Part of a Series on Vincentian Heritage Places

St. Mary’s Seminary, Paca Street, Baltimore, Maryland

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In 1808, Elizabeth Seton was invited to Baltimore by Fr. Louis Dubourg, PSS (later, Bishop of the Louisiana Territory). (The Sulpician fathers founded the first U.S. Catholic Seminary in Baltimore in 1791.)

On Thursday, June 9, 1808, Elizabeth and her three daughters went to the wharf in New York City to board a ship for Baltimore. From the deck of the ship she saw for the last time the windows of her home at Number 8 State Street.

In Baltimore she lived with her children and began teaching. Elizabeth started her first Catholic school for girls there in 1808. Madame Fournier (Victorie DuBourg Fournier, Fr. DuBourg’s sister) gave practical assistance to Mrs. Seton in the establishment of her school on Paca Street.

At St. Mary’s Chapel, Elizabeth gathered the first group of Sisters, who would move with her to Emmitsburg in 1809.

The house where Elizabeth Seton lived was on Paca Street, adjoining the grounds of St. Mary’s Seminary and College.

Today, St. Mary’s Spiritual Center and Historic Site on Paca Street includes the Chapel of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple, the Mother Seton House, and a Visitor Center. Located at 600 North Paca Street, the site is open to the public and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For more information: baltimoremuseums.org

Mother Seton lived in this house on Paca Street, Baltimore Wikipedia article

All Vincentian Places in this Series

Red = Vincent de Paul, Blue = Frederic Ozanam, Teal = Elizabeth Seton

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