| Elizabeth Ann Seton (January 4th) was born in 1774 in New York City to a distinguished Episcopalian family. Her grandfather was a priest and her father a noted physician and medical college professor. She married a wealthy merchant and had five children. During this time she became renowned as a philanthropist, founding a relief society for widows with small children. This proved cruelly ironic since shortly afterwards her husband died while they were in Italy. Remaining there, she became attracted to the Roman Catholic Church and upon her return to the United States she converted.
In 1808 she established a school in Baltimore. This marked the beginning of the Catholic system of parochial schools in America. A year later she and four associates established a new religious community, the Sisters of St. Joseph, and they took formal vows as nuns. When their congregation became an official Order of the Church, Elizabeth became the superior. Under her guidance, the Order spread rapidly, establishing a great many parochial schools for the poor, orphanages, and hospitals across the United States. Mother Seton died in 1821 and became me first native-born American to be canonized as a saint in 1975. |
