11th Day of Christmas: Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Saint of the Day: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, First American Born Saint.
“I will go peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those who received it from God Himself.”
– Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774 – 1821) Memorial day January 4
The Seton Family into which the young Elizabeth married was one branch of a highly unusual family whose branches spelled their name various ways: Seaton, Seton, Seeton…. This family of Scotland was involved in the moving and shaking of their day, some remained Catholic, others became Anglican, and still others opted for a religiously neutral attitude. One member of this family was involved in early railroad improvements, another dredged the first artificial port in the region, daughters were ladies in waiting to queens, and depending on what the crown was doing, different segments of the family ended up fleeing to the new world and settling in Canada and the United States.
Elizabeth Ann’s commitment to her vocation was total. She was totally committed to everything she did from her marriage, to her children, to her work as a widow.
A tradition in this family was to marry less for connections than for the intelligence and independent thinking of the woman. Hence, the intelligent Elizabeth married William Seton. She was a constant steady partner in her marriage, traveled to Europe with him to seek a cure to his illness and based on her own thinking and study of religion became Catholic. She did her own thinking and committed to the aspects of her vocation willingly and with consideration. A totally admirable woman whose example is worthy of emulation.
As a widow, she was a doer and established schools and the Sisters of Charity in this country. This Timeline for the Life of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton will fill in the many details of her life.
Books on the Seeton/Seton/Seaton family: The Seeton Name in History, and An Old Family, or The Setons of Scotland and America.