EMMITSBURG, MD (Dec. 23, 2024) _ Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton led a bold and audacious life that resulted in her becoming the first native-born American to be canonized a saint in the Catholic Church. Now, in 2025, the National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton will lead a bold and audacious year-long national celebration of the 50th anniversary of her canonization, which occurred on Sept. 14, 1975.
The events begin on Mother Seton’s Feast Day on Jan. 4, with a noon (EST) mass celebrated by Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori and the opening of a new exhibit in the Shrine’s museum dedicated to her canonization. The mass will be shown nationally on EWTN at 6 pm (EST).
The new exhibit, named “One of Us,” takes up two full rooms and tells the backstory of her canonization, one of the monumental days in the American Catholic Church during the 20th century. The exhibit will transport visitors to 1975, giving them an understanding of the magnitude of Mother Seton’s influence then and her relevance today as a saint people can relate to in profound ways. Visitors will see artifacts, including the canonization decree from Pope Paul VI, now St. Paul VI, and peruse personal scrapbooks of those who attended the proceedings in Rome or watched them in Emmitsburg.
An original mural by Frederick, Md., artist Ellen Byrne will depict Mother Seton’s long road to sainthood, with a separate wall dedicated to information about other Americans in various stages of the canonization process.
“Mother Seton’s life can be considered a pilgrimage first to the Catholic faith and then to Emmitsburg and ultimately heaven as a saint of the Church,” said Rob Judge, executive director of the Seton Shrine. “This puts the Shrine in a unique position to highlight the Universal call of holiness and the unique role of pilgrimage for Catholics on their journey. During this anniversary year we hope to encourage the faithful to go on pilgrimage, themselves, and deepen their relationship with Our Lord, with the knowledge that Mother Seton will show us the way and accompany us all.”
To that end, the Shrine is organizing a series of events in 2025 to bring people closer to Mother Seton so they can better understand her life and legacy. These include:
· An outreach program to the more than 200 parishes and schools in the U.S., who are under her patronage. The Shrine will provide, free of charge, a variety of resources reintroducing Mother Seton to the faithful, while encouraging parish and school groups to visit the Shrine and treat it as a second home.
· A series of pilgrimage initiatives, including partnering with the Camino of Maryland, a 14-day, 218-mile journey in June that will culminate at the Shrine.
· A “50 for 50” digital content campaign showing the personal impacts that Mother Seton and her Shrine have made, and continue to make, on the faithful.
· Continued expansion of the Shrine’s “Seeds of Hope” program which offers retreats to those living in poverty.
· A “Day of Joy” anniversary celebration on Sept. 14 to commemorate the day she was canonized. The day will begin with a special mass broadcast on EWTN, followed by an afternoon of food, music and prayer on the sprawling and bucolic grounds of the Shrine.
The title sponsor for the year-long celebration is Ascension. The museum exhibit is a collaborative project of the Shrine and the Daughters of Charity Archives.
The Shrine is located on the very site that Mother Seton established the first Catholic school for girls and the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, the first congregation of women religious founded in the United States, in 1809. Mother Seton’s work continues today through the Sisters and Daughters of Charity in the U.S. and Canada. Both orders of religious sisters used Mother Seton as their spiritual guide, as they went out to start schools, hospitals and other organizations of service to benefit the communities where they lived.
“This anniversary is a tremendous opportunity to show the world how an ordinary person such as Mother Seton, who conforms their life to God’s grace can be transformed and become a saint,” Judge said. “She truly is one of us, and she shows us the way. This is something that those under her patronage understand deeply, and it’s why 2025 is a year of opportunity for people to come to know Mother Seton better and seek her out as an intercessor and a model of personal holiness.”
Besides the special events, the Shrine will be operating its regular programs, tours and other activities throughout the year. The Shrine attracts more than 50,000 visitors each year who can walk in the literal footsteps of a saint. For more information about the Shrine, please visit https://setonshrine.org/.
For more information about the 50th anniversary celebration, please visit https://setonshrine.org/fifty/.
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 visitors can 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/.
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