A biography of the first American saint, focusing on her deeds and contributions to American Catholicism.

Biography of Elizabeth Bayley Seton, 1774-1821, who spent her childhood in New York City during the Revolutionary War and founded the first native sisterhood in America.

Here are the rules, conferences and writings of these two Vincentian founders who, through service to the poor, left an indelible mark on the church in France in the seventeenth century and beyond to the present. Louise (1591-1660) first came to Vincent (1581-1660) for spiritual direction and they became coworkers and friends for the rest of their lives.

Fully revised and expanded, this new work is the first major revision of the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church in more than 40 years! It is the official revision of Lesser Feasts and Fasts and authorized by the 2009 General Convention. All commemorations in Lesser Feasts and Fasts have been retained, and many new ones added. Three scripture readings (instead of current two) are provided for all minor holy days. Additional new material includes a votive mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, many more ecumenical commemorations, plus a proper for space exploration. For years the oft revised volume, Lesser Feasts and Fasts (LFF), has served parishes and individuals mark part of the holiness of each day by providing Scripture readings, a collect, a Eucharistic preface, and a narrative about those remembered on the church's calendar that day whose lives have witnessed to the grace of God. Holy Women, Holy Men (HWHM) is a major effort to revise, but also to expand and enrich LFF. Where LFF provided two readings (gospel and other New Testament) plus a psalm, HWHM adds an Old Testament citation. Where LFF was limited to few non-Anglicans in the post-reformation period (and few non-Episcopalians after 1789), HWHM dramatically broadens appreciation for other Christians and their traditions. Over-emphasis on clergy is redressed by additional laity, males by females, and "in-church" activities by contributions well beyond the workings of institutional agendas. These almost daily commemorations occupy over 600 of the book's 785 pages, by far the lion's share of its content. Remaining sections address: principles of revision and guides for future revision; liturgical propers for seasons (Advent/Christmas, Lent, and Easter); and new propers for a miscellany of propers usable with individuals (or events) not officially listed in the formal calendar. Two cycles of propers for daily Eucharist are also included, one covering a six week period, the other a two year cycle.

“A fascinating biography” of Elizabeth Seton, who shocked high society by converting to Catholicism—a faith that was illegal in New York when she was born (Booklist). In this riveting biography of the first American saint, Joan Barthel tells the mesmerizing story of a woman whose life encompassed wealth and poverty, passion and sorrow, love and loss. Elizabeth was born into a prominent New York City family in 1774—when Catholicism was illegal and priests in the city were arrested, and sometimes hanged. Her father was the chief health officer for the Port of New York, and she lived down the block from Alexander Hamilton. She danced at George Washington’s sixty-fifth Birthday Ball in cream slippers, monogrammed. When Elizabeth and her husband sailed to Italy in a doomed attempt to cure his tuberculosis, she and her family were quarantined in a damp dungeon. And when, after she was widowed, Elizabeth became a Catholic, she was so scorned that people talked of burning down her house. American Saint is the inspiring story of a brave woman who forged the way for other women who followed and who made a name for herself in a world entirely ruled by men. Founder of the Sisters of Charity, she resisted male clerical control of her religious order—and she also started America’s first Catholic school, laying the foundation of an educational system that would help countless children thrive in a new nation. “Compelling . . . an exquisite story of Seton’s inspiring life. . . . Readers interested in Catholic history and U.S. history should not overlook this important biography.” —Publishers Weekly “Barthel is a fine and insightful observer of this larger-than-life woman who was so far ahead two hundred years ago that we’re still catching up with her.” —Gloria Steinem Includes a foreword by Maya Angelou

From socialite to saint, it was an extraordinary journey for Seton, one gracefully chronicled in Catherine O'Donnell's richly textured new biography.... A remarkable biography of a remarkable woman.― Wall Street Journal In 1975, two centuries after her birth, Pope Paul VI canonized Elizabeth Ann Seton, making her the first saint to be a native-born citizen of the United States in the Roman Catholic Church. Seton came of age in Manhattan as the city and her family struggled to rebuild themselves after the Revolution, explored both contemporary philosophy and Christianity, converted to Catholicism from her native Episcopalian faith, and built the St. Joseph’s Academy and Free School in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Hers was an exemplary early American life of struggle, ambition, questioning, and faith, and in this flowing biography, Catherine O’Donnell has given Seton her due. O’Donnell places Seton squarely in the context of the dynamic and risky years of the American and French Revolutions and their aftermath. Just as Seton’s dramatic life was studded with hardship, achievement, and grief so were the social, economic, political, and religious scenes of the Early American Republic in which she lived. O’Donnell provides the reader with a strong sense of this remarkable woman’s intelligence and compassion as she withstood her husband’s financial failures and untimely death, undertook a slow conversion to Catholicism, and struggled to reconcile her single-minded faith with her respect for others’ different choices. The fruit of her labors were the creation of a spirituality that embraced human connections as well as divine love and the American Sisters of Charity, part of an enduring global community with a specific apostolate for teaching. The trove of correspondence, journals, reflections, and community records that O’Donnell weaves together throughout Elizabeth Seton provides deep insight into her life and her world. Each source enriches our understanding of women’s friendships and choices, illuminates the relationships within the often-opaque world of early religious communities, and upends conventional wisdom about the ways Americans of different faiths competed and collaborated during the nation’s earliest years. Through her close and sympathetic reading of Seton’s letters and journals, O’Donnell reveals Seton the person and shows us how, with both pride and humility, she came to understand her own importance as Mother Seton in the years before her death in 1821.

A fictionalized young adult biography of Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821), New York socialite, wife, mother, convert and foundress of the American Sisters of Charity and the first U.S.-born saint.Ages 11 and up.

In August 1870, Mother Aloysia Lowe and five Sisters of Charity from Cincinnati arrived in Altoona, Pennsylvania, to found a new community of sisters for the Diocese of Pittsburgh. Western Pennsylvania, with its throngs of newly immigrated Catholics and burgeoning industry, witnessed the growth of parishes and quality schools. Mother Aloysia purchased a 200-acre property in Greensburg in 1882 to accommodate the growing community. It became known as Seton Hill. The Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, following in the footsteps of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. Vincent de Paul, and St. Louise de Marillac, have dedicated their lives in service of others. From the establishment of groundbreaking educational institutions, including Seton Hill University, to the operation of advanced health-care facilities and vital social service programs, the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill influenced the lives of thousands of Americans. The pioneering spirit of these Sisters of Charity, evidenced in their expansive mission work in Arizona, California, and Louisiana, culminated in 1960 with a mission to Korea. The Korean Province and the United States now unite the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill as an international congregation.

Elizabeth Seton is an important saint for our times: she was a convert, an American, a wife and mother as well as a widow, the foundress of an order (the Sisters of Charity) and an administrator. Fr. Dirvin, an authority on Saint Elizabeth Seton, takes writings, correspondence, and recollections of Seton to reveal her deep life of faith and prayer. A moving biography and an inspiring record of Elizabeth Seton's interior journey that gives us a profound spiritual portrait of a multifaceted saint.

Definitive biography of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton