St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was born Elizabeth Bayley in New York in 1774, the daughter of Dr. Richard Bayley, the first professor of anatomy at Columbia College, and Catherine Charlton, daughter of an Anglican minister. Elizabeth’s mother died when Elizabeth was only three years old. Her father remarried and Elizabeth got along very well with her stepmother and stepbrothers and sisters. The family was all of the Anglican faith and Elizabeth was very religious. She always wore a crucifix around her neck and loved to read the Scriptures.

Elizabeth married William Seton in 1794 and struck up a wonderful friendship with her sister-in-law, Rebecca Seton. Together, they went about on missions of mercy and became known as the “Protestant Sisters of Charity.” Elizabeth was very happy, her family was prominent and wealthy and she was doing the Lord’s work. Things couldn’t be better. Then, in 1798, her father-in-law died and Elizabeth and her husband found themselves the caretakers of the large orphaned family. Soon after her husband’s health also started to fail and they went to Pisa, Italy, in hopes of finding medical help for him there. But he died there, and Elizabeth was widowed with five children.

She remained in Pisa for a while after his death, living with a Catholic family. While residing and attending Mass with them, she soon fell in love with the Catholic faith and came to realize that was where she belonged. She returned to the United States in 1805 and was received into the Church by Fr. Matthew O’Brien at St. Peter’s Church in New York. This event led to her ostracization by her Protestant family and friends. When she and a Catholic couple tried to open a school for boys in the suburbs of New York, some started the rumor that they were trying to convert the boys to Catholicism and the school was forced to close.

In 1806, Elizabeth’s youngest sister-in-law Cecilia Seton became very ill and insisted on seeing her ostracized family member. Elizabeth was summoned and became a constant visitor. Cecilia told her that she, too, desired to become a Catholic. When Cecilia’s decision was made known, threats were made to have Elizabeth expelled from the state by the Legislature. When Cecilia recovered from her illness she fled to Elizabeth for refuge and was received into the Church.

Three years later, Elizabeth was asked to open a school in Baltimore by Dr. Dubourg, rector of St. Mary’s Seminary there. Along with four others, Elizabeth founded a religious community there called the Sisters of Saint Joseph and a school for poor children. The new community was approved by Archbishop Carroll of Baltimore, and in 1812, Elizabeth was elected superior. With 18 other women, she took her vows in 1813, founding the Sisters of Charity, the first American religious society. By the time of Elizabeth’s death in 1821, there were some 20 communities.

Elizabeth endured great persecution when she converted to the Catholic Church, including loss of communication with family members and friends. Even during her time as Mother Superior of the Sisters of Charity, her suffering continued. There were great trials including the loss of her own children. Her daughter Anna died during her novitiate but was allowed to pronounce her vows on her deathbed. Another daughter, Rebecca, also died after suffering through a long illness. Elizabeth never swayed in her faith and her zeal to help others, and because of her hard work and perseverance, many people were helped and many souls brought to the Lord.

Prayer: Father, we are so glad that you called Elizabeth to the Catholic faith and for all she accomplished for others in her lifetime. We thank you for her great spirit and example and pray that you will raise up many others like Elizabeth in our country to be great saints that we may emulate. Amen.

American Cathlic's Saint of the Day

January 4, 2005

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

(1774-1821)

Mother Seton is one of the keystones of the American Catholic Church. She founded the first American religious community for women, the Sisters of Charity. She opened the first American parish school and established the first American Catholic orphanage. All this she did in the span of 46 years while raising her five children.

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton is a true daughter of the American Revolution, born August 28, 1774, just two years before the Declaration of Independence. By birth and marriage, she was linked to the first families of New York and enjoyed the fruits of high society. Reared a staunch Episcopalian by her mother and stepmother, she learned the value of prayer, Scripture and a nightly examination of conscience. Her father, Dr. Richard Bayley, did not have much use for churches but was a great humanitarian, teaching his daughter to love and serve others.

The early deaths of her mother in 1777 and her baby sister in 1778 gave Elizabeth a feel for eternity and the temporariness of the pilgrim life on earth. Far from being brooding and sullen, she faced each new “holocaust,” as she put it, with hopeful cheerfulness.

At 19, Elizabeth was the belle of New York and married a handsome, wealthy businessman, William Magee Seton. They had five children before his business failed and he died of tuberculosis. At 30, Elizabeth was widowed, penniless, with five small children to support.

While in Italy with her dying husband, Elizabeth witnessed Catholicity in action through family friends. Three basic points led her to become a Catholic: belief in the Real Presence, devotion to the Blessed Mother and conviction that the Catholic Church led back to the apostles and to Christ. Many of her family and friends rejected her when she became a Catholic in March 1805.

To support her children, she opened a school in Baltimore. From the beginning, her group followed the lines of a religious community, which was officially founded in 1809.

The thousand or more letters of Mother Seton reveal the development of her spiritual life from ordinary goodness to heroic sanctity. She suffered great trials of sickness, misunderstanding, the death of loved ones (her husband and two young daughters) and the heartache of a wayward son. She died January 4, 1821, and became the first American-born citizen to be beatified (1963) and then canonized (1975). She is buried in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Comment:

Elizabeth Seton had no extraordinary gifts. She was not a mystic or stigmatic. She did not prophesy or speak in tongues. She had two great devotions: abandonment to the will of God and an ardent love for the Blessed Sacrament. She wrote to a friend, Julia Scott, that she would prefer to exchange the world for a “cave or a desert.” “But God has given me a great deal to do, and I have always and hope always to prefer his will to every wish of my own.” Her brand of sanctity is open to everyone if we love God and do his will.

Quote:

Elizabeth Seton told her sisters, “The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will.”

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