 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St.
John Neumann
On September 14, 1975, Pope Paul VI raised Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton to sainthood,
making her the first canonized saint born in the United States.
Mother Seton, a native of New York City was a widow with five children in 1805 when she
became a Catholic convert from the Episcopalian Church. In 1808 she opened a small school
for girls in Baltimore. The following year she founded there a religious community of
women whose main goal was to educate poor children and work with the aged and infirm. The
order was patterned after the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. In 1810 the
community moved into a log building in Emmitsburg, Pa., and opened the first free school,
considered to be the beginning of the parochial school system in the United States. Before
her death in 1821, free schools and orphanages were opened in Philadelphia, New York, and
Baltimore.
Today thousands of Sisters of Charity in seven separate communities trace their origin to
this foundation.
St. John Neumann was born in Bohemia in 1811 and was ordained a priest by the Bishop of
New York. He worked zealously in the area of Niagara and was appointed Bishop of
Philadelphia. He had an outstanding devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and originated the
Forty Hours Devotion in his Diocese. He is also called "The Father of Catholic
Schools" because he did so much for their promotion. He died in 1860 and was
canonized in 1977.
|Home|Life Is...|Pictures|Calendar|Parents|Extras|Contact Us|
Last updated on Saturday, May 14, 2005 |
The Vatican
Diocese of Phoenix
College LIFE
ALIVE!
LifeTeen.org
|
