Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
This portrait of Elizabeth Ann Seton is a reproduction of a portrait painted by Amabilia Filicchi, 1 January 1888. The reproduction was sent to the Daughters of Charity by Patrizio Filicchi in 1888. It's based on an engraving by Ceroni from the 1860s, which in turn was based on a 1797 engraving by Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Mémin. https://setonshrine.org/elizabeth-ann-seton/
Sainte Elizabeth Ann
Seton
Fondatrice des Sœurs de
la Charité de Saint-Joseph (+ 1821)
ou Betty-Ann.
Née à New York, dans une
famille de médecins, l'année même où éclatait la guerre d'indépendance, élevée
dans l'Église épiscopalienne, mariée à dix-neuf ans, elle fut une mère de
famille attentive à l'égard de ses cinq enfants. Veuve à vingt-neuf ans, elle
se convertit au catholicisme et se donne entièrement au service de l'Église et
de la société américaine. Elle fonde alors un Institut religieux qui donna
naissance au réseau scolaire et hospitalier américain.
À Emmestsbourg, dans le
Maryland aux États-Unis d’Amérique, en 1821, sainte Élisabeth-Anne Setton qui,
devenue veuve, fit profession de foi catholique et déploya son activité à
l’instruction des jeunes filles et à l’éducation des enfants pauvres, avec la
Congrégation des Sœurs de la Charité de Saint Joseph qu’elle avait fondée.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saints_366.html
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
Interior
of the Cathedral of
Saint Thomas More in Arlington, Virginia|.
SAINTE ELIZABETH ANN
SETON FONDATRICE DES SŒURS DE LA CHARITÉ DE SAINT-JOSEPH
Une dame de la haute
société protestante de New York
Elizabeth Ann Bayley naquit dans une famille protestante prospère de New York en 1774, à l’aube de la Révolution américaine. Comme elle le constata bien vite, la prospérité matérielle ne peut remplir le cœur. Après la mort de sa mère, son père se remaria, mais celui-ci et sa femme se séparèrent. Sa belle-mère rejeta la jeune fille et sa sœur, qui furent envoyées vivre chez son oncle. La petite Elizabeth fut profondément blessée par ce rejet. L’obscurité disparut pour quelque temps en 1794, lorsqu’Elizabeth épousa William Seton, un marchand qui avait un partenaire commercial, Filippo Filicchi de Livourne, en Italie. Les Seton eurent cinq enfants. C’était une famille épiscopalienne à la mode et aisée, mais leur bonne fortune ne dura pas.
En 1801, l’entreprise de William fit faillite. Le couple perdit sa maison, et
William fut frappé par la tuberculose. Dans l’espoir que le temps chaud
l’aiderait, le couple et leur fille aînée embarquèrent pour l’Italie. William
mourut peu après leur arrivée, et Elizabeth se retrouva veuve à l’âge de
vingt-neuf ans. La souffrance ouvrit le cœur de la jeune femme, et elle
commença à chercher comme quelqu’un tâtonnant dans l’obscurité.
« Si je cherche Dieu
dans la simplicité de mon cœur… »
La famille de Filippo
Filicchi fut émue de pitié pour cette jeune femme qui venait de débarquer dans
leur pays, pour se retrouver veuve en terre étrangère. Ils l’invitèrent à vivre
chez eux pendant un certain temps. Alors qu’elle était en deuil, ils lui
parlèrent de la consolation que leur foi catholique leur apportait dans les
moments de souffrance. Elizabeth fut émue par leur foi et commença à poser des
questions. Que croyaient les catholiques à propos de l’Eucharistie ? De la
messe ? De la Mère de Dieu, qui leur semblait être une mère si proche et si
tendre ? Y avait-il vraiment un lien ininterrompu entre l’Église actuelle et
les apôtres ? Son cœur et son esprit étaient en émoi, mais l’émoi fit
rapidement place à la paix. Lorsqu’elle retourna à New York en 1804, elle avait
pris sa décision. En 1805, elle entra dans l’Église catholique.
« …je le trouverai
surement. »
Cette décision ne fut pas sans coût. Sa famille désapprouva. Elizabeth avait ouvert une petite école à Baltimore afin de subvenir aux besoins de ses enfants, mais dès que la rumeur se répandit qu’elle était devenue catholique, les parents retirèrent leurs enfants de l’école.
Cette mère célibataire de cinq enfants n’aurait pas su vers qui se tourner sans
le Seigneur, dont elle cherchait la volonté dans tout ce qui lui arrivait. En
1806, elle rencontra le Père Louis Dubourg, un prêtre sulpicien. Les Sulpiciens
du Maryland avaient discuté de la possibilité de créer une congrégation
religieuse féminine américaine, sur le modèle français des Filles de la Charité
de Saint Vincent de Paul, pour aider à l’éducation des enfants de la petite
communauté catholique en pleine expansion. Ils invitèrent Elizabeth et ses
enfants à Baltimore. Bientôt, d’autres jeunes femmes la rejoignirent. En 1809,
Elizabeth fut la première d’entre eux à prononcer ses vœux.
Mère Seton
Le petit groupe de femmes, dirigé par « Mère Seton », arriva à Emmitsburg, dans le Maryland, en 1809. C’est là, cette année-là, que les Sœurs de la Charité de Saint Joseph, la première congrégation religieuse féminine fondée aux États-Unis, vit le jour. Les sœurs ouvrirent une école catholique gratuite pour les filles démunies – le début de l’éducation catholique dans ce nouveau pays. L’école fut suivie par un orphelinat et d’innombrables autres œuvres de formation religieuse, éducative et culturelle pour les pauvres. Mère Seton resta la supérieure des sœurs jusqu’à sa mort à l’âge de quarante-six ans. Elle avait cherché Dieu, comme elle le disait, dans la simplicité de son cœur. Il la trouva et l’attira au service de son Église. Ses derniers mots à ses sœurs, le 4 janvier 1821, furent : « Soyez enfants de l’Église, soyez enfants de l’Église. »
Elizabeth Ann Seton fut canonisée en 1975, devenant ainsi la première personne
née aux États-Unis à être déclarée sainte.
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
Portrait of United States philanthropist Elizabeth Ann
Seton, Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography, v. 5, 1900, p. 465
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
Interior
of St Patrick’s Cathedral in December 2021
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
National
Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, Mount St. Mary's University, Emmitsburg,
Frederick County, Maryland.
Elizabeth Ann Seton est
la première sainte canonisée, née aux Etats-Unis. Elle est la fondatrice des
Sœurs de la Charité américaines et elle est reconnue comme la pionnière de
l’éducation catholique. Elle a ouvert la voie au système des écoles
paroissiales aux États-Unis.
1774, 28 août naissance
1794, 25 janvier mariage avec William Magee Seton
1803, 27 décembre veuve
1805, 14 mars fait profession de foi dans
l’Église catholique
1809, 31 juillet fondation des Sœurs de la
Charité de Saint-Joseph
1810 fondations
de l’école publique Saint-Joseph et de l’école privée pour les filles
1821, 4 janvier mort à Emmitsburg, Maryland
1963, 17 mars béatification par Jean XXIII
1975, 14 septembre canonisation par Paul VI
4 janvier jour de sa fête
Elle est née à New York,
ou aux alentours, le 28 août 1774. Elle est la fille de Catherine Charlton et
du Dr Richard Bayley, épiscopaliens dévots. Elle est baptisée et a grandi dans
la foi épiscopalienne, qui est le fondement de sa sainteté. Son père, devient
le premier officier de santé publique du Port de New York. Elle grandit à New
York et à la Nouvelle Rochelle, ville en banlieue nord de New York. Le 25
Janvier 1794, elle épouse William Magee Seton, le fils d’une famille ayant fait
fortune dans le commerce maritime. Le couple a vécu d’abord à Lower Manhattan,
au sud de l’île. Leur mariage est béni, ils donnent naissance à trois filles et
deux fils.
Au début de leur mariage,
William contracte la tuberculose. Elisabeth, William et leur fille aînée, Anna
Maria, partent vers l’Italie, pour profiter du climat plus chaud et aider à la
guérison, mais il meurt à Pise le 27 décembre 1803, laissant une jeune veuve de
29 ans avec cinq enfants.Elle est née à New York, ou aux alentours, le 28 août
1774. Elle est la fille de Catherine Charlton et du Dr Richard Bayley,
épiscopaliens dévots. Elle est baptisée et a grandi dans la foi épiscopalienne,
qui est le fondement de sa sainteté. Son père, devient le premier officier de
santé publique du Port de New York. Elle grandit à New York et à la Nouvelle
Rochelle, ville en banlieue nord de New York. Le 25 Janvier 1794, elle épouse
William Magee Seton, le fils d’une famille ayant fait fortune dans le commerce
maritime. Le couple a vécu d’abord à Lower Manhattan, au sud de l’île. Leur
mariage est béni, ils donnent naissance à trois filles et deux fils.
La famille Filicchi de
Livourne, en Italie, est proche par des liens d’affaires et d’amitié. Elle lui
offre un soutien chaleureux et la console. Profondément croyante, Elizabeth a
été impressionnée par leur foi catholique, leur dévotion et commence à se
renseigner sur leur religion.
Un an après son retour à
New York, elle se convertit au catholicisme. Cette conversion coûte cher à
Elisabeth. L’année suivante est remplie de difficultés : elle éduque seule cinq
enfants, elle essaie de gagner sa vie car elle est veuve et sans ressource, en
raison de la faillite, avant la mort de William, de son entreprise d’expédition
fluviale et sa famille et ses amis ne la soutiennent pas.
À l’été 1808, le Père
William Louis Dubourg, un prêtre sulpicien français émigré, originaire du
Maryland, rencontre Elisabeth lors d’une visite à New York et l’invite à venir
à Baltimore avec la promesse d’ouvrir là-bas une école pour les filles. Elle
déménage et demeure rue Paca pendant une année. Quelques femmes la rejoignent
avec l’intention de former une communauté pour le service apostolique.
Grâce à la générosité
d’un bienfaiteur, Mme Seton déménage à Emmitsburg, à la campagne, dans le
Maryland et établit une école publique gratuite, Saint-Joseph et une école
privée. Ce nouveau travail et ce nouveau mode de vie commencent le 31 juillet
1809 à la « Maison de Pierre », près d’Emmitsburg. Elle a du succès et elle est
rejointe par de nombreuses femmes, établissant ainsi la première communauté de
religieuses, fondée en Amérique, les Sœurs de la Charité de Saint-Joseph.
Le 17 Janvier 1812, le
Règlement des Sœurs de la Charité de Saint-Joseph aux Etats-Unis a reçu
l’approbation officielle. (Ces règles sont basées sur les règles communes des
Filles de la Charité, fondée par saint Vincent de Paul et sainte Louise de
Marillac en France en 1633). Ainsi sont nées les Sœurs de la Charité
américaines qui ont grandi dans la fédération des Sœurs de la Charité.
Elisabeth voyait le
Christ dans les pauvres, en particulier dans les femmes et les enfants dans le
besoin, avant même d’être reçue dans l’Église catholique. Elle est sainte en
raison de sa recherche et de sa réponse à la volonté de Dieu dans sa vie.
Sa sainteté s’est développée
à partir de sa foi épiscopalienne. Elle est restée fidèle à la paroisse
épiscopalienne de la Sainte Trinité. Avant et après sa conversion au
catholicisme, elle aimait passer du temps devant le Saint Sacrement à l’église
catholique Saint-Pierre toute proche.
Elisabeth meurt le 4
Janvier 1821 à l’âge de 46 ans à Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Le 25 Mars 1850, les
Soeurs de la Charité de Emmitsburg Saint-Joseph ont rejoint la Compagnie
française des Filles de la Charité de Saint Vincent de Paul.
SOURCE : https://cmglobal.org/fr/2021/01/04/elisabeth-ann-seton/
Elizabeth Ann Seton
1774-1821
- Fondatrice des Soeurs de la Charité de Saint-Joseph
- Canonisée le 14
septembre 1975
« Nous devons prier sans cesse, dans tous les instants de notre vie, dans toutes nos activités. Cette prière doit devenir une constante élévation de notre cœur vers Dieu, une communication permanente avec Lui »
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Brève biographie
d'Elizabeth Ann Seton
Elizabeth Ann Bayley est
née le 28 août 1774 à New-York, l'année où éclatait la guerre de l'indépendance. Elle était d'ascendance britannique et française. Son père, Richard Bayley (1744-1801), était chirurgien et premier officier de
santé du port de New-York. De plus, il était professeur d’anatomie à "Columbia College".
La mère d'Elizabeth, Catherine Chariton, est la fille d’un pasteur anglican. Elle décéda en 1777, alors qu'Elizabeth n’avait que trois ans.
Ses parents faisaient parti de l’église anglicane épiscopalienne de New-York où Elizabeth fut baptisée. Ils eurent deux enfants: Madeleine Baley (1768-1856) et Elizabeth.
En 1778, son père s’est remarié à Charlotte Amélia Barclay. Celle-ci rejeta les deux soeurs qui se sont refugiées temporairement chez leur oncle William Baley à New-Larochelle.
Elizabeth a connu une période de dépression jusqu'au moment de la séparation de
sa belle-mère et son père.
Elizabeth aimait la contemplation, la lecture, la nature et le piano. C'était une personne dévote qui avait même un directeur spirituel.
Mariage, décès de son
mari
En 1794, Elizabeth agée
de 19 ans, épouse William Magee Seton qui est issu d'une riche famille d'armateurs et commerçants.
Ils avaient une vie très harmonieuse remplie de bonheur et ont donné naissance
à cinq enfants: Anna, William, Richard, Catherine et Rebecca.
Le couple a connu une crise monétaire et la compagnie a fait faillite en 1801. Elizabeth dut s'occuper des livres de comptabilité de l'entreprise de son mari durant la nuit. Ils ont tout perdu, la maison familiale située au 61 Stane
Street, Manhattan et tous leurs biens.
William a commencé à ressentir des signes de fatigue et la tuberculose s'est
installée.
En 1803, William et Elizabeth font un voyage par bateau en Italie accompagnés de leur fille aînée Anna, dans un effort presque désespéré pour rétablir la santé de William.
Une crise de fièvre était répandue à New-York et les autorités italiennes ont
mis "en quarantaine" les Seton et tous les voyageurs dans un endroit
froid glacial. William Magee Seton décéda à Pise le 27 décembre 1803.
Elizabeth n'avait alors que 29 ans . Elle se retrouva donc en Italie avec une de ses filles et trouva refuge chez
des gens qu'elle connaissait dont le mari était un ancien associé des Seton,
notamment Antonio Felicchi et son épouse Amabilia Baragazzi.
Les Felicchi habitent Livourne. Ils sont très croyants et appartiennent à la
religion catholique.
C'est là qu'Elizabeth apprit les rudiments du catholicisme.
Elle est tombée rapidement amoureuse de l'Eglise et a réalisé que c'est à cette
Église qu'elle devait appartenir et assister à la messe avec les Felicchi.
Elizabeth s'est familiarisée avec la liturgie et ce qui l'a impressionnée,
c'est le mystère de la transsubstantiation, la présence réelle du Christ dans
l'Eucharistie.
Elizabeth s'est abandonné sur le texte "Memorare" ou
Souvenez-vous..., qui est une prière catholique adressée à la Vierge Marie.
Elle a été composée par Saint Bernard, au XVIIe siècle.
Le 14 mars 1805, Antonio Felicchi qui a des intérêts commerciaux aux U.S.A.
accompagna Elizabeth et sa fille en Amérique et ce fut un retour à New-York.
Antonio leur a remis un soutien financier important pour sa nouvelle vie.
Conversion au catholicisme
Elizabeth se fait conseiller sur le plan spirituel et arrive à discerner la
volonté de Dieu et la Sainte Vierge devient la Guide de sa foi.
Elizabeth se convertit au catholicisme et le révérend Matthew O'Brien a reçu la
profession de foi d'Elizabeth à l'église St-Pierre et deux semaines plus tard,
elle reçoit sa première communion.
Le 25 mars 1805, le jour de la Pentecôte, à 31 ans, elle est confirmée par John Carroll (1735-1815), premier évêque de Baltimore et
par la suite archevêque.
Ce dernier est considéré comme le père spirituel d'Elizabeth.
Elizabeth ajoute le nom de Mary à son nom lors de sa confirmation.
Sa conversion éloigne Elizabeth de sa famille et de son cercle d'amis et la vie
devenait précaire suite à la faillite de la famille.
Les années 1805 et 1808 furent très éprouvantes pour Elizabeth par des échecs et
préjugés anti-catholiques.
Elle tente d'enseigner dans une école et d'ouvrir une pension pour jeunes
garçons. Mais les parents ne l'acceptent pas à cause de sa nouvelle foi. Cependant, elle s'occupa de ses cinq «enfants chéris» comme son obligation principale
sur tout autre engagement.
Fondation d'une
communauté
En 1806, elle fait une rencontre providentielle de Mgr. Louis William Dubourg qui est en visite à New-York et souhaite la formation d'une congrégation de religieuses pour enseigner aux filles de Baltimore dans le Maryland.
Avec l'accord de John Carroll, évêque, Elizabeth est invitée à Baltimore afin
d'ouvrir une école pour les jeunes filles de la ville. Elle passe un an comme
institutrice à Baltimore.
Les Sulpiciens envisagent le développement d'une communauté sur le modèle des
Filles de la Charité de Paris, fondée en 1633.
Ils ont recruté activement des candidates pour la future communauté et Elizabeth se joint à eux. Seule Elizabeth prononce les vœux de chasteté et d' obéissance à Mgr John Carroll et ils s'installent temporairement dans la chapelle du séminaire.
Elizabeth a le titre de "Mère Seton".
Le 16 Juin 1809, le groupe de sœurs est apparu pour la première fois
revêtues d'une robe noire, cape et bonnet.
Un généreux bienfaiteur, Samuel Sutherland Cooper, un riche séminariste, achète
269 acres de terre pour la fondation d'une communauté près d'Emmitsburg et
en assurera le financement.
Samuel Cooper a voulu créer une institution
pour l'éducation des femmes et l'enseignement des valeurs
chrétiennes: la foi catholique, ainsi que la création de services pour
les personnes âgées.
Cooper avec Elizabeth avaient établi un programme éducatif.
Elizabeth a pris la direction de l'oeuvre le 31 juillet 1809.
Les femmes recrutées par les Sulpiciens accompagnent Elizabeth dans son oeuvre
d'éducation chez les pauvres et tranquillement la Communauté des Soeurs de la
Charité de Saint-Joseph prend son essor.
Elle fonde donc, en 1809 à Baltimore, un Institut religieux, "Les Sœurs de
la Charité de Saint-Joseph", qui donna naissance à un réseau scolaire et
hospitalier américain.
Le 17 janvier 1813, les assises des Soeurs de la Charité, institut
religieux féminin, furent confirmées et depuis 1814, des écoles et des
orphelinats dans de grandes villes de la côte atlantique voient le
jour.
Depuis 1828, des communautés ont commencé à s'ouvrir dans l'Ouest américain
notamment à Saint-Louis et dans des collectivités rurales, jusqu'à Cincinnati
et la Nouvelle-Orléans.
Leur mission est de contribuer à l'éducation des enfants catholiques vivant dans ces territoires et de plus, offrir d'autres services sociaux et de bien-être que personne d'autres ne peuvent offrir.
Les Sœurs de la Charité en tant que communauté a grandi et
fleuri dans de nouvelles communautés indépendantes en
Amérique du Nord:
Les Sœurs de la
Charité de Saint Vincent de Paul de New York (1846);
les Sœurs
de la Charité de Cincinnati (1852);
les Sœurs
de la Charité de Saint Vincent de Paul d'Halifax (1856);
les Sœurs
de la Charité de Sainte Elizabeth, Convent Station, New Jersey (1859);
et les Sœurs
de la Charité de Seton Hill, Greensburg, Pennsylvanie (1870).
Après une vie de labeur et de dévouement aux enfants, Elizabeth décède de la tuberculose le 4 janvier 1821 à Emmitsburg. Elle avait 46 ans..
Aujourd'hui, ses restes sont enterrés dans le Sanctuaire national de
Sainte Elizabeth Ann Seton à Emmitsburg, Maryland, États-Unis.
Sainte Elizabeth Ann
Seton
Le 18 décembre 1959, Elizabeth Ann Seton est déclarée Vénérable par la congrégation de l'Église catholique de Rome.
Elle est béatifiée le 17 mars 1963 par le pape Jean XXIII.
Elle est canonisée par Paul VI
le 14 septembre 1975.
Sainte Elizabeth Ann Seton est la première personne
née aux Etats-Unis à être
déclarée sainte.
Nous célébrons sa fête le 4 janvier.
Sainte Elizabeth Ann
Seton est la sainte patronne des veuves, des enfants proches de la mort et des instituteurs.
Source:
- Site Emmitsburg
- Site de L'Évangile au quotidien
- Wikipedia
- Site de la Fédération des Sœurs de la Charité.
Recherche et conception: Réjean Vigneux
Révision: Marielle Lefebvre
Mise à jour: 04-2017
SOURCE : https://www.cursillos.ca/action/modeles/121m-elizabeth-ann-seton.htm
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
Also
known as
Elizabeth Ann Bayley
Seton
Mother Seton
Profile
Born into a wealthy and
influential Episcopalian family, the daughter of a Dr Richard
Bayley; Elizabeth was raised in the New York high society of the late 18th
century. Her mother died when
Elizabeth was three years old, her baby sister a year later. In 1794 at
age 19 she married the
wealthy businessman William Magee Seton, and was the mother of
five.
About ten years into
the marriage,
William’s business failed, and soon after he died of tuberculosis,
leaving Elizabeth an impoverished widow with
five small children.
For years Elizabeth had felt drawn to Catholicism,
believing in the Real Presence in the Eucharist and in the lineage of the Church going
back to Christ and the Apostles. She converted to Catholicism,
entering the Church on 14
March 1805,
alienating many of her strict Episcopalian family in the process.
To support her family,
and insure the proper education of
her children,
she opened a school in
Boston. Though a private and secular institution, from the beginning she ran it
along the lines of a religious community. At the invitation of the archbishop,
she established a Catholic girl‘s school in
Baltimore, Maryland which
initiated the parochial school system
in America. To run the system she founded the Sisters of Charity in 1809,
the first native American religious community for women.
Born
28
August 1774 in
New York City, New
York, USA as Elizabeth
Ann Bayley
4
January 1821 in
Emmitsburg, Maryland of
natural causes
18
December 1959 by Pope John
XXIII
17
March 1963 by Pope John
XXIII
14
September 1975 by Pope Paul
VI
Apostleship
of the Sea (two of her sons worked on the sea)
opposition
of Church authorities
people
ridiculed for their piety
Shreveport, Louisiana, diocese of
Additional
Information
American
Martyrology, by Father F G Holweck
Book
of Saints by Father Lawrence
George Lovasik, S.V.D.
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
The
Holiness of the Church in the 19th Century
books
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Our
Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
other
sites in english
Domestic
Church, by Catherine Fournier
National
Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
images
audio
BreadCast: Prayer to Saint Elizabeth
Ann Seton
e-books
Memoir,
Letters And Journal Of Elizabeth Seton, convert to the Catholic faith and
Sister of Charity, by Father Robert Seton
video
webseiten
auf deutsch
sitios
en español
Martirologio
Romano, 2001 edición
sites
en français
fonti
in italiano
websites
in nederlandse
nettsteder
i norsk
spletne
strani v slovenšcini
Readings
We must pray without
ceasing, in every occurrence and employment of our lives – that prayer which is
rather a habit of lifting up the heart to God as in a constant communication
with Him. – Saint Elizabeth
Ann Seton
The first end I propose
in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he
wills it; and thirdly to do it because it is his will. – Saint Elizabeth
Ann Seton
What was the first rule
of our dear Savior’s life? You know if was to do his Father’s will. Well, then,
the first purpose of our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do
it in the manner he wills; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will. We
know certainly that our God calls us to a holy life. We know that he gives us
every grace, every abundant grace; and though we are so weak of ourselves, this
grace is able to carry us through every obstacle and difficulty. – from
the writings of Saint Elizabeth
Ann Seton
MLA
Citation
“Saint Elizabeth Ann
Seton“. CatholicSaints.Info. 14 May 2020. Web. 4 January 2021.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-elizabeth-ann-seton/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-elizabeth-ann-seton/
The Life of Saint
Elizabeth Ann Seton
“Elizabeth Ann Seton is a
saint. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is an American. All of us say this with special
joy, and with the intention of honoring the land and the nation from which she
sprang forth as the first flower in the calendar of the saints. Elizabeth Ann
Seton was wholly American! Rejoice for your glorious daughter. Be proud of her.
And know how to preserve her fruitful heritage.” –Pope Paul VI
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was
born in New York City on August 28, 1774 to a prominent Episcopal family, and
lost her mother at the age of three. In 1794, at the age of 19, Elizabeth
married William Magee Seton, a wealthy businessman with whom she had five
children. William died of tuberculosis in 1803, leaving Elizabeth a young
widow. After discovering Catholicism in Italy, where her husband had died,
Elizabeth returned to the United States and entered the Catholic Church in 1805
in New York.
After a number of
difficult years, Elizabeth moved in 1809 to Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she
founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, the first community for
religious women established in the United States. She also began St. Joseph’s
Academy and Free School, planting the seeds of Catholic education in the United
States. Her legacy now includes religious congregations in the United States
and Canada, whose members work on the unmet needs of people living in poverty
in North America and beyond.
Mother Seton, as she is
often called, was canonized on Sunday, September 14, 1975 in St. Peter’s Square
by Pope Paul VI. She was the first citizen born in the United States to be
given the title of “Saint.” Her remains are entombed in Emmitsburg in the
Basilica at the National Shrine that bears her name.
You can learn how
Elizabeth Ann Seton became a saint in our animated video, Betty Bayley Becomes A Saint,
especially for children and teens.
Read some of her quotes and
favorite prayers
Download a Student
Learning Packet and even more educational resources about Mother Seton. View Helpful Resources
SOURCE : https://setonshrine.org/elizabeth-ann-seton/
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
Statue
de Sainte Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Raymond's Cemetery, Bronx, New York
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Foundress and first
superior of the Sisters
of Charity in the United
States; born in New
York City, 28 Aug., 1774, of non-Catholic parents of
high position; died at Emmitsburg, Maryland,
4 Jan., 1821.
Her father, Dr. Richard
Bayley (born in Connecticut and educated in England),
was the first professor of anatomy at
Columbia College and eminent for his work as health officer of the Port of New
York. Her mother, Catherine Charlton, daughter of an Anglican minister of
Staten Island, N.Y., died when Elizabeth was three years old, leaving two
other young daughters. The father married again, and among the
children of this second marriage was Guy Charleton Bayley,
whose convert son, James
Roosevelt Bayley, became Archbishop of Baltimore.
Elizabeth always showed great affection for her stepmother, who was a
devout Anglican,
and for her stepbrothers and sisters. Her education was
chiefly conducted by her father, a brilliant man of great natural virtue,
who trained her to self-restraint as well as
in intellectual pursuits. She read industriously, her notebooks
indicating a special interest in religious and historical
subjects. She was very religious, wore a small crucifix around
her neck, and took great delight in reading the Scriptures,
especially the Psalms,
a practice she retained until her death.
She
was married on 25 Jan., 1794, in St. Paul's Church, New
York, to William Magee Seton, of that city, by Bishop Prevoost. In her
sister-in-law, Rebecca Seton, she found the "friend of her soul",
and as they went about on missions of mercy they were called the
"Protestant Sisters of Charity". Business troubles culminated on
the death of her father-in-law in 1798. Elizabeth and her husband presided over
the large orphaned family;
she shared his financial anxieties, aiding him with her sound judgment. Dr.
Bayley's death in 1801 was a great trial to his favourite child. In her anxiety
for his salvation she
had offered to God,
during his fatal illness, the life of
her infant daughter Catherine. Catherine's life was
spared, however, she died at the age of ninety, as Mother Catherine of
the Sisters
of Mercy, New
York. In 1803 Mr. Seton's health required a sea voyage; he started with his
wife and eldest daughter for Leghorn,
where the Filicchi brothers, business friends of the Seton firm, resided. The
other children, William, Richard, Rebecca, and Catherine, were left to the care
of Rebecca Seton.
From a journal which Mrs.
Seton kept during her travels we learn of her heroic effort to sustain the
drooping spirits of her husband during the voyage, followed by a long detention
in quarantine, and until his death at Pisa (27
Dec., 1803). She and her daughter remained for some time with
the Filicchi families.
While with these Catholic families and
in the churches of Italy Mrs.
Seton first began to see the beauty of the Catholic Faith.
Delayed by her daughter's illness and then by her own, she sailed for home
accompanied by Antonio Filicchi, and reached New
York on 3 June, 1804. Her sister-in-law, Rebecca, died in July.
A time of great spiritual
perplexity began for Mrs. Seton, whose prayer was, "If
I am right Thy grace impart still in the right to stay. If I am wrong
Oh, teach my heart to find the better way." Mr. Hobart (afterwards
an Anglican bishop),
who had great influence over her, used every effort to dissuade her from
joining the Catholic Church,
while Mr. Filicchi presented the claims of the true religion and
arranged a correspondence between Elizabeth and Bishop
Cheverus. Through Mr. Filicchi she also wrote to Bishop
Carroll. Elizabeth meanwhile added fasting to
her prayers for
light. The result was that on Ash
Wednesday, 14 March, 1805, she was received into the Church by
Father Matthew O'Brien in St. Peter's Church, Barclay Street, New
York. On 25 March she made her first Communion with
extraordinary fervour; even the faint shadow of this sacrament in
the Protestant
Church had had such an attraction for her that she used to hasten from
one church to another to receive it twice each Sunday.
She well understood the storm that her conversion would
raise among her Protestant relatives
and friends at the time she
most needed their help. Little of her husband's fortune was left, but numerous
relatives would have provided amply for her and her children had not this
barrier been raised. She joined an English Catholic gentleman
named White, who, with his wife, was opening a school for boys in the
suburbs of New
York, but the widely circulated report that this was a proselytizing scheme
forced the school to close.
A few faithful friends
arranged for Mrs. Seton to open a boarding-house for some of the boys of
a Protestant school taught
by the curate of
St. Mark's. In January, 1806, Cecilia Seton, Elizabeth's young sister-in-law,
became very ill and begged to see the ostracized convert;
Mrs. Seton was sent for, and became a constant visitor. Cecilia told her that
she desired to become a Catholic.
When Cecilia's decision was known threats were made to have Mrs.
Seton expelled from the state by the Legislature. On her recovery Cecilia
fled to Elizabeth for refuge and was received into the Church.
She returned to her brother's family on
his wife's death. Mrs. Seton's boarding-house for boys had to be given up. Her
sons had been sent by the Filicchis to Georgetown
College. She hoped to find a refuge in some convent in Canada,
where her teaching would support her three daughters. Bishop
Carroll did not approve, so she relinquished this plan. Father Father
Dubourg, S.S., from St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore,
met her in New
York, and suggested opening in Baltimore a school for
girls. After a long delay and many privations, she and her daughters
reached Baltimore on Corpus
Christi, 1808. Her boys were brought there to St. Mary's College, and she
opened a school next to the chapel of
St. Mary's Seminary and was delighted with the opportunities for the practice
of her religion, for it was only with the greatest difficulty she was able
to get to daily Mass and Communion in New
York. The convent life
for which she had longed ever since her stay in Italy now
seemed less impracticable. Her life was that of a religious, and her
quaint costume was fashioned after one worn by certain nuns in Italy.
Cecilia Conway of Philadelphia, who had contemplated going to Europe to
fulfill her religious
vocation, joined her; soon other postulants arrived,
while the little school had all the pupils it could accommodate.
Mr. Cooper, a Virginian convert and
seminarian, offered $10,000 to found an institution for
teaching poor children.
A farm was bought half a mile from the village of Emmitsburg and two miles
from Mt.
St. Mary's College. Meanwhile Cecilia Seton and her sister Harriet came to
Mrs. Seton in Baltimore.
As a preliminary to the formation of the new community, Mrs. Seton took vows privately
before Archbishop
Carroll and her daughter Anna. In June, 1809, the community was
transferred to Emmitsburg to take charge of the new institution. The
great fervour and mortification of
Mother Seton, imitated by her sisters, made the many hardships of their
situation seem light. In Dec., 1809, Harriet Seton, who was received into
the Church at
Emmitsburg, died there, and Cecilia in Apr., 1810.
Bishop
Flaget was commissioned in 1810 by the community to obtain in France the
rules of the Sisters
of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. Three of these sisters were to be sent
to train the young community in the spirit of St.
Vincent de Paul, but Napoleon forbade
them to leave France.
The letter announcing their coming is extant at Emmitsburg. The rule, however,
with some modifications, was approved by Archbishop
Carroll in Jan., 1812, and adopted.
Against her will, and
despite the fact that she had also to care for her children, Mrs. Seton
was elected superior. Many joined the community; Mother Seton's
daughter, Anna, died during her novitiate (12
March, 1812), but had been permitted to pronounce her vows on
her death-bed. Mother Seton and the eighteen sisters made their vows on
19 July, 1813. The fathers superior of the community were the Sulpicians,
Fathers Dubourg,
David, and Dubois. Father
Dubois held the post for fifteen years and laboured to impress on the
community the spirit of St. Vincent's Sisters of Charity, forty of
whom he had had under his care in France.
The fervour of the community won admiration everywhere.
The school for the daughters of the well-to-do prospered, as it
continues to do (1912), and enabled the sisters to do much work among the poor.
In 1814 the sisters were given charge of an orphan
asylum in Philadelphia; in 1817 they were sent to New
York. The previous year (1816) Mother Seton's daughter, Rebecca, after long
suffering, died at Emmitsburg; her son Richard, who was placed with the
Filicchi firm in Italy,
died a few years after his mother. William, the eldest, joined the United
States Navy and died in 1868. The most distinguished of his children are Most.
Rev. Robert Seton, Archbishop of Heliopolis (author
of a memoir of his grandmother, "Roman Essays", and many
contributions to the "American Catholic Quarterly" and other
reviews), and William
Seton.
Mother Seton had great
facility in writing. Besides the translation of many ascetical French works
(including the life of Saint Vincent de Paul, and of Mlle.
Le Gras) for her community she has left copious diaries and correspondence
that show a soul all
on fire with the love of God and zeal for souls.
Great spiritual desolation purified her soul during
a great portion of her religious
life, but she cheerfully took the royal road of the cross. For several
years the saintly bishop (then
Father) Bruti was her director.
The third time she was elected mother (1819) she protested that it was
the election of the dead, but she lived for two years, suffering
finally from a pulmonary affection. Her perfect sincerity and great charm aided
her wonderfully in the work of sanctifying souls.
In 1880 Cardinal Gibbons (then Archbishop)
urged the steps be taken toward her canonization.
The result of the official inquiries in the cause of Mother Seton, held
in Baltimore during
several years, were brought to Rome by
special messenger, and placed in the hands of the postulator of the cause on 7
June, 1911.
Her cause is entrusted to
the Priests
of the Congregation of the Mission, whose superior general in Paris is
also superior of the Sisters of Charity with which the Emmitsburg
community was incorporated in 1850, after the withdrawal of the greater number
of the sisters (at the suggestion of Archbishop
Hughes) of the New
York houses in 1846. This union had been contemplated for some time,
but the need of a stronger bond at Emmitsburg, shown by the New
York separation, hastened it. It was effected with the loss of only
the Cincinnati community
of six sisters. With the Newark and Halifax offshoots
of the New
York community and the Greenburg foundation from Cincinnati,
the sisters originating from Mother Seton's foundation number (1911) about
6000. The original Emittsburg community now wearing the cornette and observing
the rule just as St.
Vincent gave it, naturally surpasses any of the others in number. It
is found in about thirty dioceses in
the United
States and forms a part of the worldwide sisterhood, whilst the others
are rather diocesan communities.
[Note: Elizabeth Ann
Seton was beatified in
1963 and canonized on
September 14, 1975.]
Sources
13 vols. of letters,
diaries, and documents by Mother Seton as well as information concerning her,
are in the archives of the mother-house at Emmitsburg, Maryland; ROBERT SETON, Memoirs,
Letter and Journal of Elizabeth Seton (2 vols., New York, 1869);
BARBEREY, Elizabeth Seton (6th ed., 2 vols., Paris, 1892);
WHITE, Life of Mrs. Eliza. A. Seton (10th ed., New York, 1904);
SADLIER, Elizabeth Seton, Foundress of the Amer. Sisters of Charity (New
York, 1905); BELLOC, Historic Nuns (2nd ed., London, 1911).
Randolph, Bartholomew. "St. Elizabeth Ann Seton." The
Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1912. 4 Jan.
2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13739a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Thomas M.
Barrett. Dedicated to Saint Elizabeth A. Seton.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2021 by Kevin
Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13739a.htm
The
mosaic and crucifix above the altar in the Basilica of the National Shrine of
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
CANONIZATION OF ELISABETH
ANN SETON
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER
PAUL VI
14 September 1975
Yes, Venerable Brothers
and beloved sons and daughters! Elizabeth Ann Seton is a Saint! We rejoice and
we are deeply moved that our apostolic ministry authorizes us to make this
solemn declaration before all of you here present, before the holy Catholic Church,
before our other Christian brethren in the world, before the entire American
people, and before all humanity. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton is a Saint! She is
the first daughter of the United States of America to be glorified with this
incomparable attribute! But what do we mean when we say: «She is a Saint»? We
all have some idea of the meaning of this highest title; but it is still
difficult for us to make an exact analysis of it. Being a Saint means being
perfect, with a perfection that attains the highest level that a human being
can reach. A Saint is a human creature fully conformed to the will of God. A
Saint is a person in whom all sin-the principle of death-is cancelled out and
replaced by the living splendor of divine grace. The analysis of the concept of
sanctity brings us to recognize in a soul the mingling of two elements that are
entirely different but which come together to produce a single effect:
sanctity. One of these elements is the human and moral element, raised to the
degree of heroism: heroic virtues are always required by the Church for the
recognition of a person's sanctity. The second element is the mystical element,
which express the measure and form of divine action in the person chosen by God
to realize in herself-always in an original way-the image of Christ
(Cfr. Rom. 8, 29).
The science of sanctity
is therefore the most interesting, the most varied, the most surprising and the
most fascinating of all the studies of that ever mysterious being which is man.
The Church has made this study of the life, that is, the interior and exterior
history, of Elizabeth Ann Seton. And the Church has exulted with admiration and
joy, and has today heard her own charism of truth poured out in the exclamation
that we send up to God and announce to the world: She is a Saint! We shall not
now give a panegyric, that is, the narrative which glorifies the new Saint. You
already know her life and you will certainly study it further. This will be one
of the most valuable fruits of the Canonization of the new Saint: to know her,
in order to admire in her an outstanding human figure; in order to praise God
who is wonderful in his saints; to imitate her example which this ceremony
places in a light that will give perennial edification; to invoke her protection,
now that we have the certitude of her participation in the exchange of heavenly
life in the Mystical Body of Christ, which we call the Communion of Saints and
in which we also share, although still belonging to life on earth. We shall not
therefore speak of the life of our Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. This is neither
the time nor the place for a fitting commemoration of her.
But at least let us
mention the chapters in which such a commemoration should be woven. Saint
Elizabeth Ann Seton is an American. All of us say this with spiritual joy, and
with the intention of honoring the land and the nation from which she
marvellously sprang forth as the first flower in the calendar of the saints.
This is the title which, in his original foreword to the excellent work of
Father Dirvin, the late Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York, attributed
to her as primary and characteristic: «Elizabeth Ann Seton was wholly
American»! Rejoice, we say to the great nation of the United States of America.
Rejoice for your glorious daughter. Be proud of her. And know how to preserve
her fruitful heritage. This most beautiful figure of a holy woman presents to
the world and to history the affirmation of new and authentic riches that are
yours: that religious spirituality which your temporal prosperity seemed to
obscure and almost make impossible. Your land too, America, is indeed worthy of
receiving into its fertile ground the seed of evangelical holiness. And here is
a splendid proof-among many others-of this fact.
May you always be able to
cultivate the genuine fruitfulness of evangelical holiness, and ever experience
how-far from stunting the flourishing development of your economic, cultural
and civic vitality -it will be in its own way the unfailing safeguard of that
vitality. Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was born, brought up and educated in New
York in the Episcopalian Communion. To this Church goes the merit of having
awakened and fostered the religious sense and Christian sentiment which in the
young Elizabeth were naturally predisposed to the most spontaneous and lively
manifestations. We willingly recognize this merit, and, knowing well how much
it cost Elizabeth to pass over to the Catholic Church, we admire her courage
for adhering to the religious truth and divine reality which were manifested to
her therein. And we are likewise pleased to see that from this same adherence
to the Catholic Church she experienced great peace and security, and found it
natural to preserve all the good things which her membership in the fervent Episcopalian
community had taught her, in so many beautiful expressions, especially of
religious piety, and that she was always faithful in her esteem and affection
for those from whom her Catholic profession had sadly separated her.
For us it is a motive of
hope and a presage of ever better ecumenical relations to note the presence at
this ceremony of distinguished Episcopalian dignitaries, to whom-interpreting
as it were the heartfelt sentiments of the new Saint-we extend our greeting of
devotion and good wishes. And then we must note that Elizabeth Seton was the
mother of a family and at the same time the foundress of the first Religious
Congregation of women in the United States. Although this social and ecclesial
condition of hers is not unique or new (we may recall, for example, Saint
Birgitta, Saint Frances of Rome, Saint Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal, Saint
Louise de Marillac), in a particular way it distinguishes Saint Elizabeth Ann
Bayley Seton for her complete femininity, so that as we proclaim the supreme
exaltation of a woman by the Catholic Church, we are pleased to note that this
event coincides with an initiative of the United Nations: International Women's
Year. This program aims at promoting an awareness of the obligation incumbent
on all to recognize the true role of women in the world and to contribute to
their authentic advancement in society. And we rejoice at the bond that is
established between this program and today's Canonization, as the Church
renders the greatest honor possible to Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton and extols
her personal and extraordinary contribution as a woman -a wife, a mother, a
widow, and a religious.
May the dynamism and
authenticity of her life be an example in our day-and for generations to
come-of what women can and must accomplish, in the fulfillment of their role,
for the good of humanity. And finally we must recall that the most notable
characteristic of our Saint is the fact that she was, as we said, the foundress
of the first Religious Congregation of women in the United States. It was an
offspring of the religious family of Saint Vincent de Paul, which later divided
into various autonomous branches-five principal ones-now spread throughout the
world. And yet all of them recognize their origin in the first group, that of
the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph's, personally established by Saint
Elizabeth Seton at Emmitsburg in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The apostolate
of helping the poor and the running of parochial schools in America had this
humble, poor, courageous and glorious beginning. This account, which
constitutes the central nucleus of the earthly history and vorldwide fame of
the work of Mother Seton, would merit a more extended treatment. But we know
that her spiritual daughters will take care to portray the work itself as it
deserves.
And therefore to these
chosen daughters of the Saint we direct our special and cordial greeting, with
the hope that they may be enabled to be faithful to their providential and holy
institution, that their fervor and their numbers may increase, in the constant
conviction that they have chosen and followed a sublime vocation that is worthy
of being served with the total gift of their heart, the total gift of their
lives. And may they always be mindful of the final exhortation of their
Foundress Saint those words that she pronounced on her deathbed, like a
heavenly testament, on January 2, 1821: «Be children of the Church». And we
would add: for ever! And to all our beloved sons and daughters in the United
States and throughout the entire Church of God we offer, in the name of Christ,
the glorious heritage of Elizabeth Ann Seton. It is above all an ecclesial
heritage of strong faith and pure love for God and for others-faith and love
that are nourished on the Eucharist and on the Word of God. Yes, brethren, and
sons and daughters: the Lord is indeed wonderful in his saints. Blessed be God
for ever!
Alors que Nous proclamons
l'élévation d'une femme au rang suprême par l'Eglise catholique, Nous relevons
avec joie que cet événement coïncide avec une initiative des Nations Unies,
l'Année internationale de la Femme. Ce programme vise à promouvoir une
meilleure prise de conscience des obligations qui incombent à tous pour
reconnaître le véritable rôle des femmes dans le monde, et pour contribuer à
leur authentique avancement dans la société. Et Nous nous réjouissons du lien
qui est établi entre ce programme et la canonisation d'aujourd'hui, alors que
l'Eglise rend le plus grand honneur possible à Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, et
exalte son apport personnel extraordinaire comme femme, comme épouse, comme
mère, comme veuve, comme religieuse. Puissent le dynamisme et l'authenticité de
cette vie être un exemple pour notre époque - et pour les générations à venir -
de ce que les femmes peuvent et doivent réaliser, dans le parfait
accomplissement de leur rôle, pour le bien de toute l'humanité.
Vemos hoy exaltar al
supremo honor de los altares a la Madre Isabel Ana Bayley Seton. Ella encarna
de manera admirable el ideal de una mujer como joven, esposa, madre, viuda y
religiosa. Pueda el ejemplo, la luz y dinamismo admirables que se desprenden de
la nueva Santa ser siempre una guía para las actuales generaciones femeninas;
de modo especial durante el presente Año International de la Mujer.
Liebe Söhne und Töchter!
Die Heiligsprechung der seligen Elisabeth Ann Bayley Seton gewinnt im
internationalen Jahr der Frau eine besondere Bedeutung. Die neue Heilige ist in
ihren einzelnen Lebensabschnitten als Frau, ais Mutter, ais Witwe, ais
Ordensfrau ein leuchtendes Vorbild, wie die christliche Frau in jeder
Lebenslage in der Nachfolge Jesu Christi ihre Sendung zum Wohle der Mitmenschen
zu erfüllen hat. Möge sie uns allen eine mächtige Fürsprecherin am Throne
Gottes sein!
Concludiamo ora il nostro
discorso con una parola per i fedeli di lingua italiana, perché anche ad essi
la nuova Santa, che conobbe ed amò l'Italia, propone l'alto esempio del suo
singolare itinerario spirituale. Autentica figlia del nuovo Mondo, ella già
sposa e madre approdò ai lidi italiani, e fu qui che, dopo l'immatura scomparsa
del consorte, in lei e per lei ebbe inizio quel profondo travaglio interiore
che, sotto la mozione dello Spirito, dopo un'assidua ricerca personale, ma
anche grazie ai contatti con una buona ed amica famiglia Livornese dei Signori
Filicchi, la portò ad abbracciare la fede cattolica. Il soggiorno in Italia
segnò, dunque, per lei l'«ora di Dio», un momento privilegiato cioè, da cui
scaturirono poi coraggiose decisioni ed operose realizzazioni per il bene della
sua Patria e della santa Chiesa. Confidiamo e preghiamo che anche a questa
terra, da Dio benedetta, Santa Elizabeth Ann Seton voglia riguardare dal Cielo
con affetto singolare, estendendo ad essa il potere della sua intercessione ed
illuminandola con la luce delle sue virtù genuinamente evangeliche.
© Copyright - Libreria
Editrice Vaticana
SOURCE : http://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/homilies/1975/documents/hf_p-vi_hom_19750914.html
The
shrine of the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, including her tomb, in the Basilica of
the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was
the first native born American to be canonized by the Catholic
Church. Born two years before the American Revolution, Elizabeth grew up
in the “cream” of New York society. She was a prolific reader, and read
everything from the Bible to contemporary novels.
In spite of her high
society background, Elizabeth’s early life was quiet, simple, and often lonely.
As she grew a little older, the Bible was to become her continual instruction,
support and comfort; she would continue to love the Scriptures for the rest of
her life.
In 1794, Elizabeth
married the wealthy young William Seton, with whom she was deeply in love. The
first years of their marriage were happy and prosperous. Elizabeth wrote in her
diary at first autumn, “My own home at twenty-the world-that and heaven
too-quite impossible.”
This time of Elizabeth’s
life was to be a brief moment of earthly happiness before the many deaths and
partings she was to suffer. Within four years, Will’s father died, leaving the
young couple in charge of Will’s seven half brothers and sisters, as well as
the family’s importing business. Now events began to move fast – and with
devastating effect. Both Will’s business and his health failed. He was finally
forced to file a petition of bankruptcy. In a final attempt to save Will’s
health, the Setons sailed for Italy, where Will had business friends. Will died
of tuberculosis while in Italy. Elizabeth’s one consolation was that Will had
recently awakened to the things of God.
The many enforced
separations from dear ones by death and distance, served to draw Elizabeth’s
heart to God and eternity. The accepting and embracing of God’s will – “The
Will,” as she called it – would be a keynote in her spiritual
life. Elizabeth’s deep concern for the spiritual welfare of her family and
friends eventually led her into the Catholic Church.
In Italy, Elizabeth
captivated everyone by her own kindness, patience, good sense, wit and
courtesy. During this time Elizabeth became interested in the Catholic Faith,
and over a period of months, her Italian friends guided her in Catholic
instructions. Elizabeth’s desire for the Bread of Life was to be a strong
force leading her to the Catholic Church.
Having lost her mother at
an early age, Elizabeth felt great comfort in the idea that the Blessed Virgin
was truly her mother. She asked the Blessed Virgin to guide her to the True
Faith. Elizabeth finally joined the Catholic Church in 1805.
At the suggestion of the
president of St. Mary’s College in Baltimore, Maryland, Elizabeth started a
school in that city. She and two other young women, who helped her in her work,
began plans for a Sisterhood. They established the first free Catholic school
in America. When the young community adopted their rule, they made provisions
for Elizabeth to continue raising her children. On March 25, 1809,
Elizabeth Seton pronounced her vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience,
binding for one year. From that time she was called Mother Seton.
Although Mother Seton was
now afflicted with tuberculosis, she continued to guide her children. The Rule
of the Sisterhood was formally ratified in 1812. It was based upon the Rule St.
Vincent de Paul had written for his Daughters of Charity in France. By 1818, in
addition to their first school, the sisters had established two orphanages and
another school. Today six groups of sisters trace their origins to Mother
Seton’s initial foundation.
For the last three years
of her life, Elizabeth felt that God was getting ready to call her, and this
gave her joy. Mother Seton died in 1821 at the age of 46, only sixteen years
after becoming a Catholic. She was canonized on September 14, 1975.
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-elizabeth-ann-seton/
%2C_interior%2C_stained_glass%2C_St._Elizabeth_Ann_Seton.jpg)
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
Saint
Joan of Arc Catholic Church (Powell, Ohio), interior, stained glass, St.
Elizabeth Ann Seton, one of her relics is under the church altar
ST. ELIZABETH ANN BAYLEY
SETON, FOUNDRESS, SISTERS OF CHARITY OF ST. JOSEPH'S
04 January
The New York socialite
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born into a prosperous New York Protestant family in 1774, on the cusp of the American Revolution. As she quickly learned, material prosperity cannot fill the heart. After her mother’s death, her father remarried, but Elizabeth’s father and stepmother separated. Her stepmother rejected her and her sister, who were sent to live with her uncle. The child was deeply hurt by the rejection. The darkness lifted for a while in 1794, when Elizabeth married William Seton, a merchant who had a trading partner, Filippo Filicchi of Livorno, Italy. The Setons had five children. They were a fashionable, well-to-do Episcopalian family, but their good fortune did not last.
In 1801 William’s company went bankrupt. The couple lost their home, and
William was struck with tuberculosis. In the hope that warm weather would help
him, the couple and their oldest daughter set sail for Italy. William died
shortly after their arrival, and Elizabeth found herself a widow at the age of
twenty-nine. Suffering had opened the young woman’s heart, and she began to
seek as one groping in the dark.
“If I seek God in the
simplicity of my heart…”
Filippo Filicchi’s family
was moved with pity for this young woman who had just landed in their country,
only to be left widowed in a foreign land. They invited her to live with them
for a time. As she grieved, they spoke to her of the consolation that their
Catholic faith gave them in moments of suffering. Elizabeth was moved by their
faith and began to ask questions. What did Catholics believe about the
Eucharist? The Mass? The Mother of God, who seemed to them to be so near and
tender a mother? Was there really an unbroken link between the Church now and
the apostles? Her heart and her mind were in turmoil, but the turmoil soon gave
way to peace. By the time she returned to New York in 1804, she had made her
decision. In 1805, she entered the Catholic Church.
“…I will surely find
him.”
That decision was not without cost. Her family disapproved. Elizabeth had started a small school in Baltimore in order to support her children, but once word got out that she had become Catholic, parents withdrew their children from the school.
The single mother of five would not have known where to turn, were it not for
the Lord, whose will she sought in everything that happened to her. In 1806,
she met Fr. Louis Dubourg, a Sulpician priest. The Sulpicians in Maryland had
been discussing the possibility of a congregation of American religious
sisters, modeled on the French Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, to
help with the education of children in the small but growing Catholic
community. They invited Elizabeth and her children to Baltimore. Soon other
young women joined her. In 1809, Elizabeth became the first of them to take
vows.
Mother Seton
The small group of women, led by “Mother Seton,” arrived in Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1809. There, in that year, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, the first congregation of religious sisters founded in the United States, had their beginning. The sisters opened a free Catholic school for impoverished girls – the beginning of Catholic education in that new country. The school was followed by an orphanage and countless other works of religious, educational and cultural formation for the poor. Mother Seton remained the sisters’ superior until her death at the age of forty-six. She had sought God, as she said, in the simplicity of her heart. He found her and drew her into the service of his Church. Her last words to her sisters, on January 4, 1821, were, “Be children of the Church, be children of the Church.”
Elizabeth Ann Seton was canonized in 1975, becoming the first person born in
the United States to be declared a saint.
Christmas: January 4th
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton,
religious
Born in New York,
Elizabeth Seton married and became a mother of five children. After her
husband's death, she converted to Catholicism and founded the American Sisters
of Charity, a community of teaching sisters which began Catholic schools
throughout the United States, especially helping with the education of
underprivileged children. Mother Seton laid the foundation of the American
parochial school system and was the first native-born American to be canonized.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
This wife, mother and foundress of a religious congregation was born Elizabeth
Ann Bayley on August 28, 1774 in New York City, the daughter of an eminent
physician and professor at what is now Columbia University. Brought up as an
Episcopalian, she received an excellent education, and from her early years she
manifested an unusual concern for the poor.
In 1794 Elizabeth married
William Seton, with whom she had five children. The loss of their fortune so
affected William's health that in 1803 Elizabeth and William went to stay with
Catholic friends at Livorno, Italy. William died six weeks after their arrival,
and when Elizabeth returned to New York City some six months later, she was
already a convinced Catholic. She met with stern opposition from her Episcopalian
friends but was received into full communion with the Catholic Church on March
4, 1805.
Abandoned by her friends
and relatives, Elizabeth was invited by the superior of the Sulpicians in
Baltimore to found a school for girls in that city. The school prospered, and
eventually the Sulpician superior, with the approval of Bishop Carroll, gave
Elizabeth and her assistants a rule of life. They were also permitted to make
religious profession and to wear a religious habit.
In 1809 Elizabeth moved
her young community to Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she adopted as a rule of
life an adaptation of the rule observed by the Sisters of Charity, founded by
St. Vincent de Paul. Although she did not neglect the ministry to the poor, and
especially to Negroes, she actually laid the foundation for what became the
American parochial school system. She trained teachers and prepared textbooks
for use in the schools; she also opened orphanages in Philadelphia and New York
City.
She died at Emmitsburg on
January 4, 1821, was beatified by Pope St. John XXIII in 1963, and was
canonized by Pope St. Paul VI in 1975.
—Excerpted from Saints of the Roman Calendar by Enzo Lodi
Patronage: against
the death of children; against in-law problems; against the loss of parents;
Apostleship of the Sea; opposition of Church authorities; people ridiculed for
their piety; Diocese of Shreveport, Louisiana; widows
Highlights and Things to
Do:
Meditate on these words
of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, "What was the first rule of our dear Savior's
life? You know it was to do His Father's will. Well, then, the first end I
propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly to do it in the
manner He wills; and thirdly, to do it because it is His willl. I know what is
His will by those who direct me; whatever they bid me do, if it is ever so
small in itself, is the will of God for me. Then, do it in the manner He wills
it."
Pray this beautiful
prayer of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton daily: Oh Father, the first rule our dear
Savior’s life was to do Your Will. Let His Will of the present moment be the
first rule of our daily life and work, with no other desire but for its most
full and complete accomplishment. Help us to follow it faithfully, so that
doing what You wish, we will be pleasing to You. Amen.
Read more about St.
Elizabeth Ann Seton:
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton as a Model of John Paul II's Feminine
Genius
See Catholic Cuisine for some food ideas for her feast
day.
Visit in person or online
the National Shrine of
Elizabeth Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland, which is where she is buried.
Nearby is also the National Grotto of Our Lady of
Lourdes, where St. Elizabeth prayed.
SOURCE : https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2014-01-04
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
Cosmopolitan-San Fernando Memorial Chapel (Tandang Sora, Quezon City) Interior and exterior of the Santuario de San Vicente de Paul Parish and Shrine of the Poor, 2018 Saint Vincent Seminary Compound Complex in #18 St. Martin Street, Rosalia Village II Tandang Sora Avenue, 1116 Quezon City under the jurisdiction of the Congregation of the Mission CM, Vincentians, Lazarists; (Note: Judge Florentino Floro, the owner, to repeat, Donor Florentino Floro of all these photos hereby donate gratuitously, freely and unconditionally all these photos to and for Wikimedia Commons, exclusively, for public use of the public domain, and again without any condition whatsoever).
Elizabeth Ann Bayley
Seton (RM)
Born in New York, New York, United States of America, August 28, 1774; died in
Emmitsburg, Maryland, USA, January 4, 1821; beatified by Pope John XXIII;
canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1975.
When I consider the life
of Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, I am reminded that we must be ever conscious
that we are children of the King and Queen. With that in mind, we must act with
the magnanimity of our Father because we never know when God will use us to
draw others to Himself.
Elizabeth Seton, the
first native-born citizen of the United States ever to be canonized, was born
into the devout Episcopalian family headed by her father Dr. Richard Bayley, a
well-known physician and professor of anatomy at King's College (now Columbia),
and her mother Catherine Charlton, who was the daughter of the Anglican rector
of Saint Andrew's Church, Staten Island. Her mother died when Elizabeth was
three-years-old. Although her father remarried, Elizabeth and her younger
sister Mary were his favorites.
Her unusual, but
far-reaching, education and character formation were his supreme concerns. He
taught her to curb her natural vivaciousness. Dr. Bayley's second wife had
seven children, so these two were under the special care of their father. (It
may be worth noting that one of Elizabeth's stepbrothers became the Catholic
Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley of Baltimore.) Elizabeth was 11-years-old
when the Revolutionary War ended. Bayley was a Loyalist during the British
occupation of New York.
Even in childhood,
Elizabeth delighted in prayer and in spiritual reading, especially the lives of
the saints, the Bible, and Imitation of Christ. She was also devoted to her
Guardian Angel.
After the war, Bayley was
made Inspector General in the New York Department of Health. In 1792, he was
appointed to the Anatomy Chair in the Department of Medicine at Columbia
College.
At 19 (in 1794),
Elizabeth married William Magee Seton, a first- generation American of English
parentage and heir-apparent to a rich shipping firm. After her marriage,
Elizabeth became an active philanthropist, so active that she became known in
New York as the "Protestant Sister of Charity." In 1797, already the
mother of two, she was one of the founders of a society designed to help poor
widows with small children.
William and Elizabeth
were deeply in love and gave life to five children: Anna Maria was born in
1795; William, Jr. in 1796; Richard; Catherine; and Rebecca (b. 1802).
Financial calamity visited the family business in the form of the war between
France and England--many of their ships were seized--and the business failed.
William's father died leaving him to look after his siblings. Then his health,
too, failed--he contracted tuberculosis. In 1802, her father, Dr. Bayley, who
had pioneered research in surgery, diphtheria, and yellow fever, contracted
yellow fever and died.
Because of his
tuberculosis, William's doctors felt he should spend winter in sunny Italy in
1803-1804. He had been a guest there of the Filicchi brothers in Leghorn
several years before his marriage. So Elizabeth, William, and the eldest
daughter Anna Maria arranged to spend several months with the Filicchi's.
Due to a yellow fever
epidemic in New York, they were quarantined on the ship for four weeks after
the seven-week voyage. Elizabeth never complained about the sad state of
affairs, even in her diary. She took everything cheerfully as permitted by a
loving God for their good. William Seton died in Pisa, Italy, in December
1803-- nine days after their release from quarantine--but had progressed much
spiritually during their confinement.
Elizabeth converted to
Catholicism primarily due to God, but instrumentally due to the Filicchi
family, especially Antonio. They visited Florence. She went to church with
Signora Filicchi and experienced a crisis when she saw the elevated Host one
Sunday. Living with the Filicchi's dispelled her myths regarding Catholicism,
because of their piety, virtue, love for one another, and charity. "If the
practice of the Catholic faith could produce such interior holiness," she
felt she must learn more about their Church. Sra. Filicchi kept a strict Lenten
fast--allowing nothing until after 3:00 p.m. Elizabeth liked going to Mass
every day.
Antonio Filicchi advised
her that only the Catholic Church had the true faith and asked her to seek and
pray for enlightenment. Elizabeth returned to New York on June 3, 1804, and put
herself under instruction. Unfortunately, she advised her Rector Hobart and her
family of her decision. All tried to sway her. She fell into despair until
Epiphany 1805, when her reading roused her to action.
She was received into the
Catholic Church on the March 14, 1805, with Antonio Filicchi as her sponsor.
Elizabeth had returned to a bankrupt firm, so she was entirely dependent upon
her relatives for her support. It would have been easy, if she had remained an
Episcopalian. Instead, she was ostracized by her family and friends when she
became a Catholic, except by her two sisters-in- law, Harriet and Cecilia
Seton.
Antonio, Father O'Brien
(the Dominican Rector of Saint Peter's Church), and Father Cheverus of Boston
helped her financially. She decided to teach at a new girls' school, but it was
rumored that she would instill Catholicism among her students and after three
months, the school lost all its pupils and had to close. So, she arranged
another teaching position. Fifteen-year-old Cecilia Seton announced then that
she was becoming Catholic and was thrown out of her home. Cecilia sought refuge
with Elizabeth setting off a storm that had Elizabeth lose this second job.
Elizabeth sought a new
calling. A new, very holy priest came into her life--Father William Valentine
du Bourg (Dubourg), a Sulpician Father, who was President of the Sulpician
College of Saint Mary in Baltimore. He said Mass at Saint Peter's in New York
in August 1807, when the woman in widow's dress came to receive Communion with
tears streaming down her face in rapt devotion.
A few hours later, she
called the rectory and requested the privilege of meeting Father du Bourg, who
recognized her at once and listened attentively to the story of her conversion
and present difficulties. Father du Bourg had been contemplating establishing a
Catholic girls' school in Baltimore and proposed that she found a religious
community to take up this work, since there was none in Baltimore for teaching.
Bishop John Carroll,
Father Cheverus, and Father Matignon were consulted and encouraged her, but
they thought she should wait. She waited one year. In June 1808, Father du
Bourg met with her in New York again at the home of Mrs. Barry. She immediately
went to Baltimore and opened Saint Joseph's School for girls next to the chapel
of Saint Mary's Seminary. This marked the beginning of the Catholic system of
parochial schools in America.
She and her associates
lived as religious under a rule and wore habits. Cecilia Conway of Philadelphia
joined her. Another recent convert, Mr. Cooper of Virginia, died leaving money
for the education of poor children. With this they bought a farm near Emmitsburg,
Maryland. Elizabeth's sisters-in-law Cecilia and Harriet also joined them.
Elizabeth and her daughter Anna Maria took private vows before Archbishop
Carroll.
In December 1809, Harriet
Seton died, Cecilia followed in April 1810. In 1810, Bishop Flaget obtained in
France the rule of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, changed the
rule somewhat. Three sisters were selected to train them, but Napoleon forbade
them to leave. The revised rule was approved by Archbishop Carroll in January 1812
and Elizabeth was elected as the Superior of the Daughters of Charity of Saint
Joseph. Anna Maria died during her novitiate in 1812, taking her final vows on
her deathbed, but Mother Seton and 18 sisters made their vows on July 19, 1813.
Thus was founded the first American religious society.
The sisters were very
active, establishing a free schools, orphanages, and hospitals. They became
most well-known, however, for their work with the then growing parochial school
system, which became one of the glories of the Catholic Church in the United
States. In addition to her responsibilities to the congregation, Mother Seton
personally worked with the poor and sick, composed music, wrote hymns, and
penned spiritual discourses.
Of Elizabeth's children,
Rebecca died in 1816; Richard died in Italy in 1821 (the same year as his
mother Elizabeth); William, Jr. entered the Navy and died in 1868. Mother
Catherine Seton, daughter of the saint and the first postulant of the New York
Sisters of Mercy, died at age 91 in 1891, she prepared many condemned criminals
for death.
Saint Elizabeth was a
charming and cultivated woman of determined character. In the face of all the
social pressures her 'world,' Elizabeth was devout and comfortable as an
Episcopalian, but she persevered in religion and responded to God's call for
her to extend and develop the Catholic Church in the United States. Of all the
attendant discouragements and difficulties she faced, the hardest to bear were
interior to herself; for example, she detested having to exercise authority
over others and she suffered much from bouts of spiritual aridity. But she
conquered in the Sign she had chosen and conquered heroically.
By the time of her death,
her inspiration spread to the founding of nearly two dozen sister communities
around the U.S. Today the congregation is one of the most numerous and
influential of its kind. Her cause was introduced in 1907 by Cardinal Gibbons,
archbishop of Baltimore. Impressive cures claimed as miraculous during her
cause include one from leukemia and another from severe meningitis.
In his canonization
allocution, at which 1,000 nuns of her order from North and South America,
Italy, and missionary countries were represented, the pope stressed her
extraordinary contributions as a wife, mother, and consecrated sister; the
example of her dynamic and authentic witness for future generations; and the
affirmation of "that religious spirituality which your (i.e., American)
temporal prosperity seemed to obscure and almost make impossible."
One by one, God took away
the foundations on which Elizabeth's comfortable life was built, substituting a
faithful Catholic family in Italy, a new faith, and new spiritual guides
distinguished for their holiness and wisdom, and led her, like Abraham, into a
strange new land (Attwater, Bentley, Cushing, J. Delaney, S. Delany, Farmer,
Walsh, White).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0104.shtml
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
Charles Balthazar
Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (1770–1852), Elizabeth Ann Seton, portrait,
Engraving on paper, 1797, 5.5 x 5.5, Prints in
the National Gallery of Art, National Gallery of Art
JANUARY 2, 2020
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Kept Her Life Fixed On Christ, Even in Adversity
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
was born on August 28, 1774. She was the first native-born U.S. citizen to be
canonized a saint by the Church. Elizabeth’s mother died three years after her
birth and her childhood was far from stable. Her father remarried, but
eventually separated from Elizabeth’s stepmother. The stepmother rejected
Elizabeth and her sister. During the separation her father left for London and
she was left in the care of her uncle. It was a difficult time for her as she
came to terms with this abandonment. She was raised in the Episcopal Church and
at 19 married William Magee Seton. They moved into their new residence on Wall
Street and were well known members of New York society of the time. Even though
she was abandoned by her stepmother, she had taught Elizabeth the value of
social ministry. Elizabeth continued this service in married life. She nursed
the sick and dying while also caring for her five children.
The death of her
father-in-law and the uncertain economic times prior to the War of 1812 lead to
a major decline in the family’s wealth. Conflicts between the U.S. and the
French led to multiple blockades, as well as British blockades. There were
major losses to Seton’s shipping company and he eventually had to file for
bankruptcy. The stress of these events and the financial losses aggravated his
chronic tuberculosis. Elizabeth, their eldest daughter, and William went to the
warmer climate of Italy in an attempt to ease the symptoms. William died on
December 27, 1803. Her late husband’s Italian business partners took her
daughter and her in. It was through these connections that Elizabeth was
introduced to Roman Catholicism.
Elizabeth returned to New
York and was received into the Catholic Church on March 14, 1805 in the only
Catholic Church in the region at the time. Anti-Catholic laws had only been
lifted a few years prior. The following year she received the Sacrament of
Confirmation by the only Bishop in the U.S., Right Reverend John Carroll of
Baltimore.
Elizabeth’s economic
situation continued to prove problematic. To provide for her children, she
began a school for young girls. Unfortunately, many parents withdrew their
children from the school after learning Elizabeth had converted to Catholicism.
This anti-Catholicism almost resulted in her relocation to Canada as she
struggled to support her family. She then met Abbe Louis William Valentine
Dubourg, S.S. who was a Sulpician. His Order had fled France during the
persecution of the French Revolution and was trying to establish a seminary on
U.S. soil. He invited Elizabeth to join them.
After great difficulty
Elizabeth moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland where the Sulpicians lived, in order to
found a girls’ school. In 1810 she opened Saint Joseph’s Academy and Free
School; thanks to the financial support of Samuel Sutherland Cooper who was a
wealthy convert and seminarian at the new Mount Saint Mary’s University.
Elizabeth then began a religious community dedicated to the service and care of
poor children. It was the first congregation of religious sisters started in
the United States and her school was the first free Catholic school in the U.S.
It is here that the Catholic parochial school system began in the U.S.
The congregation lived the rule established by St. Vincent de Paul for the
Daughters of Charity in France and took the name Sisters of Charity of St.
Joseph. Elizabeth became Mother Seton. Elizabeth spent her remaining days continuing
to develop her new congregation of sisters. She died of tuberculosis on January
4, 1821. Her legacy continued after her death and schools started by her
sisters could be found in Cincinnati and New Orleans by 1830. They also began
the first hospital West of the Mississippi in St. Louis.
Elizabeth’s life was
marked with grief, persecution, and economic hardship, but in the end, she
persevered and completed what she set out to do. There is much to learn from
her life and example.
Service
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
learned the value of service from the stepmother who abandoned her. She did not
allow this pain to deter her in the mission of helping the poor. Elizabeth was
a woman of culture who saw the great need of education, especially for poor
girls. Her entire life was dedicated to this mission and serving the greater
Glory of God. Her example is one for all of us in our call to give ourselves
over to God that the world may be conformed to Him.
Suffering Persecution
Patiently
The United States has a
long history of persecuting Catholics. Elizabeth lived in a time of open and
accepted persecution. She lost friends and students alike because of her
conversion to Catholicism. Instead of giving up, she found a way to establish
the schools she wanted to make available to poor girls. Her life is a reminder
that regardless of the opposition, God will work through us to bring the good
He desires in the world. Elizabeth submitted to God’s design for her life and
did not stop until her mission was completed. She teaches us how to patiently
bear the pain and suffering of persecution. Today people are being persecuted
for their faith and we can turn to Elizabeth as an example of someone who
persevered. She is also a great intercessor for the persecuted since she knows it
all too well.
Forgiveness
We are Fallen and broken.
We are capable of causing great pain in others and experiencing deep hurt from
other people. Elizabeth lost her birth mother and was abandoned by her
stepmother and father. Her adult life was marked by hardship and loss.
St. Elizabeth lost two
children and her husband. She could have allowed all of this suffering the turn
to bitterness, but instead she gave it back to God in service of Him. Elizabeth
did not allow the pain of abandonment to warp her, but she instead harnessed it
in service of those less fortunate. She took the lessons gleaned from her
stepmother and lived them for the rest of her life. It is clear by her example
that she was able to forgive those who abandoned her.
This weekend, January
4th, the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. Her life is
a shining example for our own lives. She teaches us to follow Christ regardless
of the opposition we face, grief and suffering we experience, and the
abandonment by the ones we love. She kept her eyes firmly fixed on Christ, as
we must. May she be a great friend and intercessor for us all.
Saint Elizabeth Ann
Seton, ora pro nobis.
✠
Tagged as: American Catholics, Best of Week, Elizabeth Ann
Seton, saints
Constance T. Hull is a
wife, mother, homeschooler, and a graduate with an M.A. in Theology with an
emphasis in philosophy. Her desire is to live the wonder so passionately
preached in the works of G.K. Chesterton and to share that with her daughter
and others. While you can frequently find her head inside of a great work of
theology or philosophy, she considers her husband and daughter to be her
greatest teachers. She is passionate about beauty, working towards holiness,
the Sacraments, and all things Catholic. She is also published at The
Federalist, Public Discourse, and blogs frequently at Swimming the Depths.
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
The statue of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton on the facade of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Foundress and First
Superior of the Sisters of Charity in the United States
Convert to Roman
Catholicism; foundress of the American Sisters of Charity, which was the first
sisterhood native to the United States; a wife, mother, widow, sole parent,
foundress, educator, social minister, and spiritual leader, Elizabeth Bayley
Seton was the first person born in the United States to become a canonized
saint (September 14, 1975); b. August 28, 1774, New York City; d. Emmitsburg,
Maryland, January 4, 1821. Of British and French ancestry, Elizabeth was born
into a prominent Anglican family in New York and was the second daughter of Dr.
Richard Bayley (1744-1801) and Catherine Charlton (d.1777). The couple's first
child, Mary Magdalene Bayley (1768-1856), married (1790) Dr. Wright Post
(1766-1828) of New York. Catherine Bayley (1777-1778), the youngest child, died
the year after the untimely death of her mother, which was probably a result of
childbirth.
Native of New York
The Bayley and Charlton families were among the earliest colonial settlers of
the New York area. Elizabeth's paternal grandparents were William Bayley
(c.1708-c.1758) and Susannah LeConte (LeCompte, b.1727), distinguished French
Huguenots of New Rochelle. Her maternal grandparents, Mary Bayeux and Dr.
Richard Charlton (d.1777), lived on Staten Island. where Dr. Charlton, was
pastor at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church.
After the death of his
first wife, Dr. Bayley married (1778) Charlotte Amelia Barclay (c.1759-1805),
of the Jacobus James Roosevelt lineage of New York, but the marriage ended in
separation as a result of marital conflict. The couple had seven children,
three daughters and four sons. Among them was Guy Carleton Bayley (1786-1859),
whose son, James Roosevelt Bayley (1814-1877), converted to Roman Catholicism
and became the first bishop of Newark (1853-1872) and eighth archbishop of
Baltimore (1872-1877).
Elizabeth and her sister
were rejected by their stepmother. On account of her father's travel abroad for
medical studies, the girls lived temporarily in New Rochelle, New York, with
their paternal uncle, William Bayley (1745-1811), and his wife, Sarah Pell
Bayley. Elizabeth experienced a period of darkness around the time when her
stepmother and father separated. Reflecting about this period of depression in
later years in her journal entitled Dear Remembrances, she expressed her
relief at not taking the drug laudanum, a opium derivative: "This wretched
reasoning-laudanum-the praise and thanks of excessive joy not to have done the
‘horrid deed’- thoughts and promise of eternal gratitude." Elizabeth had a
natural bent toward contemplation; she loved nature, poetry, and music,
especially the piano. She was given to introspection and frequently made
entries in her journal expressing her sentiments, religious aspirations, and
favorite passages from her reading.
Elizabeth wed William
Magee Seton (1768-1803), a son of William Seton, Sr., (1746-1798) and Rebecca
Curson Seton (c.1746-c.1775), January 25, 1794, in the Manhattan home of Mary
Bayley Post. Samuel Provoost (1742-1815), the first Episcopal bishop of New
York, witnessed the wedding vows of the couple.
Socially Prominent
William Magee, a descendant of the Setons of Parbroath, was the oldest of
thirteen children of his father's two marriages. The elder Seton married (1767)
Rebecca Curson (c.1746-1775) and the year after her death he married (1776) his
sister-in-law, Anna Maria Curson (d.1792). William Magee, educated in England,
along with his father and brother James, was a founding partner in the
import-export mercantile firm, the William Seton Company, which became the
Seton, Maitland and Company in 1793. He had visited important counting houses
in Europe in 1788 and was also a friend of Filippo Filicchi (1763-1816), a
renowned merchant of Livorno, Italy.
Socially prominent in New
York, the Setons belonged to the fashionable Trinity Episcopal Church.
Elizabeth was a devout communicant there under the influence of Rev. John Henry
Hobart (1775-1830, later bishop), who was her spiritual director. Elizabeth,
along with her sister-in-law Rebecca Mary Seton (1780-1804), her soul-friend
and dearest confidant, nursed the sick and dying among family, friends, and
needy neighbors. Elizabeth was among the founders and charter members of The
Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children (1797) and also
served as treasurer of the organization.
Happily married,
Elizabeth and William Magee Seton had five children: Anna Maria (1795-1812),
William (1796-1868), Richard Bayley (1798-1823), Catherine Charlton
(1800-1891), and Rebecca Mary (1802-1816).
Anna Maria, who had accompanied
her parents to Italy in 1803, became afflicted with tuberculosis as an
adolescent and made her vows as a Sister of Charity on her deathbed. Rebecca
fell on ice sometime before 1812, causing a hip injury which resulted in
lameness and early death, also from tuberculosis. Both Anna Maria and Rebecca
are buried in the original cemetery of the Sisters of Charity at Emmitsburg,
Maryland. After joining the United States Navy (1822), Richard died prematurely
off the coast of Liberia on board the ship Oswego.
Catherine Charlton (also
called Josephine), was beautiful and witty. She distinguished herself by her
linguistic and musical talents, developed at Saint Joseph's Academy,
Emmitsburg. She was the only Seton present at her mother's death. Catherine later
lived with her brother William and his family and traveled to Europe with them
several times before entering the Sisters of Mercy in New York City (1846). As
Mother Mary Catherine, she devoted herself for more than forty years to prison
ministry in New York. William received a commission as lieutenant in the United
States Navy in February 1826 and married (1832) Emily Prime (1804-1854). Seven
of their nine children lived to adulthood, including Archbishop Robert Seton
(1839-1927) and Helen (1844-1906), another New York Sister of Mercy (Sister
Mary Catherine, 1879-1906).
Change of Tide
After the death (1798) of William Seton, Sr., her father-in-law, responsibility
was thrust on Elizabeth's husband for both the Seton, Maitland and Company and
the welfare of his younger half-siblings. About six months pregnant with her
third child at the time, Elizabeth managed the care of both families in the
Seton household. There she enjoyed her initial teaching experience with her
first pupils, Charlotte (1786-1853), Henrietta (Harriet) (1787-1809), and
Cecilia (1791-1810), her youngest sisters-in-law.
During their monetary
crisis Elizabeth tried to assist her husband at night by doing the account
books of his firm, but the Company went bankrupt (1801), and the Setons lost
their possessions and the family home at 61 Stone Street in lower Manhattan.
William Magee began to show evidence of tuberculosis as their financial
problems escalated.
Faith-filled Journey
Elizabeth, William Magee, and their oldest daughter Anna Maria made a sea
voyage (1803) to the warm climate of Italy in a desperate effort to restore her
husband's health. Italian authorities at the port of Livorno feared yellow
fever then prevalent in New York. As a result the officials quarantined the
Setons in a cold, stone lazaretto. The Filicchi family did all they could to
advocate for them and to provide some relief during their month of isolation.
Two weeks after his discharge, William Magee died in Pisa, December 27, and was
buried in the English cemetery in Livorno, leaving Elizabeth a widow at age
twenty-nine with five young children.
The experiences in Italy
of Elizabeth and her daughter (now called Annina) transformed their lives
forever. Antonio Filicchi (1764-1847) and his wife, Amabilia Baragazzi Filicchi
(1773-1853) provided gracious hospitality to the widow and child until the
Setons returned to the United States the next spring. Filippo and his wife, the
former Mary Cowper (1760-1821) of Boston, along with Antonio and Amabilia
Filicchi, introduced Elizabeth to Roman Catholicism. Elizabeth came upon the
text of the Memorare, and began to inquire about Catholic practices,
first from her lack of familiarity with the religion, then her inquisitiveness
arose out of sincere interest. She asked about the Sacred Liturgy, the Real
Presence in the Eucharist, and the Church’s direct unbroken link with Christ
and the apostles. The Italian Journal, her long memoir written for her
sister-in-law Rebecca Seton, reveals the intimate details of Elizabeth's
heart-rending personal journey of inner conflict and conversion (cf. Bechtle
and Metz, p. 243). Antonio, who had business interests in America, accompanied
the Setons back to America, and instructed Elizabeth about the faith and
offered wise counsel during her indecision. Elizabeth felt deeply for Antonio,
who provided not only emotional support but also substantial financial
resources to her.
Although Elizabeth left
the United States a firm Protestant, she returned to New York with the heart of
a Roman Catholic in June 1804. Immediately opposition and insecurity threatened
her resolve. Elizabeth's religious inclinations incurred the ire of both family
and friends. Their hostility coupled with the death of her beloved Rebecca, her
sister-in-law and most intimate confidant, caused Elizabeth deep anguish. She
was also troubled by her strained financial situation. Her five children were
all less than eight years of age. As their sole parent Elizabeth faced many
challenges and frequently had to relocate into less expensive housing.
While Elizabeth was
discerning God's will for her future, the Virgin Mary became her prism of
faith. In her discernment she relied on several advisors among the clergy,
especially Rev. John Cheverus (1768-1836), the first bishop of Boston, and his
associate Rev. Francis Matignon (1753-1818). After wrestling with doubts and
fears in her search for truth, Elizabeth resolved her inner conflict regarding
religious conversion and embraced Roman Catholicism.
Reverend Matthew O'Brien
(1758-1815) received Elizabeth's profession of the Catholic faith at Saint
Peter's Church, Barclay Street in lower Manhattan, March 14, 1805. Elizabeth
received her First Communion two weeks later on March 25. Bishop John Carroll
(1735-1815, later archbishop), whom she considered her spiritual father,
confirmed her the next year on Pentecost Sunday. For her Confirmation name
Elizabeth added the name of Mary to her own and thereafter frequently signed
herself "MEAS," which was her abbreviation for Mary Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Accordingly the three names, Mary, Ann, and Elizabeth, signified the moments of
the mysteries of Salvation for her.
Elizabeth's initial years
as a Catholic (1805-1808) in New York were marked by disappointments and
failures. Rampant anti-Catholic prejudice prevented her from beginning a
school, but she secured a teaching position at the school of a Protestant
couple, Mr. & Mrs. Patrick White but they failed financially within a short
time. Elizabeth's next venture was a boarding house for boys who attended a
school directed by Rev. William Harris of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, but
disgruntled parents withdrew their sons. Seton family members also distrusted
Elizabeth's influence on younger family. members. Their fears were realized
when Cecilia converted to Catholicism (1806), then Harriet also made her
profession of faith (1809). During Cecilia's struggles as a new convert,
Elizabeth wrote an instructive Spiritual Journal (1807) for her,
offering her wise counsel.
Although Elizabeth was
frustrated in establishing herself to provide for the welfare of her children,
she remained faith-filled. She was convinced that God would show her the way
according to the Divine Plan. In considering her future and examining
alternatives, Elizabeth remained a mother first and foremost. She regarded her
five "darlings" as her primary obligation over every other
commitment.
Maryland Mission
Rev. Louis William Dubourg, S.S., (1766-1833), was visiting New York when
Elizabeth met him quite providentially about 1806. Dubourg had desired a
congregation of religious women to teach girls in Baltimore since 1797. He,
with the concurrence of Bishop John Carroll, invited Elizabeth to Baltimore
with the assurance that the French priests belonging to the Society of Saint
Sulpice (Sulpicians), who were émigrés in Maryland would assist her in forming
a plan of life which would be in the best interests of her children. The
Sulpicians wished to form a small school for religious education of children.
After her arrival in
Maryland, June 16, 1808, Elizabeth spent one year as a school mistress in
Baltimore. The Sulpicians envisioned the development of a sisterhood modeled on
the Daughters of Charity of Paris (founded 1633), and they actively recruited
candidates for the germinal community. Cecilia Maria O'Conway, (1788-1865), of
Philadelphia, was the first to arrive, December 7, 1808. She was followed in
1809 by Mary Ann Butler (1784-1821)of Philadelphia, Susanna Clossey (1785-1823)
of New York, Catharine Mullen (1783-1815) of Baltimore, Anna Maria Murphy Burke
(c.1787-1812) of Philadelphia, and Rosetta (Rose) Landry White (1784-1841), a
widow of Baltimore. Only Elizabeth pronounced vows of chastity and obedience to
John Carroll for one year in the lower chapel at Saint Mary's Seminary, Paca
Street, March 25, 1809. The Archbishop gave her the title "Mother
Seton." On June 16, 1809, the group of sisters appeared for the first time
dressed alike in a black dress, cape and bonnet patterned after the widows
weeds of women in Italy whom Elizabeth had encountered there.
Samuel Sutherland Cooper,
(1769-1843), a wealthy seminarian and convert, purchased 269 acres of land for
an establishment for the sisterhood near Emmitsburg in the countryside of
Frederick County, Maryland. Cooper wished to establish an institution for
female education and character formation rooted in Christian values and the
Catholic faith.
Emmitsburg Foundation
Their stone farmhouse was not yet ready for occupancy when Elizabeth and her
first group arrived in Emmitsburg, June, 1809. Reverend John Dubois, S.S.,
(1764-1842), founder of Mount Saint Mary's College and Seminary (1808), offered
his cabin on Saint Mary's Mountain for the women to use until they would be
able to move to their property in the nearby valley some six weeks later. According
to tradition, Elizabeth named the area Saint Joseph's Valley. There the Sisters
of Charity of Saint Joseph's began July 31, 1809 in the Stone House, the former
Fleming farmhouse (c.1750). In mid-February, 1810, Elizabeth and her companions
moved into Saint Joseph’s House (now The White House.) Elizabeth opened Saint
Joseph's Free School February 22, 1810. It educated needy girls of the area and
was the first free Catholic school for girls staffed by sisters in the country.
Saint Joseph's Academy began May 14, 1810, with the addition of boarding pupils
who paid tuition which enabled the Sisters of Charity to subsidize their
charitable mission. Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School formed the cradle of
Catholic education in the United States.
Divine Providence guided
Elizabeth and her little community through the poverty and unsettling first
years. Numerous women joined the Sisters of Charity. During the period
1809-1820, of the ninety-eight candidates who arrived in Elizabeth's lifetime,
eighty-six of them actually joined the new community; seventy percent remained
Sisters of Charity for life. Illness, sorrow, and early death were omnipresent
in Elizabeth's life. She buried eighteen sisters at Emmitsburg, in addition to
her two daughters Annina and Rebecca, and her sisters-in-law Harriet and
Cecilia Seton.
The Sulpicians assisted
Elizabeth in adapting the seventeenth-century French Common Rules of the
Daughters of Charity (1672) for the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph's
in accord with the needs of the Catholic Church in America. Elizabeth formed
her sisters in the Vincentian spirit according to the tradition of Louise de
Marillac (1591-1660) and Vincent de Paul (1581-1660). Eighteen Sisters of
Charity, including Elizabeth, made private, annual vows of poverty, chastity,
obedience, and service of the poor for the first time, July 19, 1813;
thereafter they made vows annually on March 25.
Elected by the members of
the community to be the first Mother of the Sisters of Charity, Elizabeth was
reelected successively and remained at its head until her death. The
Sulpicians, who had conceived and founded the community, filled the office of
superior general through 1849. Elizabeth worked successively with three
Sulpicians in this capacity: Rev. Louis William Dubourg, S.S., Rev.
Jean-Baptiste David, S.S., (1761-1841) and Rev. John Dubois, S.S.
The Sisters of Charity
intertwined social ministry with education in the faith and religious values in
all they undertook in their mission. Elizabeth dispatched sisters to
Philadelphia to manage Saint Joseph's Asylum, the first Catholic orphanage in
the United States in 1814. The next year she opened a mission at Mount Saint
Mary’s to oversee the infirmary and domestic services for the college and
seminary near Emmitsburg. In 1817 sisters from Saint Joseph's Valley went to
New York to begin the New York City Orphan Asylum (later Saint Patrick's Orphan
Asylum).
The Seton Legacy
Reverend Simon Gabriel Bruté, S.S., (1779-1839), of Mount Saint Mary's served
as the chaplain to the Sisters of Charity and Elizabeth's spiritual director
until her death. He was her principle guide along the path to sanctity. He,
along with DuBois, actively inculturated the spirit of Vincent de Paul and
Louise de Marillac among the Sisters of Charity. Bruté advised Elizabeth to
read and translate the lives of Louise and Vincent and some of their spiritual
writings.
The work of education and
charity lives on in Elizabeth's spiritual daughters around the world. James
Gibbons (1834-1921, later cardinal), archbishop of Baltimore, initiated her
cause for canonization in 1882. Officially introduced at the Vatican in 1940,
it made steady progress. Blessed John XXIII declared Elizabeth venerable
December 18, 1959, and also beatified her March 17, 1963. Pope Paul VI
canonized Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton September 14 during the Holy Year of 1975
and the International Year of the Woman. The Holy See accepted three miracles
through her intercession. These included the cures of Sister Gertrude
Korzendorfer, D.C., (1872-1942), of Saint Louis, of cancer; a young child, Ann
Theresa O’Neill, (b.1948), of Baltimore, from acute, lymphatic leukemia; and
the miraculous recovery of Carl Kalin, (1902-1976), of New York, from a rare
form of encephalitis.
The extraordinary manner
in which Elizabeth lived an ordinary life flowed from the centrality of the
Word of God and the Eucharist in her life. These strengthened her enabling her
to be a loving person toward God, her family, her neighbor, and all of
creation. She undertook works of mercy and justice. Not only did she and hers
Sisters of Charity care for orphans, widows, and poor families, but they also
addressed unmet needs among persons oppressed by multiple forms of poverty.
Elizabeth had a special concern for children who lacked educational
opportunities, especially for religious instruction in the faith.
Her life-long response to
God's will throughout her life led her to sanctity. Her holiness developed from
her early religious formation as an Episcopalian. Her longing for Eternity
began at a young age. Throughout her earthly journey of forty-six years,
Elizabeth viewed herself as a pilgrim on the road of life. She faced each day
with eyes of faith, looking forward to eternity.
Dominant themes in her
life and writings include her pursuit of the Divine Will, nourishment from the
Eucharist and the Bible, confidence in Divine Providence, and charitable
service to Jesus Christ in poor persons. From her deathbed in Emmitsburg she
admonished those gathered about her: "Be children of the Church, be
children of the Church."
She prayed her way
through life’s joys and struggles using sacred scripture. This enabled her to
live serenely come what may. Psalm 23, which she learned as a child, remained
her favorite treasury of consolation throughout her life of suffering and loss.
Elizabeth's pathway to inner peace and sanctity flowed from her way of living
the Paschal Mystery in her own life.
She moved from devotional
reception of Holy Communion as an Episcopalian to awe as a Roman Catholic and
often ecstatic adoration of the Real Presence. Her Eucharistic devotion and
faith in God's abiding presence nourished her imitation of Jesus Christ, the
source and model of all charity. As she established the Sisters of Charity in
their mission of charity and education, she adopted The Regulations for
the Sisters of Charity in the United States (1812). The choice of the
Vincentian rule reflects how Elizabeth understood her mission as one of
apostolic service honoring Jesus Christ through service to poor persons.
Elizabeth's spiritual pathway involved other people--her advisors, friends,
collaborators, and those she served. The relational aspects of her spirituality
were a natural gift which she used as a religious leader and animator in
community.
Seton Writings. Elizabeth
was a prolific writer. Extant documents are published in Elizabeth Bayley
Seton Collected Writings (New City Press: New York). Also in her hand are
some of the primitive documents of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph's and
her own last will and testament. In addition to voluminous correspondence,
Elizabeth also wrote meditations, instructions, poetry, hymns, notebooks,
journals, and diaries. Her journals include both spiritual reflections and
chronicle accounts, like The Italian Journal. Dear Remembrances is
an autobiographical retrospective memoir or life review. Her meditations deal
with the liturgical seasons, sacraments, virtue, biblical themes, and the
saints, including Vincent de Paul whose rule of life the Sisters of Charity
adopted. Among her instructions are those used in preparing children for their
First Communion, and formation conferences for the Sisters of Charity on such
topics as service, charity, eternity, the Blessed Sacrament, and Mary, the
Mother of God.
Elizabeth rendered the
prototypical English translation of their first biographies, The Life of
Mademoiselle Le Gras (Nicolas Gobillon, 1676) and The Life of the
Venerable Servant of God Vincent de Paul (Louis Abelly, 1664). Elizabeth
also translated selections from the Conferences of Vincent de Paul to
Daughters of Charity and Notes on the Life of Sister Françoise Bony,
D.C., (1694-1759). Also included among the Seton translations are excerpts
from selected conferences of Francis de Sales, portions of works by Saint
Theresa of Avila, meditations by Rev. Louis Du Pont, S.J., and the beginning of
the life of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Elizabeth had a habit of copying
meaningful passages from books she was reading and of making marginal notes in
her bible. Her copybooks containing notes from A Commentary on the Book of
Psalms (1792 by George Horne, and notes on sermons of Rev. John Henry
Hobart. Bibles containing her jottings and marginal notes are preserved in the
Rare Books and Special Collections, Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame,
Indiana, and in the Simon Bruté Collection of the Old Cathedral Library,
Vincennes, Indiana.
The Sisters of Charity as
a community grew and blossomed into independent new communities in North
America: The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul of New York (1846);
the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati (1852); the Sisters of Charity of Saint
Vincent de Paul of Halifax (1856); the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth,
Convent Station, New Jersey (1859); and the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill,
Greensburg, Pennsylvania (1870). As a result of mandates from their General
Assembly (1829 and 1845) requiring the Sulpicians to return to their founding
charism of the education and formation of priests, the Sulpician superiors
arranged for the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph's to join (1850) the
Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul of Paris, France. These
communities formed (1947) the Conference of Mother Seton's Daughters which
developed into The Sisters of Charity Federation in the Vincentian and
Setonian Tradition (1996) with member congregations from the United States
and Canada. All Federation members are rooted in the rule of Vincent de Paul
and Louise de Marillac.
Elizabeth left an
enduring legacy, which makes Catholic education available for needy pupils.
Popular devotion acclaims Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton as a patron of Catholic
schools because of her pioneer role in values-based education. Thanks to
Elizabeth's role in getting children the education they needed, they had the
opportunity to continue pursuing education! These children may not have had
that ability if Elizabeth had not put the effort in. They would not have had
the capability to get a masters in criminal justice or become a doctor and make
an impact in the world. The values that were instilled in these children and in
the future students helps to make this world a better place.
A woman whose vision of
faith remains relevant for all ages. Elizabeth's journey of faith presents an
outstanding model for all people. In a letter to her lifelong friend Julia
Sitgreaves Scott (1765-1842), Elizabeth summarized her way of life: "Faith
lifts the staggering soul on one side, hope supports it on the other,
experience says it must be and love says let it be" (March 26, 1810).
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton died January 4, 1821, in the White House at Saint
Joseph's Valley, near Emmitsburg, Maryland. Her remains repose there in the
Basilica of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Excerpts from Elizabeth
Bayley Seton Papers courtesy of Archives Saint Joseph's Provincial House,
Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, (Emmitsburg, Maryland).
SOURCE : https://www.emmitsburg.net/setonshrine/
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
The statue of St. Elizabeth Seton in the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Downtown Houston, Texas.
COLUMNS
A patron saint for
Catholic schools
Thomas J. Craughwell
12/21/16
Elizabeth Ann Seton,
Feast day: Jan 4.
For 200 years, parochial
schools have provided countless children with a solid education and taught them
how to be faithful Catholics and good American citizens. Parish schools aren’t
as numerous as they were 40 years ago, and the teaching sisters that once
staffed them are almost all gone. But the situation is not anywhere near as
dire as it was in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s day.
Mother Seton’s life
coincides with the birth of the United States and the rise of the Catholic
Church in America. She was born a year before the Battles of Lexington and
Concord, when Catholicism was outlawed in every colony except Pennsylvania.
There was no bishop in British America, no nuns, no Catholic schools, no
seminary, and only about 20 priests, most of them living incognito and using
aliases in order to escape the colonies’ anti-priest laws.
Mother Seton grew up on
Staten Island, daughter of the Anglican, well-to-do Bayley family. During the
Revolution, the Bayleys walked a fine line between loyalty to the king and
supporting the rebels, but whatever her family’s true sympathies may have been,
they were firmly in the American camp by the time George Washington was elected
president: 15-year-old Elizabeth danced at the first president’s inaugural
ball.
At age 19, she married William
Seton, a wealthy New York merchant. The Setons had five children — three girls
and two boys — and enjoyed a life of comfort and privilege. Then, after eight
years of marriage, William’s business went bankrupt, he contracted tuberculosis
and died (William and Elizabeth with their daughter Rebecca were in Italy at
the time). At William’s death his business associates, the Filicchi family,
invited Elizabeth and Rebecca to live with them. The Filicchis had a private
chapel, and there Elizabeth had her first introduction to the Catholic faith.
Two things especially impressed her: the family’s reverence during Mass, and
the comfort they received from going to confession. When she returned to New
York she sought out the pastor of St. Peter’s Church on Barclay Street and
asked to be received into the Catholic Church.
With very few exceptions,
Elizabeth’s Protestant family and friends turned their backs on her. She was
having a terrible time trying to support herself and her children when Bishop
John Carroll invited her to open a Catholic school in Baltimore.
In Baltimore, Elizabeth
began to consider entering the religious life, but she did not want to be a nun
in the European model, living a mostly cloistered life with a few hours a day
devoted to teaching girls who boarded at the convent. With so much work to be
done for the church in America, Elizabeth wanted to be active. With Bishop
Carroll’s encouragement she founded a new order of teaching sisters and
together they opened America’s first parish school in Emmitsburg, Md., on Feb.
22, 1810.
The parochial school
system Mother Seton founded passed the faith along from generation to
generation, eased the passage of Catholic immigrant children into American
society, and served as the seedbed for countless vocations to the priesthood
and the religious life. Furthermore her new teaching order offered a new model
for religious women — sisters who were “in the world, but not of it.” In the
history of the Catholic Church in America, Mother Seton is indispensable.
Thomas J. Craughwell is
the author of This Saint Will Change Your Life.
SOURCE : https://www.catholicherald.com/article/columns/a-patron-saint-for-catholic-schools/
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
A
plaque on the Seton Building of Buffalo, New York's Sisters of Charity Hospital
honors the building's namesake. The first American-born Catholic saint, Mother
Elizabeth Ann Seton was a widow who converted to Catholicism and became an
educator, founding the monastic order of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph
with a mission of providing a free Catholic education and other charitable
institutions for America's urban poor.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Convert to Roman
Catholicism; foundress of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, which was the
first sisterhood native to the United States; a wife, mother, widow, sole
parent, educator, social minister, and spiritual leader, Elizabeth Bayley Seton
was the first native-born resident of the United States to become a canonized
saint (September 14, 1975); b. August 28, 1774, New York City; d. Emmitsburg,
Maryland, January 4, 1821. Of British and French Huguenot ancestry, Elizabeth
was born into a prominent Anglican family in New York and was the second
daughter of Dr. Richard Bayley (1744-1801) and Catherine Charlton (d.1777). The
couple’s first child, Mary Magdalene Bayley (1768-1856), married (1790) Dr.
Wright Post (1766-1828) of New York. Catherine Bayley (1777-1778), the youngest
child, died the year after the untimely death of her mother, which was probably
a result of childbirth.
Mother—Native of New York
The Bayley and Charlton
families were among the earliest colonial settlers of the New York area.
Elizabeth’s paternal grandparents were William Bayley (c.1708-c.1758) and
Susannah LeConte (LeCompte, b.1727), distinguished French Huguenots of New
Rochelle. Her maternal grandparents, Mary Bayeux and Dr. Richard Charlton
(d.1777), lived on Staten Island. where Dr. Charlton, was pastor at Saint
Andrew’s Episcopal Church.
After the death of his
first wife, Dr. Bayley married (1778) Charlotte Amelia Barclay (1759-1805), of
the Jacobus James Roosevelt lineage of New York, but the marriage ended in
separation as a result of marital conflict. The couple had seven children,
three daughters and four sons. Among them was Guy Carleton Bayley (1786-1859),
whose son, James Roosevelt Bayley (1814-1877), converted to Roman Catholicism
and became the first bishop of Newark (1853-1872) and eighth archbishop of
Baltimore (1872-1877). In response to his request, Archbishop Bayley is buried
in St. Joseph’s Cemetery, the original graveyard of the Sisters of Charity at
Emmitsburg.
Elizabeth and her sister
were rejected by their stepmother. On account of her father’s travel abroad for
medical studies, the girls lived temporarily in New Rochelle, New York, with
their paternal uncle, William Bayley (1745-1811), and his wife, Sarah Pell
Bayley. Elizabeth experienced a period of darkness around the time when
her stepmother and father separated. Reflecting about this period of
depression in later years in her journal entitled Dear Remembrances, she
expressed her relief at not taking the drug laudanum, a opium derivative: “This
wretched reasoning—laudanum—the praise and thanks of excessive joy not to have
done the ‘horrid deed’— thoughts and promise of eternal gratitude.”(1)
Elizabeth had a natural bent toward contemplation; she loved nature, poetry,
and music, especially the piano. She was given to introspection and
frequently made entries in her journal expressing her sentiments, religious
aspirations, and favorite passages from her reading.
Elizabeth met and fell in
love with William Magee Seton (1768-1803), a son of William Seton, Sr.,
(1746-1798) and Rebecca Curson Seton (c.1746-c.1775). The couple married
January 25, 1794, in the Manhattan home of Dr. Wright and Mary Bayley
Post. Samuel Provoost (1742-1815), the first Episcopal bishop of New
York, witnessed the wedding vows of the couple.
Socially Prominent
William Magee, a
descendant of the Setons of Parbroath, Scotland, was the oldest of
thirteen children of his father’s two marriages. The elder Seton married (1767)
Rebecca Curson (c.1746-1775) and the year after her death he married (1776) his
sister-in-law, Anna Maria Curson (d.1792). William Magee, educated in
England, along with his father and brother James, was a founding partner in the
import-export mercantile firm, the William Seton Company, which became the
Seton, Maitland and Company in 1793. He had visited important counting
houses in Europe in 1788 and was also a friend of Filippo Filicchi (1763-1816),
a renowned merchant of Livorno, Italy. The Filicchi family were among his
international contacts.
Socially prominent in New
York, the Setons belonged to the fashionable Trinity Episcopal Church, located
on Broadway. Elizabeth was a devout communicant there under the influence of
Rev. John Henry Hobart (1775-1830, later bishop), who was her spiritual
director. Elizabeth, along with her sister-in-law Rebecca Mary Seton
(1780-1804), her soul-friend and dearest confidant, nursed the sick and dying
among family, friends, and needy neighbors. Elizabeth was among the founders
and charter members of The Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children
(1797) and also served as treasurer of the organization.
Happily married,
Elizabeth and William Magee Seton had five children: Anna Maria (1795-1812),
William (1796-1868), Richard Bayley (1798-1823), Catherine Charlton
(1800-1891), and Rebecca Mary (1802-1816).
Anna Maria, who had
accompanied her parents to Italy in 1803, became afflicted with tuberculosis as
an adolescent but made her vows as a Sister of Charity on her deathbed.
Her younger sister Rebecca fell on ice sometime before 1812, causing a hip
injury which resulted in lameness and early death, also from tuberculosis. Both
Anna Maria and Rebecca are buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery on the campus
of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Emmitsburg,
Maryland. After becoming a civil servant and sailing with the United
States Navy (1822), Richard became infected with typhus as a result of nursing
a victim of the disease. Richard died prematurely off the coast of Liberia on
board the ship Oswego and was buried at sea.
Catherine Charlton (also
called Josephine), was beautiful and witty. She distinguished herself by her
linguistic and musical talents, developed at Saint Joseph’s Academy,
Emmitsburg. She was the only Seton present at her mother’s death. Catherine
later lived with her brother William and his family visiting Europe with them
several times before becoming the first postulant and a founding member of the
Sisters of Mercy in New York City (1846). As Mother Mary Catherine,
she devoted herself for more than forty years to prison ministry in New York.
William had exhibited a
passion for the high seas since his youth. He received a commission as
lieutenant in the United States Navy in February 1826 and married (1832) Emily
Prime (1804-1854). Seven of their nine children lived to adulthood,
including Archbishop Robert Seton (1839-1927) and Helen (1844-1906), another
New York Sister of Mercy (Sister Mary Catherine, 1879-1906).
Change of Tide
After the unexpected
death (1798) of her father-in-law William Seton, Sr., responsibility was
thrust on Elizabeth’s husband for both the Seton, Maitland and Company and the
care of his younger half-siblings. About six months pregnant with her
third child at the time, Elizabeth managed the care of both families in the
Seton household. There she chose to home school the youngest of her
sisters-in-law and discovered enjoyment in her initial teaching experience with
her first pupils, Charlotte (1786-1853), Henrietta (Harriet) (1787-1809), and
Cecilia (1791-1810).
Subsequently
international piracy abroad and economic factors in America arose to severely
challenge the Seton’s prosperity and business. During their monetary crisis
Elizabeth tried to assist her husband at night by doing the account books of
his firm, but the company went bankrupt (1801), and the Setons lost their
possessions and the family home at 61 Stone Street in lower Manhattan. William
Magee began to show evidence of tuberculosis as their financial problems
escalated.
Faith-filled Journey
Elizabeth, William Magee,
and their oldest daughter Anna Maria made a sea voyage (1803) to the warm
climate of Tuscany, Italy, in a desperate effort to restore her husband’s
health. Italian authorities at the port of Livorno feared yellow fever then
prevalent in New York. As a result the officials quarantined the Setons
in the cold, stone San Jacopo Lazaretto. The Filicchi family did all they could
to advocate for them and to provide some relief during their month of isolation
but William Magee’s health had deteriorated beyond recovery. Two weeks after
his discharge, William Magee died in Pisa, December 27, and was buried in the
English cemetery in Livorno, leaving Elizabeth a widow at age twenty-nine with
five young children.
The experiences in Italy
of Elizabeth and her daughter (now called Annina) transformed their lives
forever. Antonio Filicchi (1764-1847) and his wife, Amabilia Baragazzi
Filicchi (1773-1853) provided gracious hospitality to the widow and child until
the Setons returned to the United States the next spring. Filippo and his wife,
the former Mary Cowper (1760-1821) of Boston, along with Antonio and Amabilia
Filicchi, introduced Elizabeth to Roman Catholicism. Elizabeth came upon
the text of the Memorare, and began to inquire about Catholic practices, first
from her lack of familiarity with the religion, then from an inquisitiveness
arising out of sincere interest. She asked about the Sacred Liturgy, the
Real Presence in the Eucharist, and the Church’s direct unbroken link with
Christ and the apostles. Hers was a quest for Truth. The Italian Journal, her
long memoir written for her sister-in-law Rebecca Seton, reveals the intimate
details of Elizabeth’s heart-rending personal journey of inner conflict and
conversion,(2) Antonio, who had business interests in America, accompanied the Setons
back to America, and instructed Elizabeth about the faith offering wise counsel
during the ensuing period of agonizing indecision. Elizabeth felt deeply
for Antonio, who provided not only emotional support but also substantial
financial resources to her for support of the family.
Although Elizabeth left
the United States a firm Protestant, she returned to New York with the heart of
a Roman Catholic in June 1804. Immediately opposition and insecurity
threatened her resolve. Elizabeth’s religious inclinations incurred the
ire of both family and friends. Their hostility coupled with the premature
death of her beloved Rebecca, her sister-in-law and most intimate confidant,
caused Elizabeth deep anguish. She was also troubled by her strained financial
situation making her dependent on the generosity of others. Her five
children were all less than eight years of age. As their sole parent Elizabeth
faced many challenges and frequently had to relocate into less expensive
housing.
While Elizabeth was
discerning God’s will for her future, the Virgin Mary became her prism of
faith. In her discernment she relied on several advisors among the clergy,
especially Rev. John Cheverus (1768-1836), the first bishop of Boston, and his
associate Rev. Francis Matignon (1753-1818). After wrestling with doubts and
fears in her search for truth, Elizabeth resolved her inner conflict regarding
religious conversion and embraced Roman Catholicism.
Reverend Matthew O’Brien
(1758-1815) received Elizabeth’s profession of the Catholic faith at Saint
Peter’s Church, Barclay Street in lower Manhattan, March 14, 1805.
Elizabeth received her First Communion two weeks later on March 25th.
Bishop John Carroll (1735-1815, later archbishop), whom she considered
her spiritual father, confirmed her the next year on Pentecost
Sunday. For her Confirmation name Elizabeth added the name of Mary to her
own and thereafter frequently signed herself “MEAS,” which was her abbreviation
for Mary Elizabeth Ann Seton. Accordingly Elizabeth expressed that the three
names, Mary, Ann, and Elizabeth, signified the moments of the mysteries of
Salvation for her.
Elizabeth’s initial years
as a Catholic (1805-1808) in New York were marked by disappointments and
failures. Rampant anti-Catholic prejudice prevented her from beginning a
school, but she secured a teaching position at the school of a Protestant
couple, Mr. & Mrs. Patrick White but they failed financially within a short
time. Elizabeth’s next venture was a boarding house for boys who attended a school
directed by Rev. William Harris of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, but
disgruntled parents withdrew their sons. Seton family members also distrusted
Elizabeth’s influence on younger family members. Their fears were realized when
Cecilia converted to Catholicism (1806), then Harriet also made her profession
of faith (1809). During Cecilia’s struggles as a new convert, Elizabeth wrote
an instructive Spiritual Journal (1807) to offer her wise counsel.
Although Elizabeth was
frustrated in establishing herself to provide for the welfare of her children,
she remained faith-filled. She was convinced that God would show her the way
according to the Divine Plan. All her life she believed that “God will provide,
that is all my Comfort never did that providence fail me.”(3) In considering
her future and examining alternatives, Elizabeth remained a mother first and
foremost. She regarded her five “darlings” as her primary obligation over every
other commitment.
Foundress—Maryland
Mission
Rev. Louis William
Dubourg, S.S., (1766-1833), was visiting New York when Elizabeth met him quite
providentially about 1806. Dubourg had desired to obtain a congregation of
religious women to teach girls in Baltimore since 1797. He, with the
concurrence of Bishop John Carroll, invited Elizabeth to Baltimore with
the assurance that the French émigré priests there who belonged to the Society
of Saint Sulpice (Sulpicians), would assist her in forming a plan of life which
would be in the best interests of her children. The Sulpicians wished to form a
small school for religious education of children.
After her arrival in
Maryland, June 16, 1808, Elizabeth spent one year as a school mistress in
Baltimore. The Sulpicians envisioned the development of a sisterhood modeled on
the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (founded 1633 in Paris), and
they actively recruited candidates for the germinal community. Cecilia
Maria O’Conway, (1788-1865), of Philadelphia, was the first to arrive, December
7, 1808. She was followed in 1809 by Mary Ann Butler (1784-1821) of
Philadelphia, Susanna Clossey (1785-1823) of New York, Catharine Mullan
(1783-1815) of Baltimore, Anna Maria Murphy Burke (c.1787-1812) of
Philadelphia, and Rosetta (Rose) Landry White (1784-1841), a widow of
Baltimore. Only Elizabeth pronounced vows of chastity and obedience to
John Carroll for one year in the lower chapel at Saint Mary’s Seminary, Paca
Street, March 25, 1809, now St. Mary’s Spiritual Center and Historic Site
(see: stmarysspiritualcenter.org).
On that occasion the Archbishop gave her the title “Mother Seton.” On
June 16, 1809, the group of sisters appeared for the first time dressed alike
in a black dress, cape and white bonnet trimmed with a black band. Their attire
was patterned after the widows’ weeds of women in Italy whom Elizabeth had
encountered there.
Samuel Sutherland Cooper,
(1769-1843), a wealthy seminarian and convert, purchased 269 acres of land for
an establishment for the sisterhood near Emmitsburg in the countryside of
Frederick County, Maryland. Cooper wished to establish an institution for
female education and character formation rooted in Christian values and the
Catholic faith, as well as services to the elderly, job skill development, and
a small manufactory, which would be beneficial to people living in poverty.
Cooper had Elizabeth in mind to direct the educational program. Emmitsburg
Foundation
Their stone farmhouse
(c.1750) was not yet ready for occupancy when Elizabeth and her first group arrived
in the Emmitsburg environs, mid-June 1809. Reverend John Dubois, S.S.,
(1764-1842), founder of Mount Saint Mary’s College and Seminary (1808), offered
his cabin on Saint Mary’s Mountain for the women to use until they would be
able to move to their property in the nearby valley some six weeks later.
According to tradition, Elizabeth named the area Saint Joseph’s Valley.
There the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph’s began July 31, 1809, in the
Stone House, the former Fleming farmhouse. Elizabeth and her companions
moved into Saint Joseph’s House (now The White House) February 20, 1809. They
opened Saint Joseph’s Free School February 22, 1810, to educate needy girls of
the region and was the first free Catholic school for girls staffed by sisters
in the country. Saint Joseph’s Academy began May 14, 1810, with the
addition of boarding pupils who paid tuition which enabled the Sisters of
Charity to subsidize their charitable mission. Saint Joseph’s Academy and
Free School formed the cradle of Catholic education in the United States.
Divine Providence guided
Elizabeth and her little community through the poverty and unsettling first
years. Numerous women joined the Sisters of Charity. During the period
1809-1820, of the ninety-eight candidates who arrived in Elizabeth’s lifetime,
eighty-six of them actually joined the new community; seventy percent remained
Sisters of Charity for life. Illness, sorrow, and early death were
omnipresent in Elizabeth’s life. She buried eighteen sisters at Emmitsburg, in
addition to her two daughters Annina and Rebecca, and her sisters-in-law
Harriet and Cecilia Seton, who joined her in 1809.
The Sulpicians assisted
Elizabeth in adapting the seventeenth-century French Common Rules of the
Daughters of Charity (1672) for the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph’s in
accord with the needs of the Catholic Church in America. Elizabeth formed her
sisters in the Vincentian spirit according to the tradition of Louise de
Marillac (1591-1660) and Vincent de Paul (1581-1660). Eighteen Sisters of
Charity, including Elizabeth, made private, annual vows of poverty, chastity,
obedience, and service of the poor for the first time, July 19, 1813;
thereafter they made vows annually on March 25 and understood their obligations
according to the Regulations for the Society of Sisters of Charity in the
United States of America (1812).
Elected by the members of
the community to be the first Mother of the Sisters of Charity, Elizabeth was
reelected successively and remained the community leader until her death.
The Sulpicians, who had conceived and founded the community, filled the ecclesiastical
office of superior general through 1849. Elizabeth worked successively
with three Sulpicians in this capacity: Rev. Louis William Dubourg, S.S., Rev.
Jean-Baptiste David, S.S., (1761-1841) and Rev. John Dubois, S.S.
The Sisters of Charity
intertwined social ministry with education in the faith and religious values in
all they undertook in their mission. Elizabeth missioned sisters to
Philadelphia in 1814 to manage Saint Joseph’s Asylum, the first Catholic
orphanage in the United States. The next year the Sisters of Charity made
a foundation at Mount Saint Mary’s near Emmitsburg to oversee the infirmary and
domestic services for the college and seminary. In 1817 a small band of
sisters left St. Joseph’s Valley to make another foundation, the Roman
Catholic Orphan Asylum (later Saint Patrick’s Orphan Asylum).
Saint—Model for all Ages
Reverend Simon Gabriel
Bruté, S.S., (1779-1839), of Mount Saint Mary’s, served as Elizabeth’s
spiritual director until her death and chaplain to the Sisters of Charity until
1834, He was her principle guide along the path to sanctity. He, along with
DuBois, actively inculturated the spirit of Vincent de Paul and Louise de
Marillac within and among the Sisters of Charity. Bruté advised Elizabeth to
read and translate the lives of Saint Louise and Saint Vincent and some of
their spiritual writings.
The work of education and
charity lives on in Elizabeth’s spiritual daughters around the world.
James Gibbons (1834-1921, later cardinal), archbishop of Baltimore, initiated
her cause for canonization in 1882. Officially introduced at the Vatican
in 1940, the Seton Cause made steady progress. Blessed John XXIII
declared Elizabeth venerable December 18, 1959, and also beatified her March
17, 1963. Pope Paul VI canonized Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton September
14th during the Holy Year of 1975 and the International Year of the
Woman. On this historic occasion, Pope Paul VI remarked: “Elizabeth Ann Seton
is a Saint! She is the first daughter of the United States of America to be glorified
with this incomparable attribute. Rejoice for your glorious daughter.”
The Holy See accepted
three miracles through her intercession. These included the cures of Sister
Gertrude Korzendorfer, D.C., (1872-1942), of New Orleans, of pancreatic cancer;
a young child, Ann Theresa O’Neill, (b.1948), of Baltimore, from acute,
lymphatic leukemia; and the miraculous recovery of Carl Kalin, (1902-1976), of
New York, from a rare form of encephalitis.
The Seton Legacy
The extraordinary manner
in which Elizabeth lived an ordinary life flowed from the centrality of the
Word of God and the Eucharist in her life. She lived her vocations in life
fully—as wife, mother, and Sister of Charity. Encountering God in Word
and Sacrament strengthened her during life’s challenges and enabled her
to be a loving person toward God, her family, her neighbor, and all of
creation. She undertook works of mercy and justice. Not only did she and her
Sisters of Charity care for orphans, widows, and families living in poverty,
but they also addressed unmet needs among persons marginalized and oppressed in
numerous ways. Elizabeth had a special concern for children who lacked
educational opportunities, especially for religious instruction in the faith.
Her life-long response to
God’s will throughout her life led her to sanctity. She lived out her Baptism
through service to others. Her holiness developed from her early religious
formation as an Episcopalian. Her longing for Eternity began at a young
age. Throughout her earthly journey of forty-six years, Elizabeth viewed
herself as a pilgrim on the road of life. She faced each day with eyes of
faith, looking forward to eternity.
Dominant themes in her
life and writings include her pursuit of the Divine Will, nourishment from the
Eucharist and the Bible, confidence in Divine Providence, and charitable
service to Jesus Christ in poor persons. From her deathbed in Emmitsburg
she admonished those gathered about her: “Be children of the Church, be
children of the Church.”(4)
She prayed her way
through life’s joys and struggles using sacred scripture. This enabled her to
live serenely in the midst of uncertainty and ambiguity. Psalm 23, which she
learned as a child, remained her favorite treasury of consolation throughout
her life of suffering and loss. Elizabeth’s pathway to inner peace and sanctity
flowed from her way of living the Paschal Mystery in her own life, willing to
take up and embrace the cross of Christ—and kissing it, too.(5)
She moved from devotional
reception of Holy Communion as an Episcopalian to awe as a Roman Catholic and
often ecstatic adoration of the Real Presence. Her Eucharistic devotion and
faith in God’s abiding presence nourished her imitation of Jesus Christ, the
source and model of all charity. As she established the Sisters of
Charity in their mission of charity and education, her choice of the Vincentian
rule reflects how Elizabeth understood her mission as one of apostolic service
honoring Jesus Christ through service to poor persons. Elizabeth’s spiritual
pathway involved other people—her advisors, friends, collaborators, and those
she served. The relational aspects of her spirituality were a natural
gift which she used as a religious leader and animator in community.
Seton Writings.
Elizabeth was a prolific writer. Extant documents are published in
Elizabeth Bayley Seton Collected Writings (New City Press: New York). Also in
her hand are some of the primitive documents of the Sisters of Charity of Saint
Joseph’s and her own last will and testament. In addition to voluminous
correspondence, Elizabeth also wrote meditations, instructions, poetry, hymns,
notebooks, journals, and diaries. Her journals include both spiritual
reflections and chronicle accounts, like The Italian Journal. Dear
Remembrances is an autobiographical retrospective memoir or life review.
Her meditations deal with the liturgical seasons, sacraments, virtue, biblical
themes, and the saints, including Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac whose
rule of life the Sisters of Charity adopted. Among her instructions are those
used in preparing children for their First Communion, and formation conferences
for the Sisters of Charity on such topics as service, charity, eternity, the
Blessed Sacrament, and Mary, the Mother of God.
Elizabeth rendered the
prototypical English translation of their first biographies, The Life of
Mademoiselle Le Gras (Nicolas Gobillon, 1676) and The Life of the Venerable
Servant of God Vincent de Paul (Louis Abelly, 1664). Elizabeth also
translated selections from the Conferences of Vincent de Paul to Daughters of
Charity and Notes on the Life of Sister Françoise Bony, D.C.,
(1694-1759). Also included among the Seton translations are excerpts from
selected conferences of Francis de Sales, portions of works by Saint Teresa of
Avila, meditations by Rev. Louis Du Pont, S.J., and the beginning of the life
of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Elizabeth had a habit of copying meaningful
passages from books she was reading and of making marginal notes in her bible.
Her copybooks containing notes from A Commentary on the Book of Psalms (1792)
by George Horne, and notes on sermons of Rev. John Henry Hobart. Bibles
containing her jottings and marginal notes are preserved in the Rare Books and
Special Collections, Hesburgh Library, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and
in the Simon Bruté Collection of the Old Cathedral Library, Vincennes, Indiana.
The Sisters of Charity as
a community grew and blossomed into independent new communities in North
America: The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul of New York (1846);
the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati (1852); the Sisters of Charity of Saint
Vincent de Paul of Halifax (1856); the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth,
Convent Station, New Jersey (1859); and the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill,
Greensburg, Pennsylvania (1870). As a result of mandates from their General
Assembly (1829 and 1845) requiring the Sulpicians to return to their founding
charism of the education and formation of priests, the Sulpician superiors
arranged for the Emmitsburg-based Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph’s to join
(1850) the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul of Paris,
France. These communities formed (1947) the Conference of Mother Seton’s
Daughters which developed into The Sisters of Charity Federation (2006) with
member congregations from the United States and Canada. All Federation members
are rooted in the tradition of Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac.
Elizabeth left an
enduring legacy, which makes Catholic education available for needy pupils.
Officially Saint Elizabeth Ann is patron of United States Sea Services and also
of the state of Maryland. Popular devotion acclaims Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
as a patron of Catholic schools because of her pioneer role in values-based
education.
A woman whose vision of
faith remains relevant for all ages, Elizabeth’s journey of faith presents an
outstanding model for all people. In a letter to her lifelong friend Julia
Sitgreaves Scott (1765-1842), Elizabeth summarized her way of life: “Faith lifts
the staggering soul on one side, hope supports it on the other, experience says
it must be and love says let it be.”(6) Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
died January 4, 1821, in the White House at Saint Joseph’s Valley, near
Emmitsburg, Maryland. Her remains repose there in the Basilica of the National
Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Emmitsburg, Maryland, (see www. setonshrine.org).
Excerpts from Elizabeth
Bayley Seton Papers courtesy of Archives Saint Joseph’s Provincial House,
Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, (Emmitsburg, Maryland).
____, Elizabeth Seton in
Dialogue with Her Time and Ours, papers from The Seton Legacy symposium of
1992, Vincentian Heritage 14, no. 3(1993).
____, Elizabeth Seton:
Bridging Centuries Bridging Cultures, papers from The Seton Legacy symposium of
1996/1997, Vincentian Heritage 18, no. 2(1998).
Joseph I. Dirvin,
C.M., The Soul of Elizabeth Seton A Spiritual Portrait.
(Ignatius Press: San Francisco, 1990).
Regina Bechtle, S.C., and
Judith Metz, S.C., eds., Ellin M. Kelly, mss. ed., Elizabeth Bayley Seton
Collected Writings, 3 vols. (New City Press: New York, 2000-2006).
Ellin M. Kelly, ed.,
Elizabeth Seton’s Two Bibles. Her Notes and Markings (Our Sunday Visitor:
Huntington, Indiana, 1977).
Ellin M. Kelly,
Numerous Choirs, vol. 1 (Mater Dei Provincialate: Evansville, Indiana, 1981).
Ellin M. Kelly and
Annabelle Melville, Elizabeth Seton Selected Writings (Paulist Press: New York,
1987).
Annabelle M. Melville,
ed. by Betty Ann McNeil, D.C., Elizabeth Bayley Seton 1774-1821 (Hanover
Pennsylvania: The Sheridan Press, 2009).
Rose Maria Laverty, S.C.,
Loom of Many Threads. The English and French Influences on the Character of
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (Paulist Press: New York, 1958).
Betty Ann McNeil, D.C.,
Light & Grace. Elizabeth Ann Seton on Life, Faith, and Eternity
(Emmitsburg, Maryland: Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, 2009).
Betty Ann McNeil, D.C.
27 September 2009
(1) Regina Bechtle,
S.C., and Judith Metz, S.C., eds., Ellin M. Kelly, mss. ed., Elizabeth
Bayley Seton Collected Writings, 3 vols. (New City Press: New York,
2000-2006), 3a:513. Hereinafter cited as Seton Collected Writings.
(2) 10.4, Dear
Remembrances, Seton Collected Writings, 1:243.
(3) 6.142,
Elizabeth Seton to Julia Scott, Seton Collected Writings, 2:256.
(4) A-7.268,
Account by Rev. Simon Bruté, S.S., of Elizabeth Seton’s Last Days, Seton
Collected Writings, 2:764.
(5) 2.7, Elizabeth
Seton to Rebecca Seton, Seton Collected Writings, 1:257.
(6) 6.30, Elizabeth
Seton to Julia Scott, Seton Collected Writings, 2:117.
SOURCE : https://www.archbalt.org/st-elizabeth-ann-seton/
Two
of the stained glass windows in the Co-Cathedral of St. Robert Bellarmine in
Freehold, New Jersey : Saint John Bosco and Saint John Neumann ; Saint
Elizabeth Ann Suton and Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
Elizabeth Ann Seton: A
Profoundly Human Saint
Post by Elizabeth
Bookser Barkley
Now that the word “saint”
has been attached to Elizabeth Seton, some Catholics might be conjuring up a
gauzy image of an ethereal woman. But this country’s first native-born saint
shatters that stereotype. Elizabeth was nothing if not intensely human, her
holiness rooted in her wholeness.
In the details of her
life as daughter, wife, mother, widow and friend, we discover a well-rounded
woman who knew how to love deeply and was always a person for others, even in
the midst of trying situations.
Selfless Spirit
Elizabeth was born in New
York City on August 28, 1774, to Richard Bayley and Catherine Charlton Bayley,
who died when Elizabeth was three.
One of three daughters,
Elizabeth, or “your Betty” as she refers to herself in letters to her father,
admired the work of her physician father. Dr. Bayley attended to immigrants as
they disembarked from ships onto Staten Island, and cared for New Yorkers when
yellow fever swept through the city, killing 700 in four months in 1795.
Dr. Bayley’s selflessness
was inherited by his daughter. As a young mother and wife, Elizabeth was among
the orginal members of the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small
Children, founded in 1797 by Isabella Marshall Graham in New York. Elizabeth
and her friends Catherine Dupleix and Eliza Sadler paid $3 a year in dues to
help support the work.
As treasurer, it fell to
Elizabeth to visit homes to assess the families’ situations. In a letter to
Julia Scott, she tells of her own two boys “who were taken sick this morning
with symptoms of the measles which are very prevalent in our city.” She thanks
Julia for the money to aid the widows.
Even as Elizabeth deals
with her own sons’ illnesses, she comments that “indeed I have many times this
winter called at a dozen homes in one morning for a less sum than that you
sent, for you may be sure these measles cause wants and sorrows which the
society cannot even half supply and in many families the small pox and measles
have immediately succeeded each other.”
Well-rounded Life
Serving others—that’s
what saints do. But during the same years that she was attending to widows and
children, Elizabeth was also living the life of a socialite, as a member of
Trinity Episcopal Church, the church for New York’s upper class, and a devotee
of the theater, popular novels and music.
In a letter to Julia,
Elizabeth teases that angels must exist because when coming out of the theater
with her sister “we came out in a violent thunder gust and got in our hack with
carriages before and behind and aside—the coachmen quarrelling. First one wheel
would crack, then another…but my Guardian Angel landed me safe in Wall Street
[where she and her young family lived] without one single hysteric.”
And while we know she
immersed herself in religious books, like A Commentary on the Book of
Psalms, which she received from her beloved Episcopalian minister, Rev. John
Henry Hobart, she also notes in a letter to Eliza Sadler during the same years
that she loved The Children of the Abbey, a gothic novel that was a hit in
America at the time. “Indeed,” she wrote, “I could not name more than half a
dozen I would rather read.”
Elizabeth was an
accomplished pianist, while her husband, William Seton, who brought the first
Stradivarius violin to America, relaxed in the evening by playing for and with
his young wife.
If music linked them
while they were together, Elizabeth’s letters kept them in touch while her
husband traveled on business for his father’s merchant import firm, the
prestigious Seton, Maitland and Company. Less than six months after their
marriage in 1794—when she was 19 and he 25—she sent him this message in a
letter: “Ah, my dearest husband, how useless was your charge that I should
‘think of you.’ That I never cease to do for one moment, and my
watery eyes bear witness to the effect those thoughts have, for every time you
are mentioned they prove that I am a poor little weak woman.”
If caring deeply for William
made her “weak” in her own eyes, that label fell away quickly as she was
challenged in her early years of marriage to draw upon an inner strength to see
her through crises that might have driven truly “weak” women to despair.
Rapidly Expanding Family
Childbirth was always
risky in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and Elizabeth narrowly escaped
death delivering her third child, Richard, in 1798. “My illness was so severe
that both mother and child were some hours in a very doubtful situation,” she
writes to Julia. Elizabeth had just enough energy to look down from her bed to
watch as her father, on his knees, “blew the breath of life” into Richard’s
lungs and “by his skill and care” restored the baby.
No sooner had she
recovered from childbirth than she and William took over the care of his six
younger siblings, since he was now responsible for them after the elder Seton’s
death. (William’s father had been widowed twice.) Imagine the adjustment for
Elizabeth, “who so dearly loves the quiet and a small family” in taking on
these duties for several years with the help of William’s sister, Rebecca.
In addition to caring for
her own three children, one a newborn, Elizabeth Seton became a mother to the
six newly orphaned Setons, ages seven to 17, caring for their physical needs
and teaching them to read, write and sew. At times the house emptied out while
the older Seton children were away at school, but activity picked up when they
came home for holidays.
Even though she had help
from Rebecca and a housekeeper, Elizabeth must have felt she had plunged into
the middle of a whirlwind of activity and neediness. Having moved into a larger
home to accommodate the Seton clan, she writes to Julia, “I cannot help longing
again for the rest I have never known but in Wall Street.”
That coveted rest would
elude her as she helped William with the family business. “My William has kept
me constantly employed in copying his letters and assisting him to arrange his
papers, for he has not friend or confidante on earth but his little wife.”
Profound Losses
The business took its
toll on her husband’s health, already weakened by a youthful bout with
tuberculosis. With the family business slipping, along with William’s health,
the couple arranged a sea voyage to Italy in 1803.
Turning over the care of
their four youngest, including baby Rebecca, to relatives, Elizabeth and
William took with them eight-year-old Anna Maria (nicknamed “Annina”), and
headed off to Leghorn, where they would be welcomed by Antonio Filicchi and
family, at whose counting house William had interned.
As their ship entered the
port at Leghorn, the Setons were met by Italian officials who denied them
entry, since their ship had departed from the port of New York, where yellow
fever was raging. Despite the protests of the Filicchis, the Setons were sent
to a lazaretto for quarantine, “an immense prison bolted and barred.”
There William lay “on the old bricks without fire, shivering and groaning,
lifting his dim and sorrowful eyes, with a fixed gaze in my face while his
tears ran on his pillow without a word.”
Although they were
eventually able to leave the quarantine and visit Pisa for a few days, it was
to no avail. As Elizabeth’s husband sobbed, “My dear wife and little ones,” he
died in her arms, with their Annina nearby. By Italian law, he was buried
within 24 hours.
Elizabeth describes the
ordeal in a journal she kept for William’s sister and her “soul sister,”
Rebecca: “Oh, oh, oh what a day. Close his eyes, lay him out, ride a journey,
be obliged to see a dozen people in my room till night—and at night crowded
with the whole sense of my situation—O my Father, and my God!”
William was not the first
or the last of several loved ones she would hold as they journeyed into the
next life. Two years before William’s death, her father had suddenly taken ill.
The previous day, he had called Elizabeth out “to observe the different shades
of the sun on the clover field before the door and repeatedly exclaimed, ‘In my
life I never saw anything so beautiful.’”
The next day, as he came
in from the wharf, his legs weakened and he turned delirious. The night he died
he continually cried out to her phrases like “all the horrors are coming, my
child, I feel them all,” before “he became apparently perfectly easy, put his
hand in mine, turned on his side and sobbed out the last of life without the
smallest struggle, groan or appearance of pain.”
Losing her father, then
her husband, was devastating—but even more wrenching, she would bury two
daughters. Both of them died after she moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland, to open a
school and found the Sisters of Charity. When her children were toddlers, Elizabeth
had described how “my precious children stick to me like little burrs”; in
their later years she would have given anything to keep them that close.
More Heartache
Already bonded to
Elizabeth after William’s death in Italy, Annina, as oldest, was her mother’s
support during widowhood and her move from New York to her new life as
religious “mother.” After a failed romance, which Elizabeth nurtured her
through, Annina helped with the young boarders in the school. What a shock for
Elizabeth to one day notice Annina’s reddened cheeks, the telltale sign that,
just as her beloved William had, she was being dragged down by tuberculosis.
Annina’s death at age 17
was a role reversal, the daughter comforting her mother: “When in death’s agony
her quivering lips could with difficulty utter one word, feeling a tear fall on
her face, she smiled and said with great effort laugh, Mother, Jesus at
intervals as she could not put two words together.”
Annina’s death almost
undid Elizabeth. Her family, friends and spiritual mentors feared for
Elizabeth’s physical and spiritual health. But she bounced back, giving herself
over to God, and feeling Annina’s presence in her life to help her go on.
When a few years later
daughter Rebecca developed a tumor in her hip, which no doctors could cure,
Elizabeth sat with her “nine weeks, night and day,” holding Beck to ease her
pain before she died at age 14.
A Mother’s Worry
Even as she was attending
to her sick daughters, Elizabeth worried about her sons, William and Richard.
Neither seemed suited for business, though she arranged for both to work in
Italy with Antonio Filicchi, who remained her friend over the years after
William’s death.
The life young Will
aspired to caused her great worry: He wanted to join the United States Navy at
a time when wars were raging off the shores of the States, and France and Italy
were constantly in an uproar.
But before her death,
Will had settled down, well established in the Navy, “more and more pleased
with the choice of his profession which seems to us so extraordinary.” Had she
lived, Elizabeth would have been grandmother to his eight children.
Richard, Will’s younger
brother, also spent some time with Antonio Filicchi. Filicchi’s letters assured
Elizabeth that Richard was “very satisfactory,” in response to Elizabeth’s
concerns in her final years of life: “if my Richard does but do well is
my greatest anxiety.” Though neither son was much of a letter-writer, William
had a better excuse since he was away at sea.
To Richard she writes:
“You can have no idea of our anxiety to hear from you—six, seven, eight months
without one line.” He did make it home to see his mother before her death in
1821, then followed his brother into the Navy the next year as a captain’s
clerk. A year later he died on ship while nursing the American consul to
Liberia and was buried at sea.
Even as Elizabeth fretted
over her sons, she found comfort in the companionship of her only remaining
daughter, Catherine—variously nicknamed Kitty, Kate, Kit or Jos (her middle
name was Josephine). In a note to her daughter on her birthday in 1819,
Elizabeth wrote, “Whose birthday is this, my dear Savior? It is my
darling one’s, my child’s, my friend’s, my only dear companion
left of all you once gave with bounteous hand—the little relic of all my
worldly bliss.”
As Elizabeth was nearing
death, a huge concern was to prepare Catherine to face life without her
mother. The Little Red Book of advice and spirituality she wrote for
Catherine was her daughter’s keepsake for many years after Elizabeth’s death.
Keeping a promise they
made to Elizabeth near her death, longtime friends Robert Goodloe Harper and Catherine
Carroll Harper took Catherine into their home after Elizabeth died. Like her
brother Richard, Catherine never married. She became a Sister of Mercy in 1846,
devoting more than 40 years to working with prisoners in New York as Mother
Mary Catherine.
Lifelong Friends
Although Catherine moved
in with the Harpers, several offers to take in the soon-to-be-orphaned child
came from relatives and friends, including Julia Scott. It was in letters to
friends like Julia, Catherine Dupleix, Eliza Sadler and Antonio Filicchi that
Elizabeth would share the ups and downs of her life, from early marriage until
near death.
Julia and Elizabeth had
much in common. Probably a family friend of the Bayleys in New York, Julia was
about 10 years older than Elizabeth. After Julia’s husband died in 1798, a
foreshadowing of Elizabeth’s own widowhood, she moved to Philadelphia,
remaining a lifelong friend through her letters, sharing details of the joys
and sorrows of daily life.
To Julia in 1801,
Elizabeth writes about her father’s death: “The night before my father’s death
Kit lay all night in a fever at my breast and Richard on his mattress at my
feet vomiting violently.”
Once settled in
Emmitsburg, she kept in touch with Catherine, writing, “Kitty is only less than
an angel in looks and every qualification. Oh, Dué, if you knew her and your
little Beck as they are and could see them every day, you would say there is
nothing like them.”
Still playful even as a
religious sister, she writes Eliza Sadler that when the “echo” of news that
Eliza had decided to go to France reached Emmitsburg, “Kit and I answered it
with so many Ah’s and Oh’s—you would have been amused to hear us.”
Near the end of her life,
Elizabeth continued to write Antonio, whom she sometimes called “my dearest
Tonierlinno.” To him, she owed much. He and his wife, Amabilia, had helped bury
William, and had provided a temporary home for her and Anna Maria.
It was Amabilia who had
invited Elizabeth inside a Catholic church, where she was amazed by worshipers’
belief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist, a belief foreign to her
experience as an Episcopalian. It was Antonio who taught her the Sign of the
Cross.
During the young widow’s
voyage back to the States, Antonio was with Elizabeth and Anna Maria. And it
was he who encouraged Elizabeth to pursue the call to become Catholic, despite
pressures back home from the Rev. Hobart and her Protestant friends.
Throughout her life, she
would turn to him for financial support, but more importantly as an anchor for
her Catholic faith.
Years later, now as a
leader of a religious community, Elizabeth would remind him of the essential
role he played in her spiritual life: “The first word I believe you ever said
to me after the first salute was to trust all to him who fed the fowls of the
air and made the lilies grow.”
As her health was failing
in 1818, she penned this line to him: “Dearest Antonio, I may well say with my
whole heart, ‘Thy will be done’—love and bless your little Sister and
devoted EASeton.”
On January 4, 1821, at
46, Elizabeth died of the tuberculosis that had plagued her much of her life,
especially in her last few years. Although she would have to wait to fulfill
her desire to be with Antonio in eternity, she herself was finally one with her
God, as she had wanted.
When Elizabeth died, she
left more than a legacy of Catholic education and religious leadership; she
left an imprint on the many family and friends to whom she had endeared
herself. As Barbara McCormick and others have testified so often, that imprint
has not dimmed over the nearly two centuries since her death.
In Elizabeth Seton,
McCormick sees “a saint for the 21st century and all of the centuries to
come”—for her strength, her courage, her faith and her humanity.
The
Seton home in New York City was located at the site on which
a church now
stands in her honor, with the adjacent James Watson House serving as the rectory
BIOGRAPHY OF ST.
ELIZABETH ANN SETON - OUR PATRON SAINT
SETON, Elizabeth Ann,
born in New York city, 28 August, 1774; died in Emmittsburg, Maryland, 4
January, 1821.
Elizabeth Ann Bayley, one
of two daughters of a prominent Episcopal family, was born in New York on
August 28, 1774. She was a charming little girl, small-boned and dainty, with
great brown eyes. Having lost her mother at the age of three, she was deeply attached
to her physician father and used to sit beside her schoolroom window watching
for him on the street. When he appeared, she would slip out quickly and run for
a kiss.
Beautiful, vivacious,
fluent in French, a fine musician, and an accomplished horsewoman, she grew up
and became a popular guest at parties and balls. Long afterward she wrote of
all this as quite harmless, except for distractions at night prayers and the
bother of fussing over dresses. Small wonder young William Seton fell head over
heels in love with her. She returned his love adoringly and they were married,
surely to live happily ever after.
It began felicitously
enough in a gracious home on Wall Street, William busy at his family’s shipping
business, Elizabeth with the beginnings of a family. Anna Maria was born, then
young Willy, and then came a thin thread of worry in the form of William’s ill
health. With the death of his father, their fortunes began to decline. William
was tormented by visions of debtor’s prison, while Elizabeth was certain that
God would help them to survive. “Troubles always create a great exertion of my
mind,” she wrote, “and give it a force to which at other times it is incapable…
I think the greatest happiness of this life is to be released from the cares of
what is called the world.”
In two and a half years,
they were bankrupt. Elizabeth spent that Christmas watching the front door to
keep out the seizure officer. The following summer she and the children stayed
with her father, who was health officer for the Port of New York on Staten
Island. When she saw the babies of newly arrived Irish immigrants starving at
their mothers’ breasts, she begged her physician father to let her nurse some
of them since she was weaning her fourth child, but he refused. By summer’s
end, he too was a victim of the yellow fever epidemic, and Elizabeth was
grief-stricken. More and more she turned to the Scriptures and the spiritual
life, and in May of 1802 she wrote in a letter that her soul was “sensibly
convinced of an entire surrender of itself and all its faculties to God.”
Then in 1803, the doctor
suggested a sea journey for William’s health. Against Elizabeth’s better
judgment they set sail for Italy to visit their friends, the Felicchi family.
To pay for the voyage, she sold the last of her possessions-silver, vases,
pictures, all probably inherited from her father. The voyage was pleasant, but
arriving at Leghorn they were quarantined in a stone tower on a cane outside
the city because of the yellow fever epidemic in New York. There she endured
for forty days the cruelest suffering she was ever to know, possibly the key to
all that happened during the rest of her life. She wept, then reproached
herself for behaving as though God were not present. She tended the racked
patient, now coughing blood; amused Anna Maria, who had come with them, with
stories and games; and held little prayer services. When the cold numbed them
beyond bearing, she and Anna Maria skipped rope. William died two days after
Christmas in Pisa, at the age of thirty-seven. Only the laundress would help
the young widow to lay out his body.
While waiting to return
to America, Elizabeth attended the churches of her Italian friends where she
was deeply impressed by the Catholic belief in the real presence. If this teaching
about the Blessed Sacrament had been held in the Episcopal church in New York
at the time, Elizabeth Seton’s story might have been very different, for this
doctrine was at the very heart of her conversion. Returning to New York, poor
now and living upstairs in a little house supplied by friends, the news of her
interest in the church stirred up consternation on all sides. She agonized with
indecision about it until finally, on March 14, 1805, she became a Roman
Catholic.
Several plans to support
her family failed, and finally she opened a boardinghouse for schoolboys; but
when her sister-in-law, Cecelia Seton, became a Roman Catholic also, her angry
supporters withdrew. Hearing of her need, the president of St. Mary’s College
in Baltimore offered her a residence with a teaching position in that city. She
accepted and left New York for good on June 8, 1808.
In March of 1809, she
pronounced her vows before Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore, was given some
property in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and in June she, her three daughters, her
sisters-in-law, Cecelia and Harriet Seton, and four young women who had joined
them, began what was to become the American foundation of the Sisters of
Charity. For special occasions they wore black dresses with shoulder capes, a
simple white bonnet tied under the chin (like Elizabeth’s mourning dress); and
for everyday they wore whatever else they had. Their temporary abode provided
four rooms, two cots, mattresses on the floor under a leaky roof where in
winter snow sifted down over them. Vegetables, now and then a bit of salt pork
or buttermilk, and a beverage called carrot coffee was their fare-all flavored
with that great zest for survival which had become a habit with Elizabeth. When
they moved to their unfinished permanent home they were invaded by fleas which
had infested the horsehair for the plaster. Finally the home was completed and
they had “an elegant little chapel, 30 cells, an infirmary, refectory, parlor,
school, and workroom.”
In 1811 Mother Seton
adopted the rules and constitution of St. Vincent de Paul, with some
modifications, and the institution, having received the sanction of the highest
ecclesiastical authority, became a religious order. Afterward a group of
buildings, embracing a residence for the Sisters, a novitiate, a
boarding-school for young girls, a school for poor children, and an orphan
asylum, was erected.
In 1814 Mother Seton sent
a colony of Sisters to Philadelphia to take charge of the orphan asylum. In
1817, in response to another application from New York, another body came to
that city. At her death there were more than twenty communities of Sisters of
Charity, conducting free schools, orphanages, boarding-schools, and hospitals,
in the states of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Delaware, Massachusetts,
Virginia, Missouri, and Louisiana, and in the District of Columbia. Although,
according to the constitution of her order, no one could be elected to the
office of mother-superior for more than two terms successively, an exception
was made in her favor by the unanimous desire of her companions, and she held
the office during life.
Elizabeth Seton died
slowly and painfully of the tuberculosis which had stricken all her family. At
the last she was sustained on nothing but a little port wine. She had written
to her best friend not long before, “I’ll be wild Betsy to the last.” The night
of her death, January 4, 1821, she began the prayers for the dying herself, and
one of the sisters, knowing that she loved French, prayed the Gloria and the
Magnificat in French with her. The spirited young woman who had wanted only to
marry a handsome man, be a happy wife, and raise a pretty family, had had
adventures beyond her wildest dreams. Loving by nature, she grew in faith and
hope because of trial, not in spite of it. And with each trial God revealed
resources, strength, and courage she did not know she possessed.
Mother Seton was canonized the
first American-born saint by Pope Paul VI in 1975.
SOURCE : https://www.elizabethannseton.org/biography-of-st-elizabeth-ann-seton
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton,
religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
Sant' Elisabetta Anna
Bayley Seton Vedova
New York, 28 agosto 1774
- 4 gennaio 1821
Originaria di New York,
figlia di un medico, Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, è nota per aver fondato le
«Suore delle carità di san Giuseppe», Congregazione religiosa molto diffusa
negli Stati Uniti. Nata il 28 agosto 1774, era di confessione episcopaliana ma
dopo la morte del marito da cui aveva avuto 5 figli si convertì al
cattolicesimo. Le Sister of charity come vengono chiamate negli Stati Uniti,
rappresentarono la prima Congregazione femminile americana. Furono costituite
il 1 giugno 1809 e la futura santa ne fu Superiora generale per quasi un
decennio dedicandosi con grande impegno al servizio dei poveri e dei
sofferenti. Parallelamente s'impegnò con grande dedizione alle scuole
parrocchiali. L'Ordine crebbe rapidamente e il 17 gennaio 19812 ottenne
l'autorizzazione a seguire, come regola, quello delle suore di san Vincenzo De'
Paoli. Elisabetta Anna Bayley vedova Seton morì il 4 gennaio 1821 a 46 anni.
Beatificata nel 1963 da Papa Giovanni XXIII, fu canonizzata il 14 settembre
1975 da Paolo VI. (Avvenire)
Etimologia: Elisabetta =
Dio è il mio giuramento, dall'ebraico
Martirologio Romano: A
Emmetsburg nel Maryland negli Stati Uniti d’America, santa Elisabetta Anna
Seton: rimasta vedova, abbracciò la fede cattolica, dedicandosi con
sollecitudine all’educazione delle fanciulle e al sostentamento dei ragazzi
poveri, insieme con le Suore della Congregazione della Carità di San Giuseppe
da lei fondata.
S. Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, canonizzata il 14 settembre 1975, nacque a New York il 28 agosto 1774. Il 24 agosto 1794 celebrò le nozze a New York con William Magee Seton, con il quale ebbe quattro figli: Anna Maria, William, Richard e Rebecca.
Il 27 dicembre 1803 la Seton rimase vedova. Nell’aprile del 1804 ritornò a New York, dopo un soggiorno in Italia nella città di Livorno. Il 4 marzo del 1805 si convertì al cattolicesimo. Dopo aver aperto una scuola femminile nel 1808 a Baltimora insieme a Cecilia O’Conway di Filadelfia, la Santa ed altre consorelle, il 1 giugno del 1809, indossarono l’abito religioso della prima congregazione femminile americana: le Suore di Carità di San Giuseppe. L’istituzione progredì rapidamente. Il 17 gennaio 1812 le nuove suore ottennero l’approvazione per applicare, come loro regola, quella delle Suore di S. Vincenzo de’ Paoli.
La madre Seton morì il 4 gennaio 1821.
Il 28 febbraio 1840 iniziò il processo per la beatificazione e canonizzazione;
il 18 settembre 1959 venne dichiarata “Venerabile”, il 17 marzo 1963 fu
proclamata Beata dal papa Giovanni XXIII.
La sua memoria liturgica si celebra nel suo dies natalis.
La canonizzazione della Seton si può dire la più significativa dell’anno. In
lei fu esaltata la donna: vergine, sposa, vedova e consacrata. Ecco le parole
del papa Paolo VI:
" E’ la prima degli Stati Uniti d’America glorificata da questo incomparabile titolo. Ma che vuol dire: “è Santa”? Noi abbiamo tutti facilmente l’intuizione circa il significato di questa superlativa qualifica; ma ci è poi difficile farne un’analisi esatta; Santa vuol dire perfetta, di una perfezione, che raggiunge il livello più alto che un essere umano possa conseguire. Santa è una creatura umana nella pienezza della sua conformità alla volontà di Dio. Santa è un’anima in cui ogni peccato, principio di morte, sia cancellato, e sostituito da uno splendore vivente di grazia divina. [...] La Seton è americana. Lo diciamo tutti con letizia spirituale, e con intenzione celebrativa della terra e della Nazione, da cui la Seton, primo fiore dell’albo dei Santi, meravigliosamente germogliò. [...] Poi: la Seton nacque, crebbe e fu educata religiosamente a New York nella Comunità Episcopaliana. A questa Chiesa va il merito d’avere svegliato e alimentato il senso religioso e il sentimento cristiano. [...] Noi riconosciamo volentieri questo merito e ben sapendo quanto sia costato a Elizabeth il passaggio alla Chiesa cattolica. [...Trovò] naturale conservare quanto di buono l’appartenenza alla fervorosa Comunità Episcopaliana le aveva insegnato, in tante belle espressioni della pietà religiosa specialmente, e abbia sempre attinto fedeltà di stima e di affetto per le persone, da cui tale professione cattolica l’aveva dolorosamente separata. È motivo per noi di letizia e presagio di sempre migliori rapporti ecumenici notare la presenza a questa cerimonia di distinte personalità Episcopaliane, alle quali, quasi interpretando il cuore della nuova Santa, porgiamo il nostro devoto e augurale saluto. [...] La Seton fu madre di famiglia e simultaneamente fondatrice della prima Congregazione religiosa femminile negli Stati Uniti. Sebbene non unica e non nuova questa sua condizione sociale ed ecclesiale (...), essa distingue in modo particolare (...) per la sua piena femminilità, tanto che, nel momento in cui una Donna viene elevata ai supremi onori da parte della Chiesa cattolica, piace a Noi rilevare la felice coincidenza tra questo evento e l’iniziativa delle Nazioni Unite: l’Anno Internazionale della Donna. Tale programma tende a favorire la consapevolezza del dovere, che su tutti incombe, di riconoscere la vera funzione della donna nel mondo e di contribuire alla sua autentica promozione nella società. Godiamo, altresì, del vincolo che in tal modo si è stabilito tra questo programma e l’odierna canonizzazione, nella quale la Chiesa esalta al massimo grado Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, elogiando il personale ed eccezionale contributo da lei reso come donna: moglie, cioè e madre e vedova e religiosa!".
Nelle parole del pontefice non possiamo non notare il tono fortemente ecumenico e di grande fraternità, che ci ricorda i risvolti successivi nella dimensione ecumenica della Chiesa Cattolica, presenti nella Ut unum sint di Giovanni Paolo II, che fanno di Paolo VI, oltre che il "cantore dei Santi", anche, il precursore del cammino ecumenico postconciliare.
Autore: Don Marco Grenci
SOURCE : http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/30750
_-_St._Elizabeth_Ann_Seton_relic.jpg)
Saint John Neumann Church (Cincinnati, Ohio) - St. Elizabeth Ann Seton relic
BEATIFICAZIONE DI
ELISABETTA ANNA BAYLEY SETON
OMELIA DEL SANTO PADRE
GIOVANNI XXIII*
Basilica Vaticana
Domenica, 17 marzo 1963
Venerabili Fratelli,
diletti figli.
Il brano evangelico
dell'odierna domenica terza di Quaresima ci ha portato l'eco soave e
consolatrice della parola del Salvatore Divino: Beati qui audiunt verbum
Dei, et custodiunt illud: Beati coloro che ascoltano la parola di Dio, e la
osservano [1].
Questa beatitudine riassume l'essenza della vita cristiana, armonia di fede e
di opere, di pensiero e di azione, che dal seme deposto nel Battesimo procede
in perfezione di lietissimo sviluppo, fino agli splendori dell'eterna vita.
Stasera piace all'umile
Vicario di Cristo applicare quelle parole a colei, che la Chiesa venera da oggi
nella gloria dei beati: Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton. Veramente beata, perchè
ha udito la voce di Dio e l'ha messa in pratica.
Il Signore Ci ha concesso
di godere un nuovo tratto della sua buona Provvidenza: e nell'elevare l'inno
del ringraziamento, sulle note del Te Deum, l'animo Nostro si è effuso in
commossa gratitudine. Sempre mirabilis in sanctis suis [2],
Dio accende sull'umanità, pellegrinante verso il Cielo, raggi di nuovo
splendore.
Il pensiero ama
soffermarsi sulla mite e forte figura della beata, proposta in universale
esempio di eroica virtù, per trarne luce di insegnamento, di incoraggiamento,
di buona ispirazione.
Primo fiore di santità
negli Stati Uniti
I. Elisabetta Seton è il
primo fiore — ufficialmente riconosciuto — di santità, che gli Stati Uniti
d'America offrono al mondo. Figlia autentica di quella nazione, essa è vissuta
dal 1774 al 1821, giusto quando la giovane repubblica veniva affermandosi nel
consesso dei popoli, a dar prova delle sue inesauribili possibilità in ogni
campo. Di più: in quei decenni si costituiva la gerarchia cattolica, e sulla
salda roccia della fede cristiana si ponevano le basi sicure di un meraviglioso
sviluppo di opere cattoliche, quale oggi si dispiega in tutta la sua
efficienza.
Il primo pensiero di
singolare incitamento è dunque rivolto alla terra di origine della novella
beata. Negli Stati Uniti agli eroi delle più nobili imprese umane sono
riservate in vita e in morte acclamazioni e simpatia. Piace riconoscere che non
minore attenzione, rispetto e amore vi riscuotono uomini e donne, che si sono
votati a Cristo, al Vangelo suo, alle attività di assistenza squisitamente
evangelica, ed anche alla più rigida disciplina ascetica, nella crescente
fioritura degli Ordini contemplativi.
Cittadini americani hanno
solcato i mari e i cieli; compiuto imprese eccellenti; dato larga ospitalità e
lavoro a uomini provenienti da ogni terra. L'America ha continuato a superare
coraggiosamente, di epoca in epoca, le susseguentisi difficoltà, e a dare alla
sua legislazione — che discende dai principi della morale cristiana — un
contenuto sempre più rispondente alla dignità della persona umana. Ci dà tanto
conforto rendere tale testimonianza a quella illustre nazione, in augurio di
ulteriore slancio di spirituali affermazioni.
Prodigio di grazia
celeste
In questa terza domenica
di Quaresima 1963, è la prima volta che sopra l'altare della Cattedra di San
Pietro appare in gloria l'immagine di una eroina degli Stati Uniti d'America.
Nel vario concento della santità della Chiesa, una nuova nota dunque si aggiunge,
portandovi l'elemento proprio di quel popolo, poiché, come dice S. Ambrogio, la
Chiesa è un unico corpo regale, che si compone di genti di varia provenienza:
regina piane, cuius regnum est indivisum, de diversis et distantibus populis in
unum corpus assurgens [3].
Così tutta la Chiesa, qui
rappresentata da uomini di diversa origine e stirpe, rende omaggio di
venerazione a Elisabetta Seton!
II. Guardiamo da vicino
colei, che si è levata oggi nella gloria dei beati : Elisabetta Seton è
prodigio di grazia celeste.
Iddio condusse questa
donna a molte esperienze e a profonde decisioni di vita spirituale, affinché la
fede le divenisse abituale, come il respiro della sua vita; e la fece oggetto
dell'amore del suo prossimo, particolarmente in un'ora dolorosissima della sua
esistenza, perchè toccasse con mano la presenza di Dio, qui consolatur
humiles [4].
Pensiamo all'apostolato,
pieno di delicatezza, che nei suoi confronti svolse la famiglia Filicchi, con
cui Elisabetta fu in contatto nel 1803, in occasione del suo viaggio in Italia.
A Livorno, in quell'anno le morì il marito. Quella famiglia livornese,
strumento docile alle ispirazioni celesti, e veramente saggia nel saperle
attuare, fu esempio limpidissimo di fedeltà alla Chiesa, presentando agli occhi
della fervente episcopaliana — quale era allora Elisabetta — il quadro ideale
di un cattolicesimo vissuto, dal quale essa si sentì attratta.
La novella beata, come
può dirsi di altri insigni personaggi del secolo decimonono, giunse al
cattolicesimo non attraverso la rinnegazione del passato, ma piuttosto come a
mèta provvidenziale di studio, di preghiera, di esercizio di carità, a cui la
preparava tutto l'orientamento della sua vita precedente. Un passo dopo
l'altro, essa si trovò in seno alla Chiesa cattolica: fu per lei un arricchire
il patrimonio, che già possedeva, un aprire lo scrigno chiuso, che stava nelle
sue mani, un penetrare nella conoscenza della verità piena, presso la cui
dimora essa s'era sempre trovata dai giovani anni.
Le vie del Signore sono
infinite: prope es tu, Domine: et omnes viae tuae veritas [5].
Venerabili Fratelli, diletti figli: non precorriamole con l'animo impaziente,
nell'attesa di quell'incontro con tanti fratelli nostri, che l'estrema
preghiera del Salvatore Divino invoca con accenti sovrumani: ut omnes unum
sint! [6].
Ci basta alzare gli occhi, pieni di confidenza, verso la novella beata, che
dalla sua figura irradia incanto di spirituale attrattiva sulle anime, sicuri
della sua potente intercessione.
Ed esortiamo al tempo
stesso i Nostri diletti figli della universale famiglia cattolica, affinché,
col loro esempio di fedeltà all'ideale altissimo proposto da Gesù Cristo —
uniti a Lui, per Lui uniti al Padre, e nella Santa Chiesa uniti al Successore
di San Pietro, capo visibile della compagine cattolica — siano anch'essi
strumenti di salvezza e di vera letizia!
III. Elisabetta Seton,
che fu oggetto di speciale amore di Dio e del prossimo, diede a sua volta
impulso e slancio alla carità. Il nome e il simbolo della carità divenne il
programma della sua vita interiore e della sua attività esteriore; questo
palpito si dilatò dalla famiglia secondo la natura alla più vasta famiglia dei
suoi fratelli di ieri, come di tutti gli appartenenti alle beatitudini,
annunciate da Gesù: i poveri, i perseguitati, i deboli, i malati, i sofferenti.
Luce e programma di
eroica vita
Con la fondazione della
famiglia religiosa delle Suore di Carità di San Giuseppe, quattro anni dopo il
suo incontro col cattolicesimo, essa volle dedicarsi a ogni forma di carità,
nell'esercizio volonteroso delle opere di misericordia spirituale e corporale.
Accanto alle provvidenze senza numero, in favore degli orfani e dei bisognosi,
prende posto di primo piano la sua opera per l'educazione della gioventù, per
cui giustamente è ritenuta una delle precorritrici del sistema scolastico
parrocchiale, che tanti frutti ha dato e continua a dare negli Stati Uniti,
offrendo alla Chiesa e alla nazione schiere di cattolici ferventi e di
cittadini esemplari.
La figura di Elisabetta
Seton rivive nella dedizione delle sue figlie spirituali, chinandosi ancora, in
ciascuna di esse, a beneficare schiere senza numero di adulti e di fanciulli,
di indigenti nel corpo e nello spirito. E lo sguardo ama soffermarsi su tutte
le Suore della carità. Con abito diverso, e regole adattate ai climi e agli usi
dei vari paesi, esse rinnovano le gesta di San Vincenzo de' Paoli e di Santa
Luisa di Marillac. Dalla instancabile attività di ciascuna, mossa dall'amore di
Dio, si leva in tutto il mondo, in molteplice applicazione, l'inno di San
Paolo, perenne nella sua freschezza e nella sua attrattiva: « La carità è
paziente, è benigna: la carità non è astiosa, ... non cerca il proprio
interesse ..., si rallegra del godimento della verità: a tutto s'accomoda,
tutto crede, tutto spera, tutto sopporta » [7].
Noi nutriamo paterno
affetto, ammirazione e gratitudine per tutte le religiose ; e siamo certi che
esse, particolarmente in questo anno del Concilio, saranno come le vergini
sapienti del Vangelo. Pronte cioè ad accogliere ogni indicazione della
gerarchia per un servizio sempre più rispondente, in tutti i campi, alle necessità
ed alle esigenze del nostro tempo.
Testimonianze di fede e
di opere
L'odierna glorificazione
di una eroina della carità vuole infondere nuovo slancio di dedizione non
soltanto a queste benemerite religiose, ma anche a tutti i membri della Chiesa,
sacerdoti e laici, anziani e giovani, affinché nella carità sappiano dare
quella testimonianza di amore e di opere, che il mondo attende.
O beata Elisabetta Seton,
che risplendi d'oggi innanzi al cospetto di tutte le nazioni per la fedeltà
alle promesse battesimali, guarda con occhio di predilezione al popolo tuo, che
di te si gloria come del suo primo fiore di santità ! Ottienigli da Dio la
grazia di custodire il sacro patrimonio della chiamata al Vangelo, la fermezza
nella fede, l'ardore nella carità, affinché lietamente corrisponda alla sua
particolare vocazione. E sulla Chiesa intera estendi la tua protezione,
offrendole in esempio il fuoco di generosità e di amore, che ti spinse di
chiarità in chiarità [8] fino
alla odierna glorificazione!
Venerabili Fratelli,
diletti figli.
A coronamento della
letizia di questo giorno santo scendano su di voi i copiosi favori del Signore,
a cui è « l'onore, la gloria, e la potestà nei secoli dei secoli » [9].
Pegno e riverbero delle celesti compiacenze vuol essere l'Apostolica
Benedizione, che di cuore effondiamo su ciascuno di voi, sui pellegrini degli
Stati Uniti d'America, del Canada e di altri Paesi, e su quanti, uomini e
donne, fedelmente custodiscono l'eredità di Madre Elisabetta Seton. Fiat!
Fiat!
*A.A.S., vol. LV (1963),
n. 6, pp. 328-332.
[1] Luc. 11,
28.
[2] Ps. 67,
36.
[3] Exposit.
Evang. sec. Lucam, lib. 7. cap. 11: PL 15, 1700.
[4] 2
Cor. 7, 6.
[5] Ps.118,
151.
[6] Io. 17,
21.
[7] 1
Cor. 13, 4-7.
[8] 2
Cor. 3, 18.
[9] Apoc. 5,
13.
© Copyright - Libreria
Editrice Vaticana
_-_relics_of_Saint_Elizabeth_Ann_Seton.jpg)
Saint
Patrick Catholic Church (Columbus, Ohio) - relics of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
Elizabeth Ann Bayley
Seton
(1774-1821)
BEATIFICAZIONE:
- 17 marzo 1963
- Papa Giovanni
XXIII
CANONIZZAZIONE:
- 14 settembre 1975
- Papa Paolo VI
- Basilica Vaticana
RICORRENZA:
- 4 gennaio
Laica, rimasta vedova,
abbracciò la fede cattolica, dedicandosi con sollecitudine all’educazione delle
fanciulle e al sostentamento dei ragazzi poveri, insieme con le Suore della
Congregazione della Carità di San Giuseppe da lei fondata
"Non cerco che Dio e la sua Chiesa"
Elizabeth Ann,
appartenente ad una delle famiglie più in vista di New York, i Bayley,
felicemente sposata ad uno degli uomini più noti della città, William
Magee Seton, era nata il 28 agosto 1774. A pochi anni orfana della madre,
il padre risposato e totalmente preso dal lavoro e dall'insegnamento come
medico, a 19 armi fu felice di andare sposa al primogenito di un ricco discendente
di una famiglia scozzese e così colmare la sua sete di affetto. Episcopaliana
come il marito, celebrarono le nozze il 25 gennaio 1794 nella vetusta chiesa
della Trinità e ben presto la loro casa fu allietata dalla nascita dei figli,
5 in neanche dieci anni.
Ben presto però la loro
felicità fu offuscata dalla morte del suocero, vero pilastro delle fortune
economiche della famiglia, dal rovescio degli affari dovuta anche alle ripercussioni
della guerra tra Francia ed Inghilterra e dal manifestarsi sempre più grave
della tubercolosi del marito. Elizabeth, con forza e determinazione, si prese
carico della situazione anche nel compito di seguire l'amministrazione dei
beni e di cercare di salvare il salvabile.
La situazione ben presto
precipitò: da una parte con il fallimento, dall'altra per la salute del marito,
dovendo accettare il consiglio dei medici di trovare un clima più mite per
tentare di recuperarla.
Il pensiero andò agli
amici italiani, i Filicchi.
Filippo Filicchi, nobile
di Gubbio, aveva vissuto tre anni negli Stati Uniti intessendo rapporti
commerciali e di amicizia con le personalità più in vista, in particolare con
il confondatore e direttore della banca di New York, William Seton, che era
anche spedizioniere ed armatore: al ritorno in Italia aveva portato con sé, per
fare esperienza nei commerci, il figlio maggiore di questi, William Magee.
Egli più volte era tornato a Livorno con le sue navi e aveva rinsaldato la sua
amicizia con Filippo, diventato nel frattempo primo console degli Stati Uniti
per il porto di Livorno, e con il fratello di lui, Antonio.
Il 2 ottobre 1803 a bordo
del veliero Shepherdess i Seton salparono accompagnati dalla primogenita Anna
Maria di otto anni: ma la nave aveva la "patente brutta", proveniva
cioè da un paese in cui era in corso un'epidemia, perché a New York
imperversava la febbre gialla, e al loro arrivo il 18 novembre invece di poter
scendere a terra, incontrare gli amici, godere della loro ospitalità, furono
costretti a salire su una barca spinta da 14 rematori e furono avviati per un
periodo di quarantena al Lazzaretto di San Jacopo: stava calando la sera e le
campane rintoccavano l'Ave Maria.
La profonda fede di
Elizabeth, la sua assidua lettura delle Scritture, l'intensità della preghiera
la sostennero, mentre inghiottiva le lacrime e nascondeva il proprio sgomento
davanti alle stanze spoglie in cui vennero fatti salire, senza possibilità di
scambiare con i Filicchi, che erano accorsi, ma non potevano avvicinarsi, altro
che "mille sguardi affettuosi", come scrive Elizabeth nel diario
che tiene per la sua amata cognata Rebecca.
Da queste pagine balza
viva l'immagine di una donna forte, abbandonata in Dio, tesa ad accompagnare il
marito verso l'eternità man mano che si rende conto di non aver scampo: usciti
dopo un mese dalla quarantena, vennero condotti a Pisa e, dieci giorni dopo
William, stremato dalla tubercolosi, ma ancora in grado di seguire la moglie
nelle sue preghiere, morì il 27 dicembre e il giorno dopo venne sepolto a Livorno
nel cimitero inglese.
Elizabeth accettò
con profonda rispondenza alla volontà del Signore la morte del marito; con la
figlia Anna Maria fu accolta, ospite gradita, nella casa di Filippo Filicchi
circondata da mille attenzioni.
Amabilia Filicchi, moglie
di Antonio, la accompagnava a Firenze, dove rimase particolarmente avvinta
dalla fede espressa non solo dalla bellezza delle chiese e dallo splendore
delle opere d'arte, ma dal fervore della preghiera dei fedeli. "Primo
ingresso nella chiesa dell'Annunziata a Firenze... O mio Dio!... solo Tu puoi
sapere...".
Cadevano i pregiudizi
verso i cattolici; i Filicchi certo, constatando l'intensità e la purezza della
sua fede, posero il problema della "vera Chiesa", tanto che un
giorno Elizabeth disse ridendo a Filippo: "Lei vuole che io
preghi, cerchi e professi la sua fede". Filippo rispose: "Pregare
e cercare, questo è tutto ciò che io le chiedo".
Una cosa soprattutto
mancava alla sua fede: l'Eucarestia e la trovò sotto lo sguardo dell'immagine
della Madonna nel Santuario di Montenero. Dal suo Diario: "All'Elevazione
un giovane inglese vicino a me, dimenticando le convenienze, sussurrò: 'Questa
è la loro presenza reale. Che vergogna provai a quel sussurro. E il rapido
pensiero: 'Se nostro Signore non è là, perché l'Apostolo fece delle minacce?...
come può egli biasimare il non discernere il Corpo del Signore, se esso non è
là?... come potrebbero quelli, per i quali egli è morto, mangiare e bere la
loro condanna, se il Benedetto Sacramento non è altro che un pezzo dì
pane?'".
La fame dell'Eucarestia e
della verità aumentava: "Cercare e pregare". Gioia nel leggere,
inginocchiata, La vita devota di San Francesco di Sales, Autorità
infallibile della Chiesa Cattolica: intanto Antonio le insegnava il Segno
della Croce e con quale spirito farlo.
Era pronta per entrare
nella Chiesa cattolica, ma i Filicchi preferirono che il passaggio avvenisse
dopo il suo rientro nel suo ambiente a New York, affrontando l'opposizione dei
parenti, le difficoltà delle prospettive anche economiche cui sarebbe andata
incontro, i dubbi e il profondo conflitto interiore cui avrebbe dovuto esporsi
e la "morte sociale" nei confronti della bella società di cui faceva
parte per entrare nella "feccia" dei poveri e pochi immigrati
irlandesi, che allora componevano la comunità cattolica della città.
Soffriva, deperiva, ma
"cercava e pregava": si consigliava con Antonio Filicchi, che
l'aveva accompagnata nel viaggio e che, pur preso dai problemi dei suoi
commerci, rimaneva costantemente in contatto epistolare con lei e la metteva in
rapporto con maestri preparati e Santi.
Ogni sera faceva il segno
della croce, si commuoveva quando Annina, la figlia più grande, insisteva per
recitare insieme l'Ave Maria che avevano imparato dagli amici
italiani: "Mi dicono di stare attenta perché sono madre... Ma appunto
per questo io andrò serenamente e fermamente verso la Chiesa cattolica, perché
se la vera fede è così importante per la nostra redenzione io la cercherò là
dove la vera fede ebbe inizio... Venite, bambini miei, ci presenteremo insieme
a Nostro Signore. Un po' piango, un po’ rido, ma non ho paura... perché
ripongo tutta la mia fiducia in Dio... Aspetto soltanto l'arrivo di Antonio la
prossima settimana per andare coraggiosamente e spavaldamente: ora è affar
suo!".
Il 14 marzo 1805 "feci
la professione di fede", poi il 25 marzo: "Finalmente Dio è
in me ed io sono sua: io l'ho ricevuto!".
La sua fame di Cristo
nell'Eucarestia era saziata e ci fu "un'esplosione di gioia e di
letizia"
Si acuì la messa al bando
da parte dei parenti e conoscenti, le difficoltà economiche premevano
nonostante il sostegno dei Filicchi, dovette cercarsi un lavoro dedicandosi
alla cura non solo dei suoi bambini, ma di altri ragazzi nel convitto.di una
scuola: ma era solo un ripiego che non risolveva i problemi, anche se Dio
cominciava a tracciarle una strada.
La volontà di Dio le si
manifestò attraverso un missionario francese, il Padre Dubourg, fuggito dagli
orrori della Rivoluzione e che insieme ad altri a Baltimora aveva potuto far
crescere la comunità cattolica: potrà aprire lì una piccola scuola per
l'educazione delle bambine.
La Seton, prima di
accogliere la proposta, volle rimettersi al giudizio di Monsignor Carroll,
Vescovo di Baltimora, ed anche dei consiglieri suggeritigli da Antonio
Filicchi, Padre Matignon e Padre De Cheverus di Boston: l'esortazione
a fondare la scuola fu unanime.
Nel 1808 Elizabeth
Seton lasciava la città nativa, assieme ai figli a bordo del Grand Sachem e
giunse a Baltimora il 16 giugno, festa del Corpus Domini. Quando giunse al
Seminario di Saint Mary il Vescovo Carroll, circondato solennemente dal clero
della città, stava cominciando la Messa ed inaugurava la nuova chiesa.
L'abitazione che le fu
trovata in Paca Street era proprio a ridosso della chiesa — di casa poteva
sentire squillare il campanello al momento della consacrazione — e la modesta
dimora di mattoni rossi fu anche la prima scuola parrocchiale per giovanette
che veniva aperta.
In questo primo anno
maturò anche la sua decisione di' consacrarsi al Signore nella vita religiosa:
il 25 marzo emise i voti. Nel frattempo altre quattro giovani si erano unite a
Elizabeth ed il 1° giugno anche loro fecero i voti religiosi: nasceva la prima
congregazione degli Stati Uniti, delle Figlie della Carità nello
spirito delle regole di San Vincenzo de' Paoli. Il vestito
rimase quello che aveva indossato a Livorno alla morte del marito al modo delle
vedove toscane. "Madre Seton" sarà ormai il nome e così sarà
sempre chiamata in seguito.
La casa di Paca Street
era ormai insufficiente e, nel susseguirsi delle cose al modo dei fioretti di
San Francesco, un benefattore, Samuel Cooper, le fece dono di un appezzamento
di terreno ad Emmitsburg, cinquanta miglia da Baltimora, dove potrà costruire
un nuovo istituto e dare sviluppo alla sua opera. La seguirono anche i figli:
le bambine con lei al nuovo istituto e i due maschietti a pochi chilometri dove
il Padre Dubois aveva fondato il Seminario di Mont Saint Mary: potrà così
continuare ad esercitare i suoi doveri materni.
La casa di pietra (Stone
House), che era appartenuta al contadino del terreno regalato, non era ancora
sistemata e per sei settimane la comunità dovette sistemarsi in una cabina di
montagna messa a loro disposizione dal reverendo Jean Dubois. Il 31 luglio
scesero nella vallata di San Giuseppe e la "casa di pietra" da quel
momento venne considerata la "culla della comunità". Sei mesi dopo
Madre Seton aprì la scuola nel nuovo edificio di legno dipinto di bianco: per
questo la casa fu chiamata "White House".
Il lavoro della Comunità
progredì rapidamente nonostante le sofferenze e le durezze. Si aspettavano le
Figlie della Carità da Parigi che prendessero in carico la nuova opera, ma le
Suore incaricate rimasero bloccate a Le Havre dalle autorità napoleoniche. Non
rimase che adattare le regole dell'Istituto francese: d'altra parte Madre
Seton era "gelosa" della regola introdotta che le
permetteva di continuare
ad essere, prima di tutto, mamma.
Seguirono dodici anni di
intensa operosità. Madre Seton dirigeva, istruendo le sue figlie in santità ed
avviandole come pioniere a fondare istituti e opere di carità. Le scuole
parrocchiali, la grande intuizione che sarà lo strumento essenziale del forte
sviluppo della Chiesa cattolica degli Stati Uniti. Ma istituì anche il primo
orfanotrofio cattolico a Filadelfia nel 1814, che preparò l'apertura del primo
ospedale cattolico (Baltimora, 1823). Nel 1817 le sue Figlie furono chiamate
anche a New York dove, nell'area dove attualmente è il Central Park, aprirono
un grande istituto scolastico: la città che l'aveva rifiutata, riceveva i
frutti della sua conversione.
Continuò la
corrispondenza, nei limiti dell'embargo delle autorità, la corrispondenza con i
Filicchi, gli amici di Livorno che del resto continuarono il loro generoso
sostegno economico.
Il dolore accompagnò
comunque la vita di Madre Seton: prima le cognate Harriet e Cecilia, che
l'avevano accompagnata nella fede cattolica, poi due delle sue figliole furono
troncate dalla malattia che era entrata come un triste patrimonio di famiglia,
la tubercolosi. La prima a lasciarla fu Annina, la primogenita, che aveva accompagnato
i genitori nel viaggio in Italia: aveva maturato la convinzione di essere anche
lei chiamata alla vita religiosa, ma in pochi mesi si manifestò il male e,
attraverso strazianti sofferenze sopportate con serenità stupefacente in pochi
mesi raggiunse una condizione molto simile alla Santità. La madre raccontò in
un diario il calvario della figlia, come aveva fatto quando era stata accanto
al marito nel Lazzaretto a Livorno. Annina ottenne la dispensa, in riferimento
alla sua giovane età, di emettere i voti e il 12marzo 1812 spirò tra le braccia
della madre, mentre il Padre Brute celebrava la Messa nella vicina cappella.
Quattro anni dopo la più
piccola delle figlie, Rebecca, la lasciò, anche lei dopo un cammino straziante
di sofferenze terribili per il male che si era manifestato con una tubercolosi
ossea. La madre, temprata dal dolore e sostenuta dalla luminosa direzione spirituale
del Padre Bruté, dovette ancora una volta farsi carico di accompagnare la
figlia quattordicenne nel cammino verso l'eternità.
Per i due figli maschi,
non particolarmente dotati, Elizabeth era particolarmente preoccupata che,
nella prospettiva della sua fine, potessero rientrare nella famiglia di
origine e staccarsi dalla fede cattolica. Per questo cercò di avviarli ad un
lavoro che li tenesse lontani da queste prospettive e si rivolse agli amici
livornesi. Accolsero prima William e poi Richard, ma non erano portati per il
lavoro commerciale e ognuno di loro, dopo una permanenza di alcuni anni a
Livorno, rientrarono in patria e si impiegarono nella Marina degli Stati Uniti.
Richard morì poco tempo dopo la madre, di una febbre contagiosa contratta per
assistere in maniera eroica il proprio comandante. La figlia Catherine,
affidata agli amici Harper, si fece suora della Mercede e morì novantenne.
Madre Seton, dopo una
vita spesa al servizio del Signore, si spense il 4 gennaio 1821, nel suo
quarantasettesimo anno. La tubercolosi, che da anni minava la sua salute, negli
ultimi mesi si era aggravata. Circondata dalla sua Comunità, sussurrò:
"Siate figlie fedeli della Chiesa, siate vere figlie
della Chiesa!".
Fu sepolta nel
"piccolo sacro bosco" vicino alla casa, accanto alle cognate, alle
figlie, alle prime Suore che l'avevano preceduta nel cammino dell'eternità.
Padre Simon Brute
scriveva all'amico Antonio Filicchi a Livorno: "... Ella visse unicamente
per le sue Suore e per compiere i suoi sacri doveri... Com'era profonda la sua
fede! Come era tenera la sua pietà! Come sincera l'umiltà associata alla grande
intelligenza! Come grande la bontà e la gentilezza che irradia
intorno!".
"Non cerco che Dio e
la sua Chiesa", aveva scritto nel 1805 nella notte del suo conflitto
spirituale alla ricerca della verità e della volontà di Dio. La Chiesa di Dio
la trovò, vi giunse, non rinnegando il suo passato, come sottolineava
il Papa Giovanni XXIII, il 17 marzo 1963, nel giorno della
beatificazione, ma piuttosto come punto di arrivo provvidenziale offerto
ai suoi studi, alla sua preghiera, alle sue opere di carità, e al quale era
preparata dall'orientamento della sua vita precedente. A poco a poco, ella si è
trovata nel seno della Chiesa cattolica: fu per lei un arricchimento del patrimonio
che possedeva già, l'apertura di uno scrigno chiuso che ella aveva nelle sue
mani, la conoscenza piena della verità totale, vicino alla quale aveva sempre
camminato sin dalla sua giovane età.
Fu canonizzata, il 14
settembre 1975 dal Papa Paolo VI: "Elisabetta Anna Seton è Santa":
era l'Anno Santo nonché, proclamato dall'ONU, l'"anno della
donna".
Don Gino Franchi
https://www.madreseton.it/seton/index.php/en/santa-e-ann-seton
SOURCE : https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/elizabeth-ann-bayley-seton.html
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Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
BEATIFICACIÓN DE ISABEL
ANA BAYLEY SETON
HOMILÍA DEL SANTO PADRE
JUAN XXIII
Venerables hermanos,
queridos hijos:
El trozo evangélico de la
dominica de hoy, tercera de cuaresma, nos trae el eco suave y consolador de la
palabra del Salvador Divino: “Bienaventurados los que oyen la palabra de Dios y
la guardan” (Lc 11,28). Esta bienaventuranza resume la esencia de toda la
vida cristiana, armonía de fe y de obras, de pensamiento y de acción, que a
partir de la semilla sembrada en el bautismo, marcha en pleno desarrollo hacia
los esplendores de la vida eterna.
Esta tarde le place al
humilde vicario de Cristo aplicar esas palabras a quien la Iglesia venera desde
hoy en la gloria de los beatos: Isabel Ana Bayley Seton. Verdaderamente
bienaventurada, porque oyó la voz de Dios y la puso en práctica.
El Señor nos ha concedido
gozar un nuevo rayo de la Divina Providencia, y al elevar el himno de acción de
gracias, con las notas del Te Deum, nuestro ánimo se llena de emocionada
gratitud. Siempre admirable en sus santos (Ps 67,36), Dios enciende en la
humanidad, que peregrina hacia el Cielo, rayos de un nuevo esplendor.
El pensamiento gusta
detenerse en la mansa y fuerte figura de la beata, propuesta como universal
ejemplo de heroica virtud, para aportar luces de enseñanza, de aliento y de
buenas inspiraciones.
Primera flor de santidad
en los Estados Unidos
I. Isabel Seton es la
primera flor —oficialmente reconocida— de santidad que los Estados Unidos de
América ofrecen al mundo. Hija auténtica de aquella nación, vivió desde 1774 a
1821, justamente cuando la joven República acababa de afianzarse en el
concierto de las naciones, para dar prueba de sus inagotables posibilidades en
todos los campos. Además, en aquellos años se constituía la jerarquía católica,
y sobre la sólida roca de la fe cristiana se ponían las bases seguras de un
maravilloso desarrollo de las obras católicas, como hoy aparece con toda su
eficiencia.
El primer pensamiento de
especial aliento va dirigido, pues, a la tierra de origen de la nueva beata. En
los Estados Unidos a los héroes de las más nobles empresas humanas se les
dedican en vida y en muerte aclamaciones y simpatía. Nos place reconocer que no
menor atención, respeto y amor se les dedica a los hombres y a las mujeres que
se han entregado a Cristo, a su Evangelio, a la actividad de una existencia
exquisitamente evangélica, y también a la más rígida disciplina ascética, con
el creciente florecimiento de las ordenes contemplativas.
Sus ciudadanos han
surcado los mares y los cielos, han realizado empresas excelentes, han dado
amplia hospitalidad y trabajo a hombres de todas las tierras. América ha
continuado superando animosamente de tiempo en tiempo las dificultades
acaecidas, dando a su legislación —que se deriva de los principios de la moral
cristiana— un contenido que responde cada vez más a la dignidad de la persona
humana. Nos conforta el poder rendir este testimonio a esa ilustre nación, como
augurio de ulteriores afanes en la afirmación de lo espiritual.
Prodigio de la gracia
celestial
En este tercer domingo de
cuaresma de 1963 es la primera vez que sobre el altar de la cátedra de San
Pedro aparece gloriosa la imagen de una heroína de los Estados Unidos de
América. En el vario concierto de la santidad de la Iglesia se suma una nueva
nota, que aporta el elemento propio de aquel pueblo, pues, como dice San
Ambrosio, es un único cuerpo real, que se compone de diversas procedencias:
“reina, de reinado indiviso, formando un único cuerpo de diversos y distantes
pueblos” (Exposit. Evang. sec. Luc. lib. 7, cap. II: PL 15,1700).
De esta forma toda la
Iglesia, aquí representada por hombres de diversas procedencias y estirpes,
rinde un homenaje de veneración a Isabel Seton.
II. Miramos de cerca a
esta que hoy se eleva a la gloria de los beatos: Isabel Seton, prodigio de la
gracia celestial.
Dios llevó a esta mujer a
muchas experiencias y a profundas decisiones de vida espiritual, siéndole la fe
algo habitual, como la respiración de su vida; llenándola del amor al prójimo,
especialmente, en una hora dolorosísima de su existencia, para que tocase con
su
mano la presencia de
Dios, que consuela a los humildes (2 Co 7,6).
Pensamos en el
apostolado, lleno de delicadeza, que desarrolló la familia Filicchi, con la que
Isabel estuvo en contacto en 1803, con ocasión de su viaje a Italia. En Livorno
se le murió el marido en aquel año. Aquella familia livornesa, instrumento
fácil para las inspiraciones celestiales y verdaderamente sabia para ponerlas
en práctica, fue límpido ejemplo de fidelidad a la Iglesia, presentando a los
ojos de la ferviente episcopaliana —cual entonces era Isabel— el cuadro ideal
de un catolicismo vivido, y del que se sintió atraída.
La nueva beata, como
puede decirse de otros insignes personajes del siglo pasado, llegó al
catolicismo no a través de la negación del pasado, sino como a una meta
providencial de estudio, de oración y de caridad, a la cual la disponía toda la
orientación de su vida anterior. Un paso después de otro, se encontró en el
seno de la Iglesia católica, fue para ella un enriquecer el patrimonio que ya
poseía, un abrir el cofre cerrado que estaba en sus manos, un penetrar en el
conocimiento de la verdad plena, cerca de cuya morada se había encontrado desde
sus jóvenes años.
Los caminos del Señor son
infinitos: “Señor, estás cercano, y la verdad son todos tus caminos” (Ps 118,
151). Venerables hermanos y queridos hijos: no los recorramos con ánimo
impaciente, a la espera del encuentro con tantos hermanos nuestros, que la
última oración del Salvador Divino pidió con acentos sobrehumanos: “que todos
sean una sola cosa” (Jn 17,21). Nos basta levantar los ojos llenos de
confianza, hacia la nueva beata, que, desde su imagen, irradia encantos de
atracción espiritual sobre las almas, seguros de su poderosa intercesión.
Y exhortamos al mismo
tiempo a todos los hijos de la familia universal católica para que con su
ejemplo de fidelidad al ideal altísimo, propuesto por Cristo —unidos a Él, y
por Él unidos al Padre, y en la Santa Iglesia unidos al Sucesor de San Pedro,
cabeza visible de la familia católica— sean también ellos instrumentos de
salvación y de verdadera alegría.
III. Isabel Seton, que
fue objeto de especial amor de Dios y al prójimo, dio, a su vez, impulso y
avance a la caridad.
El nombre y el símbolo de
la caridad se convirtió en el programa de su vida interior y de su actividad
exterior; este latido se propagó desde su familia natural a la extensa familia
de sus hermanos de ayer, y a todos los encuadrados en las bienaventuranzas de
Cristo: los pobres, los perseguidos, los débiles, los enfermos, los oprimidos.
Luz y programa de una
vida heroica
Con la fundación de la
familia religiosa de las Hermanas de la Caridad de San José, cuatro años
después de su encuentro con el catolicismo, quiso dedicarse a todas las formas
de la caridad con el ejercicio voluntarioso de las obras de misericordia
espiritual y corporal. Junto a las innumerables providencias en favor de los
huérfanos y necesitados ocupó un primer puesto su obra en pro de la educación
de la juventud, por lo cual es justamente tenida como una de las precursoras
del sistema escolar parroquial, que tantos frutos ha dado y continúa dando en
los Estado Unidos, ofreciendo a la Iglesia y a la nación escuadras de católicos
fervientes y de ciudadanos ejemplares.
La figura de Isabel Seton
continúa viviendo en la entrega de sus hijas espirituales, que todavía se
dedican, cada ,una de ellas, a beneficiar a innumerables escuadras de adultos y
de niños, de necesitados en el cuerpo y en espíritu. Y gustamos detener nuestra
mirada en todas las hermanas de la caridad. Con hábitos distintos y reglas
adaptadas a los climas y a las costumbres de los diversos países renuevan la
gesta de San Vicente Paúl y de Santa Luisa de Marillac. De la incansable
actividad de cada una, movida por el amor a Dios, se levanta en todo el mundo,
con múltiples aplicaciones, el himno de San Pablo, con toda su frescura y
atracción: “La caridad es paciente, es benigna, la caridad no es fastidiosa...
no busca su propio interés, se alegra en la posesión de la verdad, a todo se
acomoda, todo lo cree, todo lo espera, todo lo soporta” (1 Co 13, 4-7).
Nos sentimos afecto
paternal, admiración y gratitud por todas las religiosas; y estamos seguros de
que ellas, particularmente en este año del Concilio, serán como las vírgenes
prudentes del Evangelio. Es decir, dispuestas a aceptar todas las indicaciones
de la Jerarquía en pro de un servicio que responda, cada vez más, en todos los
campos, a las necesidades y a las exigencias de nuestro tiempo.
Testimonio de fe y de
obras
La glorificación de una
heroína de la caridad quiere infundir un nuevo afán de entrega, no solamente a
estas beneméritas religiosas, sino también a todos los miembros de la Iglesia,
sacerdotes y seglares, ancianos y jóvenes, para que con la caridad sepan dar el
testimonio de amor y de obras que el mundo espera.
¡Oh beata Isabel Seton,
que brillas hoy ante el mundo por tu fidelidad a las promesas bautismales, mira
con ojos de predilección a tu pueblo, que de ti se gloría como primera flor de
santidad! Concédeles de Dios la gracia de guardar el sagrado patrimonio de la
vocación al Evangelio, la firmeza en la fe, el ardor en da caridad para que
corresponda a su particular vocación. Y sobre la Iglesia entera extiende tu
protección, ofreciéndole como ejemplo el fuego de generosidad y de amor, que te
impulsó de caridad en caridad (2 Co 3,18) a la glorificación de hoy.
Venerables hermanos y
queridos hijos:
Como hermosa corona de
este día de alegría desciendan sobre vosotros los abundantes favores del Señor,
a quien se le debe “honor, gloria y poder por los siglos de los siglos” (Ap 5,13).
Prenda y reverbero de las celestiales complacencias, quiere ser la bendición
apostólica, que de corazón impartimos sobre cada uno de vosotros, sobre los
peregrinos de los Estados Unidos de América, del Canadá y de los demás países,
y sobre todos los hombres y mujeres que fielmente custodian la heredad de la
madre Isabel Seton.
¡Fiat, Fiat!
Copyright © Dicastero per
la Comunicazione - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
_-_stained_glass%2C_arcade%2C_Saint_Elizabeth_Ann_Seton.jpg)
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, stained glass, arcade, Saint Paul Catholic Church, Westerville, Ohio
Den hellige Elisabeth
Anna Bayley Seton (1774-1821)
Minnedag: 4.
januar
Den hellige Elisabeth
Anna Bayley ble født den 28. august 1774 i New York i USA, to år før den
amerikanske uavhengigheten. Foreldrene var ivrige medlemmer av den episkopale
(anglikanske) kirke, hennes mor Catherine Charlton var datter av den episkopale
rektor for kirken St. Andrew's i Staten Island, mens faren Richard Bayley var
en fremstående lege og anatomiprofessor ved King's College, som i dag er
Columbia-universitetet. Han var også den første helsedirektør for New York
City. Han var født i Connecticut, men utdannet i England, og han forble lojal
til britene under den amerikanske uavhengighetskrigen og tjente som kirurg for
de britiske «rødjakkene» som sloss mot George Washingtons opprørshær. De fleste
av hennes slektninger var hengivne protestanter.
Elisabeths mor døde da
hun bare var tre år gammel og etterlot seg tre unge døtre. Faren giftet seg på
nytt med Charlotte Barclay, og blant de syv barna i hans andre ekteskap var Guy
Charleton Bayley. Dennes sønn James Roosevelt Bayley skulle konvertere og bli
katolsk erkebiskop av Baltimore. Elisabeth var alltid svært glad i sin stemor,
som var en from anglikaner, og sine halvsøsken. Faren sørget for at hun fikk en
noe uortodoks, men utmerket utdannelse, både på en privatskole i New York City
og i hjemmet, hvor faren underviste henne og hennes brødre og søstre. Elisabeth
leste med entusiasme bøker fra farens omfattende bibliotek. Hun var også svært
from, og fra sine tidligste år viste hun en uvanlig omsorg for de fattige, og
hun vokste opp med en lengsel etter å pleie de syke, spesielt de som var
fattige. Men hun elsket også dans og teater. Hun hadde arvet et voldsomt
temperament, men hun lærte seg å beherske det.
Den 25. januar 1794
giftet den 19-årige Elisabeth seg med den rike kjøpmannen William Magee Seton i
St. Paul's Church i New York, og med ham fikk hun to sønner og tre døtre. I sin
svigerinne Rebecca Seton fant hun en sjelevenn, og i 1797 var hun en av grunnleggerne
av et selskap som skulle hjelpe fattige enker med små barn (The Society
for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children). Elisabeth og hennes venner
var så aktive at de ble kjent som «protestantiske Barmhjertige søstre». De
besøkte de fattige i deres hjem for å bringe trøst og pleie de syke.
Men lykken snudde.
Elisabeths svigerfar døde i 1798, og det unge paret fikk ansvaret for Williams
syv halvsøsken og for familiens importforretning. Elisabeths far døde i 1801,
og i 1802 ble deres femte barn født. William tapte sin formue i 1800 da mange
av familiens skip ble senket i krig, og han var nødt til å slå seg selv
konkurs. Det gikk slik ut over hans helse at han utviklet tuberkulose. Legene
foreskrev en sjøreise, og i 1803 dro ekteparet sammen med sin eldste datter,
den åtteårige Anna, for å bo hos de italienske brødrene Filicchi, mannens
forretningsvenner i Livorno i Italia, i håp om at det sunnere klimaet der kunne
kurere William. De andre barna, William, Richard, Rebecca og Catherine, ble
etterlatt hos Rebecca Seton.
Men William døde i Pisa
den 27. desember 1803, seks uker etter deres ankomst, og Elisabeth ble enke,
bare 28 år gammel. Hun overlevde ved hjelp fra vennligheten fra brødrene
Filicchi og deres familie, og hun ble boende en stund hos dem. Mens hun var hos
disse katolske familiene og i kirkene i Italia begynte hun å se skjønnheten i
den katolske tro. Hun ble først forsinket av datterens sykdom og deretter sin
egen, men da hun til slutt vendte tilbake til New York den 3. juni 1804 sammen
med Antonio Filicchi, var hun allerede overbevist katolikk. Hennes svigerinne
Rebecca døde i juli.
Hun møtte sterk motstand
fra sine episkopale venner og slektninger, og Mr. Hobart (senere anglikansk
biskop) som hadde stor innflytelse over henne, gjorde alt han kunne for å
avskrekke henne fra å bli katolikk. Men Elisabeth fastet og ba om opplysning,
og med hjelp fra Antonio Filicchi brevvekslet hun med Louis Lefèbvre de
Cheverus, den første biskopen av Boston. Etter grundig undervisning ble hun
tatt opp i Den katolske kirke den 14. mars 1805 av p. Matthew O'Brien i St.
Peter's Church i Barclay Street i New York. Den 25. mars mottok hun sin første
kommunion, og hun ble konfirmert i 1806 av biskop John Carroll av Baltimore.
Elisabeth var nå forlatt
av venner og slektninger, og hun var i en desperat økonomisk stilling. I et
forsøk på å få endene til å møtes startet hun en pensjonatskole i New York for
sine barn. Men hennes fremgang og svigerinnen Cecilia Setons konversjon i 1806
skapte en storm av raseri fra protestantene i New York, og hennes familie og
deres mektige venner gikk til skritt for å få henne utvist fra byen. Skolen ble
tvunget til å stenge da foreldrene tok sine barn ut av skolen på grunn av
hennes katolisisme. Da etablerte hun et losjihus hvor hun lagde mat, sydde for
og så etter 14 gutter som gikk på skole andre steder i byen. Hun var tvunget
til å arbeide dag og natt og vurderte å flytte til Canada, hvor hun håpet at
livet kunne bli lettere og billigere.
Men hun slapp å emigrere,
for etter noen meget vanskelige år ble hun invitert av dr. William Dubourg,
lederen for sekularprestkongregasjonen Sulpisianerne i Baltimore og rektor for
seminaret St. Mary's, til å grunnlegge en skole for jenter der. Skolen åpnet i
juni 1808 og hadde snart suksess. Elisabeth samlet en gruppe likesinnede
kvinner rundt seg på samme måte som hun hadde gjort i New York, og etter hvert
ga sulpisianer-superioren, med godkjennelse av biskop John Carroll av
Baltimore, Elisabeth og hennes assistenter en regel. De fikk også tillatelse til
å avlegge løfter og til å bære drakt. Den 25. mars 1809 avla hun sine første
løfter.
Mr. Cooper, en konvertitt
og seminarist fra Virginia, ga 10.000 $ til grunnleggelsen av en skole for
fattige barn. I juni 1809 flyttet Elisabeth sin unge kommunitet på fire
medsøstre til Emmitsburg i det nordvestlige Maryland, hvor hun grunnla en skole
for barn av fattige. Hun innførte en regel som var bygd på regelen som ble
fulgt av Barmhjertighetens søstre, grunnlagt av den hellige Vincent de Paul (Sorores
Caritatis Sancti Vincentii a Paul). Tre av disse søstrene skulle sendes for å
lære opp den unge kommuniteten, men Napoleon nektet dem å forlate Frankrike.
Kongregasjonen tok navnet «St. Josefs søstre», og fra da var Elisabeth kjent
som Moder Seton. Tittelen passet spesielt godt, for noen av hennes egne barn
var fortsatt hos henne i Stone House, som det ble kjent som.
Elisabeth Setons
grunnleggelse var den første kongregasjonen for kvinner som hadde sin
opprinnelse i USA, The American Sisters of Charity; fra 1812 The
Daughters of Charity of St. Joseph; i dag Sisters of Charity of Seton
Hill – SC. I 1812 var den lille kommuniteten vokst til nitten, blant dem
Elisabeths svigerinner Harriet og Cecilia, og ble akseptert som en offisiell
kongregasjon av erkebiskop Carroll med Elisabeth som den første leder
(superior). Moder Seton og hennes atten søstre avla løftene den 19. juli 1813.
Selv om Elisabeth ikke
glemte tjenesten for de fattige, og spesielt for de svarte, la hun i realiteten
grunnsteinen for det som ble det amerikanske kirkeskole-systemet. Hun utdannet
lærere og lagde bøker for bruk i disse skolene, og hun åpnet også barnehjem i
Philadelphia (1814) og New York (1817).
Moder Seton fant også tid
ved siden av å lede kongregasjonen til selv å arbeide med de fattige og syke,
men også til å komponere musikk, skrive hymner og skrive åndelige foredrag.
Mange av dem ble senere utgitt. Hun oversatte også bøker fra fransk til
engelsk. Ved hennes død var det grunnlagt over tyve søsterkommuniteter.
Kongregasjonen har vokst betydelig, og er i dag en av de største og mest
innflytelsesrike av sitt slag. Etter hvert utviklet kongregasjonen seg til fem
uavhengige kommuniteter, samt en sjette som sluttet seg sammen med de franske
Barmhjertighetens døtre i 1850.
Den hellige Elisabeth
Anna Bayley (en: Elizabeth Ann) ble født den 28. august 1774 i New York City i
USA, to år før den amerikanske uavhengigheten. Hun var det andre barnet av dr.
Richard Bayley (1744-1801) og hans hustru Catherine Charlton (d. 1777), begge
familiene var blant de første i New York. Farens foreldre William Bayley (ca
1708-ca 1758) og Susannah LeConte (LeCompte, f. 1727), var prominente
hugenotter i New Rochelle i New York. Elisabeths mor var datter av Mary Bayeux
og dr. Richard Charlton (d. 1777), som bodde på Staten Island, hvor dr.
Charlton var pastor i Saint Andrew’s episkopale (anglikanske) kirke. Elisabeths
foreldre var ivrige medlemmer av den episkopale kirke, og de fleste av hennes
slektninger var hengivne protestanter.
Faren var en fremstående
lege og anatomiprofessor ved King’s College, som i dag er
Columbia-universitetet. Han var også den første helsedirektør for New York
City. Han var født i Connecticut, men utdannet i England, og han forble lojal
til britene under den amerikanske uavhengighetskrigen og tjente som kirurg for
de britiske «rødjakkene» som sloss mot George Washingtons opprørshær.
Elisabeths mor Catherine
døde i 1777 da Elisabeth var tre år gammel. Dette var muligens et resultat av
en barnefødsel, for deres yngste barn, Catherine Bayley (1777-78), døde tidlig
året etter. Parets første barn, Mary Magdalene Bayley (1768-1856), giftet seg i
1790 med dr. Wright Post (1766-1828) fra New York.
Faren giftet seg på nytt
i 1778 med Charlotte Amelia Barclay (1759-1805), et medlem av familien til
Jacobus James Roosevelt, for å sørge for en ny mor til hans to overlevende
døtre. Paret fikk syv barn, tre døtre og fire sønner. Blant dem var Guy
Charleton Bayley (1786-1859), og hans sønn James Roosevelt Bayley (1814-77)
skulle konvertere til katolisismen og bli den første biskop av Newark (1853-72)
og åttende erkebiskop av Baltimore (1872-77). Etter eget ønske ble erkebiskop
Bayley gravlagt på St. Joseph’s Cemetery, den originale kirkegården til The
Sisters of Charity i Emmitsburg.
Elisabeth var alltid
svært glad i sine halvsøsken og sin stemor, som var en from anglikaner og ble
aktiv i kirkens sosiale arbeid og pleide å besøke de fattige i deres hjem for å
distribuere mat og annet som de trengte. Hun pleide å ta den unge Elisabeth med
seg på sine veldedige runder. Faren sørget for at Elisabeth fikk en noe
uortodoks, men utmerket utdannelse, både på en privatskole i New York City og i
hjemmet, hvor faren underviste henne og hennes brødre og søstre. Elisabeth
leste med entusiasme bøker fra farens omfattende bibliotek. Hun var også svært
from, og fra sine tidligste år viste hun en uvanlig omsorg for de fattige, og
hun vokste opp med en lengsel etter å pleie de syke, spesielt de som var
fattige. Men hun elsket også dans og teater. Hun hadde arvet et voldsomt
temperament, men hun lærte seg å beherske det.
Ekteskapet mellom
Elisabeths far og den andre fru Bayley endte med separasjon som et resultat av
en ekteskapelig konflikt. Elisabeth og hennes eldre søster Mary Magdalene ble
avvist av stemoren i dette bruddet. Deres far reiste til London for videre
medisinske studier på den tiden, så døtrene bodde midlertidig i New Rochelle
sammen med deres onkel på farssiden, William Bayley, og hans hustru Sarah Pell
Bayley. Etter å ha mistet en mor for andre gang opplevde Elisabeth en periode
av mørke i denne tiden, noe hun reflekterte over senere i sine dagbøker. I
disse dagbøkene viste Elisabeth en naturlig hang til kontemplasjon, hun elsket
naturen, poesi og musikk, spesielt piano. Hun snakket flytende fransk, var en
god musiker og en dyktig rytter. Hun var tilbøyelig til selvgranskning og
gjorde ofte notater i dagboken som uttrykte sine følelser, religiøse streben og
favorittavsnitt fra sin lesing.
Elisabeth ble en populær
gjest i selskaper og på ball. Lenge etterpå skrev hun om alt dette som ganske
harmløst, bortsett fra distraksjoner ved kveldsbønnen og bryet med å gjøre et
stort nummer av kjoler. Elisabeth møtte William Magee Seton (1768-1803), en
sønn av William Seton sr. (1746-98) og Rebecca Curson Seton (ca 1746-ca 1775),
som ble hodestups forelsket i henne. Følelsene ble gjengjeldt, og de giftet seg
nitten og 25 år gamle den 25. januar 1794 i St. Paul’s Church i New York.
Bryllupet ble holdt i hjemmet til Elisabeths søster og svoger, dr. Wright og
Mary Bayley Post, på Manhattan. Samuel Provoost (1742-1815), den første
episkopale biskop av New York, bevitnet parets bryllupsløfter.
Elisabeths mann William
var en rik kjøpmann i importhandel, og hans far, William Seton sr., tilhørte
den utarmede skotske adelsfamilien Setons fra Parbroath og emigrerte til New
York i 1758, og han ble bestyrer for og deleier av jernverkene i Ringwood
i New Jersey. Han var lojalist og den siste kongelige notarius publicus for
byen og provinsen New York under krigen. William Magee var den eldste sønnen i
farens to ekteskap. William Seton sr. giftet seg i 1767 med Rebecca Curson (ca
1746-1775), og året etter hennes død giftet han seg i 1776 med hennes søster
Anna Maria Curson (d.1792).
Elisabeth og William fikk
fem barn, to sønner og tre døtre: Anna Maria (Annina) (1795-1812), William II
(1796-1868), Richard Bayley (1798-1823), Catherine Charlton (1800-91) (som
skulle bli den første amerikaner som sluttet seg til The Sisters of Mercy) og
Rebecca Mary (1802-16). Anna Maria, som fulgte foreldrene til Italia i 1803,
fikk tuberkulose da hun var ung, men avla sine løfter som en Sister of Charity
på dødsleiet. Hennes yngste søster Rebecca falt på isen en gang før 1812, noe
som gjorde at hun fikk en hofteskade som resulterte i lammelse og tidlig død,
også av tuberkulose. Både Anna Maria og Rebecca er gravlagt på St. Joseph’s
Cemetery ved The National Shrine of St. Elisabeth Ann Seton i
Emmitsburg i Maryland. Etter at Richard ble statstjenestemann og soling med
U.S. Navy i 1822, ble han smittet av tyfus som et resultat av å ha pleid et
offer for sykdommen. Richard døde tidlig utenfor kysten av Liberia om bord på
skipet Oswego og ble gravlagt til havs.
Catherine Charlton (også
kalt Josephine), var vakker og slagferdig. Hun utmerket seg for sine språklige
og musikalske talenter, som ble utviklet på Saint Joseph’s Academy i
Emmitsburg. Hun var den eneste Seton til stede ved sin mors død. Catherine
bodde senere sammen med sin bror William og hans og besøkte Europa med dem
flere ganger før hun ble den første postulanten og et grunnleggermedlem
av The Sisters of Mercy i New York City i 1846. Som Mother Mary
Catherine viet hun seg i mer enn førti år til fengselstjeneste i New York.
William II hadde vist en lidenskap for det åpne havet siden sin ungdom. Han ble
utnevnt til løytnant i U.S. Navy i februar 1826 og giftet seg i 1832 med Emily
Prime (1804-54). Syv av deres ni barn levde til de ble voksne, inkludert
erkebiskop Robert Seton (1839-1927) og Helen (1844-1906), en annen Sister
of Mercy i New York som sr. Mary Catherine (1879-1906).
Familien Seton var
sosialt prominente i New York og tilhørte den fasjonable Trinity Episcopal
Church på Broadway. Elisabeth var en hengiven kommunikant der under innflytelse
av Rev. John Henry Hobart (1775-1830, senere biskop), som var hennes åndelige
veileder. I sin svigerinne Rebecca Mary Seton (1780-1804) fant Elisabeth en
sjelevenn, og i 1797 var hun en av grunnleggerne av et selskap som skulle
hjelpe fattige enker med små barn (The Society for the Relief of Poor
Widows with Small Children). Elisabeth og hennes venner var så aktive at de ble
kjent som «protestantiske Nestekjærlighetens søstre». De besøkte de fattige i
deres hjem for å bringe trøst og pleie de syke.
William Magee fikk sin
utdannelse i England, og sammen med sin far William sr. og sin bror James var
han grunnleggerpartner i det merkantile import og eksportfirmaet William
Seton Company, som hadde blitt Seton, Maitland and Co. i 1793. Han
hadde besøkt viktige handelshus i Europa i 1788 og var en venn av Filippo
Filicchi (1763-1816), en berømt kjøpmann i Livorno (Leghorn) i Italia, som var
en betydelig handelspartner for hans firma. Men da hans far døde uventet i
1798, og det unge paret fikk ansvaret for Williams syv halvsøsken og for
familiens importforretning, begynte Seton-familiens formue å minske. William
ble hjemsøkt av visjoner om gjeldsfengselet, mens Elisabeth var sikker på at
Gud ville hjelpe dem til å overleve. Selv om Elisabeth var rundt seks måneder
gravid med sitt tredje barn, klarte hun omsorgen for begge familiene Seton. Der
valgte hun hjemmeskole for de tre yngste av hennes svigerinner og oppdaget
gleden ved sin første erfaring med undervisning av sine første elever,
Charlotte (1786-1853), Henrietta (Harriet) (1787-1809) og Cecilia (1791-1810).
Elisabeths far døde i
1801, og i 1802 ble deres femte barn født. Samme år førte virkningene av
Englands blokade av Napoleons Frankrike og av at mange av familiens skip ble
senket i krigen, samt økonomiske faktorer i Amerika til at William tapte sin
formue, og han var nødt til å slå seg selv konkurs i 1801. Familien Seton
mistet sine eiendeler og familiehjemmet i 61 Stone Street på nedre Manhattan.
Elisabeth tilbrakte den julen med å vokte inngangsdøren for å holde beslagsoffiseren
ute. Gjennom det meste av deres ekteskap led William Seton av tuberkulose, og
konkursen forverret hans tilstand. Legene foreskrev en sjøreise, og i 1803 dro
ekteparet sammen med sin eldste datter, den åtteårige Anna, for å bo hos de
italienske brødrene Filicchi, mannens forretningsvenner i Livorno i Italia, i
håp om at det sunnere varme klimaet der kunne kurere William. De andre barna,
William, Richard, Rebecca og Catherine, ble etterlatt hos Rebecca Mary Seton.
For å betale for reisen,
solgte Elisabeth de siste av sine eiendeler – sølv, vaser og bilder, alt trolig
arvet fra hennes far. Selve reisen var behagelig, men da de ankom Livorno,
fryktet myndighetene den gulfeberen som da herjet i New York, og de ble holdt i
karantene i førti dager i et steintårn utenfor byen, San Jacopo Lazaretto. Der
gjennomgikk Elisabeth de grusomste lidelser hun noen gang skulle kjenne,
muligens nøkkelen til alt det som hendte i resten av hennes liv. Hun gråt,
deretter irettesatte hun seg selv for å oppføre seg som om Gud ikke var til
stede. Hun tok seg av sin syke mann, som nå hostet opp blod, underholdt Anna
Maria med historier og spill og holdt små bønnestunder.
Etter dette døde William
i Pisa den 27. desember 1803, seks uker etter deres ankomst, bare 35 år gammel.
Han ble gravlagt på Den gamle engelske kirkegården i Livorno. Nå var Elisabeth
blitt enke, bare 29 år gammel. Hun og datteren Anna Maria overlevde ved hjelp
fra gjestfriheten til brødrene Filicchi og deres familie, og de ble boende en
stund hos dem. Antonio Filicchi (1764-1847) og hans hustru Amabilia Baragazzi
Filicchi (1773-1853) viste stor gjestfrihet overfor enken og datteren inntil de
vendte tilbake til USA neste vår. Filippo og hans hustru, den tidligere Mary
Cowper (1760-1821) fra Boston, sammen med Antonio og Amabilia Filicchi,
introduserte Elisabeth for den romerske katolisismen. Mens Elisabeth var hos
disse katolske familiene og i kirkene i Italia mens hun ventet på å ta fatt på
hjemreisen, begynte hun å se skjønnheten i den katolske tro. Hun ble først
forsinket av datterens sykdom og deretter sin egen, men da hun til slutt vendte
tilbake til New York den 3. juni 1804 sammen med Antonio Filicchi, som hadde
forretningsinteresser i Amerika, var hun allerede overbevist katolikk.
Men øyeblikkelig motstand
og usikkerhet truet hennes beslutning. Elisabeths religiøse tilbøyeligheter
skapte vrede hos både familie og venner. Deres fiendskap sammen med hennes
elskede svigerinne og nærmeste fortrolige, Rebecca Mary Setons, premature død i
juli, forårsaket dyp sorg hos Elisabeth. Hun var også urolig for sin anstrengte
økonomiske stilling som gjorde henne avhengig av andres sjenerøsitet. Hennes
fem barn var alle under åtte år gamle. Som alenemor sto Elisabeth overfor mange
utfordringer og måtte ofte flytte til billigere leiligheter.
Mens Elisabeth forsøkte å
finne ut hva som var Guds vilje for hennes fremtid, ble Jomfru Maria hennes
trosfokus. I denne perioden lente hun seg på flere rådgivere blant
presteskapet, og med hjelp fra Antonio Filicchi brevvekslet hun med Louis
Lefèbvre de Cheverus (1768-1836), senere den første biskopen av Boston
(1808-23), og hans medarbeider p. Francis Matignon (1753-1818). Etter å ha
kjempet med tvil og frykt i sin jakt på sannheten, løste Elisabeth sin indre
konflikt når det gjaldt å konvertere, og bestemte seg for den romerske
katolisismen.
Elisabeth møtte sterk
motstand fra sine episkopale venner og slektninger, og Mr. Hobart (senere
anglikansk biskop) som hadde stor innflytelse over henne, gjorde alt han kunne
for å avskrekke henne fra å bli katolikk. Men Elisabeth fastet og ba om
opplysning, Etter grundig undervisning ble hun tatt opp i Den katolske Kirke
den 14. mars 1805 ved å avlegge trosbekjennelsen for p. Matthew O’Brien
(1758-1815) i St. Peter’s Church i Barclay Street på Nedre Manhattan i New
York, den eneste katolske kirken i byen siden de anti-katolske lovene var blitt
opphevet bare noen år tidligere. To uker senere, den 25. mars, mottok hun sin
første kommunion, og hun ble fermet (konfirmert) på pinsedag i 1806 av biskop
John Carroll av Baltimore (1735-1815), den eneste katolske biskopen i nasjonen
og senere erkebiskop, som hun betraktet som sin åndelige far. Som fermingsnavn
valgte Elisabeth Maria (Mary), og deretter undertegnet hun ofte som «MEAS» for
Mary Elisabeth Ann Seton.
Elisabeths første år som
katolikk (1805-08) i New York var preget av skuffelser og fiaskoer. Hun var nå
forlatt av venner og slektninger, og hun var i en desperat økonomisk stilling.
For å forsørge seg selv og sine barn hadde hun startet en pensjonatskole i New
York, et akademi for unge kvinner, noe som var vanlig for enker av sosial
anseelse i denne perioden. Men hennes konversjon til katolisismen skapte en
storm av raseri fra protestantene i New York, og hennes familie og deres
mektige venner forsøkte å få henne utvist fra byen. Etter at nyheten om hennes
konversjon til katolisismen hadde spredt seg, trakk de fleste foreldrene sine
døtre ut av akademiet, på grunn av tidens anti-katolske stemning, og skolen ble
tvunget til å stenge.
Men hun sikret seg en
lærerstilling på skolen til et protestantisk ektepar, Mr. & Mrs. Patrick
White, men denne skolen mislyktes økonomisk innen kort tid. Elisabeths neste
vågestykke var et losjihus for gutter som gikk på en skole ledet av Rev.
William Harris i Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, og hun lagde mat, sydde og
passet på fjorten gutter, men misfornøyde foreldre trakk ut sine sønner.
Medlemmer av familien Seton så også med mistro på Elisabeths innflytelse på de
yngre familiemedlemmene. Deres frykt viste seg berettiget da svigerinnen
Cecilia konverterte til katolisismen i 1806, og deretter avla også Harriet
trosbekjennelsen i 1809 (Cecilia og Harriet var mannens to yngre halvsøstre som
hadde vært Elisabeths første elever da de var barn). Under Cecilias kamper som
ny konvertitt skrev Elisabeth en instruktiv Åndelig dagbok (1807) for å tilby
henne kloke råd.
Etter noen meget vanskelige
år hvor hun var tvunget til å arbeide dag og natt, vurderte hun å flytte til
Canada, hvor hun håpet at livet kunne bli lettere og billigere. Men hun slapp å
emigrere, for akkurat da ble hun kjent med en besøkende prest, abbé Louis
William Valentine Dubourg SSP, som var medlem av den franske
emigrantkommuniteten i presteordenen Sulpisianerne (Societas Presbyterorum
a Sancto Sulpicio – PSS) og da president for St Mary’s college i
Baltimore. Sulpisianerne hadde søkt tilflukt i USA fra den religiøse forfølgelsen
under terrorstyret i Frankrike, og de var i gang med å etablere det første
katolske seminaret for USA i tråd med formålet for sitt selskap. I flere år
hadde dr. William Dubourg sett for seg en religiøs skole for å møte behovet for
utdannelse i det lille katolske miljøet i USA. Han inviterte Elisabeth til
Baltimore for å grunnlegge en skole for jenter der. Hun aksepterte invitasjonen
og forlot New York for godt den 8. juni 1808. Skolen, St Joseph’s Academy
and Free School, en skole viet til utdannelsen av katolske jenter, åpnet i juni
1808 og hadde snart suksess. Dette var den første katolske friskolen i USA.
Sulpisianerne så for seg
utviklingen av en søsterkongregasjon etter modell av kongregasjonen
«Nestekjærlighetens søstre», grunnlagt i 1633 i Paris av den hellige Vincent de Paul (Sorores
Caritatis Sancti Vincentii a Paul), og de rekrutterte aktivt kandidater til den
gryende kommuniteten. Cecilia Maria O’Conway (1788-1865) fra Philadelphia var
den første som ankom, den 7. desember 1808. Hun ble fulgt i 1809 av Mary Ann
Butler (1784-1821) fra Philadelphia, Susanna Clossey (1785-1823) fra New York,
Catharine Mullan (1783-1815) fra Baltimore, Anna Maria Murphy Burke (ca 1787-1812)
fra Philadelphia og Rosetta (Rose) Landry White (1784-1841), en enke fra
Baltimore.
Denne gruppen av
likesinnede kvinner samlet seg rundt Elisabeth, og etter hvert ga
sulpisianernes superior, med godkjennelse av biskop John Carroll av Baltimore,
Elisabeth og hennes assistenter en regel. De fikk også tillatelse til å avlegge
løfter og til å bære drakt. Den 25. mars 1809 avla Elisabeth som den eneste
sine første løfter om kyskhet og lydighet til biskop John Carroll av Baltimore
for ett år i det nedre kapellet i St Mary’s Seminary i Paca Street, nå St
Mary’s Spiritual Center and Historic Site. Ved den anledningen ga erkebiskopen
Elisabeth tittelen «Moder Seton». Den 16. juni 1809 opptrådte gruppen av søstre
i like klær, med svart kjole, kappe og hvit kysehatt med et svart bånd. Drakten
var inspirert av kvinners enkedrakt i Italia som Elisabeth hadde sett der.
Samuel Sutherland Cooper
(1769-1843), en rik konvertitt fra Virginia og seminarist på sulpisianernes
nylig etablerte Mount Saint Mary’s University nær Emmitsburg, ga 10 000
US$ til grunnleggelsen av en skole for fattige barn og kjøpte 269 acres (over
tusen mål) på landsbygda i Frederick County i Maryland. Cooper ønsket å
etablere en institusjon for utdannelse og formasjon for jenter basert på
kristne verdier og den katolske tro, samt tjeneste for de eldre, yrkesfaglig
opplæring og en liten fabrikk, som kunne være nyttig for mennesker som levde i
fattigdom.
I juni 1809 flyttet
Elisabeth sin unge kommunitet på fire medsøstre til Emmitsburg i det
nordvestlige Maryland, hvor hun grunnla en skole for barn av fattige. Hun
innførte en regel som var bygd på regelen som ble fulgt av Vincent de Pauls
«Nestekjærlighetens døtre». Tre av disse søstrene skulle sendes for å lære opp
den unge kommuniteten, men keiser Napoleon nektet dem å forlate Frankrike.
Kongregasjonen tok navnet «St. Josefs søstre», og fra da var Elisabeth kjent
som Moder Seton. Tittelen passet spesielt godt, for noen av hennes egne barn
var fortsatt hos henne i det som ble kjent som Stone House.
Deres gårdshus av stein
fra ca 1750 var ennå ikke klart for beboelse da Elisabeth og hennes første
gruppe ankom Emmitsburg-området i midten av juni 1809. P. John Dubois SSP
(1764-1842), grunnlegger av Mount St Mary’s College og Seminar (1808), tilbød
sin hytte på St Mary’s Mountain for kvinnenes bruk inntil de kunne flytte til
sin eiendom i den nærliggende dalen rundt seks uker senere. Ifølge tradisjonen
ga Elisabeth området navnet St Joseph’s Valley. Der begynte Nestekjærlighetens
søstre av St Josef den 31. juli 1809 i Stone House, det tidligere Fleming
gårdshus. Elisabeth og hennes ledsagere flyttet inn i St Joseph’s House (nå The
White House) den 20. februar 1809. De åpnet St Joseph’s friskole den 22.
februar 1810 for å utdanne trengende jenter fra området og var den første
gratis katolske skolen for jenter drevet av søstre i landet. Akademiet St Josef
begynte den 14. mai 1810, med tillegg av kostelever som betalte for
utdannelsen, noe som gjorde det mulig for søstrene å subsidiere deres veldedige
oppdrag. Akademiet og friskolen utgjorde den katolske utdannelsens vugge i USA.
Elisabeth Setons
grunnleggelse var den første kongregasjonen for kvinner som hadde sin
opprinnelse i USA, The American Sisters of Charity; fra 1812 The
Daughters of Charity of St. Joseph; i dag Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill –
SC («Nestekjærlighetens søstre av Seton Hill»). I 1812 var den lille
kommuniteten vokst til nitten, blant dem Elisabeths svigerinner Harriet og
Cecilia, og ble akseptert som en offisiell kongregasjon av erkebiskop Carroll
med Elisabeth som den første leder (superior). Moder Seton og hennes atten
søstre avla løftene den 19. juli 1813.
Sulpisianerne hjalp
Elisabeth med å adaptere den franske regelen for Nestekjærlige døtre fra 1672
til Nestekjærlighetens søstre av St Josef i samsvar med behovene til Den
katolske kirke i USA. Elisabeth formet sine søstre i den vincentinske ånd
ifølge tradisjonen til de hellige Louise av Marillac (1591-1660)
og Vincent de Paul (1581-1660). Atten nestekjærlige søstre, inkludert
Elisabeth, avla private, årlige løfter om fattigdom, kyskhet, lydighet, og
tjeneste for de fattige for første gang den 19. juli 1813. Deretter avla de
løfter årlig den 25. mars og forsto sine plikter i henhold til reglene
for The Society of Sisters of Charity in the United States of America (1812).
P. Simon Gabriel Bruté
SSP (1779-1839) fra Mount St Mary’s, tjente som Elisabeths åndelige veileder
inntil hennes død kapellan for Nestekjærlighetens søstre til 1834, Han var
hennes fremste veiviser langs stien til hellighet. Sammen med Dubois innpodet
han aktivt ånden fra Vincent de Paul og Louise de Marillac i og blant søstrene.
Bruté rådet Elisabeth til å lese og oversette biografiene om Louise og Vincent
og noen av deres åndelige skrifter.
Nestekjærlighetens søstre
kombinerte sosial tjeneste med opplæring i troen og religiøse verdier i alt de
foretok seg i sin misjon. Elisabeth sendte søstre til Philadelphia i 1814 for å
drive St Joseph’s Asylum, det første katolske barnehjemmet i USA. Året
etter foretok Nestekjærlighetens søstre en grunnleggelse i Mount Saint Mary’s
nær Emmitsburg for å drive sykestuen og stå for husholdet i kollegiet og seminaret.
I 1817 forlot en liten gruppe søstre St Joseph’s Valley for å foreta enda en
grunnleggelse, The Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum (senere St
Patrick’s Orphan Asylum).
Det guddommelige forsyn
veiledet Elisabeth og hennes lille kommunitet gjennom fattigdommen og de usikre
første årene. Mange kvinner sluttet seg til Nestekjærlighetens søstre. Av de 98
kandidatene som kom til kongregasjonen i Elisabeths levetid, det vil si i løpet
av perioden 1809-1820, var det 86 av dem som faktisk sluttet seg til den nye kommuniteten,
og sytti prosent forble søstre for livet.
Selv om Elisabeth ikke
glemte tjenesten for de fattige, og spesielt for de svarte, la hun i realiteten
grunnsteinen for det som ble det amerikanske sogneskole-systemet. Hun utdannet
lærere og lagde bøker for bruk i disse skolene, og hun åpnet også barnehjem i
Philadelphia (1814) og New York (1817). Moder Seton fant også tid ved siden av
å lede kongregasjonen til selv å arbeide med de fattige og syke, men også til å
komponere musikk, skrive hymner og skrive åndelige foredrag. Mange av dem ble
senere utgitt. Hun oversatte også bøker fra fransk til engelsk.
Resten av hennes liv ble
tilbrakt med å lede og videreutvikle den nye kongregasjonen. Moder Seton ble
beskrevet som en sjarmerende og kulturell kvinne. Hennes forbindelse til
sosieteten i New York og det medfølgende sosiale presset for å forlate det nye
livet hun hadde skapt for seg selv, hindret henne ikke fra å svare sjenerøst på
sitt religiøse kall og nestekjærlige misjon. De største vanskelighetene hun møtte
var faktisk interne og kom fra misforståelser og konflikter mellom personalet.
Sykdom, sorg og tidlig død var alltid til stede i Elisabeths liv. Hun gravla
atten søstre i Emmitsburg, i tillegg til sine to døtre Annina og Rebecca, og
sine svigerinner Harriet og Cecilia Seton, som sluttet seg til henne i 1809.
Ved hennes død var det
grunnlagt over tyve søsterkommuniteter. Kongregasjonen har vokst betydelig, og
er i dag en av de største og mest innflytelsesrike av sitt slag. Etter hvert
utviklet kongregasjonen seg til fem uavhengige kommuniteter, samt en sjette som
sluttet seg sammen med de franske Nestekjærlighetens døtre i 1850. Innen 1830
drev søstrene barnehjem og skoler så langt vest som Cincinnati og New Orleans
og hadde etablert det første hospitalet vest for Mississippi i St Louis.
Elisabeth Seton var en
sjarmerende og kultivert kvinne med en fast karakter. Stilt overfor «verdens»
sosiale press holdt hun fast ved troen og den levemåte som hun visste at Gud
hadde kalt henne til. Av alle vanskeligheter og motløshet hun møtte, var de
indre problemene de hardeste å bære; for eksempel avskydde hun å utøve
autoritet over andre, og hun led ofte av anfall av åndelig tørke.
Hun ble først gravlagt
ved siden av to av sine døtre, men i 1846 ble hennes jordiske levninger flyttet
til et gravkapell midt på kirkegården, som var reist av hennes sønn. Et nytt
provinsialhus ble påbegynt i Emmitsburg i 1962, og dets enorme kapell ble
vigslet i 1965. Elisabeth er nå gravlagt under et alter i dette kapellet i det
som nå er Nasjonalhelligdommen for den hellige Elisabeth Ann Seton i
provinsialhuset til Nestekjærlighetens døtre i Emmitsburg i Maryland.
Elisabeth Ann Seton hadde
en dyp hengivenhet til Eukaristien, Skriften og Jomfru Maria. Salme 23 var
hennes favorittbønn gjennom hele livet. Hun var en kvinne av bønn og tjeneste
som sluttet seg til Louise de Marillacs og Vincent de Pauls spiritualitet. Det
hadde vært hennes opprinnelige intensjon å slutte seg til Nestekjærlighetens
døtre av St Vincent de Paul, men blokaden av Frankrike på grunn av
Napoleonskrigene forhindret denne forbindelsen. Det var ført flere tiår senere,
i 1850, at kommuniteten i Emmitsburg tok det skrittet å slutte seg til Døtrene
og bli deres amerikanske gren, som deres grunnleggerske hadde sett for seg.
I dag er det seks
separate religiøse kongregasjoner i Nord-Amerika som sporer sine røtter til
starten på Nestekjærlighetens søstre i Emmitsburg. I tillegg til den originale
kommuniteten av søstre i Emmitsburg (som nå er en del av den vincentinske
ordenen), er de: The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul of New
York i New York City (1846), The Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati i
Cincinnati i Ohio (1852), The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul
of Halifax i Halifax i Nova Scotia i Canada (1856), The Sisters of
Charity of Saint Elisabeth i Convent Station i New Jersey (1859) og The
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill i Greensburg i Pennsylvania (1870).
Sulpisianernes
generalkapitler i 1829 og 1845 krevde at sulpisianerne skulle vende tilbake til
de oppgaven de var grunnlagt for, nemlig utdannelse og formasjon av prester.
Derfor sørget sulpisianernes superiorer for at de Emmitsburg-baserte
Nestekjærlighetens søstre av St Josef i 1850 sluttet seg til Nestekjærlighetens
døtre av St Vincent de Paul i Paris i Frankrike. Disse kommunitetene dannet i
1947 The Conference of Mother Seton's Daughters som utviklet seg
til The Sisters of Charity Federation (2006) med
medlemskongregasjoner fra USA og Canada. Alle medlemmer av føderasjonen har
sine røtter i tradisjonen til Vincent de Paul og Louise de Marillac.
Mother Seton School i
Emmitsburg i Maryland er en direkte etterkommer etter St Joseph’s Academy
and Free School. Den ligger litt over en kilometer mile fra stedet for den
originale skolen og sponses av Nestekjærlighetens døtre. Seton Hall College (nå
kjent som Seton Hall University) ble formelt grunnlagt den 1.
september 1856 av James Roosevelt Bayley (1814-77), den første biskop av Newark
(1853-72) og den åttende erkebiskop av Baltimore (1872-77), en fetter av
president Theodore Roosevelt. Biskop Bayley ga institusjonen navn etter sin
tante, St Elisabeth Ann Seton.
Elisabeth var en flittig
forfatter. I tillegg til en omfattende korrespondanseskrev hun også hymner,
notatbøker, journaler og dagbøker. Hennes journaler inkluderer både åndelige
refleksjoner og krønikefortellinger. Dear Remembrances er en
selvbiografisk retrospektiv oppsummering av livet. Hennes meditasjoner handler
om de liturgiske tider, sakramentene, dyder, bibelske temaer og helgenene,
inkludert Vincent de Paul og Louise de Marillac. Blant hennes instruksjoner er
de som ble brukt til å forberede barn for deres første kommunion, og
formasjonskonferanser for søstrene om slike temaer som tjeneste,
nestekjærlighet, evigheten, sakramentet og Maria, Guds mor.
Elisabeth sto for den
prototypiske engelske oversettelsen av deres første biografier, The Life
of Mademoiselle Le Gras (Nicolas Gobillon, 1676) og The Life of the
Venerable Servant of God Vincent de Paul (Louis Abelly, 1664). Elisabeth
oversatte også utvalg fra Vincent de Pauls konferanser til Nestekjærlighetens
døtre og Notes on the Life of Sister Françoise Bony D.C. (1694-1759). Også
inkludert blant hennes oversettelser er utdrag fra utvalgte konferanser av den
hellige Frans av Sales, deler av arbeider av den hellige Teresa av Ávila,
meditasjoner av p. Louis Du Pont SJ, og det tidlige livet til den hellige Ignatius av Loyola.
Elisabeth hadde for vane å kopiere meningsfulle avsnitt fra bøker hun leste og
å skrive notater i margen i sin bibel.
Hennes
saligkåringsprosess ble igangsatt den 28. februar 1840 og igjen i 1882 av James
Gibbons (1834-1921), niende erkebiskop av Baltimore (1877-1921) og kardinal fra
1886. Han var erkebiskop Bayleys etterfølger i Baltimore. Informativprosessen
på bispedømmenivå ble åpnet av kardinal Gibbons i 1907 og ble avsluttet i 1924,
etter hans død. Saken ble offisielt introdusert i Vatikanet den 28. februar
1940, og etter det gikk den sakte, men sikkert fremover.
Den 18. desember 1959 ble
hennes «heroiske dyder» anerkjent av den hellige pave Johannes XXIII (1958-63)
og hun fikk tittelen Venerabilis («Ærverdig»). Samme pave saligkåret
henne også den 17. mars 1963, bare litt over to måneder før sin død. Hans
etterfølger, den ærverdige pave Paul VI (1963-78) helligkåret henne den 14.
september i Det hellige år 1975 og FNs internasjonale kvinneår. Hun var den
første hellige som var født i USA. I sin høytidelige tale ved hennes
helligkåring, der tusen nonner fra hennes kongregasjon fra Nord- og
Sør-Amerika, Italia og misjonsland var til stede, understreket paven Elisabeths
ekstraordinære innsats som hustru, mor, enke og viet nonne, eksemplet av hennes
dynamiske og pålitelige vitnesbyrd for fremtidige generasjoner.
Før helligkåringen
godkjente Den hellige stol tre mirakler på hennes forbønn, i henhold til de
daværende reglene (i dag trengs bare to). Disse var: 1) Helbredelsen av sr.
Gertrude Korzendorfer DC (1872-1942) fra New Orleans fra bukspyttkjertelkreft
(Cancer pancreatis). 2) Helbredelsen av barnet Ann Theresa O’Neill (f. 1948)
fra Baltimore fra akutt lymfatisk leukemi. 3) Den mirakuløse helbredelsen av
Carl Kalin (1902-76) fra New York fra en sjelden form for encephalitis
(hjernebetennelse).
Hennes minnedag (først og
fremst i USA og hennes kongregasjon) er 4. januar. Hennes fremste helligdom
er The National Shrine of St Elisabeth Ann Seton i Emmitsburg i
Maryland, hvor hennes levninger er bisatt, og The Shrine of St. Elisabeth
Ann Bayley Seton i State Street nr. 9 i New York City, på stedet for
hennes tidligere bolig. Familien Setons hjem i New York City lå på stedet hvor
det nå står en kirke til hennes ære, med den tidligere matchende bygningen til
høyre (State Street nr. 7) som utgjør en del av helligdommen. Hun avbildes som
enke med mørk hette. En rekke katolske kirker bærer Moder Setons navn.
Offisielt er hun skytshelgen for United States Sea Services og staten
Maryland. Folkefromheten anser henne også som skytshelgen for katolske skoler.
Kilder:
Attwater/John, Attwater/Cumming, Farmer, Bentley, Lodi, Butler, Butler (I),
Benedictines, Delaney, Bunson, Ball (2), Cruz (2), Jones (2),
Schauber/Schindler, Dammer/Adam, Index99, KIR, CE, CSO, Patron Saints SQPN,
Infocatho, Bautz, Heiligenlexikon, santiebeati.it, en.wikipedia.org,
heiligen-3s.nl, elizabethannseton.org, archbalt.org - Kompilasjon og
oversettelse: p.
Per Einar Odden
Opprettet: 1. februar
2000
SOURCE : https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/eabseton
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
The first statue ever created of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton on the grounds of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Elisabeth Anna Bayley
Seton
englischer Name:
Elizabeth Ann
Gedenktag katholisch: 4. Januar
gebotener Gedenktag in Kanada, in den USA, bei den Vinzentinern / Lazaristen
und den Barmherzigen Schwestern
Name bedeutet: Gott
ist Fülle (hebr.)
Ordensgründerin
* 28. August 1774 in New York in den USA
† 4. Januar 1821 in Emmitsburg in
Maryland in den USA
Die Arzttochter Elizabeth
Ann Bayley wurde nach dem frühen Tod ihrer Mutter zusammen mit ihrer älteren
Schwester 1777 auf das Landgut ihres Onkels nach New
Rochelle im Bundesstaat New York geschickt. Mit 13 Jahren kehrte sie
zum Vater zurück, der inzwischen wieder geheiratet hatte; mit der Stiefmutter
verstand sie sich nicht sehr gut. So heiratete sie schon 1794 den wohlhabenden
Kaufmann William Magee Seton, mit dem sie fünf Kinder hatte. In ihrem Haus an
der Wall Street in New
York waren oft bedeutende Persönlichkeiten zu Gast. Sie war neben
familiären und gesellschaftlichen Pflichten caritativ tätig und beteiligte sich
an der Gründung des New Yorker Witwenvereins. 1798 übernahm ihr Mann die
Leitung der Firma seines Vaters, die kurz danach Bankrott anmelden musste.
Unterstützung erfuhr Elizabeth Ann in dieser schwierigen Zeit durch ihre
Schwägerin und den neuen Pfarrer in der Gemeinde Holy Trinity, John Henry
Hobart.
1803 reisten Elisabeth
Ann Bayley Seton, ihre älteste Tochter und ihr Mann zur Erholung nach Italien.
Wegen einer Gelbfieberepidemie in New
York wurden alle von dort kommenden Reisenden unter Quarantäne
gestellt; William Magee Seton überlebte zwar die Quarantäne in einem feuchten,
barackenähnlichen Gebäude, starb aber am zweiten Tag nach Weihnachten im
Alter von nur 36 Jahren im Haus seiner Gastgeber in Livorno.
Als die 29-jährige Witwe dann in Florenz in der Servitenkirche Santissima
Annunziata zum ersten Mal eine katholische Kirche betrat, war sie
fasziniert. Dieses Erlebnis sowie die Lektüre der Werke des Franz
von Sales und der Gebete von Bernhard
von Clairvaux wirkten so sehr in ihr, dass sie ihre Rückreise bis zum
April 1804 hinausschob; zuvor trat sie zum katholischen Glauben über und am Tag
von Mariä
Verkündigung empfing sie zum ersten Mal die heilige Kommunion.
1808 zog Elizabeth Ann
Bayley Seton mit ihren Töchtern von New
York nach Baltimore,
wo sie fortan als Lehrerin wirkte. Dorthin hatte sie zuvor bereits ihre beiden
Söhne geschickt, die vom ersten katholischen Bischof der USA, dem Jesuiten John
Carroll, in das von ihm gegründete College in Georgetown -
heute ein Stadtteil von Washington - aufgenommen worden waren. 1809 gründete
sie in Emmitsburg nahe
Baltimore das erste Haus der Barmherzigen Schwestern, der Sisters of
Charity; der Kapitän und Reeder Samuel Sutherland Cooper hatte ihr hierfür
10.000 Dollar gespendet.
Die Mitglieder des Ordens
unterrichteten zunächst an der Konfessionsschule in Emmitsburg.
Später sorgte sich der Schwesternorden um Arme und Kranke. Dabei folgten sie
einer Regel, die Elizabeth Ann vom Vinzentinerinnenorden übernahm,
der im 17. Jahrhundert von Vinzenz
von Paul gegründet worden war. Elizabeth wurde zur ersten Oberin
gewählt und bekleidete dieses Amt fast ein Jahrzehnt lang. 1818 erkrankte sie,
nachdem sie kurz zuvor die ersten Schwestern mit dem Auftrag, Waisenhäuser und
Schulen zu gründen, nach Philadelphia und New
York entsandt hatte. Die von ihr geschaffene Konfessionsschulen
breiteten sich über die ganzen USA aus.
In einem Außenbezirk von
Livorno ist Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton heute die moderne Kirche
Santa Eisabetta Anna Seton geweiht.
Worte der Heiligen
Für den rechten Gottesdienst sind nach Elisabeth die drei göttlichen Tugenden: Glaube, Hoffnung und Liebe notwendig:
1. Der Dienst für Gott besteht in der Ausübung von Glaube, Hoffnung und Liebe.
Leisten wir Ihm den Dienst des Glaubens beim Einsatz für unsere geistlichen Pflichten, indem wir die Vorschriften noch besser erfüllen, uns auf die Sakramente vorbereiten, auf Seine Gnade und Seinen Beistand in unseren geistlichen nd zeitlichen Wünschen vertrauen, so wie ein Kind auf seinen liebevollen Vater vertraut! Schauen wir mit den Augen unseres Glaubens auf die Prüfungen, die Er uns sendet, indem wir in unserer Schwachheit und unserem [inneren] Widerstreben unsere [Möglichkeit zur] wahre[n] Buße sehen und sie als Mittel betrachten, unsere Sünden zu tilgen! Erinnern wir uns daran, dass wir Sünder sind und als Sünder leiden müssen, und seien wir sogar dankbar für Gelegenheiten, die Vergangenheit wieder gut zu machen! Weihen wir uns selbst Gott als unserem Alles in Allem mit dem echten Dienst unseres Herzens!
2. Dienen wir Gott in Hoffnung, indem wir auf Seine Verheißungen schauen, auf Seine Liebe vertrauen, Sein Königreich suchen und alles Übrige Ihm überlassen! Verlassen wir uns auf Seine Verdienste, Seine Schmerzen und Leiden, indem wir unsere gemeinsamen Pflichten in Einheit mit Ihm erfüllen: unsere Zerknirschung vereint mit Seiner Zerknirschung, unsere Tränen vereint mit Seinen Tränen, indem wir ferner Ausschau halten nach der Zeit, da Er erscheinen wird, da wir Ihn sehen werden wie Er ist, in Seiner Herrlichkeit und da wir mit Ihm verherrlicht sein werden, voll Freude in der Hoffnung; denn die Hoffnung wird niemals zuschanden werden.
3. Und ebenso [notwendig ist] unsere Liebe: Erstreckt sie sich auf alle,
wurzelt unsere Liebe zu allen in Unserem esus, dann wird unser Herz wirklich zu
Seinem. Vereinen wir unser Herz so eng mit Ihm, dass Leben, Seele und Leib Ihm
ganz geweiht sind und suchen wir mit dem hl.
Franziskus, ob es eine ganz winzige verborgene Faser unseres Herzens gibt,
die Ihm nicht gehört, um sie auszureißen und ihre Wurzel zu beseitigen. Dann
können wir mit dem hl. Paulus sagen,
dass wir in Ihm verborgen in GOTT sind und dass Jesus in uns lebt und dass wir
Teil Seines Leibes sind und so, wie der Herzschlag das Blut in jeden Teil des
Körpers fließen lässt, um ihn zu nähren, das Leben Unseres Jesus uns belebt!
Geben wir Ihm wirklich den wahren Dienst des Herzens, ohne den nichts, was wir
sonst geben, irgend einen Wert hat!
Zitat von Elizabeth Ann
Bayley Seton:
Das erste Ziel. das ich für unsere tägliche Arbeit vorschlage, ist, den Willen Gottes zu tun, zweitens ihn in der Weise zu tun, wie Er es will, und drittens ihn zu tun, weil es Sein Wille ist.
Das Tor zum Himmel ist sehr niedrig, nur der Demütige kann durch es eintreten.
Wenn ich Eltern einen Rat geben müsste, würde ich ihnen sagen, sie sollten sich sehr darum kümmern, mit wem ihre Kinder umgehen. … Denn von einer schlechten Gesellschaft kann großer Schaden entstehen, da wir von Natur aus eher geneigt sind, dem Schlechteren als dem Besseren zu folgen.
Wir müssen buchstäblich ohne Unterlass bei jeder Gelegenheit und jeder Beschäftigung unseres Lebens das Herzensgebet beten, das unabhängig ist von Ort und Situation und das eher eine Haltung der Erhebung des Herzens zu Gott ist, gleichsam in einer beständigen Kommunikation mit Ihm.
Wir wissen sicherlich, dass unser Gott uns zu einem heiligen Leben ruft. Wir
wissen, dass er uns jede Gnade dazu gibt, jede Gnade im Überfluss, und obwohl
wir so schwach sind, ist Seine Gnade fähig uns durch jedes Hindernis und jede
Schwierigkeit hindurchzutragen.
zusammengestellt von Abt
em. Dr. Emmeram Kränkl OSB,
Benediktinerabtei Schäftlarn,
für die Katholische
SonntagsZeitung
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Autor: Joachim
Schäfer - zuletzt aktualisiert am 05.04.2024
Quellen:
• Vera Schauber, Hanns Michael Schindler: Heilige und Patrone im Jahreslauf. Pattloch, München 2001
• Microsoft Encarta 98 Enzyklopädie
• http://pressemitteilung.ws/node/view/7306
• http://www.srmalbania.org/index_htm_files/santa_elisabetta_anna_baley_seton_protettrice_del_seminario_ita.pdf
korrekt zitieren: Joachim Schäfer: Artikel Elisabeth Anna Bayley Seton, aus dem Ökumenischen Heiligenlexikon - https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienE/Elizabeth_Ann_Bayley_Seton.htm, abgerufen am 9. 8. 2024
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet das Ökumenische
Heiligenlexikon in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte
bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über https://d-nb.info/1175439177 und https://d-nb.info/969828497 abrufbar.
SOURCE : https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienE/Elizabeth_Ann_Bayley_Seton.htm
_-_stained_glass%2C_St._Elizabeth_Ann_Seton.jpg)
Sant'Elisabetta Anna Bayley Seton, religiosa e fondatrice statunitense delle Suore della Carità di San Giuseppe.
Saint
Stephen, Martyr Roman Catholic Church (Chesapeake, Virginia) - stained glass,
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Elisabeth Anne (ook Beth-Ann of Betty
Ann) Bayley-Seton, Baltimore, Maryland, Amerika; stichteres; † 1821.
Feest 4 januari.
Zij werd in 1774 te New
York geboren in het gezin van de episcopaalse arts Richard Bayley. Omdat moeder
stierf bij de geboorte van het volgende kind, hertrouwde vader al het jaar
daarop. Niet lang daarna vertrok hij naar Engeland om anatomie te gaan
studeren. Hij wilde een zo goed mogelijk arts zijn. Hoewel hij gelovig niet
bijzonder geïnteresseerd was, had hij veel hart voor zijn patiënten. Hij was
bijvoorbeeld de eerste dokter die zijn patiënten in een eigen rijtuigje thuis
ging opzoeken. Na twee jaar keerde hij terug. Met de opvoeding bemoeide hij
zich weinig. Toch gaf hij zijn kinderen het beeld mee van een sociaal voelend
man, met hart voor de armen en begiftigd met een flinke dosis heldhaftigheid.
Trekken die we ook bij Elisabeth Anne zullen tegenkomen.
In tegenstelling tot haar
vader was zij wel gelovig actief. Op haar zeventiende kwam zij in aanraking met
de jonge zakenman William Magee Seton. Hij had al heel wat van de wereld
gezien. Zo had hij een aantal jaren in de Italiaanse plaats Livorno
doorgebracht en bij de rijke bankier Filicchis de fijne kneepjes van het vak
geleerd. Hij was naar New York gekomen om er een nieuw bedrijf op te zetten.
Bij de eerste ontmoeting viel William voor de schoonheid van Elisabeth, terwijl
hij in Italië toch geleerd had in zaken nooit de voorzichtigheid uit het oog te
verliezen... Zo trouwden de twee op 25 januari 1794 in de episcopaalse Holy
Trinity Church te New York. Het werd een 'High-Society'-huwelijk, en ook de
eerste jaren van haar huwelijksleven worden gekenmerkt door bezoekjes over en
weer, party's, paardrijden, dansen en schouwburgbezoek. Elisabeth's brieven uit
die tijd sprankelen van enthousiasme en genieten. Intussen krijgen ze vijf
kinderen: Anne Mary, William, Catherine, Richard en Rebecca.
Maar stilaan bekruipt
haar het gevoel van 'Is dit het nou? Moet ik niet meer met leven aanvangen dan
gezelligheid nastreven en tijdverdrijf zoeken?' Ze krijgt de kans de handen uit
de mouwen te steken, als ze hoort dat honderden Ierse immigranten in
quarantainebarakken verblijven onder de meest verwaarloosde omstandigheden.
Vanuit haar kerk biedt ze hulp aan: voedsel, kleding, verzorging. Baby's die
hun moeder verloren hebben, geeft zij persoonlijk de borst. Hoewel haar vader
onder de indruk is van haar heldhaftigheid, raadt hij haar dat ten strengste
af, maar zij trekt zich daar niets van aan. Dan gaat het bedrijf van haar man
failliet, en blijkt ook zijn gezondheid niet helemaal in orde. Haar leven
verandert op slag: ze heeft veel zorgen aan haar hoofd, maar ze blijkt er
uitstekend mee overweg te kunnen.
William wil terug naar
Livorno, waar hij het vroeger zo goed heeft gehad; om advies in zaken, om beter
te worden, om... nou ja, omdat hij denkt dat hij daar zal opknappen. Ze
vertrekken per boot naar Italië. Vader is behoorlijk ziek en lijdt aan tuberculose,
destijds vaak een dodelijke ziekte. Ze nemen alleen het oudste kind mee; de
anderen blijven thuis. Bij aankomst in Italië mogen ze het land niet in, omdat
men bang is voor besmettingsgevaar. De oude vrienden van William zijn er om ze
welkom te heten; ook Elisabeths halfbroer staat op de kade. Hoe graag ze elkaar
ook in de armen waren gevallen: het mocht niet. Ze moesten eerst een maand in
quarantaine in het 'pesthuis'. De omstandigheden waren armoedig en slecht. Hun
vrienden sleepten van alles aan om hun het leven zo aangenaam mogelijk te
maken. William lag al die tijd op een matras op de grond.
Na die maand betrokken ze
een kamer in Pisa. Reeds acht dagen later stierf William. Elisabeth-Anne was op
dat moment 29 jaar. In afwachting van de terugreis logeerde zij met haar
8-jarige dochter bij de schatrijke familie Filicchis. Hun huis telde wel
honderd kamers. Dat alles vroeg om drommen personeel. Het waren overtuigde
katholieken. Elke dag werd in de huiskapel de mis gelezen. In de stad bezocht
Elisabeth-Anne de mooie kerken, die altijd open waren en waar je op elk moment
van de dag even kon bidden. Het katholiek geloof was veel warmer en dichterbij
dan haar eigen geloof waar ze zich met hart en ziel voor had ingezet.
Bij aankomst thuis in New
York stond haar een zware taak te wachten: de opvoeding van haar vijf kinderen
zonder man. Bijna onmiddellijk zocht zij contact met de plaatselijke katholieke
gemeenschap. Zij trok zich niets aan van het commentaar uit haar omgeving. Het
paste niet bij haar familie, bij haar maatschappelijk aanzien, katholieken
waren vooral arme gevluchte Ieren, wat had ze daar te zoeken...? Op 14 maart,
Aswoensdag 1805, ging zij over naar de katholieke kerk.
Haar werd gevraagd of zij in Baltimore, Maryland, een schooltje wilde openen en vooral aandacht wilde schenken aan het geloofsonderricht van de kinderen. Ze stemde toe en haar onderneming verliep voorspoedig. Ze kreeg de hulp van andere vrouwen en meisjes. Op aanraden van de plaatselijke bisschop maakte zij van het onderwijzeressenteam een zustercongregatie. Ze zouden leven volgens de kloosterregel van Vincentius a Paolo en noemden zich 'The Sisters of Charity of St Joseph' (= De Zusters van Barmhartigheid van Sint Jozef). Zo ontstond de eerste zustercongregatie in Amerika zelf. De eerste tien jaar deed Elisabth-Anne dienst als algemeen overste. Daarnaast vergat ze haar taak van moeder niet. Intussen had ze twee van haar dochters en twee van haar schoonzoons aan de tuberculose verloren. Zelf stierf ze op 4 januari 1821, zesenveertig jaar oud.
In 1963 werd ze door Paus Johannes XXIII († 1963; sterfdag 3 juni) zalig verklaard en heilig in 1975 door paus Paulus VI († 1978). Daarmee was zij de eerste heilige van Amerikaanse bodem.
Op dit moment zijn de Zusters van Barmhartigheid in de Verenigde Staten de
grootste zustercongregatie.
[000; 000»sys; 101a; 102; 111; 129p:afb:3.4(na-p:64); 288; 293p:9; 390/15p:6;
Dries van den Akker s.j./2007.12.17]
© A. van den Akker
s.j. / A.W. Gerritsen
SOURCE : https://heiligen-3s.nl/heiligen/01/04/01-04-1821-elisabeth.php
Voir aussi : https://setonshrine.org/elizabeth-ann-seton/
