Saturday, 1/4/14
Today is the feast of St. Elizabeth
Ann Seton, the founder of the American Daughters of Charity, the ladies who
gave us St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Born two years before the American
Revolution, Elizabeth Bayley grew up reading everything she could get her hands
on. At nineteen married to William Seton a ship owner of New York, Elizabeth
was unimaginably happy, and the couple had five healthy children.
All came crashing down with
repeated shipping losses, and with William’s health failing him. In hopes of
saving William in a warmer climate, Elizabeth and one daughter brought him to
Italy, only to have him die while they were still in quarantine.
A devout Anglican, Elizabeth could
only seek comfort in the nearby Italian Catholic churches. With those visits
repeatedly bringing her into the care of loving Catholic women, Elizabeth found
her soul turning that way. Returned to the States, she was received into the
Catholic Church.
Exhibiting great spunk, Elizabeth
made an attempt at operating a hospital for the poor, but it failed for lack of
funds. She met up then with a Sulpician Father who had been banished from
France by the Revolution. He opened a seminary for priests in Emmetsburg
Maryland, and that led to invite Elizabeth to found a school there.
Elizabeth was so successful with what
was America’s first Catholic school that she drew other high-minded young
ladies to serve as teachers. On March 25, 1909 they pronounced their religious
vows, and from that day on Elizabeth was to be known as Mother Elizabeth Ann
Seton.
On this day we express our fullest
gratitude to the Daughters of Charity who have worked among us here at St.
Vincent’s and at Catherine Laboure. We have all benefitted from the truly great
ladies who have led near silent lives of service in our midst.
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