Elizabeth Seton
Prologue:
Elizabeth was born into a wealthy family in New York City in 1774. Her parents raised her as a devout Episcopalian. They taught her to pray, read the Bible, and examine her conscience each night. Elizabeth became a fine musician and spoke excellent French.
Elizabeth met and fell in love with William Magee Seton. They married in 1794 and had five children before William went bankrupt.
It is now January 5, 1805. Jackie, a young girl, is visiting Elizabeth and her five children in her little upstairs apartment in New York. The apartment is cold. Elizabeth shares with her.
Jackie: Yesterday I met some New York society families who said they don't want you in their homes anymore. Is that because you're interested in the Catholic Church?
Seton: Yes. Most of them are Episcopalians. They think that I'm betraying my grandfather who was the rector of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church on Staten Island.
Jackie: So they're excluding you?
Seton: That's about it. No one wants me to talk about Catholicism or what happened in Italy.
Jackie: Tell me about Italy. Why did you go there? And what happened there that made you consider becoming a Catholic?
Seton: A year after Daddy died, my husband William got sick with tuberculosis. The doctor thought the Italian sun might cure my husband. So my daughter Anna Maria, who was only eight then, and William and I set sail. I had to leave my other four children with my family.
Jackie: Your husband died on that trip didn't he?
Seton: The sea journey took seven weeks, but then the Italian government quarantined us for four more. They were afraid that we might have the yellow fever that had hit New York. The authorities kept us in a stone tower in Leghorn. It was so cold that Anna Maria and I skipped rope to keep warm.
Jackie: Did your husband die there?
Seton: He died nine days after we got out of quarantine on December 27, 1803. He was only thirty-seven.
Jackie: Did you return to America immediately?
Seton: No, Anna Maria and I stayed in Florence for a few months. We got back here on June 3, 1804.
Jackie: But you had no money, so where did you stay in Italy?
Seton: We stayed with the Filicchi family.
Jackie: Were they Catholics?
Seton: Yes. I went to church with Signora Filicchi. When the priest elevated the host I felt a sudden rebirth within myself. That was, for me, the beginning.
Jackie: I've heard a lot of negative things about Catholics here in New York. People have a real prejudice against them. And yet the Filicchis are your friends.
Seton: They are holy people, and as I lived with them, I saw the virtue and love they had for others. I thought that if the Catholic faith could produce people with such holiness, then I wanted to find out more about the Church.
Jackie: Did you go to Mass every Sunday or just that once?
Seton: I went every day, and I prayed for enlightenment.
Jackie: But if you become a Catholic, your friends and family will desert you. A woman I met yesterday said that you're broke. How will you, a woman with five children, manage? Don't you need the support of your family?
Seton: I need God's support more. My peace is in doing what God invites me to do.
Jackie: And you believe God is calling you to become a Roman Catholic?
Seton: I feel God's call, but I also feel the call of my family and friends. Am I being asked to give up everything?
Jackie: Has everyone deserted you?
Seton: I still have a few friends, but no one wants me to become a Catholic.
Jackie: Tomorrow is the feast of the Epiphany. My teacher told us that the Epiphany manifests God's great love for all people. She told us that an epiphany is a sudden light, a sudden seeing of a new way. Maybe you'll have an epiphany if you go to Mass tomorrow. Maybe you'll see the way.
Seton: It all began for me at Mass in Florence. Perhaps tomorrow the star that guided the three magi to the stable will guide me, too! Would you like to go to Mass tomorrow with me?
Jackie: I would. I'll help with the children.
Seton: Let's hope that a great light shines on my confusion and darkness.
Jackie: I have a feeling that God is going to do great things through you.
Seton: I want always to do God's will. We'll go to Mass tomorrow and pray for my own epiphany.
Epilogue
On January 6, 1805, the feast of the Epiphany, Elizabeth Seton came to peace with her decision to become a Catholic. She was received into the Church on March 14, 1805.
On June 8, 1808, she left New York for Baltimore, Maryland. The next year she founded a community of sisters. Elizabeth became the superior of eighteen nuns. They became known as the Sisters of Charity, the first American religious community. They established their first school in Emmitsburg, Maryland. This was the beginning of the Catholic parochial school system in the United States.
Elizabeth died on January 4, 1821. Pope Paul VI canonized her in 1975. She is the first American-born saint.