Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
Religious
- Feast Day
- January 4
- Life
- 1774–1821
- Canonized
- 1975
- Order
- Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph's
- Born
- New York City, New York
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born August 28, 1774, in New York City to Dr. Richard Bayley, a prominent Anglican physician, and Catherine Charlton. Raised in the Episcopal Church, in 1794 she married the merchant William Magee Seton; the couple had five children. When her husband's business failed and his health collapsed, the family sailed to Italy in 1803 in hope of recovery. William died in Pisa, and Elizabeth was sheltered in Livorno by the Catholic Filicchi family.
Returning to New York in 1804, she was received into the Catholic Church on March 14, 1805, an act that cost her the support of much of her family and society. In 1808 Bishop John Carroll invited her to Baltimore to open a school. The following year, in Emmitsburg, Maryland, she founded the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph's, the first religious congregation of women established in the United States.
The community took simple vows in 1813. Mother Seton supervised schools, an orphanage, and the formation of her sisters until her death from tuberculosis on January 4, 1821, at age 46. She was beatified by Pope Saint John XXIII on March 17, 1963.
Pope Paul VI canonized her in Saint Peter's Square on September 14, 1975, declaring her, in his canonization homily, "the first daughter of the United States of America to be glorified with this incomparable attribute" of sainthood. Her memorial was inscribed in the Proper Calendar for the Dioceses of the United States on January 4.
Mother Seton's foundation in Emmitsburg is often regarded as the seed of the parochial school system that grew across nineteenth-century American Catholic dioceses. Paul VI praised her as "a wife, a mother, a widow, and a religious," emphasizing that holiness was lived out across each successive state of life. As the first U.S.-born canonized saint, she stands at the head of an American hagiographical tradition.
Patronages
Catholic schools in the United States · widows · in-law problems
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton — Crawfordville, FL
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Mission — Turkey, TX
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Groton, SD
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Quinton, VA
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Lexington, KY
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Church — Springfield, MO
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Kinmundy, IL
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton — Three Bridges, NJ
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Church — Milford, OH
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Las Vegas, NV
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter) — Knoxville, TN
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton — Louisville, KY
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Holmen, WI
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Aloha, OR
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish — Odessa, TX
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Roman Catholic Church — Valparaiso, IN
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Citrus Springs, FL
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton — Hastings, MN
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton — Rowland Heights, CA
- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church — Anchorage, AK
Sources