St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Feastday: January 4
Born: 1774 Died: 1821
Canonized: 1975
Who was the first person born in the United States to be declared a saint? Who opened the first American Catholic parish school and established the first American Catholic orphanage? Who founded the first native American religious community of women? The answers to all these questions are the same: Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton.
Elizabeth's Episcopalian parents handed on to her their own faith. Her mother and stepmother taught her to pray and read Scripture. Her father, a doctor, taught her to love and serve the poor. As a young girl, Elizabeth took food to the poor near her home. After she was married, she and her sister-in-law Rebecca visited the poor and sick in slums.
At the age of nineteen she married handsome William Seton, the son and business partner of the owner of a wealthy shipping firm. No one could have guessed the plans God had for her. Will and Elizabeth were devoted to each other. They loved their five children—three girls and two boys.
Everything went well until 1803, when Will Seton's business went bankrupt and his health failed. A family friend in Italy invited Will, Elizabeth, and their oldest daughter Anne to visit so that Will could recuperate in the warm, sunny Italian climate.
The journey was rough. Because there had been an epidemic in New York before the Setons left, when they landed in Italy the police quarantined them in an old fort. If after six weeks they did not come down with the disease, they would be able to enter Italy. Will, already ill, had to lie in the cold, damp room. Elizabeth cared for him as well as she could, but a few weeks after they were freed, Will died.
Finally, she realized that God was calling her to become a Catholic. She went to a priest to learn about the truths of the faith. Later, she and her children became Catholics. Because of their decision, her family and many friends turned against her, and she found herself on her own.
To support herself and her children, she opened a Catholic boarding school for girls in Maryland. Women came to help Elizabeth, and the school grew. Soon it seemed obvious that God was asking Elizabeth to dedicate her life completely to him. She and the other women began a community of religious Sisters, who later became known as the Daughters of Charity. Elizabeth Seton received the title of “Mother,” head of the community.
Elizabeth raised her children. Her two sons entered the navy. Anna became a nun but died at an early age, as did Rebecca. Catherine became a Sister of Mercy and worked with those in prison.
Today thousands of Daughters of Charity carry on Mother Seton's work. They serve in hospitals, homes for the aged, and schools.
(1774-1821), educator and philanthropist. With her canonization in 1975 she became the first American-born saint of the Roman Catholic church. Born Elizabeth Ann Bayley on Aug. 28, 1774, in New York City, in 1794 she married William Seton (1768-1803), a successful merchant, and they had five children. She accompanied her husband to Italy in 1803, following a reversal in their fortunes; some months after his death in Pisa she returned to New York City and, in 1805, became a Roman Catholic. In 1809 she established in Emmitsburg, Md., the first house of what later grew into a widespread religious community known as the Sisters of Charity, with a rule, or constitution, modeled upon that of the Daughters of Charity of the French priest St. Vincent de Paul. Elected the first superior of the order, she held that office until her death. Parochial education in the U.S. began with her establishment of a Catholic school in Emmitsburg, and she was noted for her ministrations to the poor and sick.For further information on this person, see the section Seton, Saint Elizabeth Ann.
Elizabeth Bayley Seton was the first native born American to be canonized by the Catholic Church.
Born two years before the American Revolution, Elizabeth grew up in the "cream" of New York society. She was a prolific reader, and read everything from the Bible to contemporary novels.
In spite of her high society background, Elizabeth's early life was quiet, simple, and often lonely. As she grew a little older, the Bible was to become her continual instruction, support and comfort; she would continue to love the Scriptures for the rest of her life.
In 1794, Elizabeth married the wealthy young William Seton, with whom she was deeply in love. The first years of their marriage were happy and prosperous. Elizabeth wrote in her diary at first autumn, "My own home at twenty-the world-that and heaven too-quite impossible."
The many enforced separations from dear ones by death and distance, served to draw Elizabeth's heart to God and eternity. The accepting and embracing of God's will - "The Will," as she called it - would be a keynote in her spiritual life.
Elizabeth's deep concern for the spiritual welfare of her family and friends eventually led her into the Catholic Church.
In Italy, Elizabeth captivated everyone by her own kindness, patience, good sense, wit and courtesy. During this time Elizabeth became interested in the Catholic Faith, and over a period of months, her Italian friends guided her in Catholic instructions.
Elizabeth's desire for the Bread of Life was to be a strong force leading her to the Catholic Church.
Having lost her mother at an early age, Elizabeth felt great comfort in the idea that the Blessed Virgin was truly her mother. She asked the Blessed Virgin to guide her to the True Faith. Elizabeth finally joined the Catholic Church in 1805.
At the suggestion of the president of St. Mary's College in Baltimore, Maryland, Elizabeth started a school in that city. She and two other young women, who helped her in her work, began plans for a Sisterhood. They established the first free Catholic school in America. When the young community adopted their rule, they made provisions for Elizabeth to continue raising her children.
On March 25, 1809, Elizabeth Seton pronounced her vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, binding for one year. From that time she was called Mother Seton.
Although Mother Seton was now afflicted with tuberculosis, she continued to guide her children. By 1818, in addition to their first school, the sisters had established two orphanages and another school. Today six groups of sisters trace their origins to Mother Seton's initial foundation.
For the last three years of her life, Elizabeth felt that God was getting ready to call her, and this gave her joy. Mother Seton died in 1821 at the age of 46, only sixteen years after becoming a Catholic. She was canonized on September 14, 1975.
Biography
Elizabeth was born on August 28, 1774 to Richard Bayley and Catherine Charlton of New York City. She was raised in the Episcopal Church in the United States. Her mother, daughter of an Episcopal priest, died when Elizabeth was three years old.
At age 19 she married William Magee Seton, a wealthy businessman in the import trade. Five children were born to the marriage: Anna "Annina" Maria (1795-1812), William the Second, Richard Seton, Catherine Seton (1800-1891) a Sister of Mercy, and Rebecca Mary (1802-1816) whom Elizabeth called "my soul's sister".
Although busy with raising a large family and the management of their home, Seton continued to show the concern for the poor of the city which her father and stepmother had taught her. She helped to organize a group of prominent ladies who would visit the sick poor in their homes to render what aid they could. This circle was informally called the "Ladies of Charity" due to their conscious inspiration by the work of St. Vincent de Paul in 17th century France.
By 1802, the effects of the blockade by the United Kingdom of Napoleonic France and the loss of several of her husband's ships at sea led to his bankruptcy. Soon after this, he fell ill and his doctors sent him to Italy for the warmer climate, with Elizabeth and their eldest daughter accompanying him. Landing at the port of Livorno, they were held in quarantine, during which time William died in 27 December 1803.[3] Elizabeth and Anna Maria were taken in by the family of her late husband's Italian business partners. While staying with them, she was introduced to the actual practice of Roman Catholicism. After her return to the United States, she converted to the Catholic Church, into which she was received on March 14, 1805 by Matthew O'Brien, the pastor of St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, New York. A year later, she received confirmation from the bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, John Carroll.
After her return to New York, in order to support herself and her children Seton had started an academy for young ladies, as was common for widows of social standing in that period. After news of her conversion to Catholicism spread, however, most of the parents withdrew their daughters from her tutelage, due to the anti-Catholic sentiment of the day. By chance, around this time she met a visiting priest, Louis William Valentine Dubourg, S.S.. The priests had taken refuge in the United States from the religious persecution of the Reign of Terror in France, and were in the process of establishing the first Catholic seminary for the United States, in keeping with the goals of their order. For several years, Dubourg had envisioned a religious school to meet the educational needs of the small Catholic community in the nation.
In 1809 Elizabeth accepted the invitation of support the Sulpicians had made to her and moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland. A year later she established the Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School, a school dedicated to the education of Catholic girls, due to the financial support of Samuel Sutherland Cooper. He was a wealthy convert and seminarian at the newly established Mount Saint Mary's University, begun by John Dubois, S.S. and the Sulpicians.
On 31 July 1809, Elizabeth established a religious community in Emmitsburg dedicated to the care of the children of the poor. It was the first congregation of religious sisters to be founded in the United States, and its school was the first free Catholic school in America. The order was initially called the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. From that point on, she became known as "Mother Seton".
The remainder of her life was spent in leading and developing the new congregation. Today, six separate religious communities trace their roots to the beginnings of the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg. In addition to the original community of Sisters at Emmitsburg (now part of the Vincentian order), they are based in New York City, Cincinnati, Ohio, Halifax Regional Municipality, Convent Station, New Jersey, and Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Mother Seton was described as a charming and cultured lady. Her connections to New York society and the accompanying social pressures to leave the new life she had created for herself did not deter her from embracing her religious vocation and charitable mission. The greatest difficulties she faced were actually internal, stemming from misunderstandings, interpersonal conflicts and the deaths of two daughters, other loved ones, and young Sisters in the community. She died of tuberculosis on January 4, 1821 at the age of 46. Today, her remains are entombed in the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Dedicated to following the will of God, Elizabeth Ann had a deep devotion to the Eucharist, Sacred Scripture and the Virgin Mary. The 23rd Psalm was her favorite prayer throughout her life. She was a woman of prayer and service who embraced the apostolic spirituality of Louise de Marillac and Vincent de Paul. It had been her original intention to join the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, but the embargo of France due to the Napoleonic Wars prevented this connection. It was only decades later, in 1850, that the Emmitsburg community took the steps to merge with the Daughters, and become their American branch, as their foundress had envisioned.
Veneration
On December 18, 1959 Elizabeth was declared Venerable by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. She was beatified by Pope John XXIII on March 17, 1963, and canonized by Pope Paul VI on September 14, 1975, making her the first native-born United States citizen to be canonized. As a condition for canonization, the Catholic Church requires that for a saint who has not been martyred, at least two miracles take place at his or her intercession. The Holy See recognised that this condition was met by attributing three miracles to Elizabeth's intercession[5][6]: curing Sister Gertrude Korzendorfer of cancer, curing Ann Theresa O’Neill of acute lymphatic leukemia, and curing Carl Kalin of encephalitis. Her feast day, a memorial in the dioceses of the United States, is January 4.
Elizabeth Ann Seton is popularly considered a patron saint of Catholic schools. Her name appears on the front two doors of St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, as a "Daughter of New York". The Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church was built on the site of her home in Manhattan.
The Mother Seton House at Baltimore, Maryland was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.[8] The house had been offered as an inducement to Elizabeth Seton to come to Baltimore in 1808 and there to found a school and occupy the then newly completed house. It is now operated as a museum by St. Mary’s Seminary.
Seton Hall University was founded by one of her half-nephews, James Roosevelt Bayley, who became an archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
In 2009, she was added to the Calendar of Saints for the Episcopal Church (United States) with a minor feast day on January 4.
