Today marks the fortieth anniversary of the canonization of Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. St. Elizabeth was also a typical New York girl of the early 19th century.
Elizabeth Bayley or Betsy as she was called, was born into a wealthy Episcopal family in 1774. In 1777, her mother Catherine died leaving her father, Richard to care for two young girls. He did what most men at the time did and quickly remarried to provide a mother for his daughters. Elizabeth’s stepmother, Charlotte Amelia Barclay, took the girls with her on charitable visits to the poor. Elizabeth’s father was a prominent physician who would be appointed Chief Health Officer for the Port of New York. Dr. Bayley oversaw the immigrants coming into the city determining if any were sick and needed to be quarantined. The combination of her experiences with her stepmother and her father’s stories gave Elizabeth a perspective most girls in her social world did not have.
By all accounts, Betsy Bayley was a leading light in New York society. She was considered quite pretty, with a vivacious charm and quick laugh. Fluent in French, drawing, dancing, and a good horsewoman, she had all the attributes that a young woman in New York society needed to be successful. It was not long before she caught the eye of William Seton, who came from a successful merchant family. The Bayley-Seton wedding was one of “the” events of the 1794 social season. William Seton worked for his father’s merchant house and was responsible for bringing the first Stradivarius violin to America. The young couple moved into a home on Wall Street, in the heart of fashionable New York where they began to raise their family eventually having five children.
But the 1790s was a difficult time for merchants. The conflict between England and France led to American ships being stopped by both sides and a loss of revenue. The Seton company did not do well eventually leading William to declare bankruptcy. The family had to move in with her father for a brief time. In addition to financial worries, William suffered from tuberculosis. Elizabeth turned to religion for solace. Doctors recommended that William go to Italy (a common prescription for the wealthy) to improve his health. Unfortunately, the trip had the opposite effect.
When the Setons arrived in Italy they were placed in quarantine because the Italian authorities feared they might be carrying yellow fever from New York. The conditions of the quarantine weakened William Seton even more and he died in 1803. While in Italy, Elizabeth and her daughter visited Roman Catholic churches with their Italian friends. This began her process of conversion to Roman Catholicism.
When she returned to New York, she was faced with serious economic issues. Elizabeth did what many “genteel” women in poverty did, she opened a school. Due to her wide range of friends and family connections initially the school did well. Elizabeth continued her interest in Catholicism attending the only Catholic church in New York, St. Peter’s. There on St. Patrick’s Day in 1805 she would be accepted into the Catholic faith. Unfortunately, New York was still vehemently anti-Catholic and her school began to lose students. Her friends also began to stay away and once again, she was in economic distress.
She would be invited to open a school in Maryland in 1808 leaving New York City once again. There, in 1809, she would open a free school for poor children. Her small group of family and friends would form the nucleus of the Sisters of Charity, the first religious community of sisters created in the United States. The Sisters of Charity would eventually be invited to come to New York City to help teach the growing Irish immigrant population thus bringing the story of Elizabeth Seton full circle.
Many people walk by the site of one of her homes on State Street, a lovely federal building which seems so out of place among the glass towers of Manhattan. It remains a visible symbol of the uniqueness of this New York girl.
Bowery & Canal 