Elizabeth Ann Seton
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton is patroness of Catholic schools because she planted their very root in America: a convert widow, she opened in Emmitsburg the first free Catholic school in the United States and founded the Sisters of Charity to staff it, laying the foundation of the whole American parochial school system — which is why teachers and educators claim her too. For widows she is the natural intercessor, having been left a young widow with five children at her husband’s death in Italy, a grief that began her road to the faith. She is invoked in in-law problems and the loss of parents because conversion estranged her from her late husband’s family and society, and because she knew early bereavement; as the first native-born American saint, she is a particular patroness of the United States.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first native-born American citizen to be canonized. Born in New York in 1774, she was raised Episcopalian and converted to Catholicism after her husband’s death. She founded the Sisters of Charity, the first American religious community for women, and established the first free Catholic school in America, laying the foundation for the parochial school system.
