Elizabeth Ann Seton was born in 1774 and was raised in the Episcopal Church. She was the daughter of Dr. Richard Bayley, a prominent doctor in New York City, and his wife Catherine who died when Elizabeth was three years old. Dr. Bayley remarried and he and his second wife Charlotte had seven children, but the marriage ended in separation because of marital conflicts. Elizabeth and her two sisters were then raised for a time by Dr. Bayley’s sister Rebecca.
When Elizabeth was 19 years old (in 1794), she married William Magee Seton who worked in his father’s import-export business, The Seton Mercantile Company. They had five children – Anna, William, Richard, Catherine and Rebecca. After nine years of marriage, William was afflicted with tuberculosis, and the Setons, with their oldest daughter Anna, decided to visit Italy, a warmer climate, where business friends of William, the Filicchi brothers, lived. William’s sister Rebecca cared for the other children while they were away. Sadly, William died in Italy and Elizabeth and Anna stayed for several months with the Filicchi family who introduced Elizabeth to the many Catholic churches in Italy and to the beauty of the Catholic faith.
Upon their return to the United States, Elizabeth underwent a disconcerting period when she desired to enter the Catholic Church over the objections of her family. She was received into the Catholic Church on Ash Wednesday, March 14, 1805.
As a widow aged 29, Elizabeth had to find a way to support herself and her five children who were all under the age of eight years. She was left with very little money from William and her family disowned her after she became Catholic since there was extensive anti-Catholic prejudice in New York City at that time.
She took the advice of Father Dubourg of St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland and opened a school in Baltimore. She lived the life of a religious, took vows before Archbishop Carroll of Baltimore, and her two sisters, Harriet and Cecelia, joined her community. They eventually moved to Emmitsburg, just three miles down the road from St. Mary’s Seminary. 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.
Mother Seton and 18 Sisters made their vows in 1813 after Archbishop Carroll of Baltimore approved Elizabeth’s request to adopt the rule of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, a religious community in France. Her legacy now includes six religious communities with more than 5,000 members, hundreds of schools, social service centers, and hospitals throughout America and around the world.
Elizabeth Ann Seton, like her husband William, died of tuberculosis on January 4, 1821 at the age of 46. Her remains are entombed in the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland. 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. Her feast day, the day of her death, is celebrated on January 4th.
As the mother of five children, a socialite, a devoted wife, a widow, a single parent, a teacher, a convert to the Catholic faith, the founder of a religious community, and a friend of the poor, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton stands as a role model for women who fall into any of these categories.
See a video of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland:
http://youtu.be/QgIuhEj1rpA
Sources:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13739a.htm
http://www.setonheritage.org/education/biography-of-st-elizabeth-ann-seton
http://www.emmitsburg.net/setonshrine