Elizabeth Seton was born on 28 Aug 1774 of a wealthy and distinguished Episcopalian family. She was baptised in the Episcopalian faith and was a faithful adherent of the Episcopal church until her conversion to Catholicism. In 1794, Elizabeth married William Seton and they reared five children amid suffering and sickness. Elizabeth and her sick husband travelled to Leghorn Italy and there William died. While in Italy Elizabeth became acquainted with Catholicism and in 1805 she made her profession of faith in the Catholic Church. She established her first Catholic school in Baltimore in 1808. In 1809 she established a religious community in Emmitsburg Maryland. After seeing the expansion of her small community of teaching sisters to New York and as far as St Louis, she died on 4 Jan 1821. She was declared a saint by Pope Paul VI on 14 Sept 1975. – Catholic Online
