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Self-sacrificing women are not always recognized in their lifetimes. Blessed Rani Maria Vattalil and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton are two such women. Both dedicated their comparatively short lives to caring for children and the poor.
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St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. Irenaeus suffered greatly in their lives and were deeply “acquainted with grief.” Instead of leading to despair, suffering made them fully alive to the beauty of the world and to the gift of God’s grace.
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In a remarkable act of trust, Elizabeth Seton referred to the death dates of her daughters as their “Heavenly birthdays”—the day when they were born into eternal life after the long, hard labor of dying.