St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was a wife, mother, widow, convert, educator, and foundress in the early United States. Catholics seek her intercession for families, converts, widows, teachers, and all who must follow God through loss and change.
Begin PrayingMore about St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born in New York City in 1774 and was raised in the Episcopal tradition. She married William Seton and became the mother of five children. After her husband’s business failed and his health declined, the family traveled to Italy, where he died. The Catholic faith and charity of Italian friends, together with Elizabeth’s growing belief in the Eucharist, helped lead her into the Catholic Church in 1805 despite serious social and financial costs.
To support her family and serve the Church, Elizabeth opened a school and in 1809 began the community that became the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Their free school for girls helped lay foundations for Catholic education in the United States. She guided the sisters while remaining a devoted mother and died in 1821. Canonized in 1975 as the first native-born citizen of the United States declared a saint, she offers a witness of fidelity through grief, responsibility, and new vocation.
