On August 28, 1774, two years before American independence was declared, Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born to a prominent Episcopalian family in New York City.
She was canonized on September 15, 1975, as Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Rob Judge, executive director of The National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, told Aleteia that the shrine staff have had and continue to host multiple initiatives this year showing the links between Mother Seton and the founding of the United States.
Judge penned an article that Fox News published June 15, 2026, proposing that beside the many Founding Fathers of this nation, the New York native and first American-born saint, deserves to be regarded as a Founding Mother.
We celebrate the men who built the republic’s political framework, while often overlooking those who helped share its moral character. But nations are not sustained by constitutions alone. They are held together by schools, hospitals, charities, communities, moral conviction, and the stubborn belief that neighbors owe something to one another.