The saint and the poet lived and wrote to communicate God’s glory and intimacy with humankind.
Seton & Culture
A new essay series on religious artists, writers, thinkers, activists and visionaries from the perspective of Elizabeth Seton’s spirituality.
Children of the Church: Elizabeth Seton, Sofia Cavalletti and Gianna Gobbi
Their boundless capacity for love, friendship and wonder deepened our understanding of the spirituality of children forever.
In Praise of Holy Women
Elizabeth Ann Seton was twenty-years old when the Blessed Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne were executed during the French Revolution. A century and a half later Francois Poulenc would tell the world their story in his sublime opera, Dialogues des Carmelites.
Caring for the Poor: Frank Capra and Elizabeth Seton
The mid-twentieth century immigrant film director and the early-nineteenth century saint born into Manhattan’s elite shared a deep concern for society’s poor and outcasts that was grounded in their Catholic faith.
Georges Bernanos, Elizabeth Seton, and the Revelation of Hell
The French Catholic writer and the American saint each knew that God’s light shines brightest in the deepest darkness.
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Elizabeth Seton and Their Devotion to Mary
There could hardly be two women who lived in such different cultures as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, yet Mary spoke to each of them.
The Vocation of Women According to Elizabeth Seton and Sigrid Undset
Elizabeth Seton and Sigrid Undset were feminist icons without officially becoming feminists because they drew their strength from their Catholicism.
Reimagining Robert Lowell
The saint Elizabeth Seton and the poet Robert Lowell took divergent paths through the storm clouds of their lives, each seeking shelter under God’s immense umbrella of grace.
Gravitas: Good Friday, 2022
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.
The Eucharist at the Core: Flannery O’Connor and Elizabeth Ann Seton
The Catholic writer and the Catholic saint each grounded their lives and their works in the astonishing power of grace.
Companionship in Christ: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and Fr. Luigi Giussani
Luigi Giussani and Elizabeth Seton never planned to found religious movements. Their mission was to love God and neighbor and proclaim that the Incarnate God lives now, in the Eucharist and in our encounters with the people we are given.
Dolores Hart and Elizabeth Seton: Threading the Eye of a Needle
These two immensely talented women gave up everything that stood in the way of their love of God and neighbor.
Spiritual Soul Mates: Elizabeth Seton and Poet Vassar Miller
Vassar Miller, her body limiting what she could do in the world, lived out her life in Christ through her poetry. Despite their different circumstances, she and Elizabeth Seton are soul sisters, linked by the spirituality that they shared.
Henri Nouwen, Elizabeth Seton, and the Painful Price of Love
Elizabeth Seton and Henri Nouwen arrived at the same conclusion about what God asks of us: to give ourselves away in love.
The Conversions of Elizabeth Seton and the poet Denise Levertov
Elizabeth Seton and Denise Levertov were strong women with strong wills who surrendered themselves body and soul to God.
Love’s Music and the ‘Yes’ of the Convert
The lives of Thomas Merton and Elizabeth Ann Seton make for rich, vibrant history which—like good music—resounds down the halls of memory.