St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Feast Day: January 4
Christians choose to do what God wants, not what they want. They believe that God knows what is best for them. Elizabeth Seton tried always to choose God’s will.
Elizabeth was born to wealthy parents in New York City in 1774. Her parents taught her to be a caring person. When she grew up, Elizabeth happily danced at many parties. Then, in 1794, she fell in love and married William Seton.
The happy couple had five children before William died in 1803. He left his family penniless. So Elizabeth had to find work to support her children. She got no help from her family and friends. Why? Because she had become a Catholic in 1805.
To support her family, Elizabeth started a school in Baltimore and then another in Emmetsburg, Maryland. Soon women gathered around her. They, too, wanted to teach the poor. In 1813, this group became the Sisters of Charity.
In the years between 1805 and 1821, when she died, Elizabeth founded the first parish school in the United States. She established the first Catholic orphanage. She started the first religious order in America.
By the time she was 46, Elizabeth had established 20 convents in North and South America and Italy. As teenager, wife, mother, widow, nun, she lived the good news of God’s love. In 1963, Pope John XXIII declared that Elizabeth was a saint—the first American-born saint. She was a saint who loved to do God’s will.
Connecting to Faith First® Legacy Edition
Grade 1, chapter 16
Grade 5, chapter 9
Junior High, Mystery of God, chapter 1
Connecting to Faith First®
Kindergarten, chapter 17
Junior High, Creed and Prayer, chapters 1 and 23