Today is All Saints’ Day. Alternately known as “All Hallows’ Day,” “the Feast of All Hallows,” “Hallowmas,” “Feast of All Saints,” and “the Solemnity of All Saints,” various Christian Churches of today observe the occasion as a way to honor all saints (known and unknown) who have attained Heaven. Those most observant of this sacred solemnity include Catholics, Anglicans/Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, those of Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox faith, the Church of Nazarene, the Philippine Independent Church, Reformed Churches, and various other denominations.
When many people think of saints, they tend to picture holy adherents and martyrs hailing from faraway locations long ago in ancient times. Yet, that isn’t always the case. Befittingly enough, the first canonized saint ever to be born on United States soil made her home for many years in none other than the state of Maryland. I am, of course, referring to Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton.
In addition to becoming the first person to be canonized as a saint in America, Elizabeth Ann Seton led several other notable firsts. She was renowned as the founder of the nation’s parochial school system. It was in Emmitsburg, Frederick County, Maryland, that she established the nation’s very first Catholic girl’s school. She also founded the Sisters of Charity—the first American-formed congregation of nuns.
In observance of All Saints’ Day, this Flashback Friday Feature will offer an overview of the life and legacy of Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, which still endures today.
Early Life
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born in New York City, New York, on August 28, 1774. Her father, Richard Bayley, was a notable surgeon and Chief Health Officer for the Port of New York. Her mother, Catherine Carlton, was the daughter of a Church of England priest.
Sadly, when she was just three years old, Elizabeth’s mother died in 1777. Her father remarried Charlotte Amelia Barclay to provide for his two surviving daughters, and the couple also had other children together. However, the marriage eventually ended in separation, at which time Elizabeth and her older sister were rejected by their stepmother and ended up living temporarily in New Rochelle with their uncle William Bayley and his wife (Aunt Sarah) while their father traveled to London to pursue further medical studies.
Marriage, Family, and Service
Elizabeth married William Magee Seton on January 25, 1794, at age 19. Seton, who worked as an importing-exporting merchant, was 25. The couple had five children together and even ended up taking in six of William’s younger siblings when his father died.
The Setons were devout members of New York’s now-historic Trinity Episcopal Church. Elizabeth, the ever-kind-hearted woman, became active in various social ministries while administering to the sick and needy in the community. She even became a charter member and treasurer of the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children.
While the Setons were blessed with a loving marriage, William suffered complications due to tuberculosis for many years. Under the direction of doctors touting the benefits of a warmer climate, William, Elizabeth, and their eldest daughter, Anna Maria, eventually set off for Italy when William’s health was in serious decline. But after arriving and spending a month in quarantine, William lived for only eight days more before fatefully succumbing to tuberculosis on December 27, 1803.
Conversion to Catholicism
Because she could not return to the United States for many months afterward, it was during her time in Italy that Elizabeth and her daughter were temporarily taken in by the families of her late husband’s Italian business associates, brothers Filippo and Antonio Filicchi. They were the ones who first introduced her to Roman Catholicism.
Two years after returning to New York, Elizabeth converted to Catholicism herself on March 14, 1805. She was received into St. Peter’s Church by Father Matthew O’Brien. The following year she was confirmed by John Carroll of Baltimore, Maryland—the nation’s only Catholic bishop at the time.
Because it was not uncommon for high-ranking social widows to support themselves and their children by starting schools and various institutions of learning back then, that’s just what Seton did by establishing an academy for young ladies. However, once word of her conversion to Catholicism got out, many parents decided to withdraw their daughters from Seton’s academy.
Relocation to Maryland
Before she made the acquaintance of Father Louis William Valentine Dubourg, a visiting French émigré priest who was part of the Sulpician Fathers, Elizabeth seriously considered relocating to Quebec, Canada. As it was, Father Dubourg was president of St. Mary’s College in Baltimore and enlightened Elizabeth to the fact that they were working to establish the first Catholic seminary in the nation in the state of Maryland.
Interested in the cause, Elizabeth accepted an invitation by the Sulpicians to move to Emmitsburg in 1809, and in just one year, she opened the Saint Joseph’s Academy and Free School. As a school, Saint Joseph’s Academy was a first of its kind, dedicated to the education of Catholic girls. It was financially supported by Seminarian Samuel Sutherland Cooper of Mount Saint Mary’s University.
The creation of this school signified the first makings of the Catholic parochial school system in the United States. But that was only the start of many ambitious endeavors and pursuits by Elizabeth Ann Seton in her short lifetime. Officially becoming known as “Mother Seton” in 1811, she also founded a new American congregation of nuns named the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s. The new congregation was inspired by France’s Daughters of Charity, which was co-founded by Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac.
Her Lasting Legacy
Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton spent the rest of her life leading and developing her new congregation. She died of tuberculosis on January 4, 1821, at the young age of 46. To this day her remains are interred within the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg.
Miracles, Canonization, and Sainthood
Elizabeth Ann Seton was formally granted the title “Servant of God” in February 1940. Five years prior to that, Gertrude Korzendorfer, who was a Sister of Charity, experienced miraculous healing from pancreatic cancer after praying to Mother Seton. Then, in 1952, a miracle involving four-year-old Ann O’Neill being cured of leukemia through the intercession of Elizabeth Ann Seton led to her beatification on March 17, 1963, by Pope John XXIII. Also, in 1963, a third miracle occurred in which a man named Carl Kalin made a recovery after contracting meningitis and encephalitis in his brain and being given just hours to live.
Mother Seton was officially canonized as a saint on September 14, 1975, by Pope Paul VI in a ceremony at St. Peter’s Square. Her feast day is January 4—the 11th day of Christmastide and the anniversary of her death. She was also inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame in 1979.
Elizabeth Ann Seton truly was a remarkable woman with a legacy that will endure forevermore. We folks in the Mid-Atlantic are fortunate to be in such a convenient range of her final resting place within the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg. The idea of being able to visit the first American-born saint isn’t a claim that most folks elsewhere can rightfully make.