Shrinking resources push Sisters of St. Basil to seek new uses for land, buildings

Every Labor Day weekend, thousands of Byzantine Catholics descend on Mount St. Macrina in Uniontown for a pilgrimage that is the oldest and largest of its kind in the country.

They come not only to honor Our Lady of Perpetual Help but also to enjoy the hospitality and spirituality of the Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great, who have called Mount St. Macrina home for 84 years.

While the pilgrimage is expected to continue, the Fayette County site itself will undergo dramatic changes in coming years.

“It's a time of great faith because we have no idea where this is going to lead,” said Sister Ruth Plante, 73, provincial for the Sisters of St. Basil. “We never thought we'd be in this position.”

In September , the Sisters announced that they had commissioned a study of their 250-acre property and were looking for ways that their land and buildings can be used in the future. Faced with declining members and shrinking resources, the Byzantine Catholic nuns have found it increasingly difficult to justify such a large landholding.

‘Sacred ground'

“Financially, it's getting to be too much for us. We have to look at ways we can best use this property because we really believe it's sacred ground,” Plante said. “We have to be open to face that reality, as difficult as that is.”

The sisters obtained a grant last year and hired the Appleton, Wis.-based Hoffman Planning, Design & Construction to do a study of the community, its buildings, its infrastructure and the surrounding area. The sisters also enlisted the services of Newmark Knight Frank, a real estate marketing firm in Pittsburgh, to create a marketing brochure.

The $100,000 grant came from the National Religious Retirement Office , the Catholic agency tasked with raising funds for retired religious men and women. Campaign Director Beth Kennedy said the grant awarded to the Sisters of St. Basil is designed to help struggling religious communities plan for the future.

Plante declined to discuss specifics of the Hoffman study but said it included a list of potential uses for the property, including education, health care, housing and social services. A Hoffman spokesman referred questions to the sisters.

“We told (Hoffman) what our hopes are, and they balanced that with potential uses,” Plante said. “Right now, we are in the initial planning stages, and we are seeking possible candidates who may have innovative plans for these buildings.”

Plans for the future of Mount St. Macrina could involve a sale, a lease or some other arrangement with one or more entities, she said. The sisters hope to solicit proposals in coming months and review them by March.

“We will look at proposals that fit our property and fit our mission of being a praying, healing and life-giving presence in the community,” Plante said.

A long history in Uniontown

The reality facing the Sisters of St. Basil has been decades in the making.

Founded in 1921 in Cleveland, the order moved to eastern Pennsylvania and then began looking for a new home to accommodate all the new members. The pastor of St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church in Uniontown contacted Mother Macrina Melnychuck about Oak Hill Estate, a piece of property that had become available in Fayette County. It was the private estate of coal baron J.V. Thompson, who had just filed for bankruptcy.

The nuns were able to make a down payment and moved onto the spacious property in December 1933. A Motherhouse large enough to house 100 nuns was added in 1965 — the same year that the number of religious women in the United States peaked at 181,421, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate .

That number fell below 50,000 in 2014, and the signs of that decline are evident throughout Western Pennsylvania. Two other women's communities — the Sisters of St. Francis in Whitehall and the Sisters of St. Francis in Millvale — announced sales of their properties in 2015 and 2017 respectively.

Today, the Sisters of St. Basil have 42 members, whose median age is in the mid-80s. Nineteen live in the Motherhouse and 10 live in a nursing home, while eight sisters are still active in ministry in places such as Wilkes-Barre, Pittsburgh, Erie, Phoenix and Youngstown, Ohio, Plante said.

In addition to a cemetery/mausoleum and some leased farmland, Mount St. Macrina comprises the Mount Macrina Manor Nursing Home, the Motherhouse, a religious gift shop, religious shrines and several vacant buildings.

Taking the pilgrimage

The House of Prayer, formerly the J.V. Thompson mansion, remains the focal point of the grounds as a year-round retreat center and as home to the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Shrine. Among the thousands of pilgrims who flocked to the House of Prayer this year was Mary Horey, 63, of Northridge, Calif.

Horey remembers going on pilgrimage to Mount St. Macrina as a young girl growing up in West Mifflin. “I happened to be blessed enough to live across the street from neighbors who had daughters who became (Order of St. Basil) nuns,” she said. “I was friends with the younger daughter, so they'd take me along on the annual pilgrimage.”

Horey moved to California in 1977 and did not return to Mount St. Macrina for decades — until the 83rd annual pilgrimage Sept. 2-3. While there, she visited the grave of one of those childhood friends, Sister Jean Marie Cihota, who died in May and is buried in Mount St. Macrina Cemetery.

“I remember going to Divine Liturgy before daybreak. They'd have the Divine Liturgy outdoors, and there'd be all these trees and fog. It was like being in nature and being close to God,” she said.

It was during this year's pilgrimage that Horey said she was healed of severe pollen allergies, after blessing herself with holy water taken from the Mount St. Macrina Lourdes Grotto.

As for what the future holds, Plante said the annual pilgrimage will continue and the sisters likely will have to build a smaller residence on the property — even as they try to grow the community through new vocations.

“It's been a number of years since we've had someone stay (as a novice). Young women today have so many other opportunities, so you don't have that same influx like you did in the '50s and '60s,” she said. “We really don't know what God's plan is for us. ... We just walk in mystery. We're trying to do our part, and we'll see where the Lord leads us.”

Stephen Huba is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-850-1280, shuba@tribweb.com or via Twitter @shuba_trib.