In the Footsteps of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

If you live in the Middle Atlantic region of the United States, you are fortunate in having reasonable access to several Americans who have been canonized or beatified by the Catholic Church.  This region in particular may be considered as one of the cradles of American Catholicism as it was here in Maryland and Pennsylvania that Catholics first established the Church during Colonial times.  Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York became important centers of American Catholicism in the formative years of the American Republic.   Philadelphia is home to shrines honoring St. John Neumann and St. Katharine Drexel.  Maryland has a shrine dedicated to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.  New York City is home to a shrine honoring St. Frances Cabrini.  Just north of New York in New Haven, Connecticut is the shrine of Blessed Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus.  

 
Earlier this month during Spring Break, my wife and I took our kids to visit the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland, which is less than three hours by car from our home in South Jersey.   The trip was both educational and spiritually uplifting.

 
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton is the first American born Catholic saint.  She was born into an Episcopalian family in New York City in the British Royal Colony of New York on 28 August 1774. She was the daughter of Dr. Richard Bayley and Catherine Charlton. Her paternal grandparents were French Huguenots; her maternal grandfather was a priest in the Church of England (Episcopal).   At the time of her birth, the American Colonies were in a tempestuous relationship with Great Britain which would erupt into a War for Independence the following year.  Shortly after her second birthday, the British captured New York City and held it for the duration of the war.  

 
Elizabeth Bayley was raised and educated in the Episcopal Church. She married a prosperous young merchant named William Magee Seton when she was twenty years old. Together they had two sons and three daughters. As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, William lost many of his ships, causing his business to fail. Then he contracted tuberculosis. He travelled with Elizabeth to Italy hoping to find a cure there in its more hospitable environment but died in December 1803. 

 
While in Italy, Elizabeth felt a calling to the Roman Catholic Church. Accordingly, she returned to the United States and converted to Catholicism in March 1805. Her family and friends strongly opposed her conversion. After trying to run a school and a boarding house for boys, a priest in Baltimore, Maryland invited her to open a school for girls in his city. Elizabeth’s school opened in June 1808. Soon other charitable, pious women began associating with her and a fledgling religious organization began to emerge. Elizabeth took vows in March 1809, then moved her and her community to Emmitsburg, Maryland. Her religious congregation became known as the Daughters of Charity of St. Joseph. Her congregation steadily grew in numbers and expanded its operations to twenty religious houses in less than fifteen years. She died on 4 January 1821. 

Elizabeth was beatified by Pope St. John XXIII in 1959 and canonized by Pope St. Paul VI on 14 September 1975. In time, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and the Daughters of Charity have come to be recognized as the founders of the American parochial school system. Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey was founded in her honor on 1 September 1856 by her nephew, the Bishop of Newark James Roosevelt Bayley. “Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton is an American,” said Pope Paul VI in his Homily for her Canonization. “All of us say this with spiritual joy, and with the intention of honoring the land and the nation from which she marvellously sprang forth as the first flower in the calendar of the saints.” Pope Paul VI himself was declared a saint in 2017.

 
The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is located in Emmitsburg, Maryland, which is 2 ½ hour drive from Philadelphia, 1 ¼ hours from Baltimore, 1 ½ hours from Washington DC, 4 hours from New York City, and 1 hour from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.   The Shrine consists of a magnificent basilica in which she is entombed, a modern museum with interactive displays, the Stone House which was the first home in Emmitsburg for St. Elizabeth and her associates, and the St. Joseph’s House which was the first home of St. Elizabeth’s new order the Daughters of Charity.   You can find more about the Shrine on their website https://setonshrine.org/  

 
Located about three miles away from the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine is the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes on the campus of Mount Saint Mary’s University.  This shrine features a faithful reproduction of the miraculous Lourdes Grotto in which St. Bernadette had visits with Our Blessed Mother in 1858.   To learn more about the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, visit their website https://www.nsgrotto.org/  

 
Elizabeth Ann Seton was an amazing woman who made a tremendous contribution to American Catholicism and our nation as well.  You can learn more about this extraordinary saint and her life by visiting her shrine in Emmitsburg, Maryland.