Celebrating Mother Seton's birthday
In Emmitsburg on Aug. 30, the Daughters of Charity and the Seton Club of Harrisburg, Pa., will observe Elizabeth Ann Seton's 235th birthday with a Mass and celebration.
The Mass, to be celebrated by the Michael J. Kennedy, is set for 1:30 p.m. at the Basilica at the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. The celebration, to follow in the Sisters Courtyard, will include balloons, snow cones, birthday cake and face painting.
Special honor will be paid to women and girls named Elizabeth Ann or Elizabeth, who are invited to join in a special procession and encouraged to register at the Shrine Visitor Center between 12:15 p.m. and 1:15 p.m.
Visitors may tour the Seton Shrine on the grounds of the Provincial House of the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Visitors may tour the Visitor Center, the Basilica and the Seton Shrine Museum as well as historic buildings that date back to Mother Seton's lifetime including the Stone House, where she first lived and the White House in which she opened the first free school for girls in the United States on February 22, 1810.
As Baltimore Sun colleague Joe Burris wrote a couple of weeks ago, the Daughters of Charity have been celebrating the 200th anniversary of Seton's arrival in Emmitsburg in 1809. The Catholic convert founded the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph's, the first new community for religious women to be established in the United States, and Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School, the first free Catholic School for girls.
Her legacy includes six religious communities with more than 5,000 members and several schools, social service centers, and hospitals throughout the world. in 1975, she became the first native-born American to be canonized.
