Giving

With the support of our friends, our goal is to expand our storytelling at the Shrine, by using the latest interactive technology to enhance our museum exhibits and programs, so that a whole new generation of Christian faithful can be inspired and transformed by Mother Seton’s witness.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton lived a remarkable life, exchanging wealth and privilege for poverty and service. It’s not just Mother Seton’s life that was remarkable, though; it’s also the legacy she left behind.  Six separate congregations eventually sprang from the religious order she founded, with thousands of women giving their lives to carry on her work of educating the poor, nursing the sick, and showing others the love of Christ. The service these women gave changed lives. It changed the country. And it changed the Church in America.

Ever since the Shrine first opened, the Shrine museum has told the story of Mother Seton’s life. In recent years, however, we realized that we needed to tell the story of her legacy as well. Thanks to the help of our supporters, we’ve begun doing that, with several new teaching exhibits now occupying the upper floor of the Shrine’s museum.

There, the Sisters Today exhibit shows visitors how the Sisters connected to Mother Seton continue to serve the poor. Telling its story with vivid photos, the exhibit makes clear how Mother Seton’s charism of service lives on in the Sisters of Charity and the Daughters of Charity.

The second exhibit, Celebrating our Saint, takes people back to 1975, as the country prepared for the canonization of its first native-born saint. Through photos, newspaper stories, artifacts, period memorabilia, and more, this exhibit gives museum visitors just a taste of the joy that American Catholics experienced in the days leading up to Mother Seton’s canonization.

Finally, the Civil War Sisters exhibit tells the amazing story of the Sisters of Charity and Daughters of Charity who served on battlefields and hospitals throughout America’s Civil War. Known as “white-winged angels,” the Sisters overcame prejudice against their faith and their sex to save tens of thousands of lives from both the North and South.

These stories, however, are just a small piece of Mother Seton’s legacy. There is so much more to tell and so many more ways—especially with the help of digital media—to tell them.