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Elizabeth Ann Seton

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
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(born Aug. 28, 1774, New York, N.Y. — died Jan. 4, 1821, Emmitsburg, Md., U.S.; canonized Sept. 14, 1975; feast day January 4) U.S. religious leader and educator, the first native-born U.S. citizen canonized by the Roman Catholic church. Born into an upper-class family, she married William Magee Seton in 1794. In 1797 she founded the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, and in 1803 she was herself left a widow with five children. After converting from Episcopalianism to Roman Catholicism in 1805, she opened a free Catholic elementary school in Baltimore, Md., in 1809. In 1813 she founded the Sisters of Charity, the first U.S. religious order, and she served as its superior until her death. She is often considered the mother of the parochial school system in the U.S.

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Saints: Elizabeth Seton
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Seton, Elizabeth (née Elizabeth Bayley), (1774–1821), widow and foundress. This first native saint of the USA was born of a devout and wealthy Episcopalian family; her father was a famous physician and the first health officer of the city of New York. At the age of nineteen she married a wealthy merchant William Magee Seton, and bore him five children; but at the age of twenty-eight she was left a widow. She then joined the R.C. Church on her return from Tuscany to Emmitsburg, near Baltimore. There she took vows and founded a sisterhood, the American Sisters of Charity, which was devoted to the relief of the poor and to teaching in parish schools. It was based on the rule of Vincent de Paul. This order increased very considerably until today it is one of the most numerous and influential of its kind. Elizabeth Seton was beatified by John XXIII and canonized by Paul VI in 1975. Impressive cures claimed as miraculous include one from leukaemia and another from severe meningitis. In his canonization allocution, at which 1, 000 nuns of her Order from N. and S. America, Italy, and missionary countries were present, the pope stressed her extraordinary contributions as wife, mother, widow, and consecrated nun, the example of her dynamic and authentic witness for future generations and the affirmation of ‘that religious spirituality which your (i.e. American) temporal prosperity seemed to obscure and almost make impossible’. Feast: 4 January.

Bibliography
Click here for a list of abbreviations used in this bibliography.

  • A. M. Melville, Elizabeth Bayley Seton 1774–1821 (1960)
  • J. I. Dirwin, Mrs. Seton: Foundress of the American Sisters of Charity (1962)
  • J. B. Code (ed.), Letters of Mother Seton to Mrs. Juliana Scott (2nd edn. 1960)
  • id. in N.C.E., xiii. 136 H.S.S.C., ix. 225–32
Biography: Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton
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Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (1774-1821), the first American woman to be beatified, founded the first American order of nuns, initiated the parochial school system, and established the first Catholic or phanage in the United States.

Elizabeth Bayley was born in New York City on Aug. 28, 1774, a daughter of Richard Bayley, health officer for the port of New York and professor of anatomy at King's College. The Bayley family were members of the Episcopal Church. Elizabeth grew up in fashionable New York society. In 1794 she married William Magee Seton, a prosperous New York banker and merchant. They had five children. Seton was so active in her aid to the sick, the poor, and the unfortunate that she became known as the "Protestant Sister of Charity."

In the fall of 1803 the Setons went to Italy to visit friends, the Filicchi family, who were prominent bankers and shippers. Mr. Seton, already ill, was seriously affected by the voyage and died in December. The Filicchis introduced Mrs. Seton to Catholicism, and Antonio Filicchi accompanied her when she returned to America in 1804. Despite the opposition of her close friend, the Episcopal minister John Henry Hobart, she joined the Catholic Church in March 1805.

For her conversion Seton was ostracized by New York society. She had difficulty in supporting her family, although Antonio Filicchi was generous in giving her aid. She considered going into a convent but followed the advice of Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore and did not do so. Father William Dubourg of Baltimore told her that he wanted to establish a school in that city, and in September 1808 she opened a boarding school for girls. She and her small group of assistants adopted the name Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. The rules of the order were similar to those of a French order, the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. In 1809 the sisters moved to Emmitsburg, Md., to property which had been given the Church for use in the education of the poor.

The first winter in the new location was harsh. The house was incomplete and the food inadequate, but within a few months the school was thriving. Members of the group took over an orphanage in Philadelphia in 1814 and established orphanages and schools in New York and Philadelphia.

Mother Seton died on Jan. 4, 1821. She was declared venerable on Dec. 18, 1959, and was beatified on March 17, 1963.

Further Reading

Joseph I. Dirvin, Mrs. Seton: Foundress of the American Sisters of Charity (1962), is a detailed, scholarly biography, based on an impressive bibliography, including many primary materials. Leonard Feeney, Mother Seton: An American Woman (1947), is written in a somewhat popular style, but it contains excerpts from some of Seton's letters.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
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Seton, Saint Elizabeth Ann, 1774-1821, American Roman Catholic leader, usually called Mother Seton, b. Elizabeth Ann Bayley, New York City. She was the daughter of a prominent physician. Her husband, William Seton, a successful merchant, died (1803) in Italy, leaving her with five young children. Soon afterward she became (1805) a Roman Catholic. This conversion severed her from her relatives, and she started a school in New York City to support her family. In 1808, invited by Bishop Carroll, she opened a school in Baltimore, then moved (1809) to Emmitsburg, Md., already the seat of a Catholic school for boys, Mt. St. Mary's. There she opened the first Catholic free school, the beginning of American parochial education and also founded St. Joseph's College (for women). About her she formed a community of women, which soon adopted the rule of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, the great sisterhood centered in Paris. This was the first American congregation of Daughters of Charity (or Sisters of Charity). Mother Seton was superior of her community; this had grown into 20 communities before her death. She was beatified in 1963 and canonized in 1975, thereby making her the first native-born American saint. Feast: Jan. 4. Her journals, letters, and memoirs have been published.

Bibliography

See tr. of selected writings by E. Kelly and A. Melville (1987).

Wikipedia: Elizabeth Ann Seton
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Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
Foundress and Educator
Born August 28, 1774(1774-08-28), New York City
Died January 4, 1821 (aged 46), Emmitsburg, Maryland
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Beatified March 17, 1963 by Pope John XXIII
Canonized September 14, 1975 by Pope Paul VI
Feast January 4
Patronage Catholic Schools; Shreveport, Louisiana; and the State of Maryland

Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (August 28, 1774 – January 4, 1821) was the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized, on September 14, 1975.

Contents

Biography

Seton was born on August 28, 1774 to Richard Bayley of New York City.[1] She was raised in the Episcopal Church. Her mother, daughter of an Episcopal priest, died when Elizabeth was three. At the age of nineteen, she married William Magee Seton, a wealthy businessman. Five children were born to the marriage, Anna Maria, William, Richard,Catherine (also known as "Kit") and Rebecca.

Her home in Manhattan, New York City (building at right with columns, 7 State Street), now a shrine in her honor

Her husband's business lost several ships at sea and the family ended up bankrupt. Soon after, her husband became ill and his doctors sent him to Italy for the warmer climate, with Elizabeth Seton accompanying him. In Italy, they were held in quarantine, during which time her husband died. She spent time with a wealthy family where she was exposed to Catholicism. Two years later she converted to Roman Catholicism, on March 14, 1805 and was received into the Church by the first bishop of Baltimore, John Carroll. One of her half-nephews, James Roosevelt Bayley, would later also convert, and became Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

To support her children, she started a school in Baltimore, but it failed due to the anti-Catholic bigotry of the day. In 1809, after some trying and difficult years, Elizabeth moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland, where a year later she established Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School, a school dedicated to the education of Catholic girls, at the invitation of Samuel Sutherland Cooper. Cooper was a wealthy convert and seminarian who knew of the Catholic settlement near Emmitsburg and the newly established Mount St. Mary's College and Seminary, begun by Father (later Bishop) John Dubois and the Sulpicians.

Eventually, Elizabeth was able to establish a religious community in Emmitsburg, Maryland dedicated to the care of the children of the poor. It was the first religious community of apostolic women founded in the United States, and its school was the first free 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 order, which expanded to include the Sulpician priests of Baltimore. Today, six independent religious communities trace their roots to the humble beginnings of the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

St. Joseph's Academy eventually developed into Saint Joseph College, which closed in 1973. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) purchased the buildings and land of Saint Joseph College in 1979 and it is now the site of the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) housing the Emergency Management Institute, the United States Fire Administration and the National Fire Academy.

Elizabeth 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. She established St. Joseph's Academy and Free School in order to educate young girls to live by religious values. 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 community. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 46 in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Today, her remains are entombed in the Basilica that bears her name: the Basilica of 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 Saint Louise de Marillac and Saint Vincent de Paul.

Statue in Saint Raymond's Cemetery, Bronx

"We must pray literally without ceasing—without ceasing—in every occurrence and employment of our lives . . . that prayer of the heart which is independent of place or situation, or which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication with Him." Elizabeth Ann Seton.

Recognition

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.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is popularly considered a patron saint of Catholic schools. Her name appears on the front doors of St. Patrick's Cathedral, as a "Daughter of New York". The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland, is open to the public.' In addition, The Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton has been created from her home in Manhattan, and is accessible to the public.[2]

The Mother Seton House at Baltimore, Maryland was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.[3] 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.[4] It is now operated as a museum by St. Mary’s Seminary.

Namesakes

The Seton Hill neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland is named for Mother Seton. Mother Seton School, a Catholic elementary school in Emmitsburg, Maryland, traces its roots directly to St. Joseph's Academy and Free School, founded by St. Elizabeth Ann in 1810. In 1856, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's nephew and the Bishop of Newark (a diocese which had been established just three years prior in 1853), James Roosevelt Bayley, founded the first major institution named in her honor Seton Hall College (which is now Seton Hall University).

Quite a number of churches, other schools and hospitals have been named for Elizabeth Seton:

Catholic parishes

St. Elizabeth Seton (or St. Elizabeth Ann Seton) is a popular name for Catholic parishes in the United States:

Schools

Elementary Schools

Middle/Junior-high Schools (no associated elementary)

High Schools / College Preparatory schools

Colleges / Universities

Home Study / Tutorial

Schools – outside USA

Closed Schools

  • Seton Catholic High School-closed-Pittston,Pa.
  • Seton Hall High School (now, closed; presently, the Eastern Long Island campus of Saint Joseph's College of Brooklyn) in Patchogue, NY
  • St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School, Minneapolis, MN. Closed 6/2009

Libraries

Hospitals

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton RS, Bellmore, NY

Sign at St Elizabeth Ann Seton Regional School, Bellmore, New York

See also

External links

Gloriole.svg Saints portal

References

  1. ^ "Mother Seton". Catholic Online. January 6, 2009. http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=31387&cb300=vocations. Retrieved 2009-01-30. "The mother's name was Elizabeth Ann Seton. She was born in New York City on August 28, 1774, the second daughter of the socially prominent Dr. Richard Bayley, later Health Officer for the city, and his wife Catherine Charlton, whose father was rector of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on Staten Island for 30 years." 
  2. ^ Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton,Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, New York, New York
  3. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2008-04-15. http://www.nr.nps.gov/. 
  4. ^ "Maryland Historical Trust". Mother Seton House, Baltimore City. Maryland Historical Trust. 2008-11-21. http://www.marylandhistoricaltrust.net/nr/NRDetail.aspx?HDID=91&COUNTY=Baltimore%20City&FROM=NRCountyList.aspx?COUNTY=Baltimore%20City. 

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