MOTHER ELIZABETH SETON 
 
 V-*-' 
 
A MEMOIR OF 
 
 MOTHER ELIZABETH SETON 
 
 FOUNDRESS OF 
 
 THE SISTERS OF CHARITY IN 
 
 AMERICA 
 WITH SOME OF 
 HER SPIRTUAL MAXIMS 
 AND A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF HER 
 DAUGHTERS IN 
 HALIFAX 
 
 m 
 
 BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY 
 CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. 
 MOUNT SAINT VINCENT 
 Halifax, Nova Scotia 
 
 1924 
 
Imprimatur 
 
 Edward J. McCarthy, D. D. 
 Archbishop of Halifax. 
 September 18, 1924. 
 
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TO MOTHER SETON 
 
 O Holy Foundress look to-day 
 From the blessed realms above, 
 
 Wide-spread thy children sound thy praise 
 And claim with joy thy Mother’s love. 
 
 Thy influence grows with passing years, 
 
 Thy memory sweet like perfume rare 
 Clings round the homes thy daughters rear 
 And sheds its fragrance everywhere. 
 
 O Valiant Mother, undismayed 
 In every trial fraught with pain, 
 
 Thou sang’st a Deo Gratias 
 And deemed the suff’ring but thy gain. 
 Cross-laden we need thy courage strong, 
 
 And our lips tremble as they sing, 
 
 Let the faint echo of thy song 
 Spur us to follow Christ our King. 
 
 O Saintly Mother, oft in prayer 
 Thy spirit soared aloft to God, 
 
 To gaze upon His sanctity 
 Because the lowly ways thou’dst trod. 
 
 As lark unseen above the clouds 
 Fills earth with rapturous jubilee, 
 
 So would’st thou chant thy Maker’s praise, 
 
 Such faith we ask His Face to see. 
 
 O Loving Mother, swells the song 
 Of faithful voices young and old, 
 
 The little children led to God 
 Safe shepherded within its fold. 
 
 The sick, the poor, the fatherless, 
 
 Each one, thy Charity avows. 
 
 But sweetest sounds the Virgins’ hymn 
 Whom thou hast given to Christ, their Spouse. 
 
MOTHER ELIZABETH SETON 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF 
 
 MOTHER ELIZABETH SETON 
 
 I N New York City, on the Feast of St. 
 
 Augustine, August 28, 1774, Elizabeth 
 Seton was born. In honor of the great doctor, 
 the Church was singing:— 
 
 “De profundis tenebrarum 
 Lumen mundi exit clarum, 
 
 Et scintillat hodie. 
 
 Olim quidem vas erroris 
 Augustinus, vas honoris 
 Datus est Ecclesiae” 
 
 “Lo, from out the depths of darkness 
 Bursts a flame the world pervading, 
 
 Shines Augustine’s glorious light. 
 
 He of error once the vessel, 
 
 Now unto the Church is given 
 As a vessel fraught with honor.” 
 
 Surely each year, when that date recurs, 
 we may joyfully apply these words to our 
 beloved Mother. She came forth from the 
 shadows of Anglicanism but became such a 
 light to the Church in America that thousands 
 of her spiritual children are walking even to¬ 
 day in its brightness. 
 
 The little Elizabeth, in her third year, was 
 deprived by death of a mother’s love, but her 
 father, Doctor Richard Bayley, bestowed upon 
 
8 
 
 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 his wee daughter a wealth of affection which 
 was almost maternal. Later, by a second 
 marriage, he gave to her and to her two sisters 
 a step-mother whose tender piety doubtless 
 did much to turn the mind of the vivacious 
 child to God. 
 
 The union between the father and daughter 
 was ideal. Sweet pictures of their intercourse 
 easily arise before our fancy. We imagine 
 that we see small ‘ ‘Betty’ ’ once more slipping 
 out to the street from her place in the school¬ 
 room for a stolen but rapturous embrace in 
 Doctor Bayley’s arms, and then noiselessly 
 recovering her seat before the gentle dame, 
 the preceptress, had noticed her absence. 
 Into what dancing black eyes must the doctor 
 have looked when he caught the small student 
 to his heart and how strenuously must she 
 have tried to veil their triumphant glances 
 in order to avoid detection on her return! 
 
 Had her education been dependent on such 
 schools as New York afforded at the time, 
 Elizabeth would not have made much progress. 
 Fortunately, we can picture the young girl 
 poring over the books of her father’s extensive 
 library. He had been educated in England 
 and was a gentleman of wide culture. Under 
 his direction she read diligently on a variety 
 of subjects and the copious notes and reflec- 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 9 
 
 tions she has left show with what intellectual 
 delight her tasks were pursued. She acquired 
 an accurate knowledge of French, which 
 was to do much service for her Community 
 in future years. Religious and historical 
 works in both English and French appealed 
 to her and helped to develop that large view 
 of life and that sympathetic understanding 
 of the ways of others which made her even 
 in girlhood, unconsciously, a director of souls. 
 
 Most of us are familiar with the portrait 
 taken in New York, which depicts Elizabeth 
 as a young woman of twenty-two. Even a 
 passing glance reveals remarkable beauty 
 and refinement and can hardly fail to impress 
 us with its union of animation and repose, 
 of strength and sweetness. We understand 
 why Doctor Bayley was more tenderly attached 
 to this gifted and lovable daughter than to 
 any of his other children. 
 
 But when the portrait was taken, already 
 she was a wife and mother. Elizabeth Bayley 
 had become Mrs. William Seton and the 
 infant lips of her first child, Anna Maria, 
 were already lisping her name. How little 
 did Elizabeth, bending over the cradle of her 
 first-born, dream of the host of spiritual 
 children, whose joy it would be in after years 
 to call the babe their sister! 
 
10 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 In the person of William McGee Seton, 
 Elizabeth found a devoted husband. He was, 
 like herself, a member of the Episcopal Church 
 and came of a family distinguished for virtue 
 and talent. At the time of their marriage 
 his prospects promised a large share in the 
 good things of this world; but, after a few years 
 of prosperity, those mercantile difficulties 
 which followed the French Revolution made 
 a great change. One disaster followed another 
 until business worries threatened Mr. Seton’s 
 health, both in body and mind. 
 
 His unworldly wife, however, was not dis¬ 
 mayed. Meditation on the Sacred Scriptures, 
 constantly practiced from childhood, had 
 filled her with a tender confidence in God’s 
 paternal Providence. The things of eternity 
 weighed far more with her than merely temporal 
 affairs. Nevertheless, she neglected nothing 
 in her power to assist her husband. Many 
 night watches were kept, in arranging his 
 papers, and daily she endeavored to cheer him. 
 
 Doubtless it was owing in great measure 
 to her own sweet spirit that she could say, 
 in speaking of Mr. Seton, “Never did a mortal 
 bear misfortune and all the aggravated distress 
 of it with so much firmness and patience as 
 he does.” 
 
 Meanwhile a heavier sorrow than the loss 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 li 
 
 of money fell upon Elizabeth in the fatal 
 illness of her father. He was stricken in 
 the August of 1801, by the dreaded yellow 
 fever, which he contracted while in devoted 
 attendance on the immigrants detained in 
 quarantine at the port of New York. The 
 devout soul of his daughter was in anguish. 
 Though Doctor Bayley’s life had been filled 
 with deeds of benevolence and she had seen 
 him daily practising the natural virtues, yet 
 the Christian faith in which he had been 
 brought up, seemed to have left him. The 
 writings of men like Rousseau had apparently 
 eradicated any other religious sentiment than 
 a human prompting of kindness towards the 
 poor and suffering to whose Divine Saviour 
 Elizabeth did not remember ever to have 
 heard him refer. Consequently, she trembled 
 for the salvation of his immortal soul. 
 
 During those anxious days she spent most 
 of her time at his bedside, glad to see in his 
 eyes the pleasure which his dear Bet's presence 
 gave him, and sometimes finding his hand 
 put out to touch her, when he was unable to 
 speak. Incessantly she prayed that his soul, 
 too, might grope even in the darkness of delir¬ 
 ium for the Almighty hand waiting to save. 
 For this intention she offered even the life 
 of her infant daughter, Catherine. But God 
 
12 
 
 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 was doubly merciful. The child was spared, 
 and to Elizabeth’s inexpressible comfort, the 
 dying man began, with evident faith and love, 
 to repeat the Holy Name. On August 17, 
 1801, his soul went forth in peace. 
 
 Great as was Elizabeth Seton’s sorrow at the 
 death of her beloved father, her soul waxed 
 strong in the grace, which, if we may judge 
 by the notes she penned at this time, poured 
 down in abundance. God was preparing 
 for her a greater trial. In her He found a 
 cheerful giver. There is a passage from a 
 prayer she wrote that summer which is ex¬ 
 traordinary, when we consider her position, 
 and which would put even deeply religious 
 souls to the blush. “Welcome disappointment 
 and poverty,” it runs, “welcome sickness 
 and pain, welcome even shame and contempt 
 and calumny. If this be a rough and thorny 
 path, it is one which Thou hast gone before us. 
 Where we see Thy footsteps we cannot repine.” 
 
 By the fall of 1803, Mr. Seton’s health had 
 so far failed that the doctors prescribed a sea 
 voyage as a last resource. His wife, willing 
 to undergo any danger in the hope of prolong¬ 
 ing his life, committed her four other children 
 to the care of her sister-in-law, Rebecca Seton, 
 and, with eight-year old Annina, prepared to 
 accompany the invalid to sunny Italy. There 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 13 
 
 they intended to visit old friends, the Filicchi 
 family, with whom Mr. Seton had had mer¬ 
 cantile connections in his youth. 
 
 Alas for the sunshine! When their vessel 
 reached Leghorn, they found that the news 
 of yellow fever in New York had preceded 
 them. Forty days of quarantine were re¬ 
 quired and the Setons, sole passengers, were 
 rowed away in a boat to the Lazaretto, a 
 building so near the edge of the sea that the 
 surf often dashed upon the windows. The 
 Italian officials, indeed, meant no unkindness 
 but the quarantine station was cold and damp, 
 a bad place for a man in the last stages of 
 consumption,—a prison house which it seemed 
 he must exchange only for the grave. 
 
 However, they tried to find a bright side 
 to the situation. Little Annina skipped rope 
 to keep warm and cheered her parents by 
 her quaint speeches. The Filicchis came to 
 speak to their friends through a grating and 
 sent a servant, a dear old man named Louis, 
 to wait on them and share their quarantine. 
 Even the Capitano of the Lazaretto did all 
 in his power to show his sympathy, while his 
 daughter made Annina a rag baby to play 
 with. At last the authorities, doubtless 
 through the Filicchis, shortened the quarantine 
 by ten days. Even so, it was a hard and 
 
14 
 
 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 wearisome month for poor Mrs. Seton, striving 
 to alleviate her husband’s distress, while she 
 saw him daily yielding more and more to the 
 ravages of his disease. 
 
 As at the bedside of her dying father, so 
 now again, that burning zeal for the souls 
 of her dear ones shone forth. The Holy 
 Scriptures were her stay. She read favorite 
 consoling passages to the sick man, talked of 
 the next world in her brightest manner and 
 sang hymns to make him forget his pain, until 
 he confided to her that, should he recover, 
 he would consider the days spent in the 
 Lazaretto as the only period of his life not 
 lost. 
 
 On the 19th of December they were free 
 and Antonio Filicchi’s carriage bore them 
 away at once to lodgings in Pisa on the banks 
 of the Amo. Mr. Seton at first rallied but it 
 was only for a short time. Two days after 
 Christmas, while calling with the tenderest 
 confidence upon the name of Jesus, he died. 
 With heroic fortitude his widow knelt with 
 Annina beside the body to thank God for his 
 soul’s release from the long agony and then 
 she herself prepared the remains for burial. 
 Fear of tuberculosis kept the people of the 
 house at a distance, but they could not conceal 
 their admiration as they saw Mrs. Seton 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 15 
 
 performing the last sad offices for the dead. 
 “If she were not a heretic, she would be a 
 saint 1” was their wondering exclamation. Her 
 half-brother, Guy Carleton-Bayley, who held 
 a position as clerk in the counting house of 
 Filicchi, was a consolation to her in these 
 sorrowful hours, but most of all she looked 
 to the members of the Filicchi family for com¬ 
 fort and support. They brought Elizabeth 
 and her child to their beautiful home in Leg¬ 
 horn and did all in their power to sweeten 
 the bitterness of loss. 
 
 Italy was indeed to bring sunshine to Mrs. 
 Seton’s life. Those earthly rays which she 
 had hoped would win health for her husband, 
 had, indeed, at the critical hour, been denied 
 her, but now the light of faith broke upon her 
 soul, becoming brighter each day of her sojourn 
 with the ardently catholic Filicchis. 
 
 After a trip to Florence which those kind 
 friends planned in order to divert her mind 
 from its sad thoughts, it was intended that 
 she should return to America in a few weeks’ 
 time but Providence ordained otherwise. They 
 did, indeed, set sail but during the first night 
 their ship was struck by another vessel and 
 had to put back for repairs. Before these 
 were completed little Anna fell ill of scarlet 
 fever and though the child soon recovered, 
 
16 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 her mother caught the disease and was confined 
 to bed for some weeks. Thus, by what seemed 
 a series of accidents, Elizabeth was kept 
 in Italy to experience personally the effects 
 of that charity and piety which burned in the 
 hearts of the Filicchis. 
 
 The family had a private chapel in their 
 house so that their guest knelt often in the 
 Eucharistic Presence. A longing to believe 
 in Jesus dwelling in the midst of us, took posses¬ 
 sion of her heart. Once when she heard the 
 tinkle of a bell rung beneath her window as 
 the Blessed Sacrament was carried through 
 the streets to the sick, she fell upon her knees 
 and with tears besought Him, if He were really 
 there, to bless her. That prayer was heard. 
 With the help especially of Antonio Filicchi, 
 whose knowledge of his religion seems almost 
 to have equalled that of a cleric, she studied 
 the doctrines of the Catholic Church and 
 recognized at last the Apostolic body founded 
 by Christ. The intelligence of Elizabeth was 
 soon convinced, and her resolution was taken 
 to enter into the one, true fold to which in 
 spirit, at least, we must believe she had ever 
 belonged. 
 
 Before she was ready for Baptism, the sailing 
 on April 8th of the Flamingo for New York, 
 was announced. Elizabeth, anxious to re- 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 17 
 
 join the four children she had left behind, 
 resolved to embrace the opportunity and 
 postpone the rest of her preparation until she 
 should reach America. The captain of the 
 vessel was inexperienced; moreover, war had 
 broken out between England and France. 
 Fears for the young widow’s safety upon the 
 high seas so troubled Antonio that he decided 
 to accompany her himself. Once in America 
 he could improve the occasion to attend to 
 business concerns connected with his establish¬ 
 ment in Leghorn, while at the same time he 
 hoped to support his friend in the religious 
 opposition likely to arise. Mrs. Seton was 
 very grateful when Antonio made known his 
 intention and little Anna was delighted. This 
 child of predilection seems to have turned to 
 our holy religion as a bird to its nest. She 
 was always running off with the Filicchi 
 children to visit neighboring shrines. Now 
 she eagerly inquired of her mother if there 
 were not Catholics and Catholic Churches in 
 America, too. 
 
 The voyage was slow but without disaster 
 though they were subjected on the way, as 
 Mr. Filicchi had feared, to that arrest and 
 search by English ships which eventually 
 brought about the war of 1812. On June 4, 
 1804, they reached New York. 
 
18 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 * 
 
 The shadow of death, which had so lately 
 rested upon Elizabeth, fell almost immediately 
 across her path in the New World. On the 
 8th of July there passed away Rebecca Seton, 
 the sister-in-law who had been as a Mother 
 to Elizabeth’s children during the months of 
 absence. She it was whom Mrs. Seton had 
 been wont to call her “soul’s sister.’’ To¬ 
 gether they had gone so frequently on visits 
 of mercy to the poor of New York that they 
 had become popularly known as “the Protestant 
 Sisters of Charity.” Rebecca’s death was a 
 great blow to Elizabeth. Doubtless she had 
 hoped that when she should present herself 
 at the baptismal font of the Catholic Church 
 this dear friend might also receive the great 
 gift of faith. But the shortness of time 
 prevented. Very wisely she did not attempt 
 in the hour of death, to disturb the religious 
 convictions of one who had led so charitable 
 and innocent a life and whose soul had been 
 accustomed to daily intercourse with God. 
 
 Rebecca’s death made Elizabeth’s sad heart 
 turn with greater longing than ever to the 
 Catholic Church. Filippo Filicchi had given 
 her a letter to Bishop Carroll and had advised 
 her to seek that great prelate’s counsel before 
 taking any decisive step. But now Antonio 
 thought that she should without delay acquaint 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 19 
 
 her relatives with her resolution. This last 
 advice she followed and a storm of reproach 
 was the result. 
 
 Angry words did not make Elizabeth waver 
 and her relatives, who were deeply attached 
 to her, tried another plan. In their eyes 
 and in those of practically all the well-to-do 
 New Yorkers of the time, to become a Catholic 
 was to incur the worst possible disgrace. 
 Naturally, then, they strove to protect the 
 beautiful young widow from what they con¬ 
 sidered a calamity worse than death. They 
 called to their aid a talented Episcopalian 
 minister, Mr, Hobart, in whom the entire 
 family had always trusted and to whom 
 Elizabeth herself was warmly attached. 
 
 Then began a period of anguish for this 
 chosen soul. On one side was Mr. Hobart 
 with his charming personality and specious 
 reasoning. To him she was bound by claims 
 pf gratitude for he had taken a great interest 
 in her spiritual welfare. Reverence for author¬ 
 ity, a strong trait in her character, also moved 
 her to yield to his guidance, and love for her 
 relatives, who were deeply afflicted at her 
 so-called delusions, pressed hard. There was, 
 moreover, anxiety for her children's welfare, 
 for if she became a Catholic, the Setons would 
 cut her off from all financial aid. On the 
 
20 
 
 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 other side were the Filicchis,—Filippo fre¬ 
 quently writing words of encouragement to¬ 
 gether with clear expositions of Catholic 
 doctrines; and Antonio procuring, in his 
 anxiety, the written help of the great Bishop 
 Carroll and of Father O’Brien, pastor of St. 
 Peter’s Church in Barclay Street. Doubtless 
 too, the prayers of the Filicchi children and of 
 many others, on both sides of the water, were 
 ascending day and night to the throne of our 
 compassionate Lord. 
 
 The soul of poor Mrs. Seton herself was 
 clouded. That clearness of faith which had 
 dawned in Italy, became obscured. For a 
 time she tried to resume the devotions of the 
 Episcopal Church but found herself unable 
 to trust in them. She tells us how, kneeling 
 beside her relatives, she turned her head 
 towards the Tabernacle of the Catholic Church 
 and, from afar, adored her God, there alone 
 truly present. In December she gave up 
 all church going and retired to her house, 
 with her children, where she spent most of her 
 leisure in beseeching light from on high. 
 Mr. Hobart seems at this time to have abondon- 
 ed her, so that Elizabeth was left to herself. 
 A great discouragement came down upon her- 
 Her tears were so many that her little children 
 often left their play and with artless wonder 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 21 
 
 strove to console “poor mamma.” It must 
 have been with a strange mingling of grief 
 and consolation that she heard them coaxing 
 her to say “Hail Mary.” Annina had learned 
 it in Italy and now even the Baby Catherine 
 begged to be taught. 
 
 At last the cloud passed. On the feast of 
 the Epiphany, 1805, an interior light flashed 
 into her heart while she pondered on the words 
 of Bourdaloue in his sermon for the day. 
 With faith she applied to Father Cheverus 
 of Boston, soon to be appointed Bishop, of 
 whose learning and goodness she had heard 
 from Antonio Filicchi. The paternal and 
 convincing reply of the saintly priest, together 
 with the words of Bishop Carroll, decided her 
 choice and she prepared for Baptism with a 
 conviction never again to be shaken. 
 
 On the fourteenth of March, in the presence 
 of the rejoicing Antonio Filicchi, she was 
 received into the true Church, and on Lady 
 Day made her First Communion. Her touch¬ 
 ing attraction to the Blessed Sacrament was 
 shown by the fidelity with which she attended 
 early Mass during the days of preparation. 
 To quote her own words, “Deep snow or 
 smooth ice, all to me the same—I see nothing 
 but the little bright cross on St. Peter’s steeple.” 
 
 Her words, describing the emotions of her 
 
22 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 heart in that First Communion, are too 
 beautiful to forget. “The first thought I 
 remember was ‘Let God arise, let His enemies 
 be scattered/ for it seemed to me that my 
 King had come to take His throne, and instead 
 of the humble, tender welcome I had expected 
 to give Him, it was but a triumph of joy and 
 gladness that the deliverer was come, and my 
 defence and shield, and strength and salvation, 
 made mine for this world and the next.” - 
 
 Now that Mrs. Seton had found peace of 
 heart, her next care was to find bread for 
 herself and her children. Of her dead hus¬ 
 band’s means practically nothing was left. 
 His family refused to assist her in any way; 
 though had she remained an Episcopalian, 
 they would have provided bountifully for her 
 and her children during the rest of her life. 
 
 Her attempts at earning a livelihood in New 
 York all met with failure, owing principally 
 to local bigotry, and things would have gone 
 ill with her had not the Filicchis come to the 
 rescue. They authorized her to call for any 
 amount upon their bankers in the metropolis, 
 but a natural pride prevented her from draw¬ 
 ing generously on their resources. She would 
 take only what was absolutely necessary, 
 despite their constant urging. Had the kind 
 Italians had their way they would have 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 23 
 
 transported herself and all her children to 
 their own warm land, far away from the 
 unnatural coldness of her Protestant kinsmen 
 but the disapproval of her priestly friends, 
 who, perhaps, secretly felt that a good work 
 awaited her on this side of the water, made her 
 steadily refuse to consent. 
 
 The next scheme was that she should 
 remove to Montreal, there to teach in some 
 convent where she might still superintend the 
 education of her little daughters. Her two 
 sons might be brought up at some nearby 
 college, at the Filicchis’ expense. This idea 
 grew on Mrs. Seton. She had become acquaint¬ 
 ed with convent life for the first time in Italy 
 and it had much appealed to her. The 
 vision of quiet days of prayer and teaching 
 with the possibility of eventually donning 
 the religious habit seemed only a sweet dream, 
 too good to be true. 
 
 In 1807 Father Dubourg, president of the 
 Sulpician College of St. Mary’s in Baltimore, 
 came on a visit to New York. In conversa¬ 
 tion with Mrs. Seton of whose conversion 
 he had heard with great interest, the Montreal 
 project was touched on, but he suggested, 
 half in earnest, that she should go to Baltimore 
 instead, and commence a much-needed school 
 there. In the next year he came again and 
 
24 J Biographical Sketch of 
 
 urged the plan. Mrs. Seton, distrustful of 
 her abilities, applied to her old friend, Bishop 
 Carroll, for advice, who, before answering, 
 asked the opinion of Father Cheverus and of 
 Dr. Matignon, his able assistants in Boston. 
 
 These saintly men were united in enthusiastic 
 approval. They looked into the future and 
 saw the rosy vision of a great religious com¬ 
 munity, of which Elizabeth Seton would be 
 foundress, stretching forth its powers to the 
 conversion and education of thousands. She, 
 about whose person such hopes were enter¬ 
 tained, smiled in her humility, but, according 
 to life-long custom, abandoned her course 
 to the guidance of Divine Providence. 
 
 On June 9, 1808, she left New York with 
 her three daughters for Catholic Baltimore 
 and reached the city on the fifteenth of the 
 month. Her sons who, through the kindness 
 of the Filicchis, were then at Georgetown 
 College, were soon after transferred to St. 
 Mary’s at Father Dubourg’s suggestion, in 
 order to be near their Mother. This zealous 
 priest undertook, without fees, to educate 
 them. 
 
 A small house near the Seminary was rented, 
 where Elizabeth received her first boarders 
 in September. Since the primary intention 
 was to make the school a religious centre, 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 25 
 
 only Catholic children were admitted. Though 
 few in number, Mrs. Seton found them, in 
 addition to her own children, a heavy re¬ 
 sponsibility, until the arrival in December 
 of her first helper, Cecilia O’Conway, of 
 Philadelphia. This young lady desired to 
 become a religious and had intended to sail 
 for Europe to accomplish her design, when she 
 met Father Babade, Mrs. Seton’s confessor. 
 His account of Elizabeth and his hopes of the 
 early beginning of a community in Baltimore, 
 had, to Mrs. Seton’s great joy, induced Miss 
 O’Conway to offer herself. 
 
 The new school had opened without financial 
 difficulty, owing to the ever-ready generosity 
 of the Filicchis, who attributed to Elizabeth’s 
 prayers their increasing prosperity and in¬ 
 sisted on sharing the foundation of the work. 
 In the fall of 1808, a new benefactor appeared 
 in the person of Mr. Cooper, a recent convert 
 to the Faith. To Father Dubourg, the action 
 of God was manifest, when, on the same day, 
 this gentleman and Mrs. Seton separately 
 approached him to speak of a thought which 
 had filled the mind of each during Mass that 
 morning in St. Mary’s chapel. 
 
 Mrs. Seton had felt a great longing to devote 
 herself to the teaching of many of Christ’s 
 little ones and had wished, in her heart, that 
 
26 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 Mr. Cooper, whom she knew to possess means, 
 might be inspired to bestow his wealth for 
 their education. At the same hour Mr. 
 Cooper, filled with the desire to carry out 
 literally the Saviour’s words, “Go sell what 
 thou hast and give to the poor,’’ was thinking 
 of the need of religious education for children 
 and wondering if Mrs. Seton would accept 
 his money for the work. After deliberation, 
 the desires of both were realized. With a 
 part of Mr. Cooper’s gift, an estate was 
 purchased in a valley of the Blue Ridge Moun¬ 
 tains, a half-mile south of Emmittsburg. 
 This delightful spot became the cradle of 
 Mother Seton’s Community, the first religious 
 congregation founded in America. 
 
 Rumors of the enterprise began to spread, 
 and one postulent after another presented 
 herself. They remained in Baltimore while 
 some provision was being made for them in 
 Emmittsburg and in the meantime, June, 
 1809, adopted a religious habit. Mother 
 Seton is said to have made this costume like 
 one she had seen in Italy. Owing, probably, 
 to the bigotry of the times, she did not adopt 
 a veil but retained the widow’s cap which she 
 had been wearing for some years. This was 
 made of white muslin, with a crimped border 
 and a band of black, fJot long after the 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 27 
 
 Sisters' arrival in the valley, however, a black 
 cap was substituted. 
 
 Nine sisters, besides Mrs. Seton, were in 
 Emmittsburg to make their first spiritual 
 Retreat, which was given in August by Father 
 Dubourg. They needed indeed to fortify 
 their souls and render their enthusiasm firm 
 for the difficulties of a severe winter were at 
 hand. 
 
 Archbishop Carroll, though intensely in¬ 
 terested in the establishment of the Com¬ 
 munity, did not undertake their immediate 
 direction. He appointed Father Dubourg, 
 at whose suggestion Mother Seton had first 
 come to Baltimore, as ecclesiastical superior, 
 reserving to himself the final judgment in 
 important matters. 
 
 While awaiting a decision as to what rule 
 they were to obey, the Sisters followed a 
 program of spiritual exercises and of charitable 
 labors suited to that apostolic but interior 
 life which Mother Seton realized to be most 
 needed in America. She herself was the 
 guiding spirit of the house. After her hus¬ 
 band’s death she had looked only for a few 
 quiet years and then the repose of eternity, 
 but now she burned with zeal to work for 
 souls. Poverty and privation were made 
 sweet to those who came under her influence. 
 
28 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 Her life-long habit of trust in God’s Fatherly 
 love bore her up amid the trials of a religious 
 foundress, a position of which she ever deemed 
 herself unworthy. 
 
 Before leaving Baltimore, Mother Seton 
 had, for one year, made the three vows of 
 religion in the hands of Archbishop Carroll 
 and in the presence of a number of priests 
 deeply interested in the new undertaking. 
 This great prelate, who became the true father 
 of the Community, resembled Mother Seton 
 in having experienced crushing sorrow in 
 early life, from which he rose to be a veritable 
 apostle of Jesus Christ. He was ordained 
 a Jesuit in 1769 but four years later suffered 
 the greatest grief of his life, when his illustrious 
 Order was suppressed. At that time he wrote 
 to his brother, “I am not, and perhaps never 
 shall be, recovered from the shock of this 
 dreadful intelligence. The greatest blessing 
 which in my estimation I could receive from 
 God would be immediate death; but if He 
 deny me this, may His Holy and adorable 
 designs on me be wholly fulfilled.” Those 
 designs led him, as the first prelate in the 
 United States, to unwearied labors, not the 
 least of which was the establishment of Mother 
 Seton’s daughters. 
 
 At first, the Sisters gave St. Joseph’s name 
 

 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 29 
 
 to their little society but in 1810 Bishop 
 Flaget brought from France a copy of the 
 rules of St. Vincent de Paul. These were 
 translated by Father Dubourg, in whose 
 pastoral care Emmittsburg was placed. It 
 was then determined that the new Sisters 
 should declare themselves St. Vincent’s child¬ 
 ren although it was necessary to make some 
 important modifications in his rule. 
 
 Unlike the Sisters of Charity in France, 
 Mother Seton’s followers were to be primarily 
 educators. In the words of Archbishop Carroll, 
 September 11,1811. “They must consider the 
 business of education as a laborious, charitable 
 and permanent object of their religious duty.’’ 
 A year was passed in discussing and practising 
 the various parts of this modified rule which 
 was definitely confirmed by the Archbishop, 
 January 17, 1812. 
 
 The event, which supplied an element of 
 stability to her efforts, was a great joy to 
 Mother Seton. She much needed this taste 
 of consolation for soon she was to drink a very 
 bitter cup. Annina, the darling flower of St. 
 Joseph’s valley, died on the twelfth of March. 
 The loving spirit which had cheered her sick 
 father in the Lazaretto years before, had 
 developed according to Mother Seton’s own 
 heart. She had been as guardian angel to the 
 
30 j Biographical Sketch of 
 
 children of the school and had crowned her 
 young life by making the religious vows little 
 more than a month before her death. Her 
 loss was a terrible blow to poor Mother Seton, 
 who had yearned to see her child’s exceptional 
 fervor grow to mature sanctity. 
 
 It was not the first time that death had 
 visited the little band; the remains of Harriet 
 and Cecelia Seton, two youthful aunts of 
 Annina, were already lying in their little 
 burying-ground, which Father Brute called 
 the “delightful little wood-happy little corner 
 of the world.” Upon their graves Mother 
 Seton had looked with mingled feelings. She 
 shed tears at the thought of the sacrifices 
 they had made in following her into the 
 Catholic Church, but joy was mixed with her 
 weeping when she reflected upon their re¬ 
 markably holy deaths and consoled herself 
 by thinking that God, in calling them away 
 so early, had insured a perseverance which 
 must have been severely tried, had they 
 lived longer. 
 
 In the desolation of spirit which Annina’s 
 death brought to Mother Seton, she was able 
 to turn for help to a remarkably kind and 
 enlightened director, Father Simon Gabriel 
 Brute, who, in September, 1812, was appointed 
 Superior. Many of the letters and little 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 31 
 
 exhortations which he wrote to Mother Seton 
 and the Sisters have been preserved, and in 
 reading his quaint sentences, elliptical and 
 sometimes obscure, we gain a slight knowledge 
 of one of the best-loved priests in America. 
 Mother Seton appreciated his worth and 
 recognized him a spirit like to her own. Under 
 his guidance she advanced steadily in self- 
 denial and in love for God. 
 
 In the same year little Rebecca was injured 
 by a fall on the ice and continued to be a 
 sufferer until her agonizing but wonderfuly 
 pious death in November, 1816. We learn 
 something of what the ministrations of Father 
 Brute must have been, in reading even part 
 of one of his notes to this poor child. The 
 nature of her injury prevented her from lying 
 down and the priest tenderly writes:—“Bee 
 no bed last night.—Then a standing or sitting 
 watch, as the knights of old, on the eve they 
 were knighted. Ah, well might we take this 
 whole life, my Bee, for the meritorious watch 
 of our eternal knighthood! The soul still 
 knows how to cheer up, seeing, and feeling 
 her God, her Father and Almighty Lover in 
 all. Ah, yes! if I know your faith and your 
 love, my Bee, they will be as unrelenting and 
 pressing, as the sufferings can be, and more. 
 One look to your bleeding Jesus will restore 
 
32 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 more strength and resolution, than a wearisome 
 night would have taken away. He loved me, 
 and for me was patient upon the cross, so I 
 love Him, and will be patient, too. Blessed 
 by the short patience of this dolorous life: 
 life is short, and the sweet fruit of the patience, 
 eternal.” 
 
 On the fourth of November, Father Brute, 
 away at the time from Emmittsburg, received 
 word from Father Dubois of the flight” as he 
 calls it of their “angel.” He writes, “The 
 Mother is a miracle of divine favor. Night 
 and day by the bedside of her child, her 
 health has not appeared to suffer. She held 
 her child in her arms without shedding one 
 tear, all the time of her agony, and even more 
 than eight minutes after her death. ‘Mulierem 
 fortem quis, etc.’ 
 
 Thus did Mother Seton’s strength of soul 
 triumph in faith and love over the agony of 
 her human heart. Yet life was not made up 
 entirely of griefs. The Community in St. 
 Joseph’s Valley was slowly but steadily in¬ 
 creasing, and the beauties of character which 
 developed in the young souls whom she watched 
 maturing into noble Sisters of Charity were a 
 constant source of consolation. True, there 
 were difficulties; finances were often low; 
 but the extreme hardships of the early days 
 had passed and the future looked bright. 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 33 
 
 Already this little mustard tree was shooting 
 forth branches from the parent trunk. The 
 Sisters had been asked for in Philadelphia 
 and in October, 1814, had taken charge of a 
 house for orphans there. Beginning under 
 great financial stress, for the orphanage had a 
 debt of four thousand dollars, they met with 
 most encouraging success. In three years 
 the house was free from debt and the Sisters 
 felt that their efforts had been visibly blessed 
 by God. 
 
 In the year after Rebecca’s death, 1817, 
 Mother Seton sent a small band to undertake 
 the care of an orphanage in New York city. 
 Day-schools for children followed and the 
 Sisters’ teaching vocation became more pro¬ 
 nounced. 
 
 Bishop Dubourg, at whose urging, ten years 
 before, Mother Seton had come to Baltimore, 
 paid the Valley a visit in 1818. He noted 
 with joyful amazement that the Community 
 numbered between thirty and forty members 
 and that the Academy had about eighty pupils. 
 
 Among the children of the school Mother 
 Seton’s influence was profound. She loved 
 to visit their classes and took a maternal 
 interest in the progress of each child. Like 
 her patron, St. Vincent de Paul, she was a 
 thorough believer in humility and kindness. 
 
34 « Biographical Sketch of 
 
 Consequently, the sweet blending of con¬ 
 descension and encouragement with which 
 she treated all, won for her the unlimited 
 confidence of the young people and the grati¬ 
 tude of their parents. In her were verified 
 the words of gentle Father Brute, who, treating 
 of what he called “the true, pious policy of 
 divine charity” quaintly wrote, in 1819. 
 “I trust that Mother can do it so properly, 
 through her union to your common Beloved, 
 and her heart of a true, Christian mother.” 
 
 In addition to the time taken up in the 
 schools and the hours devoted to the govern¬ 
 ment of the growing Community, Mother 
 Seton found leisure for writing. How de¬ 
 lighted would her children be now, if she had 
 set down in finished form her own beautiful 
 thoughts on spiritual subjects! Her mind 
 deeply penetrated with the spirit and the 
 language of Holy Scripture, could surely have 
 given us pages of rare value; but instead, 
 she turned to spiritual writings in the French 
 language and translated them into English. 
 She used her musical talent, too, to foster 
 the Sisters’ devotion. We know that she set 
 the words of “Jerusalem, My Happy Home” 
 to music, and suppose that she must have done 
 likewise with other favorite hymns. 
 
 The young girls educated in St. Joseph's 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 35 
 
 Valley were surely fortunate. Their school 
 was situated in an ideal country within view 
 of the mountain slopes of the Blue Ridge, and 
 in a vale which became, in summer, a very 
 fairyland of flowers. Living beneath the same 
 roof with their Eucharistic King, they acquired 
 a knowledge of things divine. 
 
 Whatever their attachment to their teachers, 
 they reverenced Mother Seton above all. 
 It is recorded of her that she consoled a Sister 
 who apologized for disturbing her frequently, 
 by declaring the interruption to be as welcome 
 as sunshine at her door; hence we can easily 
 imagine the radiant smile and the tender 
 look with which she greeted all who approached 
 her. 
 
 Every twenty-fifth of March, she devoutly 
 celebrated the anniversary of her First Com¬ 
 munion. The little ones in Baltimore had 
 been the first under her charge, whom she had 
 the joy of sending likewise to the Divine 
 Banquet. That First Communion class had 
 awakened within her an overflowing piety 
 and tenderness. As, in simple, white dresses, 
 they had approached the Holy Table their 
 presence seemed to her ‘‘as angels." Not, 
 however, to herself but to the religious in¬ 
 structions of good Father Babade, did she 
 attribute the sweet preparedness of the young 
 
36 
 
 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 communicants. Nevertheless, our hearts tell 
 us that the Divine love which they saw burning 
 in her dark eyes, and felt vibrating in her 
 sweet voice, had made a still deeper impression 
 than his priestly words. 
 
 Though Mother Seton’s biographers do not 
 speak further of her interest in the wee guests 
 of our Divine Host, we may be sure that each 
 year, as soon as the sweet breath of early 
 spring touched St. Joseph’s Valley, the dear 
 Mother took an active part in the First Com¬ 
 munion instructions. She loved to teach the 
 poor children of the neighborhood and early 
 in the history of Emmittsburg, classes for their 
 tuition were opened in addition to the regular 
 academic course of what is to-day St. Joseph’s 
 College. 
 
 We have seen how, despite Mother Seton’s 
 own shrinking from a position of authority, 
 Divine Providence had placed her at the head 
 of the young Community. The Sisters, as 
 they grew more numerous, became more 
 firmly convinced that no one of their number 
 was more fit to govern than she. In 1815 
 they had re-elected her and now, for the third 
 time, in 1818 the government of the Institute 
 was given into her hands. She was not to 
 be released from the trials of governing until 
 God should call her Home. 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 37 
 
 This third election she herself termed “an 
 election of the dead.” Her health was failing 
 more than her children realized. But God 
 evidently gave her a premonition that her 
 life was drawing to its close, and her spirit 
 of loving self-consecration to Him intensified 
 with each passing day. Father Brute who 
 had before helped her soul so much, was 
 again appointed confessor in 1818. This 
 “angel guardian of the mountain,” was to 
 support her last steps to the summit of ever¬ 
 lasting peace. 
 
 In May, 1820, Mother Seton wrote to her 
 son William, then absent on an extensive 
 cruise: “You know that the long, long day to 
 come is all I care for.” But in the same 
 letter, too, we find a touchingly human line 
 about “the creaking of the willow at the back 
 porch—it sounds so like the sound of masts 
 in a gale.” Perhaps she felt that she was 
 never to see him again. 
 
 Summer came and went without giving 
 her more strength and in the autumn she fell 
 seriously ill. All the loving care of the Sisters 
 was of no avail. For four months Mother 
 Seton was confined to her room, preparing 
 for the great Call. During her last illness, 
 she one day expressed herself in words which 
 make us wonder to what extent God was 
 
38 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 graciously pleased to console His faithful 
 child, who for His sake had suffered no many 
 trials. She said, “I never felt more sensibly 
 the presence of our Dearest than since I have 
 been sick; it seems as if Our Lord or His 
 Blessed Mother stood continually by me, in a 
 corporal form, to comfort, cheer and encourage 
 me in the difficult weary and tedious hours 
 of pain. But you will laugh at my imagina¬ 
 tions; still, our All has many ways of comforting 
 His little atoms.” 
 
 At death Mother Seton displayed a wonderful 
 strength of soul. Her ardent love and longing 
 for the Holy Eucharist moved even her Sisters 
 to amazement. She was able to receive 
 Communion frequently during her last days 
 and each reception was to the beholders an 
 unspoken sermon. 
 
 The end came early in the morning of 
 January 4, 1821. She asked one of the Sisters 
 near to recite St. Ignatius’ prayer, “Anima 
 Christi,” but the voice of the grief-stricken 
 religious became choked. Then the dying 
 Mother calmly took up the invocations and 
 finished them herself. Her last words were 
 loving appeals to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, 
 with whom she had in spirit lived so faithfully 
 on earth. 
 
 Dear Mother Seton was dead. Time passed 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 39 
 
 on. Gradually her heart-broken children learn¬ 
 ed to walk in her footsteps, without the 
 encouragement of her inspiring glance and 
 cheering smile. It was God after all Who had 
 planted, and now that He had taken back into 
 His hands His first helper in the seed-time, 
 the harvest would still mature. 
 
 To-day, after more than a hundred years, 
 we are the witness of that growth. Students 
 of ecclesiastical history, in America, are all 
 familiar with the story of the affiliation of the 
 Emmittsburg Sisters with St. Vicent de 
 Paul’s daughters in France. This took place 
 in 1849, twenty-eight years after the Foundress’ 
 death. It has been stated by some that the 
 event was in accordance with Mother Seton’s 
 early plans. When it took place, however, 
 there were many of her early associates living, 
 who maintained that Mother Seton had never 
 entertained the idea of union with the French 
 sisterhood, and was even opposed to it. One 
 of these was Sister Elizabeth Boyle who 
 became the first Mother of the New York 
 Community. 
 
 Whatever the plans of Mother Seton were, 
 Divine Providence has, by means of the 
 association she established, brought into 
 America the noble congregation of St. Vincent’s 
 daughters, and has also preserved the Mother 
 
40 „ Biographical Sketch of 
 
 Seton Sisters, with the spirit and traditions of 
 their early days. 
 
 In 1846, an order was issued from Maryland 
 for the withdrawal of all the New York Sisters 
 then in charge of male children. The Superiors 
 in Emmittsburg were paving the way for the 
 contemplated change to St. Vincent’s original 
 rule, which allows the care of girls only. 
 Naturally Bishop Hughes, ever interested and 
 active in the charitable works of his diocese, 
 looked with consternation at the approaching 
 abandonment of his numerous orphan boys. 
 He felt that without the Sisters, he could 
 not obtain adequate care for these helpless 
 little ones, and to give up the orphanage 
 seemed in his eyes a great injustice to the 
 people of New York, who had contributed 
 much money for its maintenance. 
 
 An interesting correspondence ensued be¬ 
 tween the Bishop and the Emmittsburg 
 Superiors with the result that the forty-five 
 Sisters then engaged on the New York Missions 
 were given their choice, either to return to 
 Emmittsburg, or to remain in New York for 
 the purpose of forming a separate Community 
 under the protection of Bishop Hughes. 
 Thirty-five decided to remain. 
 
 That great good was wrought by their 
 decision has been proved by the flourishing 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 41 
 
 works of our dear Sisters in the Empire state, 
 whose beautiful Mother-House of Mount 
 Saint Vincent-on-the-Hudson has sent forth 
 hundreds of teachers and nurses to spread 
 the Kingdom of Christ. 
 
THE SEAL 
 
 OF CHARITY 
 
 Long, long ago, three Eastern Kings 
 Beheld a shining star; 
 
 They followed where its radiance led 
 To Bethlehem afar. 
 
 In foreign land in darkest night. 
 
 There shines a star for me— 
 
 My star of hope, of light, of love, 
 
 My Seal of Charity. 
 
 Where great Saint Vincent points the way 
 The ranks of virgins tread, 
 
 To join the lovers of the Lamb, 
 
 Their one true Spouse to wed. 
 
 Though dark the road, within their seal 
 Three shining guides I see, 
 
 Of Poverty, Obedience, 
 
 And Heavenly Chastity. 
 
 O Paradise, at home with God! 
 
 Where praise of Christ, our King, 
 
 And Mary, glorious Queen of Heaven, 
 
 The Saints and Angels sing! 
 
 The bitter woes of earth forgot, 
 
 'Tis there I long to see 
 Emblazoned in my crown for e'er 
 The Seal of Charity. 
 
MOTHER SETON’S DAUGHTERS 
 IN HALIFAX. 
 
 N OT the least among the zealous efforts 
 of the new Community was the estab¬ 
 lishment of a Mission in far off Halifax, where, 
 in 1849, just three years after the separation, 
 four Sisters, at the earnest solicitation of 
 Archbishop Walsh, were sent to open a school 
 and to take charge of the orphans. The 
 hearts of the little children there were truly 
 as virgin soil, for no religious of any congrega¬ 
 tion had as yet stood among them in church 
 or school. 
 
 A few words about the growth and after 
 development of this Mission, the sole offshoot 
 of Mother Seton’s Institute in Canadian parts, 
 may prove of interest to the reader. The 
 Sisters were established near St. Mary’s 
 Cathedral in the quaint Convent which stands 
 to-day, an old-fashioned land-mark, recalling 
 to those acquainted with the history of the 
 pioneer days of the Church in Halifax, many a 
 signal victory of truth over error during that 
 trying period of bigotry and intolerance. 
 
 The Mission at St. Mary’s was but six years 
 old when it became evident that an independent 
 Mother House was needed. There were many 
 
44 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 promising young ladies in the city who were 
 eager to join the Community, but their parents 
 shrank from permitting them to go to New 
 York for their Novitiate. In those days of 
 difficult travel, New York seemed a long 
 distance away. Added to this were other 
 difficulties, which, in some cases, could not 
 easily be surmounted; hence vocations languish¬ 
 ed; while the constant growth of the works 
 undertaken called imperatively for much more 
 help than could be supplied by the parent 
 Community. 
 
 In this emergency, Archbishop Walsh, aided 
 by the advice of Archbishop Hughes, and 
 supported by the gracious concurrence of the 
 New York Superiors, applied to the Holy See 
 for permission to establish a separate Mother 
 House in his Metropolitan See; supplicating, 
 at the same time, that it might enjoy the 
 same spiritual privileges as those already 
 accorded to the Emmittsburg and New York 
 Communities. With the grant of the petition 
 came the paternal blessing of His Holiness, 
 Pius IX, on the enterprise; and it was, there¬ 
 fore, with a feeling of grateful joy that all 
 concerned witnessed the inauguration of the 
 New Mother House. This event, of so great 
 importance to religion, took place on the 
 Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 1855. 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 45 
 
 One of the great blessings enjoyed by the 
 Halifax Foundation, and one for which the 
 Community has ever been deeply grateful to 
 Divine Providence, is the fact that it had at 
 its head during its missionary days, and for the 
 first three years after it became a Mother 
 House, a Superior who had received her early 
 education and religious training at the hands 
 of Mother Seton herself, whose spirit she had 
 imbibed, and who ever strove to model her 
 subjects after the example of the holy 
 Foundress. Thus, from their very beginning 
 the works of the Sisters of Charity in Halifax 
 were animated by the same spirit which had 
 characterized the humble beginnings at 
 Emmittsburg only a few decades before. 
 It is not surprising therefore to find that 
 those works, through the continuance of the 
 same fostering care, have produced the abun¬ 
 dant fruit which we behold around us to-day. 
 
 With the establishment of the Mother 
 House in Halifax, a new impetus was given 
 to the works previously begun by the little 
 colony from New York. On the very day of 
 its birth, two exemplary young ladies of the 
 city offered themselves to the new Community, 
 and their example was immediately followed 
 by others whose natural gifts, fervent piety, 
 and apostolic spirit fitted them in a remarkable 
 
46 ! Biographical Sketch of 
 
 manner for the pioneer work of the Institute. 
 
 Through the influx of members, the young 
 Community was soon in a position to extend 
 its works, not only in the city, but in more 
 remote parts, and even beyond the boundaries 
 of the Province. The first stages of its 
 existence were indeed marked with severe 
 hardships and unusual difficulties. More than 
 . once the multiplied obstacles standing in the 
 way of its progress seemed insurmountable; 
 but, by the aid of Divine Providence, one by 
 one they disappeared and the way was made 
 clear. As the years passed and the works of 
 the Sisters became more widely known, 
 applications for their services became still 
 more numerous—some calling for educational 
 enterprises; others for the government of 
 hospitals and the management of charitable 
 institutions; but then, as now, the demands 
 were always in excess of the possibilities to 
 supply a sufficient number of members for 
 the works proposed. Thus many an invitation 
 could not be accepted. Some of these calls 
 to Apostolic work came from the Northwest 
 of Canada and distant Australia. 
 
 In 1887, by a happy arrangement of Divine 
 Providence, the Institute found itself in a 
 position to accept an invitation to take charge 
 of a parochial school in Roxbury, Massa- 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 47 
 
 chusetts. This to many seemed a call from 
 Mother Seton herself, to her Canadian 
 daughters, to share in the extension of Catholic 
 education in her own land. All who are 
 acquainted with the early history of Mother 
 Seton's Institute will remember that Boston 
 had been the scene of the activities of her 
 daughters years before the link binding the 
 Emmittsburg and New York Communities 
 under one government was severed. It was, 
 then, the happy privilege of the Halifax branch 
 to resume and to promote in the field of 
 education the work which had been dearest 
 to the heart of the holy Foundress. 
 
 The success of this Mission was a recom¬ 
 mendation for the noble efforts of the Sisters, 
 which soon bore fruit in the establishment 
 of other educational enterprises, notably, an 
 Academy for young boys, and a College for 
 young ladies, both situated at Wellesley Hills, 
 about thirteen miles from Boston. At the 
 time of writing, the Sisters are in charge 
 of five large Grammar Schools, and five High 
 Schools in the State of Massachusetts, while 
 many other good works not directly attached 
 to these schools receive the benefit of their 
 zealous supervision. 
 
 One of the great achievements of the In¬ 
 stitute, and undoubtedly the most telling 
 
48 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 * 
 
 in the advance of Catholic education, is the 
 rank it has acquired in the department of 
 Public Education in the Province of Nova 
 Scotia. In this sphere, the efforts of the 
 Sisters have elicited the highest praise and 
 just appreciation, not only of those directly 
 concerned, but also of those whose duty it is 
 to pass unbiased judgment on their work. 
 In the city of Halifax, they conduct three 
 large public schools for girls, two for boys and 
 girls, and a High School, where the Catholic 
 young girls of the city may pursue a higher 
 course of study and may have all the advant¬ 
 ages necessary to that end. 
 
 It may here be stated that by an Act of the 
 Legislature, the Institute enjoys the singular 
 privilege of a separate Normal School for the 
 training of its members for positions in the 
 public schools of the Province. 
 
 At the present time the Institute can count, 
 with satisfaction, forty houses, seven of which 
 are in the United States, one in Bermuda, 
 two in New Brunswick, and four in the far 
 West. The scope of its works embraces 
 grammar school and higher education, the 
 care of orphans, the sick, aged, and infirm 
 ladies, and the protection of working girls. 
 It has eight Academies, fourteen public schools, 
 and fourteen parochial schools. To twenty- 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 49 
 
 two of these schools are attached high school 
 departments. In the line of Institutions, 
 it has two general hospitals, a Sanatorium 
 for the treatment of Tuberculosis, a home 
 for working girls, one for aged ladies, an 
 orphanage for boys, one for girls, and a found¬ 
 ling asylum. We need not look far back into 
 the years to see these works in their nascent 
 state. Watered by the benedictions of heaven, 
 they have grown from the little grain of mustard 
 seed into a great tree whose branches have 
 extended far beyond the date when the corner 
 stone was laid, on that memorable Feast of the 
 Immaculate Conception, 1855. Although the 
 Institute embraces nearly all forms of charitable 
 works, the greater part of its energies from 
 the first have been, and still are, directed 
 towards the field of education. 
 
 From the dawn of its existence, the In¬ 
 stitute has enjoyed successively the special 
 benediction of the Sovereign Pontiffs. It was 
 under the paternal blessing of Pius IX that it 
 started into life, and later, Leo XIII, embracing 
 its interests and removing from its path 
 the difficulties obstructing its progress, pro¬ 
 nounced a eulogy in its favor, which may be 
 looked upon as the preface to the formal and 
 final approbation of its Constitutions by his 
 successor, Pius X. Later still, the hand 
 
50 
 
 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 of Benedict XV. and that of the present Pontiff, 
 Pius XI. have been raised in paternal blessing 
 over the Institute. 
 
 It has seemed fitting to end this brief sketch 
 of Mother Seton’s life and works with some 
 notes which have particular reference to the 
 Halifax Branch of her Order, the Golden 
 Jubilee of whose Mother House and first 
 Academy — Mount St. Vincent-on-Bedford 
 Basin was celebrated this year, 1924. 
 
 Mount Saint Vincent fifty years ago was a 
 small building erected with no other thought 
 than that of providing for the Institute a 
 more suitable Mother House and Novitiate 
 and of affording a summer resort for the 
 Sisters teaching in the city; but in the pro¬ 
 jection of this enterprise, there had been in 
 the Divine plan, a work unthought of, and 
 which appeared only after the building had 
 been completed and occupied. Many residents 
 of the city and other neighboring places 
 having observed how suitable was the locality 
 for a school, at once petitioned for the admis¬ 
 sion of pupils. The consequence was that 
 within a short time over twenty young ladies 
 were received. So satisfactory did the results 
 of the first year prove that the year following 
 showed, within very limited accommodation, 
 between sixty-five and seventy boarders; while 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 51 
 
 already applications from distant places were 
 being made. Thus did the Academy of Mount 
 Saint Vincent-on-Bedford Basin come into 
 existence—without any forethought or planning 
 on the part of the Institute. For this reason 
 it has always seemed, to those acquainted 
 with the original plan, more like an emanation 
 from the Divine Mind than the product of 
 human thought. 
 
 The steady increase in the number of pupils 
 soon called for an additional building, and from 
 time to time, other additions were made, 
 supplying more ample accommodation, and 
 affording fresh facilities for the progress and 
 development of the Academy. Mount St. 
 Vincent stands to-day a finished Institution, 
 a fact recognized in the Dominion. Success 
 has marked its every step. The enrollments 
 show that pupils have come from far distant 
 places to finish their education—Quebec, 
 Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Newfoundland, 
 St. Pierre et Miquelon, Magdalen Islands, 
 Bermuda, Porto Rico, Cuba, Trinidad, Boston, 
 New York, Chicago, Cities of Southern States, 
 and England have been well represented year 
 after year. 
 
 Looking back through the years and calling 
 to mind the vast number of students who have 
 gone forth equipped for the sterner battles of 
 
52 
 
 Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 life, we have abundant proof that the little 
 seed cast into the furrow fell on good ground. 
 Tended with unremitting care, strengthened 
 and adorned with the blessing of Heaven, 
 it has produced rich fruit for the glory of the 
 Church in the field of Catholic education. 
 The “Te Deum” of the Golden Jubilee rang 
 out loud and strong in ardent praise to God, 
 and in supplication that His guiding Hand 
 continue to direct the work and bless for all 
 time the labors of Mother Seton’s Sisters in 
 Halifax. 
 
 ALL GLORY 
 TO HIS HOLY NAME! 
 
THE BRIDAL SONG OF A SISTER 
 
 OF CHARITY. 
 
 * 
 
 Oh, day of bliss! oh, day of rapt content! 
 
 Oh, day of daring hope’s accomplishment! 
 
 Now, Jesus, is my holocaust complete, 
 
 I am Thy Spouse, O tenderest Lover sweet! 
 
 Gentle Thy wooing, soft Thy call to me, 
 
 Thou Who hast loved me from eternity, 
 Robing my sinful soul in purest white 
 That in its lilied depths Thou mightest delight. 
 
 Veiling Thy glory lest it blind these mortal eyes, 
 
 O Wondrous Love, my Prince, in meek disguise 
 Thou comest a Eucharistic bride to claim, 
 
 And to a beggar-maid Thou givest Thy Name. 
 
 My thorny wreath more precious is by far 
 Than all earth’s crowns of gold or flowers are; 
 And sweet the promise of my nuptial vows 
 That I shall daily grow like Thee, my Spouse. 
 
 My crucifix, pledge of our troth, I take 
 That lures me on to suffer for Thy sake. 
 
 Thou art my Strength, my Peace, my Final Goal— 
 Oh, keep me true to Thee, Soul of my soul! 
 
 O brides of earth, do you not envy me 
 Who never parted from my Love shall be? 
 Whom death shall only place in His embrace, 
 Lifting the veil that hides awhile His face? 
 
COUNSELS OF OUR 
 BELOVED MOTHER SETON 
 
 Laudatum Jesus Christus ! 
 
 B E united as true Sisters of Charity. 
 
 Stand most faithfully by your Rules. 
 Be children of the Church. 
 
 I entreat you, in the name of our Adored, 
 to take courage, and look to the crown before 
 you. 
 
 Try every day to get nearer the dearest and 
 best of Masters. 
 
 Everything except Eternity seems a dream. 
 My soul thirsts for pain and knows no pleasure 
 except in suffering. 
 
 I hope your cross may increase until it 
 purifies you like pure Gold. 
 
 Patience is the virtue of the perfect. 
 
 At last, God is mine, and I am His. 
 
 Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Eternity. 
 
 The grace of the Cross is to draw the soul to 
 God. 
 
 Courage, hope and Heaven. He goes before 
 who will crown our hope, but our sufferings 
 must be consummated too, 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 55 
 
 The sufferings are for a moment, the crown 
 of patience eternal. 
 
 A look to no one but God alone; meanwhile, 
 peace and goodwill to all! 
 
 May we praise and bless and adore forever! 
 
 u The Master is come and calleth for thee ”— 
 St. John , XI, 28. 
 
 i 
 
 Listen! Do you not hear His knocking? 
 He has been waiting patiently a long time for 
 you to answer Him. Permit Him to enter 
 your heart and deliver His message. Will you 
 turn Him away sad and disappointed as so 
 many do, even as the rich young man did, 
 the clamor of whose wealth drowned the 
 gentle appeal of the Master? 
 
 What is the message He brings to you? 
 He says, “My child give me your heart. It 
 is I who made it and endowed it with the 
 capacity of loving, only that I might pour 
 out my infinite love upon it and that it might 
 give itself in turn to Me. Would you have me 
 your God, all your own? Then give me your 
 entire self. I give Myself to souls in proportion 
 to the generosity with which they give them¬ 
 selves to Me. If they withhold nothing, neither 
 do I, but hasten to bestow upon them My 
 
56 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 infinite beauty, My limitless perfections, My 
 burning, living, Divine Heart. 
 
 “Greater love than this, no man hath that a man 
 lay down his life for his friend .”— 
 
 St. John, XV, 13. 
 
 Thus have I loved you. Come, lay down 
 your life at my feet. How? By religious 
 profession, by the life of the evangelical 
 counsels, you may make an offering of your 
 life to Me, which Holy Church will accept in 
 My name and as My representative. Then I 
 myself will lead you to perfection as I have 
 promised. “If thou wilt be perfect, go sell 
 what thou hast and give to the poor and come 
 follow Me.” 
 
 “The Religious lives more purely, falls more 
 rarely, rises more promptly, walks more 
 prudently, is refreshed with graces more 
 frequently, rests more securely, dies more 
 peacefully, is purified more quickly, and is 
 rewarded more abundantly.” 
 
 “I have chosen you.” — St. John, XV, 16. 
 
 Do not mistake the Master’s voice. He is 
 so true a friend, surely you know when He 
 speaks. To some He whispers softly in the 
 hushed moments after Communion, or in the 
 silence of retreat. In others He creates a 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 57 
 
 restlessness and a sense of the emptiness of 
 the joys the world labels “Happiness” and 
 having made a great hollow in their heart, 
 He promises to fill the aching void with His 
 peace, saying “Come to me” all you that labor 
 and are heavy burdened and I will refresh you.” 
 (St. Matthew, XI: 38). 
 
 Sometimes His call is clear and ringing when 
 He finds a generous soul filled with a burning 
 zeal for His service. He needs but say one 
 word—“Come.” Some He approaches through 
 their reason, which tells them that the salvation 
 of their immortal soul alone is worth their care 
 and attention. Safety lies in keeping close 
 to Jesus and the soul says: “In the shadow of 
 Thy wings will I hope until iniquity shall 
 pass away.”—(Ps. 56, 8). 
 
 “Taste and see that the Lord is Sweet.” 
 
 Psalm, 33, 9. 
 
 There is no joy like that of giving. Truly 
 it is more blessed to give than to receive. 
 Now to our Divine Lord we owe all that 
 we possess, and although He could demand 
 our entire service, He permits us rather to 
 share the blessedness of giving and lovingly 
 accepts as a gift what is rightly His own. 
 Oh, the joy that follows! Only the Religious 
 
58 
 
 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 who has tasted the sweetness of the Lord 
 knows what happiness is. The better the 
 religious, the greater her happiness. Carnal 
 joys are not hers, but a deep calm and peace 
 that makes her abound with joy even in the 
 midst of tribulation. Verily is the promise 
 of the Saviour fulfilled; “There is no man 
 that hath left house, or parents, or brethren 
 for the Kingdom of God’s sake who shall not 
 receive much more in their present time, 
 and in the world to come, life everlasting.” 
 (St. Luke XVIII: 29, 30). 
 
 “If the dear Master selects one among you 
 to be closer to Him, happy are you! He will 
 teach you Himself.” 
 
 (Mother Seton). 
 
 “True liberty does not consist in the satisfying 
 of our whims and fancies , but in our enfran¬ 
 chisement from the slavery of the passions. 
 This is the inappreciable advantage which 
 the vows procure .”— St. Augustine. 
 
 When the Master finds a soul eager to follow 
 Him in the way of perfection He leads her to 
 the Religious life and shows her the path 
 to sanctity laid down by the practice of the 
 Vows. 
 
 By the Vows, the Religious sacrifices to God 
 all that she has and all that she is. By the Vow 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 59 
 
 of Poverty, she sacrifices the exterior gifts of 
 fortune; by the Vow of Chastity, the personal 
 gifts of the body; by the Vow of Obedience, 
 the intimate gifts of the soul. 
 
 Actions already good and praiseworthy 
 when performed under the Vows secure a 
 second or double merit. Moreover, every tiny 
 act indifferent, and worthless in itself, becomes 
 through the Vow meritorious. “I say to you, 
 lay up to yourself treasures in Heaven where 
 neither the rust nor the moth consumes 
 and where thieves do not break through 
 and steal.” 
 
 Prayer in choosing a state of life. 
 
 O My God, Thou who art the God of wisdom 
 and of counsel; Thou who readest in my heart 
 the sincere will to please Thee alone, and to 
 govern myself with regard to my choice of a 
 state of life, entirely in conformity with Thy 
 most holy desire; grant me by the intercession 
 of the most Blessed Virgin, my Mother and 
 of my holy patrons, especially of St. Joseph 
 and St. Aloysius, the grace to know what 
 state I ought to choose, and when known to 
 embrace it, so that in it I may be able to pursue 
 and increase Thy glory, work out my salvation 
 and merit that heavenly reward which Thou 
 hast promised to those who do Thy holy will. 
 
 Amen. 
 
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 60 Biographical Sketch of 
 
 “He that loveth father or mother more than Me 
 is not worthy of Me. 
 
 {St. Matthew , X: 37). 
 
 So often the love of parents is the one 
 obstacle that keeps a soul from God. Yet it 
 should be no obstacle at all, for you cannot 
 do more for your beloved ones than by entering 
 religion. God loves them more dearly than 
 you do and your sacrifice will profit them more 
 than if you should spend your whole life 
 toiling to make them happy. It is the opinion 
 of the fathers of the Church that no member 
 of the family of a fervent religious is ever lost. 
 
 “The charity of Christ presseth us .”— 
 
 II Cor. V: 14. 
 
 The Sisters of Charity with their Mother 
 House at Mount Saint Vincent, Halifax, 
 are engaged in the education of youth, that 
 field of the Master where the harvest is so great 
 and the laborers so few—and in the care of the 
 sick, the orphans, the infirm, and the poor; 
 for the Master has said, “Inasmuch as you did 
 it to the least of these little ones, you did it 
 to Me.” (St. Matthew, XXV: 40). 
 
 “God gives to each company which He forms 
 a particular spirit. The spirit of the Sister 
 of Charity is to love God and to serve Him in 
 
Mother Elizabeth Seton 
 
 61 
 
 humility and simplicity.—it is charity itself.” 
 (St. Vincent de Paul). 
 
 “And Philip findeth Nathaniel and said to 
 him, “We have found Him of Whom the 
 Prophets did write.... Come and see.” (St. 
 John I: 45, 46). 
 
 Go, little messenger, tell all you meet we have 
 found the Master, to serve Whom is light and 
 peace and strength and love and bid whosoever 
 desires to “Come, follow after.” 
 

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