Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Elizabeth Ann Seton, a nineteenth-century pioneer in providing parochial education and charity for the sick and poor, was the first native-born American declared a saint. She was canonized during 1975, which was being observed as a Holy Year by the Roman Catholic Church, according to the Catholic tradition of marking such a year once each quarter century. Canonization of the new saint, whose feast day is January 4, coincided with the UN-designated observance of 1975 as International Women's Year, and with the Vatican's designation of September 14 (the day she was declared a saint) as Woman's Day. Although not by official design, the canonization of the first American-born saint also coincided with the 1975–76 celebration of the bicentennial of the American Revolution.

The elevation of Mother Seton to sainthood was the culmination of a long process, including acceptance by church authorities of claims of miraculous cures. The effort originated in the order of nuns she founded and was taken up by James Cardinal Gibbons, who lent his advocacy to her cause in 1882 and began the organized effort on behalf of her sainthood. Following decades of biographical and other investigation by church authorities, Pope Pius XII in 1940 formally requested that the Vatican pursue her cause. After further preliminary actions she was beatified, that is, declared blessed (the step preceding canonization) by Pope John XXIII on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1963. Since a vote of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in November 1971, her feast day has been included in the liturgical calendar for all Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States, to be celebrated as a memorial on January 4, the date of her death in 1821.

In her lifetime, “the mother of the American Church,” as she sometimes was called, founded the first native religious community for women in the United States, laid the foundation of the American Catholic parochial school system, and opened orphan asylums, which were the forerunners of hundreds of modern foundling homes and child-care centers. Although Mother Seton died before she could start the hospital she had long dreamed of establishing, her order of nuns accomplished her dream a few years after her death. Today there are hundreds of such hospitals, many of them run by her Sisters of Charity. The order specializes in teaching as well as in nursing and orphan care.

Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born in New York City to Episcopalian parents on August 28, 1774. Her father, Dr. Richard Bayley, was a respected physician who became the first professor of anatomy at Columbia University (then King's College) and the first health officer of New York City. Her mother was Catherine Charlton Bayley, daughter of the rector of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on Staten Island. Related by birth and marriage to socially prominent New York families, Elizabeth Bayley was to meet many important and famous people in the course of her lifetime, among them George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. But New York City at the time had a population of only about twenty thousand, and the social circle in which her family moved was small and tightly knit. Her parents' second daughter, she was not yet three when her mother died. After the traditional year of mourning, her father married Charlotte Amelia Barclay, daughter of Andrew Barclay and the former Helena Roosevelt, whose father established the Roosevelt dynasty in America. The second Mrs. Bayley bore her husband seven children and indulged them to the neglect of his two older daughters. From the time she was eight, Elizabeth Bayley and her sister Mary accordingly lived often with relatives and friends, especially when their father was studying or working abroad, as he sometimes did for years at a time.

From her earliest years, Elizabeth Bayley showed deeply religious inclinations, which grew stronger with the passing years. In 1794, she married William Magee Seton. Her husband was the son of William Seton, an extremely successful businessperson who, in 1784, had been appointed to the influential position of cashier of the Bank of New York. The marriage of Elizabeth and William M. Seton was a happy and affectionate union, although he was afflicted from the beginning by tuberculosis. They had many good friends and a glittering social life. Elizabeth Seton flowered amid the affection and security she had lacked as a child. Even in this happy period, however, her dedication to the poor was a force in her life, and she helped organize the Widows' Society of New York for the aid of widows and orphans in the New York area.

In 1798, the Seton family's fortunes changed for the worse when the elder William Seton died in June. Elizabeth's husband contracted yellow fever during an epidemic, and Elizabeth, together with her infant son, were sickly as well. Her father died in 1801. As tragedies multiplied, Seton ships were seized by pirates and the firm's business interests in Germany and England failed. During this dismal period, Elizabeth Seton drew daily strength from her religion and eagerly anticipated Sunday worship services, which she attended at Trinity Episcopal Church. In 1803, the Setons took a trip to Italy to visit some old friends, the influential Filicchi family. Unfortunately, William's health continued to deteriorate, and he died on December 27, 1803, in Pisa and was buried in Leghorn, Italy. During her stay with the Filicchis, Elizabeth converted to Catholicism, and she formally joined the Roman Catholic Church when she returned to New York despite the unpopularity of this decision with her remaining family and with her New York society friends.

By 1808 Elizabeth Seton's situation in New York City had worsened, and she was literally desperate. Providentially she was then invited to open a school for girls in Baltimore, where more than half of all American Catholics then lived. This meant that she would have a means of livelihood and could be with her three daughters and near her sons. In addition, it was a step closer to the religious life that she had been contemplating for some time. When Elizabeth started her school, she had a total of seven students: her own three daughters and four other girls. Soon, however, other students came and young women volunteered to assist in the school duties. In June 1809, Elizabeth was appointed Mother of the community and school she had founded. Living according to a religious rule given her by Bishop Carroll, she moved with her daughters as well as other followers to Emmitsburg, a village in northwestern Maryland about 50 miles from Baltimore. There, in 1812, the women adapted the religious rule which had been given to the first Sisters of Charity by St. Vincent de Paul in France in the seventeenth century and became the first native religious community of women founded in the United States.

Once settled in Emmitsburg, Mother Seton trained her band of nun-teachers, and she herself prepared textbooks for use in her schools. Her plans and accomplishments laid the foundation for the American parochial school system. The number of girls in her community grew, and for their religious guidance and training Mother Seton translated religious books from French and wrote several spiritual treatises. Retaining her dedication to the sick and poor, she visited the needy and afflicted in the area and converted many to Catholicism. She sent her Sisters of Charity to open an orphanage in Philadelphia in 1814 and one in New York City in 1817. Today, many hundreds of Mother Seton's Sisters of Charity, under separate provinces or motherhouses, serve in both North and South America and in foreign missions.

After a long illness, Mother Seton died on January 4, 1821, at the age of forty-seven. She was buried in Emmitsburg, near the fifteen sisters and novices who had died during the early years of her young community. She was survived by more than fifty sister-members of the community and by her two sons and one daughter. The oldest and youngest of her three daughters had died before her in 1812 and 1816, respectively.

Once beatified by Pope John XXIII, who referred to her as the “flower of American piety,” Mother Seton became Blessed Elizabeth Ann Seton. With the canonization ceremonies held in Rome on September 14, 1975, she became known as Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. The first church named in her honor is in Shrub Oaks, Westchester County, New York.

"Celebrating St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's Life and Legacy, January 4th." Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Madison, 3 Jan. 2024, svdpmadison.org/st-elizabeth-ann-seton/. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

"Seven Feast Day Quotes from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton." Denver Catholic, 4 Jan. 2024, denvercatholic.org/seven-feast-day-quotes-from-st-elizabeth-ann-seton/. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

"St. Elizabeth Ann Seton." Catholic Online, 2024, www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint‗id=180. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.