Archives
of Maryland
(Biographical Series)
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821)
MSA SC 3520-13567
Biography:
From
Seton Hall University (http://web.archive.org/web/20040817083249/provost.shu.edu/charterday/seton.htm)
St.
Elizabeth Ann Seton, born August 28, 1774 in New York City, was the
first native born United States citizen to be canonized by the Catholic
Church. Founder of the Sisters of Charity, Mother Seton also
is believed to have miraculously cured three women. She is the
patron saint of widows, Catholic schools, and ill children.
The second daughter of Dr. Richard and Catherine Bayley,
Elizabeth "Betty" Seton was born into a life of ease. Richard
Bayley was a distinguished physician devoted to his work.
He married Catherine Charlton, the daughter of the Reverend Richard Charlton, rector
of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on Staten Island, on January 9, 1769, in New Jersey. 1
Mrs. Bayley
died in 1775, shortly after Elizabeth's birth. Dr. Bayley
then married Charlotte Barclay, and six more children were added
to the Bayley family. 2 Elizabeth was
educated primarily by her father, but she did attend a finishing school with her
older sister, Mary Magdalen. At "Mama Pompelion's" the girls
learned French and piano, proper subjects for young ladies of their
social status. 3
The youthful Elizabeth was also fond of dancing, and said that she
"never found any effect from it but the most innocent cheerfulness." 4
At the age of nineteen,
Elizabeth married William Magee Seton, the heir to a shipping and import business. Their marraige was a
happy one, and produced five children: Anna Maria (b. 1795), William
(b. 1796), Richard Bayley (b. 1798), Catherine Josephine (b. 1800), and Rebecca
(b. 1802). 5 Elizabeth was a devoted wife and mother, but
also found time to work to improve the lives of less fortunate women.
Along with Isabella Graham, Elizabeth formed a society to help
widowed mothers, called the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows. 6
The Seton's good fortune did not last.
The family business went bankrupt during the 1803 conflict
with France, and William developed tuberculosis soon after. Taking his
doctor's advice, William sailed to Italy for fresher air in the hopes
of a full recovery. Elizabeth and their eldest child, Anna Maria,
accompanied him. Because of a yellow fever epidemic
that recently broke out in New York, the ship passengers were
quarantined upon arrival in Leghorn, Italy. The fresh country air
the Setons expected was replaced with a cold, damp room in
a quarantine zone. 7 These conditions only hastened William's
illness, and he died on December 27, 1803. 8
Elizabeth
Seton was devastated by the loss of her husband. She remained in
Italy with her daughter Anna for several months at the home
of family friends, the Filicchi's. A Catholic family, the
Filicchi's introduced Elizabeth to a more rigorous devotional schedule,
which helped her through her grief and moved her toward embracing
Catholicism. Upon her return to
the United States in 1804, Elizabeth was ready to commit to becoming a
Catholic;
she converted in 1805. This spiritual change worried and confused
Elizabeth's extended family, both because of the traditional distrust
of Catholics and because the Catholic faith was most common among
working class Irish citizens in New York. 9
In
order to support herself, Elizabeth Seton ran a boarding house for boys
who attended school in New York City. She sent her own two sons to
school
in Georgetown, but also wanted a Catholic education for her daughters.
When Father Louis William Valentine DuBourg, President of St. Mary's
College in Baltimore, visited New York, he suggested that Elizabeth
move to Baltimore and start a school for girls there. The idea
intrigued her, and on June 15, 1808, Elizabeth arrived in Baltimore,
with the intent of opening a school on Paca Street. The school
attracted many
girls from wealthy Catholic families, and soon became self-supporting.
During her time in Baltimore, Elizabeth also initiated the idea
of a new religious order, which would later be called the Sisters of
Charity. The idea was extremely popular, so when given the
opportunity to expand and move to Emmitsburg, MD, Elizabeth and her new
Sisters decided to leave Baltimore. 10
In
Emmitsburg, Elizabeth founded
St. Joseph's School, which admitted its first female students in 1810. 11
St. Joseph's would continue to focus on admitting girls from wealthy
families. Tuition rates started at $100 per year. 12
The girls were tutored in the usual subjects of reading, writing,
arithmetic, geography, and history, but also learned music, needlework,
and the popular languages of the day--French, Spanish, and Italian.
In just three years, the school was filled to capacity with fifty
students and a long waiting list. 13
Even
though her
religious and leadership duties were extensive, Elizabeth remained a
devoted mother. When she learned her teenage daughter, Anna, was in
love, she wrote to a friend, "my
Annina: so young, so lovely, so innocent, absorbed in all the romance
of youthful passion. As I have told you, she gave her heart
without my knowledge; and afterwards what could a doting and unhappy
mother do but take the part of friend and confidante..." 14
To her relief, there was a "rational and patient
conclusion" : "The young Du Pavillon, to whom she gave her foolish
little heart, found on his return to his family and possessions someone
who nabbed him on the spot..." 15 In a letter to her
dear friend, Mrs. Juliana Scott, Elizabeth also confided her concern
about her son, Richard: "He is an enormous young man, very well
disposed, but, like his brother before he left us, shows no remarkable
talents, though William [her other son] has...shown a truly solid
mind." 16 Elizabeth also noted that Richard is
"Mother's boy forever, but a lively, crazy one...He is nearly a year
and half younger than William, and four years younger in mind." 17
In
1812, Anna developed tuberculosis, as her father and other members of
her father's family had before her. Her death was long and
painful, finally coming on March 12, 1812.
A year later, in a letter to Juliana Scott, Elizabeth wrote,
"Dearest Anna, was ever the beauty of the soul so pictured as on that
dying face?" 18 Meanwhile, her youngest daughter,
Rebecca, had "a little slip on the ice last winter which we though
nothing of, has become entirely lame and often unable to walk across
the room without assistance, her desire of remaining in the same room
with me, and her fear of disturbing her dear Anna was so great (as we
have since found out) that she concealed her sufferings as much as
possible." 19 Rebecca's injury was beyond contemporary medical knowledge, and she was lame until her early death in 1816. 20 Elizabeth's grief was tempered by seeing "so good and innocent a little soul set free." 21
When
Elizabeth herself died on Janurary 4, 1821, she left everything she
owned to her only living daughter, Catherine, who was also named
executor of the estate.
The legacy
of Mother Seton can be felt throughout Maryland. The National Shrine
of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is located in Emmitsburg, near Mount St.
Mary's University. Mother Seton's tradition of excellence in Catholic
education has also continued. In Emmitsburg, less than one mile away
from the site of her original school, is the Mother Seton School. In
Baltimore, Seton Keough High School is an all-girls Catholic school
which combined Seton High School and Archbishop Keough High School.
Elizabeth
Seton's contributions to the Catholic church and community made her a
candidate for sainthood. She founded the Sisters of Charity, the
parochial school system in the U.S., and also is believed to have
performed three miracles. Elizabeth Seton is attributed with
having cured Sister Gertrude Korzendorfer of cancer, Ann Theresa
O'Neill of acute lymphatic leukemia, and Carl Kalin of encephalitis.
Having met the requirement to be canonized (one must have died a martyr
or have performed at least two miracles), she was elected to be a
saint. On March 17, 1963, she was beatified by
Pope John XXIII, and on September 14, 1975, she was canonized by Pope
John Paul VI. "Mother Seton," as she is affectionately known, was
a part of the force that changed the shape of Catholicism in America.
Endnotes:
1. Joseph I. Dirvin, Mrs. Seton: Foundress of the American Sisters of Charity (New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1962), 4. Return to text.
2. Elaine G. Breslaw, "Elizabeth Bayley Seton, 1774-1821: Maryland's Saint," in Notable Maryland Women (Cambridge: Tidewater Publishers, 1977), 335-341. Return to text.
3. Edward James, Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Vol. 1 (Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971). Return to text.
4. Breslaw, 23. Return to text.
5. James. Return to text.
6. Ibid. Return to text.
7. Carolyn B. Stegman, Women of Achievement in Maryland (Forestville: Anaconda Press, 2002), 68. Return to text.
8. Breslaw, 336. Return to text.
9. Breslaw, 337. Return to text.
10. Breslaw, 338. Return to text.
11. Ibid. Return to text.
12.Dirvin, 325. Return to text.
14. Dirvin, 232. Return to text.
15. Joseph B. Code, Letters of Mother Seton to Mrs. Juliana Scott (Baltimore: The Chandler Printing Co., 1960), 212. Return to text.
16. Code, 254. Return to text.
17. Dirvin, 347. Return to text.
18. Code, 226. Return to text.
19. Code, 227. Return to text.
20. Breslaw, 340. Return to text.
21. Code, 257. Return to text.Return
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