“Elizabeth Ann Seton is a saint. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is an American. All of us say this with special joy, and with the intention of honoring the land and the nation from which she sprang forth as the first flower in the calendar of the saints. Elizabeth Ann Seton was wholly American! Rejoice for your glorious daughter. Be proud of her. And know how to preserve her fruitful heritage.” Saint Paul VI
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born in New York City on August 28, 1774 to a prominent Episcopal family, and lost her mother at the age of three. In 1794, at the age of 19, Elizabeth married William Magee Seton, a wealthy businessman with whom she had five children. William died of tuberculosis in 1803, leaving Elizabeth a young widow. After discovering Catholicism in Italy, where her husband had died, Elizabeth returned to the United States and entered the Catholic Church in 1805 in New York.
After a number of difficult years, Elizabeth moved in 1809 to Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, the first community for religious women established in the United States. She also began St. Joseph’s Academy and Free School, planting the seeds of Catholic education in the United States. Her legacy now includes religious congregations in the United States and Canada, whose members work on the unmet needs of people living in poverty in North America and beyond.
The two shorthand facts of her life shows the remarkable person she was in quite a simple manner : “she was the first person born in what would become the United States to be canonized,” and “she opened the first American parish school.”
She was a child of the American Revolution who became a saint of the Church of Rome. She was mother to five Setons who became Mother Seton to many others. She established an ordinary thing, a school, and achieved an extraordinary thing, sparking the Catholic education system in America.
The Stone House
The Stone House, one of the first homes Elizabeth Ann Seton lived in when she came to Emmitsburg. The house was far from offering all the comforts Elizabeth Ann had so optimistically described in a letter to her dearest friend, Julia Scott. Sixteen people occupied four rooms, two upstairs and two down, with one of the smaller lower rooms used as a temporary chapel.
Over time, the Stone House was expanded to allow more women to live in the home. Decorated with period furnishings, you’ll discover what life was like for Elizabeth Ann Seton living in the early 1800s. On September 23, 2015, Pope Francis was given one of the original keys to the Stone House as a gift by President Obama on behalf of the nation.
The White House
The home, which is known today as the Historic St. Joseph's House, served as the first house of the community of Sisters who lived in the property, the Sisters of Charity. When it was built in the early 1800s, it was originally called “St. Joseph’s House.” Elizabeth Ann Seton held a special regard for St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus.
Complete with period items and furnishings, including some original pieces preserved for nearly 200 years, the house appears today just as it would have when Mother Seton and the Sisters of Charity resided here. There is a schoolroom set up like the one Saint Elizabeth taught in, along with other rooms where she lived, worked, and prayed.
Mother Seton, as she is often called, was canonized on Sunday, September 14, 1975 in St. Peter’s Square by Pope Paul VI. She was the first citizen born in the United States to be given the title of “Saint.” Her remains are entombed in Emmitsburg in the Basilica at the National Shrine that bears her name.
with inputs from setonshrine
Other Saints of the Day
1. Saint Barbara
2. Saint John Damascene
3. Saint Osmund
4. Saint Anno II
5. Saint Giovanni Calabria
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