A Saint for our time

     The late Terence Cardinal Cooke of New York, at the time of the canonization of Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton in 1975, said this:

"In Elizabeth Ann Seton, we have a saint for our times.

In Elizabeth Ann Seton, we have a woman of faith,

for a time of doubt and uncertainty ...

a woman of love for a time of coldness and division ...

a woman of hope for a time of crisis and discouragement.

Thanks be to God for this saintly daughter of New York,

for this valiant woman of God's Church."

      Today is the feast of our parish patron - Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton - canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1975.  Born in New York City on August 28, 1774, she was a child of the American Revolution and the first native born saint from the United States.  Educated, well to do, and having ties through her mother's side with prominent leaders (the presidents Roosevelt) and Archbishop of Baltimore, James Roosevelt Bayley, she was raised an Episcopalian and attended Trinity Church in New York.

     She married William Magee Seton on January 25, 1794, he a partner in a merchant shipping firm, and they had a number of children.  Business became complicated, as did William's health, when they moved to Leghorn, Italy, for health reasons, and lived with the Filicchi family, who were business associates.  William died in Italy.  Elizabeth stayed on for a time with the Filicchi's.  They were devote Catholics, and Elizabeth began to admire their devotion and become very interested in the Eucharist.

     Upon return to New York, she continued her interest in the Church, which caused great tension among her family and friends.  When Father William O'Brien received her into the Catholic Church on March 14, 1805, she paid dearly for her actions.  The school that she ran to support her children was boycotted by many.  She left New York and moved to Baltimore, where again she opened a school.  Others joined her in this ministry, and she and her community moved to Emmittsburg, Maryland, where they establish a Religious Congregation of Women - the Sisters of Charity, the first in the United States.  Much of the rest is history.  She died on January 2, 1821, at the age of 47.

     The Collect at today's Mass says:

"O God, who crowned with the gift of true faith

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton's burning zeal to find you,

grant by her intercession and example

that we may always seek you with diligent love

and find you in daily service with sincere faith."

     When the parish was formed in 1978, the late Bishop William G. Connare placed us under her patronage ... and we are grateful and blessed.