Jan. 4th - St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

Today, we celebrate, the feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton!

    She was a wife, widow, mother of five and mother and foundress of a religious order of Sisters, called the daughters of Charity. She was a former Episcopalian, who became Catholic.
    Born in New York, her mother died when Elizabeth was only three. As a child, she was inclined to contemplation of God, and her greatest joy was “reading prayers”. In 1794, she married William Seton. When William’s father died, the young couple took care of William’s seven half brothers & sisters. And when his business failed, he also became ill. To prevent his death, they sailed to Italy, and stayed with the Fellici family. But, he soon afterward died, leaving Elizabeth, as a widow, with five of her own children.
The Fellici’s were devout Catholics and Elizabeth was captivated by their kindness and generosity.
    They had a private chapel, which contained the Blessed Sacrament. She was drawn to the tabernacle, where she discovered her Lord waiting for her. Her great desire for the Bread of Life was a strong force which lead her to become Catholic. To her sister-in-law, Rebecca, she wrote, “How happy would we be, if we believed what these dear souls believe: that they possess God in the Sacrament, and that He remains in their churches and is carried to them when they are sick! The other day in a moment of excessive stress, I fell on my knees, without thinking, when the Blessed Sacrament passed by, and cried in an agony to God to bless me, if He was there—that my whole soul desired only Him.” Years later, after she made her first Holy Communion, she wrote, “At last… at last, God is mine and I am His! Now let it all go around—I have received Him!”

    Having lost her mother at an early age, the Blessed Virgin became, her Mother. She asked Mary to guide Her to the true faith. After she became Catholic, the bishop asked Elizabeth to start a Catholic School in Baltimore, and found a religious order, the Daughters of Charity. Later she, her sisters and children, moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland. She suffered great heartache, due to the death of three of her children, before she herself died.
    Her two boys attended Mount St. Mary’s, boys’ school, which is now Mount St. Mary’s College and Seminary. Her sisters would travel several miles in the winter, and during the hot summer to attend Mass on the mountain. She instructed children on the mountain, just above the seminary. The grounds of the seminary and the Mount are made hallow, by the footsteps of a saint, & many seminarians who seek her intercession as a mother, to help them to become holy and faithful priests.
    May the motherly affection of St. Elizabeth, inspire every Catholic school to educate children well, to a greater love and devotion to the Eucharist, and to the Blessed Virgin, in imitation of this holy saint!