One of the first great American Catholics, Elizabeth Ann Seton was born in New York City on August 28, 1774. She was raised as a staunch Episcopalian in New York City high society. At 19 Elizabeth married wealthy businessman William Magee Seton. They had five children before his business failed and died of tuberculosis. At 30, Elizabeth was widowed and penniless with five small children to support.
While in Italy with her dying husband, Elizabeth witnessed Catholicity in action through family friends. Based on the belief in the Real Presence, devotion to the Blessed Mother, and conviction that the Catholic Church led back to the apostles and to Christ, Elizabeth Ann Seton became a Catholic in March of 1805. Many of her friends and family shunned her because of her conversion.
In 1808, at the invitation of the president of St. Mary's Seminary, Mother Seton established Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School, a school dedicated to the education of Catholic girls in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Mother Seton also went on to found the first religious community of apostolic women of the United States, the Sisters of Charity in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and establish the first American Catholic orphanage. All this was done while raising her five children. Mother Seton died in 1821 at the age of 46, only 16 years after becoming a Catholic
Pope John XXIII beatified Mother Seton on March 17, Pope Paul VI canonized her on September 14, 1975. She is the first United States-born person to be canonized and the patron saint of widows, children near death, and teachers.
Elizabeth Seton Quote:
“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.”