Today we are fortunate to celebrate the memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton,
the first American-born saint canonized in 1975 by Pope Paul VI,
founder of the Sisters of Charity here in America,
which joined the Sisters of Charity in France with St. Vincent de Paul's community.
They became one.
And she was a mother of five children,
and it was interesting because she founded this community
while she was taking care of her children.
So interesting that she was living with her children,
rearing them while she was living with sisters as well in this religious community,
and she had taken vows too as a mother.
And she was a converted Episcopalian.
So most of her life she was an Episcopalian, a devout Episcopalian.
She became more and more devout in her spiritual life too as an Episcopalian,
and through her trials.
And through her sufferings, she grew closer to God
and fortunately found the Catholic faith to deepen her faith much more and become a saint.
But she was born in 1774, really the founding of the country, 1774,
and she was a daughter of a famous doctor.
And so she lived in high society.
She was an accomplished horsewoman.
She was a woman of faith.
She was fluent in French.
She was a musician.
So she was very talented, and she went to many parties and balls
and was wearing fancy dresses and all that,
which she said didn't hurt her because of the modesty at that time.
So she had many friends and many contacts in the Protestant world at that time that she lived in.
And so when she did come from a Christian family, she was a Christian.
So she was a Christian.
So she was a Christian.
And she was finally in contact with the Catholic faith.
It was a big sensation, and a big persecution ensued with her.
But she married William Seaton who was a businessman involved in shipping overseas
and had friends over in Italy and he became—
His father was wealthy as well.
So she was—lived in wealth.
And he became ill because of his illness.
But he ended up burger king.
He truly became rich.
and his father died
and his shipping business started to deteriorate
and started to lose money and ended up in bankruptcy.
And this caused, of course, a lot of anguish
for Elizabeth Seton and the family,
and they had to go through many trials
and working through the poverty that was coming upon them.
And he became very ill,
and it was advised to go to Italy for a change
and for a change of atmosphere and see if that could help him.
So they took the long trip,
and they sold a lot of the possessions they had
to be able to make the trip.
She went with him and one of her daughters.
And they arrived in Leghorn, Italy,
and because of his yellow fever that he had
and that was...
was playing in New York,
they learned about that in Italy
and they put him in quarantine immediately,
which was a stone building,
and he had to sleep on the floor
and he suffered with fever and terrible, terrible suffering,
and she had to take care of him.
And so it was 40 days of torture, really,
for them, suffering in the cold
and the fever that he had
and lack of...
amenities and food and whatnot.
But they went there to meet up with friends of theirs,
the Felicis, Italian family,
a very devout Catholic family,
who tried to help him while he was in this quarantine.
And then finally the authorities allowed him
to leave the quarantine and go to the Felici family,
and he recovered a little bit,
and then he died shortly.
Thereafter, in Italy.
And so Elizabeth stayed there in Italy
for a while before she could take a boat back to America,
and she traveled a lot of the churches in Italy,
and she was amazed at the beauty
and the prayer life of the Catholics there,
and especially their Eucharistic devotion
and her contact with the Felici family,
and they actively evangelized her
in their lives.
And she had a great effect on her conversion,
and she had many, many thoughts,
and she had to come to decisions on the Catholic faith,
but she was indecisive, even coming back to America,
and she was continuing to converse and correspond
with letters to the Felicis,
especially with two brothers and a mother of the Felicis
that would communicate with her and try to help her to come
to the Catholics.
And so she was struggling with the two faiths,
her Episcopalian faith and the Catholic faith,
and she was not sure what to do,
even though she was praying,
and they were corresponding and sending,
especially Antonio Felici was sending her letters
that were kind of forceful,
that you have to convert,
you have to come to the faith for your salvation
and for the good of those you know, etc.
So she did eventually receive the grace to convert,
and she came to know Bishop John Carroll,
the first Catholic bishop in America,
and he became her spiritual director.
But when she came back, she was living in poverty,
and her friends were helping her to support her family
in the meager means that she had,
but when they found out that she was considering Catholicism,
she suffered worse persecution and less help.
And so in her dire need,
the Catholics that she did know,
it was really the president of St. Mary's College in Baltimore,
Connecticut, Baltimore, Maryland,
offered her a teaching position in Baltimore.
So she moved her family there,
and she...
But before she...
But before she moved there,
she was running a boarding school for boys,
so they knew she was good at teaching.
And so she went there to teach in Baltimore,
and she, from there,
was encouraged by Bishop John Carroll
to start a religious order of teaching sisters
because he knew her fervor and her...
Because as Episcopalian, she was a very loving mother,
a very loving wife,
and was really firm,
and her faith really loved God very much
and loved her God even more
and was growing closer and closer to God through her trials.
And so he saw her religious spirit
and saw that she could be a good foundress
of a teaching community of sisters
because schools were so greatly in need in America at that time.
And so she did follow his advice and counsel,
and she had friends.
She had her sisters,
her sister-in-law that joined her,
her three daughters,
and a few other lady friends that came together
and founded this little nucleus community.
And she named it the Sisters of Charity,
and they grew from poverty in a religious community,
and there in Emmitsburg, Maryland,
they were given a piece of land,
and they slowly grew,
and built buildings,
and had orphanages and hospitals
and boarding schools and free schools for poor children.
And so little by little, of course,
these things grew,
and by the end of her life,
she had over 20 different institutions
that she had founded in schools throughout the country,
going all the way to all of New England
and going to Ohio.
And so she was a great founder of St. Louis, Missouri.
So she was a great founderess
and did a lot for the establishment of the Catholic Church
and really the first religious community as well in America she founded.
So we are blessed to have her example for us,
the first American saint,
and maybe perhaps we can learn from her patience
or patience.
She had two sons and daughters
that became enamored with the world,
and she had to deal with that
and trying to bring them back to the faith
and to live the faith more fervently.
So she had to struggle with her two sons,
especially who were going off into the world
and doing different things that weren't so good.
She had to communicate with them in writing and whatnot.
So maybe we can learn from her patience
and their conversion,
but also the patience that she had to have with herself
and her own conversion to the Catholic faith
and how important it is to be patient with others
and their conversions and their struggles
and the grace that God gives to them at his time
and his way to pray
and continue to work for conversions and evangelization
and unceasingly without giving up,
without,
being discouraged,
but to pray more and more
and keep giving those hints as she received
and as she gave to her children
for greater conversion and sanctification.
Thank you.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.