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.