{"id":200374,"date":"2025-04-07T12:14:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T16:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setonshrine.org\/?p=200374"},"modified":"2025-07-25T09:07:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T13:07:37","slug":"the-miracle-that-helped-make-mother-seton-a-saint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setonshrine.org\/es\/the-miracle-that-helped-make-mother-seton-a-saint\/","title":{"rendered":"El milagro que hizo santa a la Madre Seton"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jay Sorgi<\/p>\n

(50\u00a0 for 50 series)<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0Ann O\u2019Neill never gets tired of talking about the miracle that she’s described over and over for all but four of her 77 years. In fact, you can still feel the joy that remains from reciting the effect of this deeply spiritual \u2013 and ultimately historic — moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s beautiful because I can connect to Him \u2013 I love Jesus,\u201d says Ann O’Neill of Easton, Maryland when describing how she was cured from leukemia in 1952 at the age of 4 after being laid on the tomb of Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton on the grounds of what is now the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.<\/p>\n

Saint<\/em> because O\u2019Neill\u2019s cure was one of two miracles attributed to Elizabeth Ann Seton that were instrumental in her canonization \u2013 the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of which will be celebrated on Sept. 14. O\u2019Neill\u2019s joy is captured in her laughter, vibrancy and even tears stemming from the realization that God gave her a miracle that remains unexplainable in itself.<\/p>\n

And in the telling of that miracle, O’Neill reveals the story of her mother, Felixena \u201cSis\u201d O\u2019Neill, and that mother\u2019s deep love of Christ and how Ann\u2019s journey began with a prayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ll start with my mother,\u201d O\u2019Neill says. \u201cShe asked God on her wedding if she could see many generations. Four-and-a-half years later, I was born. Then, I got leukemia, and she had great faith, and then what she did was pray.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother\u2019s prayers for Ann were lifted up to her grandmother, who died during World War II while waiting for her sons to come home from fighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, ‘Get to the saints. Get to the saints,’\u201d Ann O\u2019Neill recalls, adding that plenty of other people were praying for her, as well. \u201cBack then, there were a lot of the school kids and the nuns and people praying the Novena to Mother Seton, but the more they prayed, the worse I got.\u201d<\/p>\n

All this was happening as O’Neill’s mother was pregnant with Ann\u2019s sister, Mary.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was ready to deliver. She’s having labor pains, and I’m dying,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was having a hard time separating because she had to go to another hospital. I’m holding on to her. I don’t want her to leave, and I’m screaming bloody murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

By that point, O’Neill’s condition was so bad, she said she was \u201crapidly going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy bowels were even leaving my body at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Good Friday in 1952, with her daughter’s condition deteriorating, O’Neill’s mother took her to Mother Seton\u2019s resting place in Emmitsburg. This was the place where, in 1809, Mother Seton started the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph\u2019s, the first community for religious women established in the United States, as well as the first Catholic school for girls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took me to Emmitsburg against the doctor’s wishes,\u201d O’Neill explains, \u201cbut they put me in a little car with a mattress, a little crib mattress, and then they laid me on Mother Seton’s tomb in the cemetery (and) also took me in to Mother Seton’s house where she died.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother returned her to the hospital, where they did blood work.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Easter Monday, my blood count was normal,\u201d says O’Neill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was instantaneous. And I remember when we came across that, my white blood cell count, the paperwork with my white blood cell count on that Monday…pretty incredible. Yeah, pretty incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only was the miracle her rescue from death from leukemia, it was el<\/em> moment that opened her mother’s chance to see those many generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have four sisters, and out of all my sisters, I’m the only one that has the grandchildren and great-grandchildren,\u201d says O’Neill. \u201cShe saw her grandchildren, and then she saw her great-grandchildren and her great-great-grandchildren. We’re not just talking about the miracle of healing from leukemia. We’re talking about the answer to the initial prayer as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

That faith O’Neill shared with her mother not only got them through numerous struggles, from her leukemia battle to the recovery her father had from being struck by a drunk driver and the loss of O’Neill’s own son. That faith became the centerpiece of a relationship they shared as her mother reached 101 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe incredible faith that she has given her girls, you know, and how to accept things,\u201d says O’Neill.\u201d \u201cWhen the Blessed Sacrament came by me, I could feel Christ consoling me and giving me some kind of strength to endure.\u201d<\/p>\n

That strength and faith were celebrated as part of the canonization O’Neill attended for Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in 1975, when Pope Paul VI canonized her at the Vatican.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was beautiful,\u201d says O’Neill, who got to meet the pontiff and got a special prayer request. \u201c’I will pray for you. Will you pray for me?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps Pope Paul VI understood the incredible faith Ann O’Neill carried to that special celebration for America’s first native-born saint, the kind of faith that cannot help but acknowledge miracles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Jesus is with us,\u201d she says, \u201cno matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

50 for 50 es una serie de relatos de gente corriente para conmemorar el 50 aniversario de la canonizaci\u00f3n de Elizabeth Ann Seton como primera santa estadounidense nacida en el pa\u00eds.<\/em><\/p>\n

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50 a\u00f1os despu\u00e9s de su canonizaci\u00f3n, la santa sigue dejando una huella de fe y alegr\u00eda en la mujer a la que cur\u00f3 la leucemia<\/p>","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":200377,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4419],"class_list":["post-200374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fifty-for-fifty"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Miracle that Helped Make Mother Seton a Saint - Seton Shrine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/setonshrine.org\/es\/the-miracle-that-helped-make-mother-seton-a-saint\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Miracle that Helped Make Mother Seton a Saint - 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