The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-11-30
CANONIZE
SlSTERHOOD
FOUNDER
Ecclesiastical Inquiry Being
Made Into Sanctity of
Mother Seton.

BALTIMORE, Md, Nov. S0.-An in
teresting and in many respects very
remarkable ecclesiastical court Is at the
present time holding weekly sessions at
the residence of Cardinal Gibbons. act
ing under special Instructions directly
issued by the Congregation of Rites at
Rome. The members of this court are
the Very Rev. DIR. p. r.. Dyer. the
Rev. DR. Peter Tarro, the Rev. DR.. c..
r. Thomas, as judges; notary, the Rev.
Joseph Cunnane; fiscal promoters, the
Rev. o. b. Corrigan. the Rev. Michael
Foley: CURSOR the Rev. d. de Wulf;
p~ostulator, theNvery Rev. James Oliver
Hayden. The proceeding is an inquiry
Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of
Charity in the United States, who died
in Emmitsburg in 1921.
The first step in these proceedings,
the end of which may be the ~canoniza-
ton of Mother Seton, is to establish her
reputation for ~sanctity. Mother Seton
founded the order of the Sisters of
Charity of st. Joseph at Emmitsburg in
1909, and the work she there started
has spread to all parts Of the country,
the number OF sisters now reaching
more than 800.
Prior to her death Mother Seton's rep
utation for holiness had spread from the
neighborhood where she lived not only
throughout Maryland and Pennsylvania,
but to all parts of this country and to
Europe as we'll. This fame for sanctity
has increased as the years have passed,
until now, almost 100 years after h
began her work for the good of human
ity, efforts are being made to have her
name placed in he calendar as n of
the saints of the Roman Catholic
Church.
In the usual course of events the mat
ter will not be fully determined In less
than twenty years. The preliminary
proceedings, which will take probably a
year or more, will be semitic Rome, and
If the case is made out to the satisfac-
ton of those in authority. Mother Seton
will be declared venerable and her
title will be the Venerable Mother
Seton.
Other proceedings, lasting for years,
will be undertaken, and after they are
concluded to the satisfaction of the
authorities she will be declared
blessed" and her title will be the
Blessed Mother Seton, and after still
further investigation and proof she may
be raised to the calendar as a saint.
Mother Seton's reputation as one of
the great figures of the early days of
the Catholic Church in the United
States has spread over the entire civil
lized world. She was born in New York
city before the Revolution, and all her
people were members of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, in which faith she
herself was brought up.
On the death of her husband she
Joined the Roman Catholic Church, and
after passing a short time in Baltimore,
where she opened a girls school, went
to what was hen the wilderness at the
base of the Blue Ridge, near Emmits-
burg, Frederick County.
There. after all sorts of struggles and
hardships, she founded st. Joseph's
Convent and the order of the Sisters of
Charity of st. Joseph, and this convent
in the United States.
In 1850 the order thus founded was
united with the order of Daughters or
Sisters of Charity of st. Vincent de
Paul, founded in France 200 years
earlier. At the present time the COM
bined order is one of the most power
full organizations on earth working for
the alienation of suffering mankind.
Reports t~estifylng to Mother Seton's
sanctity have been current ever since
her death. and these reports have
grown with the years until her tomb at
Emmitsburg is looked upon by many
Catholics as a holy shrine.
The late Archbishop James Roose-
welt Bayley, of Baltimore, previous
ly bishop of the Newark, N. j..
diocese, was Mother seton's nephew,
and is believed to have become a
Catholic through her intercession.
He was so impressed with her
sanctity that instead of being en-
tombed at his Heath in the cathedral
crypt, as have been all other arch
bishops of Baltimore, he left directions
that his body be taken to Emmitsburg
and laid to rest where it now lies-in
the same vault with that of Mother
Seton, at st. Joseph's.
Bishop Brute, of Vincennes, Ind, who
was for many years one of Mother Sc
toms friends, and who acquired the
title of "angel of the mountain while
president of Mount st. Mary's College,
was also impressed with the holiness
of Mother Seton, as was made evident
from certain memoranda left by him
at his death, and hundreds of Other
men and women eminent in and out OF
the church testify in regard to the