SETON
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SETON
there to St. Mary's College, and she opened a school
next to the Chapel of St. Mary's Seminary and was
delighted with the opportunities for the practice of
her rehgion, for it was only with the greatest difficulty
she was able to get to daily Mass and Communion in
New York. The convent life for which she had longed
ever since her stay in Italy now seemed less imprac-
ticable. Her hfe was that of a rehgious, and her
quaint costume was fashioned after one worn by
certain nuns in Italy. Cecilia Conway of Phila-
delphia, who had contemplated going to Europe to
fulfill her rehgious vocation, joined her; soon other
postulants arrived, while the httle school had all the
pupils it could accommodate.
Mr. Cooper, a Virginian convert and seminarian, offered S10,000 to found an institution for teaching poor children. A farm was bought half a mile from the village of Emmitsburg and two miles from Mt. St. Mary's CoUege. Meanwhile Cecilia Seton and her sister Harriet came to ISIrs. Seton in Baltimore. As a preliminary to the formation of the new communitj', Mrs. Seton took vows privately before Archbi.shop Carroll and her daughter Anna. In June, 1808, the community was transferred to Emmitsburg to take charge of the new institution. The great fervour and mortification of Mother Seton, imitated by her sis- ters, made the many hardships of their situation seem hght. In Dec, 1809, Harriet Seton, who was received into the Church at Emmitsburg, died there, and CeciUa in Apr., 1810. Bishop Flaget was commis- sioned in 1810 by the communitj"^ to obtain in France the rules of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. Three of these sisters were to be sent to train the young community in the spirit of St. Vin- cent de Paul, but Napoleon forbade them to leave France. The letter announcing their coming is extant at Emmitsburg. The rule, however, with some mod- ifications, was approved by Archbishop CarroU in Jan., 1812, and adopted. Against her will, and despite the fact that she had also to care for her children, Mrs. Seton wa-s elected superior. Many joined the community; Mother Seton's daughter, Anna, died during her novitiate (12 March, 1812), but had been permitted to pronounce her vows on her death-bed. Mother Seton and the eighteen sisters made their vows on 19 July, 1813. The fathers superior of the com- munity were the Sulpicians, Fathers Dubourg, David, and Dubois. Father Dubois held the post for fifteen years and laboured to impress on the community the spirit of St. Vincent's Sisters of Charity, forty of whom he had had under his care in France. The fervour of the community won admiration everywhere. The Bchool for the daughters of the well-to-do pros- pered, as it continues to do (1912), and enabled the sisters to do much work among the poor. In 1814 the sisters were given charge of an orphan a.sylum in Philadelphia; in 1817 they were sent to New York. The previous year (ISKi) Mother Seton's daughter, Rebecca, after long suffering, died at Em- mitsburg; her son Richard, who waK placed with the Filicchi firm in Italy, died a few years after his mother. William, the eldest, joined the riiitcd States Navy and died in 18G8. The most (iistiiiguishcd of his children arc Most. Rev. Robert Seton, Arclibishop of Hehopolis (author of a memoir of his grandmother, "Roman Essays", and many contributions to the "American Cathohc Quarterly" and other reviews), and William Seton (q. v.).
Mother Seton had great facility in writing. Besides the translation of many ascetical French works (in- cluding the life of Saint Vincent de Paul, and of Mile. Le Oras) for her community she has left copious diarir^s and correspondence that show a soul all on fire with the love f)f God and zeal for souls. Oeat spiritual dewjlation purified her soul during a great portion of her religious life, but she cheerfully took the royal road of the cross. For several years the
saintly bishop (then Father) Bruti was her di-
rector. The third time she was elected mother
(1819) she protested that it was the election
of the dead, but she lived for two years, suffering
finally from a pulmonary affection. Her perfect sin-
cerity and great charm aided her wonderfully in her
work of sanctifying souls. In ISSO Cardinal Gibbons
(then Archbishop) urged that steps be taken towards
her canonization. The results of the official inquiries
in the cause of Mother Seton, held in Baltimore during
several j-ears, were brought to Rome by special
messenger, and placed in the hands of the postulator
of the cau.se on 7 June, 1911.
Her cause is entrusted to the Priests of the Congrega- tion of the Mission, whose superior general in Paris is also superior of the Sisters of Charity with which the Emmit.sburg community was incorporated in 1850, after the withdrawal of the greater number of the sisters (at the suggestion of Archbishop Hughes) of the New York houses in 1846. This union had been contemplated for some time, but the need of a stronger bond at Emmitsburg, showm by the New York separa- tion, hastened it. It was effected with the loss of only the Cincinnati community of six sisters. With the Newark and Halifax offshoots of the New York com- munity' and the Greenburg foundation from Cincinnati, the sisters originating from Mother Seton's foundation number (1911) about 6000. The original Emmitsburg community now wearing the cornette and observing the rule just as St. Vincent gave it, naturally sur- passes any of the others in number. It is found in about thirt}^ dioceses in the United States, and forms a part of the worldwide sisterhood, whilst the others are rather diocesan communities.
13 vols, of letters, diaries, and rlocnmeiits by Mother Seton as well as information concerning her, are in the archives of the mother-house at Emmitsburg, Maryland; Robert Seton, Memoirs, Letter and Journal of Elizabeth Seton (2 vols., New York, 1869); Barberey, Elizabeth Seton (6th ed., 2 vols., Paris, 1892); White, Life of Mrs. Eliza A. Seton (10th ed.. New York, 1904); Sadlier, Elizabeth Seton, Foundress of the Amer. Sisters of Charily (New York, 1905); Belloc, Historic Nuns (2nd ed., London,
1911)- B. Randolph.
Seton, William, author, b. in New York, 28 Jan., 183'); d. there, 15 Mar., 1905. His father was William Seton, cai)tain in the U. S. Navy, son of Elizabeth Ann Seton (q. v.), his mother was Emily Prime. Burke's Peerage (1900) recognized him as the head of the Seton family of Parbroath, senior cadets of the earls of Winton in Scotland. He was educated at St. John's College, Fordham, at Mt. St. Mary's, Emmittshurg, Md., and at the University of Bonn. He travelled extensively abroad before entering a law office in New York. Soon after his admission to the bar he answered Lincoln's first call for troops in 1861. Disabled for a time by two wounds received in the Battle of Antietam, where he fought as (!ai)tain of the Forty-first New York Volunteers, French's Division, Sumner's Corps, he returned to his father's home, Cragdoii, Westchester Co., New York, but went back to the front to \h' captain of the IGtii Artillery in Grant's campaign against Ri(;hmond. After the war he devoted himself chiefly to literature, i)ublish- ing two historical novels, "RomaiuH' of the Charter Oak" (1870) and "Pride of Lexington" (1871): "The Pioneer", a poem (1874); "Rachel's Fate (1882); "The Shamrock Gone West", and "Moira", (1884). About 1886 he went to Europe for serious study in palaeontology, psychology, etc., and there- after usually spent the greater part of each year in France in such pursuits. His forte was presenting scientific matters in attractive English. He issued a brief work, "A Glimpse of Organic Life, Past and Present" (1897). He was a frequent contributor of scientific articles to tiie "Catholic World". "The Ituilding of the Mountain", a novel, was in the press at the time of his death. His Alma Mater, Mt. St. Mary's, conferred on him the degree of LL.D. in
