Elizabeth ann bayley seton biography

After a number of difficult years, Elizabeth moved in to Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she founded the Sisters of Charity of St. She also began St. Her legacy now includes religious congregations in the United States and Canada, whose members work on the unmet needs of people living in poverty in North America and beyond. Mother Seton, as she is often called, was canonized on Sunday, September 14, in St.

Father William Dubourg of Baltimore told her that he wanted to establish a school in that city, and in September she opened a boarding school for girls. She and her small group of assistants adopted the name Sisters of Charity of St. The rules of the order were similar to those of a French order, the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul.

In the sisters moved to Emmitsburg, Md. The first winter in the new location was harsh. The house was incomplete and the food inadequate, but within a few months the school was thriving. Members of the group took over an orphanage in Philadelphia in and established orphanages and schools in New York and Philadelphia. Mother Seton died on Jan.

She was declared venerable on Dec. Seton: Foundress of the American Sisters of Charityis a detailed, scholarly biography, based on an impressive bibliography, including many primary materials. Leonard Feeney, Mother Seton: An American Womanis written in a somewhat popular style, but it contains excerpts from some of Seton's letters.

People History U. Seton, Elizabeth Ann Bayley gale. Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton gale. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton Elizabeth Ann Bayley Setonthe first American woman to be beatified, founded the first American order of nuns, initiated the parochial elizabeth ann bayley seton biography system, and established the first Catholic or phanage in the United States.

Further Reading Joseph I. More From encyclopedia. Updated Aug 08 About encyclopedia. Elizabeth queen of Romania. Elizabeth pseudonym of Countess Russell. Elizabeth fl. Seton and her family were invited by several priests to move to Baltimore, Maryland. They moved in June to open a school for girls. Catholic women from around the country came to join her work and, over time, they created a convent.

The women soon moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland, where they formally began their religious life as Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's on July 31, This was the first sisterhood in the United States. As the community took shape, Elizabeth directed its vision. On July 19,Seton and eighteen other sisters made vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and service to the poor.

They would renew these vows annually. In the community accepted its first mission outside Emmitsburg, an orphanage in Philadelphia. By sisters had been sent to staff a similar work in New York. By that time, she herself was weak and increasingly subject to poor health. She spent the last years of her life directing St. Joseph's Academy and her growing community.

She died January 4,at 46 years old. She was the first native-born saint of the United States. In order to be canonized, a person must either be a martyr, or perform at least two miracles. For Seton, her miracles occurred through intercession, or prayers asking for help. Elizabeth was fluent in French and English, a fine musician, and an accomplished horsewoman.

On January 25,at age 19, Elizabeth married William Magee Seton, aged 25, a wealthy businessman in the import trade. Samuel Provoostthe first Episcopal bishop of New York, presided at their wedding. He had emigrated to New York inand became superintendent and part-owner of the iron-works of Ringwood, New Jersey. A loyalistthe senior William Seton was the last royal public notary for the city and province of New York.

He brought his sons William Elizabeth's future husband and James into the import-export mercantile firm, the William Seton Company, which became Seton, Maitland, and Company in The younger William had visited important counting houses in Europe inwas a friend of Filippo Filicchi a renowned merchant in LeghornItaly, with whom his firm tradedand brought the first Stradivarius violin to America.

Shortly after they married, Elizabeth and William Seton moved into a fashionable residence on Wall Street. A devout communicant, Elizabeth took John Henry Hobart later a bishop as her spiritual director. Along with her sister-in-law Rebecca Mary Seton — her soul-friend and dearest confidanteElizabeth continued her former stepmother's social ministry—nursing the sick and dying among family, friends, and needy neighbors.

Influenced by her father, she became a charter member of The Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children and served as its treasurer. When the elder William Seton died, the Seton family fortunes waned during the volatile economic climate preceding the War ofwhen the US boycotted trade with Great Britain. The couple took in William's six younger siblings, ages seventeen to seven.

The much expanded family required a move to the larger Seton elizabeth ann bayley seton biography residence. A dispute between the United States of America and the French Republic from to led to a series of attacks on American shipping. The United Kingdom 's blockade of France, and the loss of several of Seton's ships at sea, resulting in William having to declare bankruptcy.

The Setons lost their home at 61 Stone Street in lower Manhattan. The following summer, Elizabeth and the children stayed with her father, who was still the health officer for the Port of New York on Staten Island. Through most of their married life, William Seton suffered from tuberculosis. The stress worsened his illness; his doctors sent him to Italy for the warmer climate, with Elizabeth and their eldest daughter as his companions.

Upon landing at the port of Leghorn, they were held in quarantine for a month, as authorities feared they might have brought yellow fever from New York. William died there on December 27, Elizabeth and her daughter Anna Maria were received by the families of her late husband's Italian business partners, Filippo and Antonio Filicchi, who introduced her to Catholicism.

Peter's Church[ 9 ] then the city's only Catholic church. Anti-Catholic laws had been lifted just a few years before. A year later, she received the sacrament of confirmation from the Bishop of BaltimoreJohn Carrollthe only Catholic bishop in the nation. To support herself and her children, Seton had started an academy for young ladies, as was common for widows of social standing in that period.

After news of her conversion to Catholicism spread, most parents who were Protestant withdrew their daughters from her school. Instudents attending a local Protestant Academy were boarded at her house on Stuyvesant Lane in the Bowery, near St. Mark's Church. Mary's College, Baltimore. The Sulpicians had taken refuge in the United States from the religious persecution of the Reign of Terror related to the revolution in France.

They were in the process of establishing the first Catholic seminary for the United States, in keeping with the goals of their society. For several years, Dubourg had envisioned a religious school to meet the educational needs of the new nation's small Catholic community. Inthe widow Seton accepted the Sulpicians' invitation and moved to Emmitsburg, Marylandwhere they had a mission.

A year later, she established the Saint Joseph's Academy and Free Schoola school dedicated to Catholic girls' education. This effort was supported financially by Samuel Sutherland Cooper, [ 6 ] a wealthy convert and seminarian at the newly established Mount Saint Mary's Universitybegun by John DuboisS. On July 31,Seton established a religious community in Emmitsburg dedicated to the care of children of the poor.

This was the first congregation of religious sisters founded in the United States, and its school was the first free Catholic school in America. This modest beginning marked the start of the Catholic parochial school system in the United States. From that point on, she became known as "Mother Seton. The remainder of Seton's life was spent leading and developing the new congregation of sisters.

Seton was described as a charming and cultured lady. Her connections to New York society and the accompanying social pressures to leave the new life she had created for herself did not deter her from embracing her religious vocation and charitable mission. The most significant difficulties she faced were internal, stemming from misunderstandings, interpersonal conflicts, and the deaths of two daughters, other loved ones, and young sisters in the community.

Elizabeth Ann Seton died on January 4,at the age of Bythe Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's were running orphanages and schools as far west as Cincinnati and New Orleans. They established the first hospital west of the Mississippi in St. Louis, Missouri. Seton originally intended to join the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paulbut the embargo of France due to the Napoleonic Wars prevented this connection.

Decades later, inthe Emmitsburg community took steps to merge with the Daughters and become their first American branch, as their foundress had envisioned. Today, six separate religious congregations trace their roots to the beginnings of the Sisters of Charity in Emmitsburg.

Elizabeth ann bayley seton biography

Additionally, a church in Bothell, Washingtonhas been named after her. Theologians approved Seton's spiritual writings on January 15,and her cause was formally opened on February 28,granting her the title of Servant of God. The pope said on the occasion, "In a house that was very small, but with ample space for charity, she sowed a seed in America which by Divine Grace grew into a large tree.

Peter's Square. In his words, "Elizabeth Ann Seton is a saint. Elizabeth Ann Seton is an American. All of us say this with special joy and with the intention of honoring the land and the nation from which she sprang forth as the first flower in the calendar of the saints.