January 4th - St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Day



1774-1821
Foundress-Sisters of Charity
Canonized by Pope Paul VI
September 14, 1975

St. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was born on August 28, 1774 to Richard Bayley and Catherine Charlton of New York City. She was raised in the Episcopal Church in the United States. Her mother, daughter of an Episcopal priest, died when Elizabeth was three years old.

At age 19 she married William Magee Seton, a wealthy businessman in the import trade. Five children were born to the marriage: Anna "Annina" Maria (1795-1812), William the Second, Richard Seton, Catherine Seton (1800-1891) a Sister of Mercy, and Rebecca Mary (1802-1816) whom Elizabeth called "my soul's sister".

Although busy with raising a large family and the management of their home, Seton continued to show the concern for the poor of the city which her father and stepmother had taught her. She helped to organize a group of prominent ladies who would visit the sick poor in their homes to render what aid they could. This circle was informally called the "Ladies of Charity" due to their conscious inspiration by the work of St. Vincent de Paul in 17th century France.

During a trip to Italy for her husband's health, he died there and Elizabeth and one of her children stayed two years in Italy with her husband's business partner and his family. It was in Italy that she was introduced to Catholicism. When returning back to the United States, she sought instruction in the faith and in 1805 entered the Catholic Church.

At the invitation of the Archbishop, she established a Catholic girl's school in Baltimore, which initiated the parochial school system in America. She also founded the Sisters of Charity.

One commentor says of her "Elizabeth Seton had no extraordinary gifts. She was not a mystic or stigmatic. She did not prophesy or speak in tounges." But it is perhaps her very "ordinariness" that makes her such a good model for stewardship. She put her whole life - all of her time, all of her talents, all of her treasure - at God's disposal, saying to her religious sisters, "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; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will." Such wholehearted devotion to the will of God is a sure recipe for good stewardship of the gifts we have received.

We must pray without ceasing, in every occurrence and employment of our
lives - that prayer which is rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God
as in a constant communication with Him .

~Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton