St. Elizabeth Ann Seton – Feast Day January 4th

St. Elizabeth Ann Bailey Seton (August 28, 1774 – January 4, 1821) grew up Episcopalian, a member of New York City society when the United States was just beginning. Her father was a surgeon who helped care for immigrants, while her mother, who died when Elizabeth was three, was the daughter of an Episcopalian priest. At age 19, she married William Magee Seton. The young couple were deeply in love and had five children. When William’s father died, they took in his six younger siblings, ages seven to seventeen. With the help of her sister-in-law, Rebecca, she educated several of the young children at home.

The Seton shipping company fell on hard times and then William Seton fell deathly ill. In an attempt to save his life, William, Elizabeth, and their oldest daughter sailed to Italy, but William died soon after they arrived. While in Italy, the Felicchi family introduced Elizabeth to Catholicism.

Upon returning to New York, Elizabeth struggled to support her family and wrestled with whether to convert to Catholicism, a faith looked down upon by most of the New York elite. On March 14, 1805, she was received into the Catholic Church. She had started an academy for young ladies, but after her conversion, most of the students left. She also took in boarders for a while. Ultimately, she was invited to establish a school in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and helped launch Catholic education in the United States. She also helped found the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph and became known as Mother Seton. She died at the age of 46 on January 4, 1821.

What Homeschoolers Can Learn from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton did not have an easy life. She bore the grief of losing her husband and two of her daughters. She struggled with financial difficulties and worked to provide for her children as a widowed mother. She worried about her children’s lives and their souls. Homeschoolers can find a kindred spirit in this woman who lived over two hundred years ago.

However, wherever the road took her, she trusted in God and sought to do His will. Before her conversion, she was a devout Episcopalian. She had an established place in society and contributed greatly to charitable efforts with both time and money. After God called her to convert to Catholicism, she continued to pray and trust that He would lead her in the way she should go.

She was devoted to education, whether homeschooling her own children or teaching others. When she taught young ladies at her school in Emmitsburg, she was thrilled when they wanted to enter religious life, but she also prepared them to be wives and mothers, as she knew that was the vocation most of them were called to. She was committed to providing a religious education, but also a practical one.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s example shows us to continue praying and trusting in God even when the road is hard and we are unsure where it might lead. She also serves as a role model for being devoted to education.

“But first, the battle must be won, the thorny road passed over. Look up! He is ever a witness of your struggles. Put all your trust in Him.”[1]— St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us.

[1] Dr. Mary Kary Clark, Daily Homeschool Inspirations from Mother Seton, https://www.setonmagazine.com/latest-articles/daily-homeschool-inspirations-from-mother-elizabeth-ann-seton

Image Source: By Jacques Reich (probably based on an earlier work by another artist) – Appletons’ Cyclopædia of American Biography, v. 5, p. 465, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15374758