Article: Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

At one time our community had a friary in Emmitsburg, Maryland and our seminarians studied at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary there. Emmitsburg is also the home of the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. It was a joy to visit this holy place and pray before the relics of this great woman. She is the first American born canonized saint, born in 1774, two years before the Declaration of Independence. She was a wife, mother, widow, convert, teacher, religious sister, foundress and the began the Catholic school system in the United States. But most of all she was a saint of the Holy Eucharist.

Raised a devout Episcopalian, the circumstance of her life brought her for a time to Italy. She lived with Catholic friends after her husband died and was exposed to their beliefs, especially in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. This planted the seed of a deep longing to receive Holy Communion which grew from then on. Back in New York, while attending the Episcopalian services, she found herself looking out the window to a nearby Catholic Church and praying to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament there.

St. Elizabeth finally entered the Catholic Church despite strong opposition from family and friends. On the night of her First Holy Communion, she wrote in her journal: “At last GOD IS MINE and I AM HIS! … I HAVE RECEIVED HIM.” Devotion to our Blessed Mother and fidelity to the successors of St. Peter and the Apostles also drew her to the Church. As she lay dying of tuberculosis at only 46 years of age, she asked her sisters to position her bed so that she could see the tabernacle.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton endured persecution and sacrificed family, friends and her livelihood in order to be able to receive Holy Communion. During this new year, may she help us to grow in our love and gratitude for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and our longing to receive Him.

Happy New Year!
–Fr. Peter