Allegheny County
Churches
Diamond Jubilee
1863 - 1938
Saint Augustine Church
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Transcribed and contributed by Nan Smith
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St. Augustine Church Diamond Jubilee
Page 174
ST. AUGUSTINE'S PARISH LIBRARY was formed in 1917 by
collecting the libraries of the various societies into one large library. The
St. Raphael's society under the presidency of the scholarly Mr. Titus Berger set
the pace by establishing a library for the benefit of the members of the society
and the parishioners in September, 1877. This library was located in a room on
the upper floor of the school, where the members kept their meetings. In 1894
the library contained 326 books, naturally mostly in German. The other societies
of the Christian Mothers, the German and English Branch of the Third Order, the
Sodality of Young Ladies, the Men's Conference and lastly the parish school
since February, 1907, established libraries in their various meeting rooms and
in the school rooms for their members. They appointed librarians who had charge
of the library, loaned out books and proposed lists for eventual buying of new
ones. Their libraries were opened after the monthly meetings on Sundays. In 1917
Fr. Angelus Seikel, director of the Third Order at St. Augustine's, was a
zealous promoter of Catholic library work. Through the courtesy of the Branch
Librarian of the Lawrenceville Branch of the Carneeie Library at Pittsburgh,
Miss Grace Winsor, he had placed twenty Catholic periodicals in English, German,
and Polish into that branch on Fisk Street. In the St. Augustinus of November,
1917, he announced to the parishioners that those twenty periodicals are now at
the perusal of the public at the reading rooms of that branch. "We would urge",
he wrote, "especially the local Catholic patrons of the library to read them and
recommend them to their friends. Also we recommend to call for books by Catholic
authors and to ask for the catalogue of books by Catholic authors and the graded
list for parochial schools". At the same time Fr. Angelus Seikel established at
St. Augustine's Parish Library a Tertiary Mission Bureau from among members of
the Third Order whose purpose was to gather used Catholic papers and periodicals
for distribution on the home and foreign mission fields. This mission bureau
collected also cancelled stamps, waste-paper, lead and tinfoil to sell them for
the benefit of the missions. "We counsel Tertiaries and friends", he wrote in
the St. Augustinus (November, 1917, p. 4), "never to destroy such articles but
forward them to us for the benefit of the Missions". When in July, 1918, Fr.
Angelus Seikel was transferred to Munjor, Kansas the zeal of the members of the
Mission Bureau began to flag till after some time the organization was a thing
of the past'. Yet Fr. Angelus had better luck with the parish library he had
established in 1917 by having the three libraries of the Third Order, the Young
Ladies Sodality and the Parish School Foundations collected into one large
library. The library was organized and properly indexed and shelved by the
experienced librarian of Duquesne University, Miss M. Gertrude Blanchard. It was
and still is a free library for all parishioners and members of societies
affiliated with St. Augustine's. Library hours are all Sundays from 2 to 5 P.M.
The time of loans of books is extended to one month with the privilege of
renewal for a second month. Later the library was enlarged by purchases and
collection of the books owned by the Men's Conference and the Casino. "The aim
of the parish library", wrote Fr. Cyprian Gehrling in the St. Augustinus of
July, 1921, "is to place at the use of our parishioners the best Catholic books
on Religious instruction, lives of the saints, novels, educational, historical
and poetical writings. The main |
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St. Augustine Church Diamond Jubilee Page 175 stock, however, are juveniles for the pupils of the parish school and spiritual books for the guidance of pious persons". From February to April, 1935, the library room was remodeled to provide space for the office of the Seraphic Mass Association. The library is located on the parish premises at the entrance to St. Augustine's, Monastery and has the dimensions of thirty-four by thirty-eight feet. The old book-cases were replaced by a set of uniform bookshelves divided into twenty-two sections, each containing eight shelves, so that more than two thousand books can be shelved. The library at present treasures at least 1,800 volumes all English with a small collection of German books. A larger collection of German books was taken out to make room for English ones and these books about 500 are treasured now in the archives room in the monastery. The parish library serves at times also as a convenient meeting room for some societies and for extraordinary gatherings. At times the room is placed at the use of the Missonary Confraternty, and the rehearsals of the boys' choir are held there regularly during the week-days. At any rate St. Augustine's possesses a model parish library as few other parishes of the city might boast of having.
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St. Augustine Church Diamond Jubilee Page 176
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Martha A C Graham, Allegheny County Archives File Manager
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