Mount Assisi Academy students make their way out of St. Francis Chapel in 1944. It was customary for students to march in solemn procession through the corridors with the Infant of Prague on the 25th of each month. Among those pictured is Sister Marietta Bankos (back left).
Students make their way down the very same corridor to the very same chapel on August 19, 2024, the first day of classes for The Saint Constantine School of Pittsburgh. Students start each day there with morning prayer.
A Legacy of Learning
OPENING OF NEW SCHOOL PENS NEXT CHAPTER
IN THE HISTORY & HERITAGE OF ‘THE MOUNT’
A new era has begun at Mt. Assisi Place — site of our former Mount Assisi Convent and Mount Assisi Academy (MAA) in Pittsburgh, Pa. — with the opening of The Saint Constantine School of Pittsburgh in August. Classrooms and hallways once occupied by MAA students are alive once again with the enthusiastic voices of school children, and our Sisters couldn’t be more thrilled.
“Isn’t it wonderful!” exclaims Sister Georgette Dublino, who graduated from MAA in 1951, taught there during the 1970s, and now leads weekly Bible study for residents of Mt. Assisi Place personal care home, which has occupied the property since 2019. “They are carrying on our legacy of teaching.”
For 50 years — from 1928 to 1978 — MAA drew female students to the hilltop in Ross Township to be educated by our Sisters. Our order of Slovak Catholic nuns came to Pittsburgh from Bohemia in 1913 at the request of local clergy to educate the children of a growing population of Eastern European immigrants. Although our Sisters taught at many Catholic grade schools over the decades, the academy was the Pittsburgh-area cornerstone of our teaching ministry until it closed in 1978 amid declining enrollment for Catholic schools everywhere.
Sister Elaine Hromulak (right) enjoyed meeting Emily Blasdell, part of the administrative team of The Saint Constantine School. They shared their great enthusiasm about the Orthodox Christian school taking up residence at Mt. Assisi Place.
Children continued to bring learning and laughter to the property with Mount Assisi Academy Preschool (MAAP) until 2018. In the six years since, Mt. Assisi Place personal care home has endured, but the classrooms in the convent and high school buildings had fallen silent. The arrival of Saint Constantine (SCSP) brings new life to these spaces, with some 75 students in pre-K through Grade 12 enrolled for the first term.
Their presence should not be at all obvious to most of the personal care residents. For the safety and security of the school and for the peace and privacy of those in personal care, the daily functions and physical footprints of the school and of Mt. Assisi Place (MAP) will be kept separate. But for the School Sisters of St. Francis — with 12 Sisters in residence there — the presence of the Orthodox Christian school just feels fitting.
“It’s a true passing of the torch of Christian education from the School Sisters to the Saint Constantine School at Mt. Assisi Place,” says Sister Elaine Hromulak, a 1955 graduate who went on to become the academy’s last principal in the 1970s. “We are so delighted that they are in the building to carry on the educational legacy.”
The history and heritage of the property was among the factors that drew the Texas-based program to establish its first satellite campus there. Throughout the transition, Jesse Cone, SCSP’s head of school, learned about that legacy from several Sisters, including Sisters Cecilia Jacko and Pat Marie Buranosky, MAP residents and former MAA teachers. He’s also had emotional conversations with Sister Elaine Hromulak, both moved to tears by the exciting new threads that bind the past with the future.
Just days before its August 19 opening, the school hosted a special blessing in the gym, officially kicking off the 2024-2025 school term and a new chapter in the storied history of “The Mount.” “We are standing in a special place,” Cone told those gathered for blessing. “For nearly 100 years, this building has been dedicated to service to our Lord and to the education of children.”
Although founded on Eastern Orthodox principles, the school welcomes Christians from many traditions and is not affiliated with any one ethnic heritage. Its opening blessing gathered incoming students and their families, school faculty, representatives from the anchor school in Houston, and many clergy.
“I’m really happy we ended up at Mt. Assisi,” says 13-year old Gregory Cone, Jesse’s eldest son and member of Saint Constantine’s inaugural eighth-grade class. Gregory was along for the ride as the SCSP team scouted potential locations in Pittsburgh over the course of two years. “Of all the buildings we visited, I wanted us to be here.”
The move was facilitated over nearly a year by Diane Ott, administrator of Mt. Assisi Place, who had envisioned a school returning to the property since she and a small group of investors purchased it from the Sisters in 2019, always with the intention of continuing the site’s history of service. She invited the elder Cone to experience that history by attending the Welcome Home all-class reunion in October 2023. In fact, at the school’s request, historical bulletin boards created for the reunion remained in place throughout the spring and summer of 2024 as SCSP hosted prospective families for tours and open house events.
“I wanted Jesse to see all the history on display,” Diane says. “He already had an appreciation for the building, but he also got to experience the attachment that alumnae still have here.”
MAA connections endure at Mt. Assisi Place already — graduates Joanne Osborn (1973) and Cindy Zawojski McCullough (1975) work there, and Betty Aiello Oberst (1952) and Rita Patchan Hirschfield (1968) live there. Such ties continue to evolve with the opening of SCSP, as instructor Justine Bossard teaches baking to elementary students in the former MAA home economics room; as the pre-K class explores the world in Sister Theophane Jacko’s former sewing room; and as SCSP students of all ages have gym class in the very same space where MAA students played basketball, gathered for Mass, and staged Assisi After Dark productions.
With the school year just underway, surely there will be some adjustments as everyone adapts to living and working in connected spaces. Cone hopes that once the dust settles and everyone finds their groove, there may be opportunities for intergenerational activities that engage SCSP students and MAP Residents. Sister Elaine plans to be involved by sharing the building’s heritage with teachers and parents.
The school has already created a garden and greenhouse at the back of the property where students spend varied parts of their school day interacting with and caring for nature. Fitting, perhaps, as the seeds of Mount Assisi Academy’s yesterday serve as fertile soil for Saint Constantine’s new generation of students and educators.
“Thank you for paving the way,” Cone told our Sisters. “We will do our best to carry it forward.”
In this photo taken on August 16, 2024, an engaging classroom at Mt. Assisi Place awaits the arrival of The Saint Constantine School’s inaugural first grade class. Mount Assisi Academy students learned history from Sister Bonaventure Melichar and English from Sister Magdalene Lovrich in this space. Later, it served as the Learning Center for Mount Assisi Academy Preschool.
A school bus drops off students at the rear of Mt. Assisi Place on August 19, 2024, the first day of classes at The Saint Constantine School of Pittsburgh.
“It’s wonderful to hear such appreciation for the hard work of our Pioneer Sisters in constructing this masterpiece — The Mount. And, most importantly, that the school will continue the work here of making ... His kingdom come.”