The stories of the saints have their share of drama \u2014 huge feats of self-sacrifice, burning zeal, and epic acts of heroism \u2014 and there\u2019s plenty of that kind of drama to be found in the life of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. But perhaps more importantly, her life is an example of how powerful the \u201csmaller\u201d virtues are \u2014 the virtues we ordinary people often neglect in our daily lives.<\/p>\n
Practicing virtues like courtesy, gentleness, and patience might not be as dramatic as the courage of a saint walking willingly to the lions, but God sees what we often don\u2019t notice. And looking closely at the everyday holiness of the saints reveals just how powerful these \u201cordinary\u201d acts of holiness truly are.<\/p>\n
Nothing illustrates this so well as the story of St. Elizabeth Ann\u2019s family\u2019s arrival in Italy. Her husband William was sick, and they hoped the new climate, and the hospitality of their friends, the Filicchis, would do him good. William, Elizabeth and their young daughter, Anna Maria, had set out across the Atlantic in great expectation.<\/p>\n
The trip took two months, but when they pulled into port, their troubles had only just begun. Italian officials had heard rumors of yellow fever, and upon seeing William\u2019s apparent illness, immediately put the Seton family into quarantine. For weeks they were locked in a damp and drafty stone building while William\u2019s health sharply declined from the cold temperatures, poor ventilation, and lack of medical care.<\/p>\n
For months, Elizabeth had looked forward to care and rest with the Filicchis and she\u2019d set all her hopes on William\u2019s recovery. She had little children at home whom she missed terribly, and now, after all this time, here they were, trapped in an environment that all but guaranteed that William would die there.<\/p>\n
What does a saint do in a situation like that? I know what I would do \u2014 I\u2019d cry a lot, and be angry and scared, and depressed and withdrawn, and I would find a lot of people to blame. It\u2019s very likely that the people around me (as if they weren\u2019t miserable enough already) would lose hope in my company. Elizabeth understood that, and in a tremendous act of unselfishness, she took it upon herself to keep up the spirits of her family, instead of indulging in her own feelings.<\/p>\n
I honestly can\u2019t think of a bigger sacrifice than to prioritize the good cheer of others at the expense of expressing so many understandable, and probably overwhelmingly strong, feelings.<\/p>\n
Elizabeth felt what she felt, but she didn\u2019t express those feelings at the expense of others. Instead, she wrote of her absolute resolve to be there for William, and not to let her own troubles add to his own: \u201cWhen I can no longer look up with cheerfulness, I hide my head on the chair by his bedside and he thinks I am praying\u2014and pray I do\u2014for prayer is all my comfort, without which I should be of little service to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
She sang hymns. She insisted on praying with him. She jumped rope with her daughter to stay warm and tried to laugh at the absurdity of the situation.<\/p>\n
Anne Merwin points out in her biography of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton that it was these choices that probably gave William the grace of a holy death, which he might not have had if they\u2019d stayed home and been distracted by family, business, doctors, and false hope. Instead, horrible as that trying month was, it was a month where he did nothing but pray with his wife, and prepare himself for death.<\/p>\n
In God\u2019s eyes, what feat of self-sacrifice, burning zeal, or epic act of heroism could be greater? In our own human eyes, what a small thing it was \u2014 Elizabeth\u2019s simple determination to keep her family focused on the one thing that really mattered: their hope in God\u2019s salvation. But it just goes to show, there really are no small or ordinary virtues.<\/p>\n
It was shortly after William\u2019s death that Elizabeth first read St. Francis de Sales\u2019 Introducci\u00f3n a la vida devota<\/em>, which no doubt encouraged her to keep practicing those \u201csmall\u201d virtues. St. Francis de Sales, who lived in the aftermath of the Reformation, was a doctor of the Church and a man responsible for bringing tens of thousands of Protestants back to the Catholic Church. He understood\u2014as Elizabeth did\u2014that every act of love, no matter how small, is of absolutely immeasurable value.<\/p>\n Francis encouraged Christians to cultivate virtues like courtesy, mildness, gentleness. He reminds us to be content with any act of love, no matter how simple. He wrote, \u201cThe acts of daily forbearance, the headache, or toothache, or heavy cold; the tiresome peculiarities of husband or wife, the broken glass…all of these sufferings, small as they are, if accepted lovingly, are most pleasing to God’s Goodness,\u201d and he reminded us that \u201cGod desires from us more fidelity to the little things that he places in our power than ardor for great things that do not depend upon us.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, our job is to do what good we can, in the life we are given, whether or not that goodness seems like much. It\u2019s God\u2019s job to use that goodness for his own purposes. For us, it\u2019s enough to know that there is no choice made in love that\u2019s small and insignificant, and that often in the end, it\u2019s these smallest acts of love that bring the most souls to Christ.<\/p>\n