Daily Reflection Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious

A true daughter of the American Revolution, born just two years before the Declaration of Independence, she is our first American-born saint. Raised as an Episcopalian, she learned the value of prayer, Scripture, and a nightly examination of conscience.

At 19, she married a handsome, wealthy businessman with whom she had five children before his business failed and he died in Italy of tuberculosis. At 30, Elizabeth was widowed, penniless, with five small children to support.

While in Italy with her dying husband, Elizabeth witnessed Catholicism in action through her friends. Three things led her to become a Catholic: belief in the Real Presence, devotion to the Blessed Mother and conviction that the Catholic Church was genuinely apostolic. Many of her family and friends rejected her when she became a Catholic in 1805.

Mother Seton’s thousand or so letters reveal her development from ordinary goodness to heroic sanctity. She suffered great trials of sickness, misunderstanding, the death of loved ones and the heartache of a wayward son. She is someone most of us can relate to quite easily. We praise God for her witness to us.