toward creating an outdoor environment worthy of the Sisters buried there.
What’s Been Done
Before the area can be beautified, headstones placed as far back as the late 1920s had to be fortified. All markers have been straightened and leveled and the integrity of their foundations checked by a local cemetery monument company. New foundations have been installed where necessary, headstones separated from their foundations have been reattached, and those sinking into the ground have been raised. Now aligned, all headstones have been professionally cleaned and restored to their original condition.
Although the cemetery has been in place since the 1930s, it has never had a dedicated water supply. We have worked with the local water authority to establish a new water line from Forest Avenue below and to install an easily-accessible tap. The permit process has been complicated, but the work is necessary to support the new landscaping and to ensure that the new trees, shrubs, flowers and lawn have the water they need to thrive going forward.
What’s Next
With the help of a very generous donation from the Donovan Family, the central Calvary scene will be replaced with granite statues that will last indefinitely. The original cast concrete statues — in place since 1939 and 1953 — were badly deteriorated and have been removed. On July 16, 2024, they were taken to Christ Our Redeemer Roman Catholic Cemetery and buried in an area reserved for sacred objects. New statues — being made to order and sculpted by hand — will be erected on the restored original bases.
Several trees along the perimeter of the cemetery must be removed to make way for new landscaping. Now that headstone renovations are complete, tree removal can begin. Then, finally, the major landscaping work and beautification can begin. We will keep you updated as the work moves along.
Long after our remaining Sisters are gone, St. Francis Cemetery will serve as our community’s perpetual footprint in the Pittsburgh area. When we sold the Mount Assisi motherhouse complex in 2019, we retained ownership of the cemetery, which is located behind what is now Mt. Assisi Place personal care home. While general maintenance of the cemetery will be done in perpetuity by the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s Parish Cemeteries Association, this current restoration work was long overdue.
“It is only because of the generosity of our benefactors that we are able to take on a project of this magnitude,” says Sister Marian Sgriccia, provincial minister. “This work and the people supporting it are so close to our hearts.”
HELP US FINISH the Project
We continue to welcome donations of any size from our friends and alumnae to support the project and to respectfully honor our Sisters who, among their many ministries, established Mount Assisi Academy in 1928 and helped to shape and inspire its students over the course of five decades.
Contributions to The Lasting Legacy Fund may be made online by clicking here (choose Lasting Legacy Fund from the drop-down menu during the donation process). You may also send a check payable to School Sisters of St. Francis, 4900 Perry Highway, Suite 201, Pittsburgh PA 15229.
Crumbling statues of Saint John and Our Lady of Sorrows await transport from St. Francis Cemetery to Christ Our Redeemer on July 16, 2024.
Annabelle McGannon, former Sister and retired longtime employee of the Catholic Cemeteries Association, is helping to coordinate the project on behalf of our Sisters. Here, she discusses progress of the cemetery renovations with John Dioguardi of Rome Monument Co. on July 16, 2024.
Cemetery Statues Now Rest in Sacred Space of Their Own
The Calvary scene, or Pietà, at the center of St. Francis Cemetery has an interesting story of its own. The crucifix was made by Martin Kovac and Mr. Ellek of McKees Rocks and installed in July 1939, shortly after the dedication of the cemetery. The accompanying statues of Our Lady of Sorrows and Saint John were donated in 1953 in memory of Michael and Anna Kucan, maternal grandparents of our Sister Patricia Ann Mahoney.
After being carefully removed this summer by Rome Monument Co., they were transported on July 16, 2024, to Christ Our Redeemer Roman Catholic Cemetery in Ross for burial in a space set aside for sacred objects. While smaller items like hymnals and statuettes are already interred there, the hulking statues from St. Francis Cemetery are the largest sacred objects buried there to date.
“You would not believe the amount of pounding and maneuvering we had to do to break the crucifix loose from its base,” says John Dioguardi, retired fifth-generation owner of Rome. “The amazing thing is that he stayed intact the entire way.”
John and his team, along with grounds crew from Christ Our Redeemer, took great care in lowering the “retired” statues into their grave, even taking time to rest Mary’s head gently on the cross. Sister Patricia Ann offered a prayer in memory of her family before the grave was filled in.
Rome Monument’s John Dioguardi and his team carefully lower the original crucifx from St. Francis Cemetery into the ground at Christ the Redeemer Roman Catholic Cemetery on July 16, 2024.
Sisters’ Sacred Ground Since 1939
Even though our Sisters settled in the United States in 1913 and opened the Mount Assisi motherhouse in 1928, it was not until 1939 that they had a dedicated cemetery. The official blessing of St. Francis Cemetery took place on March 5, 1939.
Afterwards, the remains of the Sisters who had died earlier in the Pittsburgh area were transferred to the new cemetery – Sisters Theodora Skranka, Georgia Cerny and Concilia Smolko from St. Joseph Cemetery in West View; and Rev. Mother Hyacinth Zahalka, foundress and first general superior of the community in Bohemia, from St. Mary’s Cemetery on the North Side.
Although the bodies of the Sisters who died stateside but were previously buried outside the Pittsburgh area were not transferred, memorial stones were erected in their honor in 1974.
A worker from Fred Donatelli Memorials scrubs the headstone of Sister Bernadette Giba on July 5, 2024.
Ravaged by time, the original Calvary statues were removed from their bases on June 21, 2024, to make way for new, more durable ones. They have since been buried at Christ Our Redeemer Roman Catholic Cemetery in an area reserved for sacred objects.
Workers dig a trench from Forest Avenue on July 16, 2024, to accommodate a dedicated water line for future upkeep of St. Francis Cemetery.
The existing concrete pathway into the cemetery is removed on July 17, 2024, clearing the way for installation of a new pathway with more secure footing.