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St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Elizabeth Seton was born on August 28, 1774,
of a wealthy and distinguished Episcopalian family. She was baptized
in the Episcopal faith and was a faithful adherent of the Episcopal Church
until her conversion to Catholicism. In 1794, Elizabeth married
William Seton and they reared five children amid suffering and sickness.
Elizabeth and her sick husband traveled to Leghorn, Italy, and there
William died. While in Italy Elizabeth became acquainted with
Catholicism and in 1805 she made her profession of faith in the Catholic
Church. She established her first Catholic school in Baltimore in
1808; in 1809, she established a religious community in Emmitsburg,
Maryland. Having watched her small community of teaching sisters
expand to New York, and as far as Saint Louis, she died on January 4,
1821, and was declared a saint by Pope Paul VI on September 14, 1975.
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