Elizabeth Ann Seton (single mom)

(1774-1821)

• Born in New York into an Episcopalian family. Her mother was the daughter of an Anglican minister and died when Elizabeth was three. Her dad was a physician and a professor of anatomy; he educated Elizabeth himself.
• She married William Seton and became good friends with his sister Cecilia. William was a merchant. During her married life she had five children (2 sons and 3 daughters) and worked with Cecilia on various missions for the poor and sick.
• She liked to write music, hymns, and spiritual discourses.
• They lost their fortune and William became very ill with tuberculosis. Doctors thought a warmer climate would help William, so some friends helped them move to Italy. William died there in 1803, thus she became a single mother.
• During this time, Elizabeth was embraced and came to know Louis Cheverus, who became the first bishop of Boston, and other Catholic friends. She converted to Catholicism in 1805.
• Upon her return to New York, Cecilia became converted to Catholicism as well, and family members and their entire town were outraged at them.
• Thankfully, the Bishop of Baltimore invited Elizabeth to his diocese, her reputation already known from her previous mission work as an Episcopalian. She began a boarding school, which included her children.
• Eventually, she was asked to head an order of Catholic teachers, which she didn’t want to do, but she gave this up to God’s will and headed the order. She opened more schools at this time, being an important part the first flourishing of the parochial education system in the U.S. whose aim was to educate not only the wealthy but also the poor.
• She died in 1821 and is the first native born American Saint to be canonized.
• Info cited under “Authentic Femininity, Lived” tab