Family Faith

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
My daughter was asked to prepare a report on a famous American woman. She chose Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton. Elizabeth Ann was a wife, mother, and a widow. At nineteen, Elizabeth married William Magee Seton, a prosperous merchant. Elizabeth said of her husband that she loved him more than any creature on earth. She and William had five children. When William's health failed she became a member of the Catholic Church in the spring of 1805.

She sought to support her family by teaching. Archbishop John Carroll of Baltimore invited her to start a school in Maryland. Other young women joined her in this ministry of education and eventually they formed a religious community, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's. In 1809, they moved to Emmitsburg where Elizabeth Ann Seton lived with her growing community until her death. She established Saint Joseph’s school in Emmitsburg, Maryland on February 22, 1810. She died in 1821 at the age of 47, but by that time, 50 women had joined her community.

In 1975 Paul VI declared that Elizabeth Ann Seton was a saint.

Prayer to St. Elizabeth Ann
Dear Saint Elizabeth,
You followed the way of Jesus
in many different styles of life.
Help me to follow Jesus in all the stages of my life. Amen.

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