Tribute to Mother Seton
Diocesan Press Service. February 8, 1963 [VII-8]
Saint Andrew's Church in Richmond, Staten Island, N. Y., paid tribute recently to Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, a Roman Catholic nun who is destined to become the first native-born American citizen to achieve beatification.
A bronze tablet was affixed to the outside wall of the church on the 142nd anniversary of Mother Seton's death. Presented by the Sisters of Charity of Mount St. Vincent at Hudson, N. Y., the tablet marks the site where Mother Seton's parents and four relatives are buried. Her father, Dr. Richard Bayley, was the founder of the first United States quarantine station in Tompkinsville, Staten Island, and her grandfather, the Rev. Richard Charlton, was rector of St. Andrew's from 1747 until his death in 1777.
Among those present at the ceremony were the Rev. Bernard A. Hemaley, rector of St. Andrew's; Mother Loretta Bernard, Mother General of the New York Sisters of Charity; and Mother Mary, former Mother General.
Mother Seton was born in New York in 1774 and was married to an Episcopal businessman, William Magee Seton. He died in Italy in 1808, and the following year his widow returned to New York where she opened a small school for neighborhood children. Two years later she joined the Roman Catholic Church and in 1809 founded the American Sisters of Charity, the first congregation of women organized in this country by an American. The Order is noted for several important firsts: it established the first free Roman Catholic schools in the U.S., conducted the first Roman Catholic orphanage, organized the first Roman Catholic hospital, and set up the first shelter for lepers.
Beatification proceedings began in 1921. Three years ago, Pope John decreed that Mother Seton had "practiced virtue in a heroic manner," one of the requirements for beatification. Last November the Vatican's Congregation of Rites took under review two miracles attributed to her. If the Congregation vouches for the miracles and Pope John XXIII approves decision (both moves are regarded as certain), Mother Seton will merit the name "blessed."