Elizabeth
Ann Bayley Seton is America’s first beatified and canonized saint. The
second child of a socially prominent New York City family, she was born
on August 28, 1774, two years before the Declaration of Independence. By
birth and marriage she was linked to the most illustrious families of
New York.
She lost her mother and sister early in life, and her
father, Dr. Richard Bayley remarried. From both her mother and
step-mother, staunch Episcopalians, Elizabeth learned a love of
Scripture and the value of prayer. From her father, a great
humanitarian, she learned to serve others.
On January 25, 1794
the nineteen-year-old belle of New York married a handsome, wealthy
business man, William Magee Seton. The couple had five children before
his finances faltered and international political upheaval and tragic
business losses combined to lead to William Seton’s bankruptcy. Plagued
by tuberculosis for most of their married life, in the fall of 1803,
William, accompanied by his wife and eldest daughter, sought some relief
for his illness in the warmer climate of Italy, where he had business
friends. Quarantined for a month by the Italian port authorities, who
feared he had yellow fever, William Seton died of tuberculosis on
December 27 leaving Elizabeth a penniless widow at the age of thirty.
While
staying with her husband’s business partner’s family in Italy,
Elizabeth was introduced to the Catholic Faith and closely observed the
Filicchi family’s religious practices within the intimacy of their
family home. She was especially attracted to the Holy Eucharist, the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and the fact that the apostolic succession could be
traced back to the apostles and to Christ. Imperceptibly drawn to all
that she witnessed first hand, she here began a process of conversion
that ultimately led to her being received into the Catholic Church by
the pastor of St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in New York City on
March 14, 1805.
At the invitation of the Bishop of Baltimore and
to support her children, she opened a school that, from the very
beginning, followed the lines of a religious establishment. Following
some difficult years of trials and struggles, in 1809 Elizabeth moved to
Emmitsburg, Maryland where she founded the first religious order for
women in America, the Sisters of Charity. From this time on, she was to
become known as "Mother Seton".
The many letters of Mother Seton
reveal her progress in the spiritual life. She suffered great trials:
sickness, the death of two daughters, misunderstandings, and the
heartache of a wayward son, but persevered through it all advancing from
ordinary virtue to heroic sanctity.
Mother Seton died on January
4, 1821, by which day her congregation numbered twenty communities
across America. Cardinal Gibbons, successor to her nephew Archbishop
James R. Bayley of Baltimore, introduced her cause in 1907. She was
canonized in 1975.
Monday, January 4, 2021
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment