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St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is pictured in a portrait by Antonio Filicchi. (Courtesy Daughters of Charity)

Daughters of Charity, DePaul University expand digital collection of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s papers, letters


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Catholic Review Filed Under: Colleges, Feature, Local News, News, Saints

 As the 50th anniversary of the canonization of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton approaches Sept. 14, many of her family’s documents are being made public digitally.

The archives of the Daughters of Charity Province of St. Louise, in collaboration with the digital commons at DePaul University, announced the online publication of the first of many historic Seton family papers.          

Among the initial digital offerings are numerous letters to and from St. Elizabeth Ann, Archbishop John Carroll of Baltimore and Antonio Filicchi (of the family with whom Elizabeth Ann, her husband William and eldest daughter Anna Maria, stayed in Italy in the hope of restoring William’s health).

A scan of one of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s letters in 1806 that will be available in a new digital archive. (Courtesy Daughters of Charity)

The manuscripts document the course of Mother Seton’s life before, during and after her marriage and conversion. Topics addressed include:

  • The life she had with her children, worrying about them as her sons joined the United States Navy and her fear of them being deployed during the War of 1812. 
  • Her immense sadness upon the deaths of her daughters, Annina and Rebecca, and the life she hoped to share with her husband. 
  • The nascent state of the Catholic Church in the United States – politically, organizationally and theologically – and many prominent figures are among the correspondents.
  • The life of a women’s religious community on the frontier of the early Federal period and the ways that a community was governed, influenced by the spiritual works of Ss. Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, and the fledgling democratic impulses of the United States.

In upcoming online publications, researchers will be able to find diary entries, spiritual writings, early documents related to the governance of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s (predecessor community to the Daughters of Charity in the U.S.), as well as correspondence of St. Elizabeth Ann with her children, family and in-laws.

For each paper, researchers will have access to a photo of the original document as well as a transcription.

Publication of the papers is a project that will extend throughout 2025 and 2026. Manuscripts currently available may be accessed online at https://via.library.depaul.edu/seton_family_papers/.

Some of the manuscripts in the Daughters’ Provincial Archives collections or in outside collections have already been published in edited compilations but have only been done so selectively.

“Letters of Mother Seton to Julianna Scott” (edited by Monsignor Joseph Code), a compilation of the correspondence between Mother Seton and her best friend and confidant, Julia Scott, had been published as far back as 1960, but contained edited and incomplete transcription of the letters.  Sister of Charity Regina Bechtle, Sister of Charity Judith Metz and Ellin M. Kelly undertook the Elizabeth Bayley Seton Collected Writings between 2000 and 2006, but these four volumes only published the manuscripts created by Mother Seton, not the manuscripts sent to Mother Seton or created by other people.    

By using the digital space, the collaborators hope to correct a longstanding impediment to the use of Mother Seton’s writings, the Daughters of Charity said in a media release announcing the collaboration.

The formal archives, like many archives of women religious, was not established until the 1980s. Prior to that, the individual charged with preserving these letters was the provincial secretary and the “original order” was the order in which they were kept in the secretary’s closet.  

When the writings were transferred to the archives, this order was kept, and they were placed in 34 boxes, regardless of creator, date or whether they were related to St. Elizabeth Ann, family members or confessors. Over time, these letters received their own chronology and were codified in public guides and the collected writings. While there are loose trends of materials grouped together, researchers and archivists needed to search each guide individually.

The collaborators hope that future Seton research can benefit not only from the full-text transcriptions, but also by a more targeted and efficient approach to the research process.

Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born in New York City Aug. 28, 1774, to a prominent Episcopal family; she lost her mother at the age of 3. In 1794, at the age of 19, Elizabeth married William Magee Seton, a wealthy businessman with whom she had five children. William died of tuberculosis in 1803, leaving Elizabeth a young widow. After discovering Catholicism in Italy, where her husband had died, Elizabeth returned to the United States and entered the Catholic Church in 1805 in New York.

After a number of difficult years, Elizabeth moved in 1809 to Emmitsburg, where she founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, the first community for religious women established in the U.S. She also began St. Joseph’s Academy and Free School, planting the seeds of Catholic education in the United States. Her legacy now includes religious congregations in the United States and Canada, whose members work on the unmet needs of people living in poverty in North America and beyond.

Mother Seton, as she is often called, was canonized Sept. 14, 1975, in St. Peter’s Square by St. Pope Paul VI. She was the first citizen born in the United States to be given the title of “saint.” Her remains are entombed in Emmitsburg in the Basilica at the National Shrine that bears her name

Visit https://setonshrine.org/explore/ for more information on the shrine.

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