Wednesday, 1/4/12
Today is
the feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the founder of the American
Daughters of Charity who gave us St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Born in New
York ion 1774, at nineteen Elizabeth married an owner of ship lines,
giving birth to five children. Her husband, impoverished by shipping
losses, fell ill. In hopes of saving him in a warmer climate, Elizabeth
and one daughter brought her husband William to Italy, and he died while
they were still in quarantine. Befriended by Catholics over two years,
Elizabeth returned to the States where she was received into the
Catholic Church. Her attempt at operating a hospital for the poor failed
for lack of funds. Then, after a Sulpician Father, banished from France
by the Revolution, opened a seminary for priests in Emmitsburg
Maryland; he invited Elizabeth to found America’s first Catholic school
there.
Elizabeth
was successful in founding an order of religious sisters dedicated to
teaching the young to live by Christian principles.
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