Saint John Nepomucene School collection

Saint John Nepomucene Parish was erected the Armour Square neighborhood of Chicago to serve Catholics of Bohemian extraction in 1871. The Church was dedicated in honor of the Czech martyr saint, Saint John Nepomucene.

In 1890, the pastor Reverend Francis Bobal, asked our sisters to take over the task of education in his school. Mother Theresa Krug, OSB, broke a precedent (the acceptance of a non-German school) in the Chicago area.

For many years the teaching was in Bohemian for one half day and in English for the other half day. Two Bohemian National Sisters, Sister Irmina Zak, OSB, and Sister Eusebia Kubich, OSB, each spent 30 years at Saint John Nepomucene School. When they retired, Sister Rosalia Kunesh, OSB, also of Czech extraction was assigned to Saint John School but, by then instruction, except for morning prayer was in English.

When Archbishop George Mundelein came to Chicago in 1915, he felt it was time for the ethnic groups to join the mainstream of American life. The teaching of a national language was restricted to a short class period. The school population was always small.

In 1968, with the numbers of religious teachers dwindling, on the advice of the community council, the Benedictine Sisters withdrew from Saint John Nepomucene and the school closed.

The bulk of the work of disposing of school materials and convent items was entrusted to Sister Mary Frances Schermerhorn, OSB. She worked throughout the summer to help their pupils assimilate into neighboring Saint Anthony School. The school records were transferred there, as well as library materials and school desks.

The parishioners felt a keen loss and it was with sadness that the Benedictine Sisters left.