Elizabeth Ann Seton - America's First Saint : 1774
– 1821
Elizabeth Seton was born into a wealthy family in New York City and was
raised in the Episcopal Church. At the age of nineteen, she married William
Magee Seton, a wealthy businessman with whom she had five children. They fell
on hard times and when William then became ill with tuberculosis the family
travelled to Italy for his health. He died and Elizabeth was befriended by a
wealthy Italian family who were Catholics.
When Elizabeth returned to New York she converted to Catholism. To
support her children, she started a school, but it failed due to the
anti-Catholic bigotry of the day. The general attitude of religious tolerance
in America did not extend to Catholism.
In 1809, after some trying and difficult years, Elizabeth accepted the
invitation of support the Sulpicians 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. Eventually,
Elizabeth was able to establish a religious community in Emmitsburg dedicated
to the care of the children of the poor. It was the first religious community
of non-cloistered Religious Sisters to be founded in the United States, and its
school was the first free Catholic school in America. The order was called the
Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. The remainder of Elizabeth's life was spent
in leading and developing the new congregation.
The Rule of the Sisterhood was formally ratified in 1812. It was based
upon the Rule St. Vincent de Paul had written for his Daughters of Charity in
France. 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.
On December 18, 1959, Elizabeth was declared Venerable by the Sacred
Congregation of Rites of the Catholic Church. 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 is January 4.
