Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The 11th Day of Christmas - St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton


January 4, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Elizabeth Seton was born on August 28, 1774, of a wealthy and distinguished Episcopalian family. She was baptized in the Episcopal faith and was a faithful adherent of the Episcopal Church until her conversion to Catholicism. 

She established her first Catholic school in Baltimore in 1808.
Mother Seaton founded the American Sisters of Charity, a community of teaching sisters in 1809 which began Catholic schools throughout the United States, especially helping with the education of underprivileged children. Mother Seton laid the foundation of the American parochial school system.

After seeing the expansion of her small community of teaching sisters to New York and as far as St. Loius, she died on January 4, 1821, and was declared a saint by Pope Paul VI on September 14, 1975. 
She is the first native born American to be canonized a saint. 

CatholicCulture.org

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