Five Faces of Elizabeth Ann Seton
Five Faces of Elizabeth Ann Seton
Elizabeth Ann Seton was an extraordinary woman. She crammed more into the 46 years of her life than most people who live twice that long. I could easily present ten faces of her remarkable personality, but we will have to settle for five, since otherwise this chapter would never end!
I must say, as her fellow countryman, that it has always fascinated me that she knew George Washington. In fact, her husband, on February 22, 1796, was one of the hosts for a ball commemorating Washington’s birthday. I have often asked myself: Did Elizabeth Ann Seton dance with George Washington that night? That would be something to tell your children about!
With that brief aside, let me offer five faces of Elizabeth Ann Seton.
I. Multifaceted Woman
Elizabeth, whom her father called Betty, was a reflective, often lonely child. She was born in 1774, just as the American Revolution was dawning. Her mother died when she was less than three and her baby sister died a year later. Her father remarried and was often away, sharpening his skills as surgeon.
Betty was precocious. Her father delighted in teaching her. Besides the usual school subjects, Betty learned French and music. For reasons that remain vague, she lived on her uncle’s farm on Long Island for four years. They were reflective years, perhaps solitary ones for a child with no mother and an absent father. But they were also enjoyable. She played with her uncle’s children and roamed in the fields along the shore with her cousins. At times she did not hear from her father for more than a year. Reading became her favorite pastime. She found the bible a consolation.
By the time she left her uncle’s farm at 16 years of age, she was a charming young woman. She had imbibed the French joie de vivre, played the piano, read Voltaire and Rousseau, went to the theater, and was fun-loving.
One evening in 1791, at a society ball, she met William Magee Seton and fell in love with him. They married on January 25, 1794. She was 19 years of age. Within a space of ten years, William and Betty had five children, Anna, William, Richard, Catherine, and Rebecca. Of course being a wife and mother absorbed her attention, but she also found time for charitable work among the poor and sick in New York City.
Just four years into their marriage, Elizabeth’s world began to crumble. Her father-in-law died, leaving his son as the family representative in a shipping firm. A quick check of the accounts revealed that the business was in dire condition. At the very same time as he discovered that the business he had inherited was going bankrupt, her husband William developed a cough which indicated incipient tuberculous. Betty’s own father died shortly afterwards, while ministering to immigrants stricken by yellow fever.
With the hope of restoring William’s health, doctors recommended a sea voyage. He, Betty and their eldest daughter Anna set out to visit their friends, the Filicchis, in Leghorn, Italy. But because yellow fever had broken out in New York, their ship was refused landing when they arrived in Leghorn and they were quarantined for four weeks in a prison-like building. Her husband William died shortly afterwards. His remains still lie there in Leghorn.
At the insistence of his own wife, Amabilia, Antonio Filicchi accompanied Betty and her daughter Anna back to New York. She was 29 years of age when she arrived home. This once reflective child, sociable teenager, and then wife and mother of five was now facing the future as a widow.
II. Convert
Upon Elizabeth’s arrival back in New York, things got worse quickly. Her sister-in-law Rebecca, whom Elizabeth referred to as her “soul’s sister,” died just five weeks after Elizabeth’s return home. The shipping firm failed. Socially, the failure of the firm left her poor and Elizabeth’s growing desire to become a Catholic left her friendless.
On March 14, 1805, in St. Peter’s Church in Lower Manhattan, Elizabeth became a Catholic. Antonio Filicchi, who had returned to New York after business in Boston, was her sponsor. The Filicchis were Elizabeth’s first Catholic friends. Impressed by how they lived out their faith, she became interested in the doctrine and practices of the Catholic Church. She was particularly fascinated by the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, the devotion of Catholics to the Virgin Mary, and the Apostolic Succession.
Elizabeth’s conversion was not easy. Many of her Episcopalian friends and relatives abandoned her. Her former minister warned his parishioners against associating with her. But two of Elizabeth’s closest friends, Julia Scott and Catherine Dupleix, remained loyal to her throughout her life and were also gradually drawn toward Catholicism.
In reading what Elizabeth wrote at the time of her conversion, it seems to me that the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist was what most attracted her to becoming a Catholic. She was struck by the reverence of the Filicchis at Mass and was moved by how central a place the Eucharist held in the lives of Catholics. She began to find Protestant churches bare and Catholic churches filled with the presence of God.
On March 25, 1805, she made her First Communion as a Catholic. With great joy she wrote to the wife of Antonio Filicchi: “At last, at last, God is mine and I am his! Now, let all go its round – I have received him!”
III. School Teacher and Administrator
Left poor, Elizabeth sought some means of support for herself and her children. She assisted Mr. Patrick White, an Englishman, in opening a school for girls in New York, but it soon failed. She then accepted the management of a boarding house attached to a school for boys. But Episcopalians opposed her presence there and the boarding house too failed. Her friend Antonio Filicchi, just before leaving for Leghorn, instructed his agent in New York to deposit $400 annually to Elizabeth’s account for the education of her sons and to honor requests that she might make for additional amounts.
In the fall of 1806, Elizabeth had a remarkable conversation with Rev. William Dubourg, President of St. Mary’s College in Baltimore (later the Bishop of New Orleans who invited the Vincentians to the United States). He told her of his desire to open a Catholic school for girls in Baltimore. He also wanted to form a religious community of women to sustain the project. He invited Elizabeth to Baltimore. Meanwhile, through Antonio Filicchi’s generosity, her sons William and Richard had been enrolled at Georgetown College. The thought of being near her boys encouraged Elizabeth. On June 9, 1808, she set out with her three daughters, Anna, Catherine, and Rebecca and arrived in Baltimore a week later. She settled in a new home and opened a school on Paca Street there, adjoining St. Mary’s College and Seminary. News spread quickly and several young women from Philadelphia soon came to join Elizabeth. Cecilia O’Conway and Maria Murphy, two young women from Philadelphia, were the first candidates to arrive. They, plus four other candidates, formed a little group which would later begin its novitiate at Emmitsburg.
The surroundings were peaceful in Baltimore, but life was very busy. In the first year, Elizabeth ran a school which received ten girls as boarders. Teachers of music, drawing, and the humanities were available from the nearby seminary. She also prepared young children for First Communion. She began to dream up plans for the future expansion and thought of asking the Filicchis to build a new school for her.
But right at that time, events took an unexpected turn. Samuel Cooper, a wealthy seminarian at St. Mary’s in Baltimore, contributed $10,000 for the purchase of a farm in Emmitsburg, Maryland. For the rest of Elizabeth’s days, Emmitsburg would be the home for her family, the site of her school, and the birthplace of the Sisters of Charity in America.
IV. Founder
Archbishop John Carroll of Baltimore appointed Fr. William Dubourg to be responsible for the new community that was beginning to take shape. Elizabeth was given the title “Mother Seton.” In Baltimore on March 25, 1809, she pronounced her vows in private in the presence of Archbishop Carroll.
On the feast of Corpus Christi in 1809, Elizabeth and her first four candidates appeared publicly for the first time in their religious habit at Mass in St. Mary’s Chapel. Their dress was similar to an outfit that Elizabeth had worn at the death of her husband in Leghorn, a black dress with a shoulder cape and a simple cap which tied under the chin.
On June 21, 1809, Elizabeth and her companions set out for the mountains of Emmitsburg. Since their stone house in Emmitsburg was not yet ready, their first home was on the property of Mount St. Mary’s Seminary. There, other candidates began to join them. On July 31, 1809, Elizabeth and her companions finally moved into the stone house, which still exists in Emmitsburg. The building of a school began almost immediately. This building too, called the “White House,” still exists.
Rapidly the number of postulants began to increase and the new Community grew. Elizabeth was very careful in discerning who should be admitted to the Community and who should be sent home. The school flourished, as did the tiny group of new-born Sisters of Charity.
Elizabeth experienced tensions with the first priests named as Superiors of the new Community, but Archbishop Carroll supported her consistently. Finally he named Fr. John Dubois, founder of Mt. St. Mary’s College, as Superior General of the Community and in 1812 its first Rules and Constitutions were approved. Simon Bruté, Dubois’ assistant, became his liaison with the sisters and for the last ten years of Elizabeth’s life, he was one of her closest friends and a huge support.
By 1818, the Community numbered 61 and was growing quickly. But life was far from easy. Besides running a school and founding a religious order, Elizabeth had her three daughters with her at the White House and her sons, William and Richard, were nearby at Mt. St. Mary’s College. During her years in Emmitsburg Elizabeth suffered the terrible pain of losing two of her daughters. Her oldest child, Anna, who was preparing to become a Sister of Charity, died in 1812, at 16 years of age. The youngest, Rebecca, died in 1816 at the age of 14. Kate, who was sickly as a child, lived until 1891, far beyond any other member of the family.
Her sons caused her anxiety. Both of them went to Leghorn to work with the Filicchis, but neither succeeded. Both came back to the United States and joined the Navy. Richard died on board ship just two years after his mother’s death. William lived until 1868.
With the death of her two daughters, Elizabeth’s own health began to decline rapidly. She grew lame, had an ulcer on her breast, experienced a persistent fever and developed a cough that was a sign of tuberculosis. After years of illness and several close approaches to death, she died peacefully on January 4, 1821.
V. Woman of God
Four months after Elizabeth’s death, Simon Bruté wrote to her friend Antonio Filicchi as follows:
Her distinguishing characteristic was compassion and indulgence for poor sinners. Her charity made her watchful never to speak evil of others, always to find excuses or to keep silence. Her other special virtues were her attachment to her friends and her gratitude; her religious respect for the ministers of the Lord and for everything pertaining to religion. Her heart was compassionate, religious, lavish of every good in her possession, disinterested in regard to all things.
From those that Bruté lists, let me suggest three of the most striking virtues of Elizabeth Ann Seton.
1. Faithful friendship
Like many of the saints, Elizabeth had the gift of friendship. When she was in her teens, she developed several deep friendships that lasted her whole life. Her correspondence with Julia Scott and Catherine Dupleix gives us a unique insight into Elizabeth’s heart. She saw friendship as one of God’s greatest gifts and, at its deepest, as a mutual opportunity for drawing closer to God.
Her friendship with Antonio Filicchi is extraordinary. Her correspondence with Antonio and his wife Amabilia is a remarkable record of faithful friendship. Her letters to Antonio are filled with affection. Elizabeth writes to him:
Jonathan loved David as his own soul, and if I was your brother, Antonio, I would never leave you for one hour. But, as it is, I try rather to turn every affection to God….
On another occasion she writes:
In life or death, my brother, I shall never cease to pray for you and to love you wholly with my whole heart.
Antonio actually encouraged Elizabeth to limit her writing, but she found it difficult to restrain herself. She told him: “Do love your poor sister, if not for her sake and for the love she bears you, yet for his sake, whose law is love.”
2. Compassionate service
As a widow, like Louise de Marillac, Elizabeth decided to give her life to God in the service of the needy. After moving to Emmitsburg, she dedicated her whole life to the children at the large school that she administered, to the sisters in her new-born Community, and to her own children. She wrote this instruction to the sisters:
… our bodies, as Sisters of Charity, must be neither spared nor looked at, no labors or sufferings considered for a moment, but rather only asking what is this for my God! Seeing everything only in that one view: our God and our eternity … This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you.
3. Faith and hope in the resurrection
To put things simply, Elizabeth had a tough life. Death claimed her husband, several of her closest friends, many of the founding sisters in the Community, and two of her own children, before it finally claimed Elizabeth. The death of her daughter Anna almost drove her to despair. She wrote to her friend George Weis: “For three months after Nina was taken, I was so often expecting to lose my senses, and my heart was so disordered.”
But she trusted deeply in the resurrection. She wrote:
Do we serve God in hope, looking to his promises, confiding in his love, seeking his kingdom, and leaving the rest to him … looking forward to the time when he will appear, when we shall see him as he is, see him in his glory, and be glorified with him — rejoicing in hope! — for hope shall never be confounded.
Reflective child, sociable teenager, intelligent young woman, wife, mother, widow, convert, teacher, founder — Elizabeth Ann Seton was an extraordinary woman. Her friend and confessor Simon Bruté wrote in the summer following her death:
I will say that as a result of my love and intimate acquaintance with Mother Seton, I believe her to have been one of those truly chosen souls who, if placed in circumstances similar to that of St. Teresa (of Avila) or St. (Jane) Frances de Chantal, would be equally remarkable on the scale of sanctity.
In fact, she was canonized on September 14, 1975, the first USA-born saint.
Robert Maloney, CM.
1 Comment
Thanks, Father Bob,
Your description of a beautiful quintet of fascinating feminine faces that lovingly delves into the inner soul of an American saint softens the harsh frozen winter blues and has staying power of Hope for Spring and Lent.
Joe & Mary Bellacosa