Saints of the Day: January 4th

Eastern Rite:
The Synaxis of 70 Apostles
This memorial was established so as to indicate the equal honour of each of the Seventy, and to avert dissonance in their veneration. [Translator Note: Russian idiomatic useage refers both to the "12" and to the "70" as "Apostle"; whereas English idiomatic useage refers to the "12" as "Apostle" and to the "70" as "Disciple".] They were chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to evangelise the Gospel to all the world. The Church in particular venerates and praises the 70 Disciples in that they taught to honour the Trinity One-in-Essence and Un-Divided.

Roman Rite:
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774 - 1821)
Today the Roman Rite remembers St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. She was born just before the American Revolution to wealthy parents in New York. Reared a staunch Episcopalian by her mother and stepmother, she learned the value of prayer, Scripture and a nightly examination of conscience. Her father, Dr. Richard Bayley, did not have much use for churches but was a great humanitarian, teaching his daughter to love and serve others.

At 19, Elizabeth was the belle of New York and married a handsome, wealthy businessman, William Magee Seton. They had five children before his business failed and he died of tuberculosis. At 30, Elizabeth was widowed, penniless, with five small children to support.

While in Italy with her dying husband, Elizabeth witnessed Catholicity in action through family friends. Three basic points led her to become a Catholic: belief in the Real Presence, devotion to the Blessed Mother and conviction that the Catholic Church led back to the apostles and to Christ. Many of her family and friends rejected her when she became a Catholic in March 1805.

To support her children, she opened a school in Baltimore. From the beginning, her group followed the lines of a religious community, which was officially founded in 1809. She opened the first American parish school and established the first American Catholic orphanage. All this she did in the span of 46 years while raising her five children.