(OSV News) — The first canonized saint born in the U.S. is nearing her 250th birthday — and she’s more relevant than ever, said the executive director of her national shrine.
Santa Isabel Ana Seton, foundress of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph and a pioneer in Catholic education in the U.S., was “one of us” who “walked on the ground where we walk,” Rob Judge of the Santuario Nacional de Santa Isabel Ana Seton in Emmitsburg, Maryland, told OSV News.
The shrine marked the saint’s Jan. 4 feast day with a televised Mass celebrated at its basilica by Auxiliary Bishop Bruce A. Lewandowski of Baltimore. The feast day also kicked off a two-year commemoration of both Mother Seton’s milestone birthday and the 50th anniversary of her canonization, which will fall in 2025.