Day 122 -- Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

My saint has not found me yet, but I have always liked Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. I think this is because she was the first saint who was born in the United States to be canonized. I also have a good friend whose parish is Saint Elizabeth Seton and where I made my Cursillo weekend is called the Seton-Neumann Center.

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was born into a wealthy and influential Episcopalian family on August 28, 1774 in New York City as Elizabeth Ann Bayley. Her father was a doctor and she was raised in New York high society. Her mother died when she was only three years old and her baby sister died a year later. At age 19, in 1794 she married the wealthy businessman William Magee Seton and was the mother of five children.

After ten years of marriage and then William's business failed he soon died on tuberculosis leaving Elizabeth as a widow and the mother of five small children. Four of their five children felt drawn to Catholicism and believing in the Real Presence of the Eucharist and the lineage of Christ and the Apostles. She converted to Catholicism and entered the Church on March 14, 1805. This led the the alienation of many of her Episcopalian family.

In order to support her family and to make sure her children received a proper education, she opened a school in Boston. Even though the school was a private and secular institution, it ran along the lines of a religious community. When the archbishop invited her, she established a Catholic girl's school in Baltimore which initiated the parochial school system in America. In order to run the school system, she founded the Sisters of Charity in 1809 the first American religious community for women.

She died on January 4, 1821 in Emmitsburg, MD of natural causes. She was canonized on September 14, 1975 by Pope Paul VI.


PRAYERS by Saint Elizabeth
O Father, the first rule of Our dear Savior's life was to do Your Will. Let His Will of the present moment be the first rule of our daily life and work, with no other desire but for its most full and complete accomplishment. Help us to follow it faithfully, so that doing what You wish we will be pleasing to You. Amen.

Lord Jesus, Who was born for us in a stable, lived for us a life of pain and sorrow, and died for us upon a cross; say for us in the hour of death, Father, forgive, and to Your Mother, Behold your child. Say to us, This day you shall be with Me in paradise. Dear Savior, leave us not, forsake us not. We thirst for You, Fountain of Living Water. Our days pass quickly along, soon all will be consummated for us. To Your hands we commend our spirits, now and forever. Amen.


"What was the first rule of our dear Savior’s life? You know it was to do his Father’s will. Well, then, the first purpose of 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."

"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."