In the northern bay area of the nave is The Altar of the Relics of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. Sculpted in Italy, the white marble statue of Saint Elizabeth Ann depicts her dressed in the habit that she and her Sisters of Charity wore in 1809. The statue portrays her role as educator and religious Foundress. Beneath the Altar and enclosed in marble rest the treasured relics of the Saint in a small copper casket. Her remains were transferred here under the Altar in 1968.
- Before Beatification, the remains of Elizabeth Ann Seton was exhumed on October 26, 1962, in the presence of a small group of persons closely associated with her cause. This ecclesiastical procedure involved the identification of her remains in conjunction with her cause for canonization.
- After her Beatification by Pope John XXIII on March 17, the Seton relics were placed in a copper casket and placed above the main altar at Joseph College Chapel, located at Saint Joseph's Central House, on April 18, 1963.
- The small copper casket containing the remains of Elizabeth Ann Seton was transferred to beneath the altar of the Blessed Elizabeth Ann Seton in the Daughters of Charity chapel of the new Saint Joseph's Provincial House on January 4, 1968. A marble facade was installed at the base of the altar of relics of Elizabeth Ann Seton on August 1, 1975.
In every Eucharistic liturgy, the intentions of visitors to the Seton Shrine Basilica are remembered.
