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(Editor's Note: This is the first of a
three-part series on Mother Elizabeth Seton, the first American-born saint.
They are written by Sister Ellen Eisenberger of the Daughters of Charity. Sr.
Ellen teaches first grade at St. Mary's School in Rome, GA.)
In the late summer of 1774, while delegates from
the thirteen British colonies in America were on their way to Philadelphia for
the first Continental Congress, a baby girl was born on August 28th
to Dr. and Mrs. Richard Bayley in New York City. The baby was christened
Elizabeth Ann in Trinity Episcopal Church.
It seems providential that the two events were so
close in time. Both were to have a profound influence on the history of these
United States: The Congress on its temporal existence, Elizabeth on its
spiritual life. It was she who founded the first American sisterhood, the first
American parochial school and the first American Catholic orphanage. Now, she
is destined to be its first native canonized saint, a special sign of Divine
Reality at work in our nation.
Elizabeth Ann is a Today Saint. Shortly after the
conclusion of Vatican II, Pope Paul said: "Love the Church of Christ and in
loving the Church of Christ, you will receive the Holy Spirit -- love the Lord
your God, love His Church." Let us listen to Mother Seton as the prayers for
the dying are being said for her on January 4, 1821. In her last moments, she
was not thinking of herself; she was preoccupied with the Church. So she
interrupts the prayers to tell her Sisters gathered 'round her, "Be children of
the Church, be children of the Church!"
For those who know very
little about Elizabeth Seton, and for those who would know her better, let us
get a closer look at this charmingly gracious woman, this strong, courageous
woman, this witness to the power of God to transform man -- and through man --
the country and the world into His likeness which she mirrored so effectively.
Elizabeth's childhood was lonely, but not unhappy.
Instead of looking within, she looked up and looking up, she found God; and He
became her joy.
Her mother died shortly before her third birthday,
and Dr. Bayley married again. The new Mrs. Bayley took care of her
stepdaughters, Mary and Betty; she taught them their prayers -- Betty notes
this in her "Dear Remembrances" -- but she did not love the children as a
child's warm nature needs to be loved. Her father was too absorbed in his
medical research to pay much attention to his children. So, Mary and Betty
spent much of their time in New Rochelle with Uncle William Bayley. Here the
girls found the love and companionship they did not find in their own home.
Here, too, at New Rochelle, Elizabeth began to
have a great love for the Bible, a lasting love which gave her spirituality a
sound scriptural foundation. She writes, "I set off for the woods, soon found
an outlet in a meadow … Here then was a sweet bed … the numberless
sounds of spring melody and joy … and a heart as innocent as human heart
could be, filled ever with enthusiastic love of God and admiration of His works
… God was my Father, my all. I prayed, sang hymns, cried, laughed, talked
to myself of how He could place me above all sorrow. Then I lay still to enjoy
the heavenly peace that came into my soul; and I am sure, in the two hours so
enjoyed, I grew ten years in the spiritual life."
"From 16 to 20," Father Joseph Dirvin tells us in
his definitive biography, Mrs. Seton, "Betty was adrift, dividing her
time between her sister Mary's home (Mary was now Mrs. Wright Post) and the
home of an aunt on Staten Island." She was a dark-eyed brunette with natural
curls; a little American teenager who loved music and the theater, who ran and
sang and laughed and played with all the vivacity of her French ancestry. Now
her father began to realize how much he loved this daughter of his. Their
correspondence when he was away, shows a new depth of affection.
(To be continued)
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