SETON, ELISABETH ANNA. — An eminent founding figure in the United States during the period when the Catholic hierarchy was being established; née Bayley, she belonged to a prominent family of New York. Born on 28 Aug. 1774, she died at Emmitsburg on 4 Jan. 1821.
A fervent Episcopalian until 1803, she came to know the Catholic Church through the noble Filicchi family of Livorno, during a journey to Italy, where her husband died. Upon returning to New York, she abjured her former faith on 14 March 1805. In 1808, in Baltimore, she began the foundation of the Society of the Sisters of Charity of St Joseph (v.), which was subsequently established at Emmitsburg on 31 July 1809. A woman of remarkable intellectual and moral stature, she left numerous edifying writings, some of them published, and was universally esteemed by the highest ecclesiastical authorities (e.g., Archbishop G. Carroll [v.]), as well as by the lay leaders of the United States. She devoted herself to every work of charity, especially the education of youth, becoming a forerunner of the parish-school system still in force in the United States. Her cause of beatification was introduced on 28 Feb. 1940.