Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

Elizabeth Ann Seton (August 28, 1774 – January 4, 1821) was the first native-born United States citizen to be canonized.

At the age of nineteen, she married William Magee Seton, a wealthy business man. Five children were born to the marriage, which ended with her husband’s death in 1803. Two years later she converted to Roman Catholicism, on March 14, 1805. One of her nephews, James Roosevelt Bayley, would later become Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Due to her conversion she lost the support of her friends and family. After some difficult years, Elizabeth was able to establish a community in Emmitsburg, Maryland dedicated to the care for the children of the poor. This was the first religious community of apostolic women in the United States. The remainder of her life was spent in leading and developing the community she had founded.

Her connections to New York society and the accompanying social pressures to leave the life she had created for herself did not keep her from living the life she believed God had called her to live. The greatest difficulties she faced were actually internal. She very much disliked exercising authority over others, and suffered from bouts where she did not feel the presence of God while praying. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 46.