Elizabeth Ann Seton

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Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, SC (August 28, 1774 – January 4, 1821) was the first person born in what would be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in the United States (September 14, 1975).

In Emmitsburg, Maryland, she founded the Sisters of Charity, the country's first Catholic girls' school.

Early life

Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born on August 28, 1774, the second child of a socially influential couple, Richard Bayley and Catherine Charlton of New York City. The Bayley and Charlton families were among the first European settlers to settle in the New York area. Her father's parents were of French Huguenot and English descent and lived in New Rochelle, New York. As yellow fever swept through the city, Bayley, Chief Health Officer for Port of New York, welcomed refugees from ships onto Staten Island and cared for New Yorkers (for example, killing 700 in four months). Bayley became Columbia College's first anatomy professor. Elizabeth's mother was the daughter of a Church of England priest who was rector of St. Andrew's Church on Staten Island for 30 years. Elizabeth was raised in the Episcopal Church of what would be (in the years after the American Revolution) in the United States.

Catherine died in 1777 when Elizabeth was three years old, possibly due to complications related to her namesake Catherine's birth, who died early the following year. Elizabeth's father then married Charlotte Amelia Barclay, a descendant of the Jacobus James Roosevelt family, in order to provide a mother for his two surviving children. Mrs. Bayley served in her church's social work and took young Elizabeth with her on charitable rounds. They visited the homeless in their communities to provide food and essential items.

The couple had five children at the time, but the marriage ended in divorce. Elizabeth and her older sister were abused during the break. The brothers spent a short time in New Rochelle with their paternal uncle, William Bayley, and his wife, Sarah Pell Bayley, before moving to London for further medical study. As she later reflected in her journals, Elizabeth endured a time of sombrerie, mourning the absence of a second mother. Elizabeth expressed her admiration for nature, poetry, and music, particularly the piano. Other entries related to her religious aspirations and favorite passages from her reading, demonstrating her introspection and a natural tendency toward contemplation. Elizabeth was fluent in French, a distinguished singer, and an accomplished horsewoman.

Elizabeth Magee Seton, a wealthy businessman in the import trade, married William Magee Seton, aged 19, on January 25, 1794, age 19. At their wedding, Samuel Prosperost, New York's first Episcopal bishop, presided. William Seton (1746–1798), her husband's father, immigrated to New York in 1758 and became superintendent and part-owner of Ringwood, New Jersey, and became the iron-works of the island. The senior William Seton, a loyalist, was the last royal public notary for New York's city and province. William (Elizabeth's husband) and James were integrated into the William Seton Company, which later became Seton, Maitland, and Company in 1793. William, the younger one, had visited important counting houses in Europe in 1788, was a friend of Filippo Filicchi (a well-known retailer in Leghorn, Italy, with whom his company sold), and he brought the first Stradivarius violin to America.

Elizabeth and William were married on Wall Street shortly after they married. The Setons, who were socially prominent in New York City, were members of Trinity Episcopal Church, near Broadway and Wall Streets. Elizabeth was taken as her spiritual director by a devout communicant named John Henry Hobart (later a bishop). Elizabeth continued her former stepmother's social work, assisting the sick and dying among family, family, and needy neighbors. Rebecca Mary Seton (1780–1804) (her soul-friend and dearest confidante). She became a charter member of The Society for the Protection of Poor Widows with Small Children (1797) and served as its treasurer, influenced by her father.

The Seton family fortunes waned during the 1812 War of 1812. In comparison to their own five children, William II (1796–1848) and Rebecca Mary (1802–1816), a daughter of William II (1795–1812), Anne Maria (Annina) (1795–1888) and Rebecca Mary (1796–18181) (who was to be the first American to join the Sisters of Mercy) and Rebecca Mary (1802-1816). This necessitated a transfer to the larger Seton family home.

A dispute between the United States and the French Republic from 1798 to 1800 culminated in a string of assaults on American shipping. The blockade of France in the United Kingdom, as well as the destruction of several of his ships at sea, led to William Seton's bankruptcy, and the Setons' 61 Stone Street in lower Manhattan lost their home. Elizabeth and the children survived the summer with her father, who was then the health officer for the Port of New York on Staten Island. They lived in a house on 8 State Street, on the site of the present Church of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary (built in 1964). William Seton suffered from tuberculosis throughout his entire marriage. His illness aggravated his illness; his doctors arranged him to Italy for the warmer weather, with Elizabeth and their eldest daughter as their companions. Authorities say they were quarantined for a month after landing at Leghorn, because they feared they might have contracted yellow fever from New York. William died on December 27, 1803, and was buried in the Old English Cemetery in Milan. Filippo and Antonio Filicchi, her late husband's Italian business partners, welcomed Elizabeth and Anna Maria to Catholicism.

The widow Seton was welcomed into the Catholic Church by Matthew O'Brien, pastor of St. Peter's Church, then the city's sole Catholic church. (Anti-Catholic orders had been enforced just a few years ago) She was confirmed by the Bishop of Baltimore, John Carroll, the country's sole Catholic bishop, a year later.

Seton established an academy for young ladies to help herself and her children, as was usual for widows of that time. Most parents withdrew their children from her kindergarten after the announcement of her conversion to Catholicism. Students at a local Protestant Academy were boarded at her home on Stuyvesant Lane in the Bowery, near St. Mark's Church, in 1807.

Seton was planning to migrate to Canada when she encountered Louis William Valentine Dubourg, a member of the French émigré community of Sulpician Fathers and later president of St. Mary's College, Baltimore. The Sulpicians had fled to the United States from France's religious persecution of the Reign of Terror. They were planning to establish the first Catholic seminary in the United States, in keeping with their society's ideals. Dubourg had hoped for a religious academy to meet the educational needs of the new Catholic church in the French Catholic lands for many years.

Seton accepted the Sulpicians' invitation in 1809 and relocated to Emmitsburg, Maryland, after going through many challenges in life. Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School, a Catholic girls' education academy established in a year. This was possible due to Samuel Sutherland Cooper, a wealthy convert and seminarian at the newly founded Mount Saint Mary's University, which was initiated by John Dubois, S.S. and the Sulpicians.

Seton established a religious congregation in Emmitsburg dedicated to the care of the homeless children. This was the first congregation of religious sisters to be established in the United States, and its academy was the first Catholic school in America. This humble initiation was the start of the Catholic parochial school system in the United States. The Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's were initially known as the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's. She became known as "Mother Seton" from that point on. The sisters adopted the Daughters of Charity, which was co-founded in France by Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac in 1811.

Seton's remaining years of his life was spent in leading and establishing the new congregation. Seton was described as a charming and cultured lady. Her ties to New York society and the accompanying social pressures to leave the new life she had created for herself did not deter her from accepting her religious call and charitable mission. She had the most challenging issues as a result of internal inconsistencies, interpersonal conflicts, and the deaths of two daughters, other relatives, and young sisters in the neighborhood.

Elizabeth Ann Seton died on January 4, 1821, at the age of 46. Her remains are laid on display in Emmitsburg, Maryland, today.

Later life and death

Seton's remaining days of his life was dedicated to leading and establishing the new congregation. Seton was described as a charming and cultured lady. Her ties to New York society and the accompanying social pressures to leave the new life she had created for herself did not discourage her from accepting her religious calling and charitable mission. The most notable challenges she encountered were internal, resulting from miscommunications, interpersonal differences, and the deaths of two daughters, other relatives, and young sisters in the neighborhood.

Elizabeth Ann Seton died on January 4, 1821, at the age of 46. Her remains are laid on display in Emmitsburg, Maryland, today.

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