Returning the favor: A statue of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton fulfills Arbutus mother’s promise

When a doctor told Judy Giangrandi that her 6-year-old son Steven had a 50 percent chance of surviving Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Mrs. Giangrandi wasn’t at all satisfied.

“That wasn’t acceptable,” remembered Mrs. Giangrandi, a parishioner of Our Lady of Victory in Arbutus.

Steven had already undergone surgery to remove a benign tumor from the left side of his face. He was scheduled to have more surgery to remove a lesion in his abdomen and to have his spleen taken out as an added precaution. Radiation treatments would follow.

Not long before the surgery, the determined mother sent out the call to everyone she knew to pray for her son’s healing.

She and Steven then made a special pilgrimage to the motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg. That’s where the young boy laid on the grave of the future St. Elizabeth Ann Seton while his mother prayed fervently for her son’s well-being.

As soon as she finished praying, Mrs. Giangrandi sensed that Steven would be fine.

“The doctor thought I was crazy,” Mrs. Giangrandi recalled with a laugh. “But it just came to me that he was all right.”

The mother’s instincts were correct. The surgery and cancer treatments went well, and, despite predictions to the contrary, her son’s disease never reappeared.

Back on that memorable November day in 1975, Mrs. Giangrandi said she made a pledge to St. Elizabeth. If the future saint would give her and her son the grace to deal with the illness, Mrs. Giangrandi would make sure St. Elizabeth would be recognized in some way.

For nearly three decades, Mrs. Giangrandi said, she has been waiting for a sign from St. Elizabeth indicating how the mother should keep her promise. She finally found it reading an alumni newsletter from Seton Keough High School in Baltimore.

The school was looking for a donor to finance a statue of St. Elizabeth to be erected in the main lobby. There was not doubt in her mind about who should pay the the artwork, Mrs. Giangrandi said.

Mrs. Giangrandi and her husband, Dr. B. Robert Giangrandi of St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, presented the new statue to Seton Keough on Oct. 26. The artwork features a gentle St. Elizabeth with a book in hand, helping a young girl.

“I just hope the presence of this statue will increase awareness of who she is,” said Mrs. Giangrandi, a 1958 alumna of Seton High School, which merged with Archbishop Keough High School to form Seton Keough High School 15 years ago.

Steven Giangrandi, who continues to enjoy good health, said he is please to see the nearly life-size statue of the saintly woman he believes played a role in his recovery. He incorporates devotions to St. Elizabeth in his own prayer life, he said.

Even though doctors warned that the radiation treatments on his head would likely cause learning disabilities, Mr. Giangrandi went on to graduate from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and today serves as a pharmaceutical sales representative.

And although doctors had similarly warned that Mr. Giangrandi would not likely be able to have children, Mr. Giangrandi is now the proud father of two. His eldest daughter, Lauren Elizabeth, bears the name of his special patroness.

“I would envision Mother Seton as my own personal guardian angel,” said Mr. Giangrandi, a parishioner of St. Pius X in Rodgers Forge.

“Mrs. Giangrandi said she would always maintain a close relationship with St. Elizabeth.

“I believe in the communion of saints,” the former nurse explained. “Mother Seton is my friend in another dimension. I talk to her all the time.”

Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org

Copyright © 2003 Catholic Review Media

 Print