Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

Elizabeth Bayley was born in New York City on August 28, 1774, into a prominent Episcopalian family. In 1794 she married William Magee Seton, and they had five children. When the family business failed and William fell ill with tuberculosis, they sailed to Italy, where he died in Livorno in 1803. The faith of their Catholic friends there, especially their love for the Eucharist, moved her deeply.

Back in New York she entered the Catholic Church in 1805, losing many friends. In 1809 she moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she founded the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph's and opened a school for girls, a seed of the Catholic school system in the United States. She died on January 4, 1821, and in 1975 became the first saint born in the United States.

Her shrine in Emmitsburg, Maryland, is a national place of pilgrimage, and many Catholic schools and parishes bear her name. Several congregations of Sisters of Charity in the United States and Canada trace their roots to her, and on her feast schools often hold special Masses and service projects.