EMMITSBURG, MD (Dec. 30, 2025) – The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton is launching a year-long celebration exploring the impact of America’s first native-born saint on the nation to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
This effort, following the Shrine’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of Mother Seton’s canonization last September, will focus on her life in post-Revolutionary War America and the ways since that the Daughters of Charity and the Sisters of Charity, who trace their lineage to her, have impacted American life.
“Mother Seton represents Catholic – and American – virtues of devotion, hard work, patriotism and service to the poor,” said Rob Judge, executive director of the Shrine. “Her life is a beautiful example of how an ordinary person following God’s will can achieve personal holiness and, through God’s grace, transform the world around them. By saying ‘yes’ to God, Mother Seton inspired and led more than 20,000 religious sisters to give their lives to God and go forth over the next 200 years changing the lives of millions of Americans.”
Among the plans for 2026:
- Feast Day: Mother Seton’s feast day will be celebrated on Sunday, Jan. 4, which this year will coincide with the Feast of the Epiphany. While the solemn liturgy of the Epiphany takes precedence, the celebration at the Shrine will include two Masses, confessions, adoration, free tours of the Shrine’s historical homes, and a concert by the popular Irish band, Seasons, at 4 pm EST.
On Monday, Jan. 5, the Shrine is offering virtual tours of the homes for Catholic school children around the country. For more information or to register, please visit this link.
- “Do the Good: The Sisters Who Shaped America”: This special exhibit in the Shrine’s museum will open March 19 and tell the story of the Sisters and Daughters of Charity and their impact on education, health care and other fields. The exhibit is sponsored by Ascension, the largest non-profit Catholic health care provider in the U.S.
“By starting the first community of women religious in the U.S., the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, Mother Seton inspired generations of women to spread the faith, serve the poor, educate the young and treat the sick through orphanages, schools, hospitals and in countless other ways,” Judge said. “Their work, which continues to this day, has had an immeasurable impact on the life of our nation. It is an honor to showcase their work to the tens of thousands of visitors to the Shrine.”
- Special America250 Programming: This will launch with “Tea Culture and the American Revolution,” presentations by Scott Keefer, director of provincial archives, showing the Seton family tea caddy and explaining the family rituals around tea time in separate presentations on Feb. 21 and March 7. As part of the presentation, he will offer samples of a variety of tea that the family enjoyed.
- Saints on Their Way: Building off of the success of the Saints on Their Way initiative featured during the 50th anniversary celebrations, the Shrine will continue to highlight, celebrate and promote the more than 80 Americans who are currently on the path towards canonization.
- America250 Pilgrimage Initiative: The Shrine will put a renewed emphasis on pilgrimages that underscore Mother Seton’s own pilgrimage to Maryland. In 2025, 298 groups, totaling 15,154 visitors, made a pilgrimage to the Shrine. Overall, the Shrine had more than 70,000 visitors.
- The Seton Shrine Endowment:This campaign, with the theme of “A Saint for Our Time,” seeks to ensure the Shrine remains a vibrant place of faith, hope and history for generations to come. Launched in September by the Shrine’s Board and the Sisters and Daughters of Charity, with the assistance of the Shrine’s National Leaders Council, the goal is to raise $50 million by Sept. 14, 2035, the 60th anniversary of Mother Seton’s canonization. The Shrine had already raised $8 million at the launch.
These activities will be in addition to the Shrine’s existing programming, which includes “Seeds of Hope” retreats for the poor; the annual Sea Services pilgrimage; the “Back from the Dead” cemetery walks, the spring living history program, Academy Alive; and tours of Mother Seton’s historic homes throughout the year.
“Mother Seton’s joy, faithfulness and relatability remain a spiritual antidote to many of the ills of contemporary life,” Judge said. “As our nation prepares to recognize its 250th birthday, it’s important to remember this true American heroine, whose impact continues to this day.”
Mother Seton: An American Story
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born in New York City on August 28, 1774 to a prominent Episcopal family. Her father, Richard Bayley, was a New York physician and the first chief health officer of the city. In 1794, she married the wealthy businessman William Magee Seton, with whom she had five children. As a couple, the Setons socialized with Alexander and Eliza Hamilton and other well-known political and business leaders of the era.
Eventually, William Seton’s business crumbled and he developed tuberculosis. In an attempt to improve his health, he and Elizabeth sailed to Italy, but he died there in 1803. After discovering Catholicism in Italy, Elizabeth Ann Seton returned to the United States and entered the nascent Catholic Church in 1805 in New York.
After some difficult years, she moved to Baltimore in 1809 at the invitation of Archbishop John Carroll, America’s first bishop, who urged her to start the first free Catholic school for girls in Emmitsburg. He also approved her founding of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s the first community for apostolic religious women established in the U.S. Mother Seton died in 1821, and in 1975 she was the first native born American to be canonized a saint in the Catholic Church.
For more information about the Shrine, please visit setonShrine.org.
The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, Md., is a place of God and of history, where 70,000 visitors a year walk in the footsteps of a saint. The Shrine offers pilgrims prayerful comfort from Mother Seton’s story and her intercessions as a friend in heaven. It is an active Basilica and has a wide range of historical buildings and programs that show what life was like when Mother Seton lived here more than 200 years ago. It was here that she founded the first community of religious women established in the U.S., created the first free Catholic school for girls staffed by sisters in the U.S. and fulfilled her mission of serving those in need. Today, her legacy includes several religious communities with thousands of sisters, who serve others through schools, social service centers and hospitals throughout the world. She was canonized in 1975. Her remains are entombed at the National Shrine that bears her name. For more information, please visit https://setonShrine.org/.