Thursday 4 January 2018

# Saints

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton


The 4th of January is the feast day of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. She is the patron saint of Catholic Schools; Shreveport, Louisiana; the State of Maryland; widows; and people who have lost their parents or children.

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton lived between 1774 and 1821 and was born in New York City. Her family was wealthy and influential. She married a businessman and they both lived in Wall Street where they attended an Episcopalian church. Her husband’s father died, and she took in his six younger siblings with her own five children. She was introduced to Catholicism when she went to Italy and converted to the faith after her husband died. They lost the family fortune but Elizabeth went on to found the first Catholic school in the United States as well as the first American religious community, the Sisters of Charity. She is the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonised as a saint.

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