January 4, 2024, Memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Holy Rosary (Luminous Mysteries)

Today, on the eleventh day of Christmas, we celebrate the Memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American to be canonized a saint.

Born in New York in 1774, Elizabeth Ann Bayley married William Seton and they had five children. After her husband’s death from tuberculosis, she converted from the Episcopal faith to Catholicism.

She founded the American Sisters of Charity, a community of teaching sisters that began Catholic schools throughout the United States, especially helping with the education of underprivileged children. Elizabeth Ann Seton also laid the foundation of the American parochial school system and opened orphanages in Philadelphia and New York City.

She died at Emmitsburg on January 4, 1821, was beatified by Pope St. John XXIII in 1963, and was canonized by Pope St. Paul VI in 1975.

We meditate on these words of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, “What was the first rule of our dear Savior’s life? You know it was to do His Father’s will. Well, then, the first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly to do it in the manner He wills; and thirdly, to do it because it is His will. I know what is His will by those who direct me; whatever they bid me do, if it is ever so small in itself, is the will of God for me. Then, do it in the manner He wills it.”