St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, America's First Native-Born Saint

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious: 1774-1821 A.D.

America's First Native-Born Saint - Feast, January 4

Birth and family background

Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was born in New York City on August 28, 1774 A.D., just two years before the Declaration of Independence was signed. She might be truly be called a daughter of the American Revolution.

Elizabeth's father, Dr. Richard Bayley, was a prominent physician and professor of anatomy at King's College (now Columbia University). Her mother, and later, her stepmother, were staunch Episcopalians who instilled in her an appreciation of prayer and the Scriptures. She was the stepsister of Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley of Baltimore.


Elizabeth was educated by her father. Then at nineteen, she married a wealthy businessman named William Magee Seton, with whom she had five children. In the first years of her marriage, Elizabeth plunged into social work and in 1797 A.D. helped to found the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children. A few years later, in 1803 A.D., her husband's business failed, and William contracted tuberculosis. The couple went to Italy in hopes of effecting a cure but William died shortly after they arrived.

Back in the United States and conversion to Catholicism

In her stay in Italy for some months, she observed the Catholic Church in action. She became convinced that the Catholic Church was rooted back to the apostles and to Christ. After her return to the United States in 1805 A.D., she became a Catholic. Her Episcopalian family and friends were outraged and turned on her savagely, cutting themselves off from her completely. Her sister told her that Catholics were "dirty, filthy, red-faced". Elizabeth however did not change her faith when she was ostracized, but she was eventually driven to Baltimore, where she was warmly welcomed by the Catholic community.

Apostolic work and foundation of a religious community

At the suggestion of a Sulpician superior, Father Louis DuBourg, she opened a school for girls in Baltimore. Soon her sisters Cecilia and Harriet, who had become Catholics, joined her. With other women they formed a religious community. Elizabeth took private vows before Archbishop John Carroll of Baltimore. He encouraged her to form a new community. So Elizabeth founded a religious community along with four companions. They opened a school for poor children in Emmitsburg, Maryland, which was the beginning of the Catholic parochial school system in the United States.

Approval of her community's Rule and its growth

Archbishop Carroll of Baltimore approved the rule of Elizabeth's community in 1812 A.D., and in 1813 A.D., Elizabeth and eighteen other women took vows in the new religious order, the Sisters of Charity - the first American religious society. The religious order spread throughout the United States and numbered some twenty communities by the time of her death at Emmitsburg on January 4. She was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1975 A.D., the first American-born saint.

"Our daily work is to do the will of God"

St. Elizabeth expanded the principle that "our daily work is to do the will of God" in a conference she gave her spiritual daughters. It is printed as the Second Reading of the Office of Readings for her feast day of January 4:

I know what his will is by those who direct me; whatever they bid me do, if it is ever so small in itself, is the will of God for me. Then do it in the manner he wills it, not sewing an old thing as if it were new, or a new thing as if it were old; not fretting because the oven is too hot, or in a fuss because it is too cold. You creeping like a snail because no one pushes you. Our dear Savior was never in extremes. The third object is to do his will because he wills it, that is, to be ready to quit at any moment and do anything else to which you may be called...

Be above the vain fears of nature and efforts of your enemy. You are children of eternity. Your immortal crown awaits you, and the best of Fathers waits there to reward your duty and love. You may indeed sow here in tears, but you may be sure there to reap in joy.

With her elevated to the honor of sainthood, the faithful now pray, "St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us."

References of this article

• Dictionary of Saints, by John J. Delaney
• Saints for Our Time, by Ed Ransom
• The Who's Who of Heaven: Saints for All Seasons, by Msgr. John P. Kleinz