(RNS) — Catholics are preparing to mark a year of celebration of the 50th anniversary of the canonization of the first U.S.-born saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774 – 1821). Seton, a widow and Catholic convert from a prominent Episcopal family, founded the first congregation of women religious in the U.S., the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, and the first U.S. Catholic girls’ school.
Saturday (Jan. 4), Baltimore Archbishop William Lori will begin the celebrations in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the site of Seton’s ministry and remains, with a Mass that will be televised on Catholic network EWTN at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.
The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton will also kick off the yearlong celebration with the opening of an exhibit on her Sept. 14, 1975, canonization, which includes the canonization decree from St. Paul VI. The shrine will also host a mural by Frederick, Maryland, artist Ellen Byrne, portraying Seton’s journey to sainthood.
Portrait of Elizabeth Ann Seton by Amabilia Filicchi. (Image courtesy Wikimedia/Creative Commons)
The commemoration will continue throughout the rest of the year with a series of pilgrimage initiatives, historical reenactments at the school she founded, an outreach program to the parishes and schools named after Seton, virtual tours of her house, a digital campaign highlighting the saint’s impacts on Catholics and a Sept. 14 celebration including a Mass, food, music and prayer.
“During this anniversary year we hope to encourage the faithful to go on pilgrimage themselves and deepen their relationship with Our Lord, with the knowledge that Mother Seton will show us the way and accompany us all,” said Rob Judge, executive director of the Shrine, in a statement.
The title sponsor for the 50th anniversary is Ascension, a Catholic health care giant whose beginnings are tied to a health care system created by a congregation of sisters founded by Seton. Ascension was also the only Catholic health care system taking a key sponsor role for the National Eucharistic Congress, a Catholic mega-event held last summer in Indianapolis to inspire renewed commitment to the Eucharist.
Ascension nurses have argued that the system has escaped accountability for understaffing hospitals, closing labor and delivery and pediatric units, divesting from hospitals in low-income areas and engaging in unfair labor practices, even holding a protest outside the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ fall meeting in November.
In 2022, the Sisters of Charity Foundation apologized and asked for forgiveness for the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s enslavement of at least three people after Seton’s death. The Foundation said archivists had discovered that Seton’s grandfather bequeathed the then-3-year-old Seton an enslaved person in his will, but some researchers believe that person, named Brennus, escaped shortly afterward during the American Revolution.
Seton’s influence in U.S. Catholic life is felt beyond the health care institutions founded by her followers, with more than 200 U.S. parishes and schools under her patronage and more than 50,000 pilgrims visiting her shrine each year.
Of Seton’s life, Judge wrote, “This anniversary is a tremendous opportunity to show the world how an ordinary person such as Mother Seton, who conforms their life to God’s grace, can be transformed and become a saint.”