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BY LAURI HARVEY
Times Staff Writer | Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | (No comments posted.)
CALUMET CITY -- For the last century, nuns have been at the blackboard and in the principal's office at Calumet City's St. Andrew the Apostle Grade School.
Now, just as the school is planning to close its doors to prepare for consolidation with other Catholic grade schools, the history of the sisters there is also coming to an end.
Sister Virginia Zielinski, who serves as principal at St. Andrew the Apostle School, is retiring from her post at the end of the school year. With no sisters available to replace her, Sister Virginia's retirement will mark the end of 98 years of Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth teaching at the 106-year-old school.
Sister Virginia said she realized some time ago she would be St. Andrew's last sister.
"I knew as soon as I submitted my request because we have all elderly sisters," she said. "We have very few in active ministry anymore. It was sad."
Sister Virginia has devoted her entire life to the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The order originated in Poland and came to Chicago in 1885 to minister to immigrant Poles. Calumet City was founded by Polish immigrants who centered their community around St. Andrew the Apostle School. The sisters came to the adjacent St. Andrew the Apostle Grade School to serve as teachers in 1906.
The same sisters also served as teachers at Holy Family Academy on Chicago's North Side when Sister Virginia was a student.
Sister Virginia loved the sisters and made a game of emulating them.
"As a little girl, I used to dress up as a nun," she said. "I used to take my mother's curtains and put them on my head and gather the children together from the neighborhood and play school."
The sister said she did everything possible to be near the nuns as a child and eventually told her mother that she wanted to join their community. At the age of 17, she became one of the sisters she loved so much and just last month, celebrated 50 years as a nun.
Sister Virginia first came to St. Andrew's in the early 1970s and spent eight years there teaching first grade.
"They had eight sisters when I came here and very few lay teachers," she said. "The oldest teachers here now were just getting married then and now their kids are in college."
After spending time teaching in Australia, she returned to St. Andrew's in 1998 to serve as principal.
The sister said that, although she has always been an educator, she's learned a lot from the young people she's worked with over the past 50 years.
"I learned from their simplicity, their honesty," she said. "Children have changed over the years. They're not as docile as they used to be. Families have separated and there is no cohesiveness. They're exposed to media now and outside sources more than family life. It just forces the need for religious education."
One of the most memorable times at St. Andrew's, Sister Virginia said, was when the sisters were able to allow lay people into their home at the rectory. Before the Catholic church reforms of the mid-1960s (commonly referred to as "Vatican II"), sisters were not allowed to bring people into their homes without being restricted to certain areas.
At the St. Andrew's rectory, Sister Virginia said, the sisters had to travel in pairs when outsiders came to visit.
"It was just so exciting for me," she said of the restrictions being lifted. "I never understood the reasons for them in the first place. The kids especially wondered what we were all about and that just made it so much more mysterious for them. I couldn't even have my family over...Having them over now and having the children visit is really a special time and I've really enjoyed that."
The end of the sisters at St. Andrew's comes at a time of other changes for the school as well. Earlier this year, the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools announced the closure of all three Catholic grade schools in Calumet City (St. Andrew's, St. Victor and Our Lady of Knock) along with Holy Ghost in South Holland, St. Jude the Apostle in South Holland and Queen of Apostles in Riverdale.
A new school will take the place of the six, with an east campus to be located at the current St. Andrew building, 331 155th Place and a west campus to be located at the current St. Jude building, 900 E. 154 St.
Sister Virginia stressed that her decision to retire, "came long before the decision to consolidate the schools."
The sister said preparing for the closure of the school means removing all signs and symbols of St. Andrew's and of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
"Each classroom has a picture of the Holy family, which is something we've tried to instill in the kids, the importance of family," she said. "We've had a picture of our mother foundress in every classroom, too, and those have to go now as well. I had a mother say to me just the other day, 'I'm so glad that my children had the opportunity to see sisters in action,' and that's extremely rewarding."
Stripping the building of references to its history also begs the question of how the school's Polish heritage will be preserved for future generations. Sister Virginia -- who is also of Polish descent -- said those lessons will now have to come through the church and parents.
Sister Virginia lives in St. Andrew's rectory, but will likely move to the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth mother house in Des Plaines when she leaves the school.
No matter where she ends up, St. Andrew's last sister said she will always have a prayer for the school.
"I pray that what we've done over the years will have, in some way, affected the students and parents to the point where they understand that we are all in this together," she said. "I pray that with religious practices and faith, we will uphold the memory or traditions that we've tried to impart."
Lauri Harvey can be reached at lharvey@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4169.
Mass honoring sisters set for Sunday
A Mass honoring all of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth who have taught at St. Andrew the Apostle Grade School since 1906 will take place at 11:15 a.m. Sunday at St. Andrew the Apostle Church, 768 Lincoln Ave.
All sisters who taught at the school, current and former students and parishioners are invited to attend the Mass. A reception in the school gym will immediately follow the service.
More information is available by calling the rectory at (708) 862-4165.
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