- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Today is the feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) - wife, mother, widow, convert, and foundress of the American Sisters of Charity. She was the first native-born U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint.
St. Elizabeth is also the patron saint of in-laws. When she married William Magee Seton in 1794, she became the daughter-in-law of a wealthy shipping and importing magnate and his wife ... and guardian of her husband's seven half-brothers and sisters when her father-in-law suddenly died four years later.
After William's death in 1803, Elizabeth's decision to leave the Episcopal faith and become a Catholic strained her relationship with both her in-laws and her own family. The situation worsened when two of her sisters-in-law also decided to become Catholic and later joined the religious community she had formed.
Only one of Elizabeth's five children married, making her a mother-in-law to her son William's wife, Emily Prime.
- Little Blue Book, Diocese of Saginaw