Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church (September 14, 1975).
Background
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born on August 28, 1774, the second child of a socially prominent couple, Dr. Richard Bayley and Catherine Charlton of New York City. Her mother, Catherine, died in 1777 when Elizabeth was three years old. Elizabeth's father then married Charlotte Amelia Barclay, a member of the Jacobus James Roosevelt family, to provide a mother for his two surviving daughters. The new Mrs. Bayley participated in her church's social ministry, and often took young Elizabeth with on her charitable rounds, as she visited the poor in their homes to distribute food and needed items.
Career
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 she and her husband went to Italy to visit friends, the Filicchi family, who were prominent bankers and shippers.
When her husband died in Italy in 1803, Seton was attracted to the Roman Catholic Church, and on her return to New York she became a Roman Catholic. Unable to earn a living in New York, Seton took the children to Baltimore, where she conducted a school for girls on Paca Street. During the year spent in Baltimore Mrs. Seton evolved a plan for a religious community called "The Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph," and on March 25, 1809, she took vows before Archbishop John Carroll. She was influenced by Samuel Sutherland Cooper, a Baltimore seminarian, to locate her community permanently in Emmitsburg, with money furnished by Cooper.
On June 21, 1809, she left Baltimore for this community in northern Maryland. Both the community and the school founded in Emmitsburg grew rapidly. In addition to the boarding school for girls from well-to-do families, St. Elizabeth founded a day school for country children, orphans, and the poor. The Sisters of Charity opened houses in Philadelphia (1814) and New York (1817). St. Elizabeth died at Emmitsburg on January 4, 1821. In 1907 she was proposed for sainthood, and on March 17, 1963, the Vatican proclaimed her beatification. She was canonized on September 14, 1975. Her feast day is January 4.
Achievements
Elizabeth Seton established the first Catholic girls' school in the nation in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she also founded the first American congregation of religious sisters, the Sisters of Charity. A number of Roman Catholic churches are named for Mother Seton.
Views
Quotations:
"Faith lifts the soul, Hope supports it, Experience says it must and Love says... let it be!"
"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."
"We know certainly that our God calls us to a holy life. We know that he gives us every grace, every abundant grace; and though we are so weak of ourselves, this grace is able to carry us through every obstacle and difficulty."
"The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but let us not despair. God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other. The more we are united to Him by love, the nearer we are to those who belong to Him."
"If I had to advise parents, I should tell them to take great care about the people with whom their children associate... Much harm may result from bad company, and we are inclined by nature to follow what is worse than what is better."
Connections
Elizabeth married William Seton, of a prominent mercantile-banking family, on January 25, 1794. They had five children.
