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American Saint: The Life of Elizabeth Seton
In this riveting biography of Elizabeth Seton critically acclaimed author Joan Barthel tells the mesmerizing story of a woman whose life featured wealth and poverty, passion and sorrow, love and loss. Elizabeth was born into a prominent New York City family in 1774. Her father was the chief health officer for the Port of New York and she lived down the block from Alexander Hamilton. She danced at George Washington's sixty-fifth Birthday Ball wearing cream slippers, monogrammed. Catholicism was illegal in New York when she was born; Catholic priests seen in the city were arrested, sometimes hung. When Elizabeth and her wealthy husband Will sailed to Italy in a doomed attempt to cure his tuberculosis, she and her family were quarantined in a damp dungeon. And when Elizabeth later became a Catholic, she was so scorned that people talked of burning down her house. American Saint is the story of a brave woman who forged the way for the other women who followed and who made a name for herself in a world entirely ruled by men. Elizabeth resisted male clerical control of her religious order, as nuns are doing today, and the publication of her story could not be more timely. Maya Angelou has contributed the foreword.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published March 4, 2014
27 people are currently reading
1489 people want to read
About the author
Joan Barthel
15 books12 followersJoan Barthel is the award-winning author of five nonfiction books and a contributor to many national publications. Her cover story on Elizabeth Seton in the Times Magazine inspired her to bring the singular life of this first American-born saint into contemporary focus and ultimately led to her book American Saint.
With her first book, A Death in Canaan, Barthel uncovered the miscarriage of justice in the case of a Connecticut teenager accused of murdering his mother. Her work brought the case to the attention of celebrities such as Arthur Miller, William Styron, and Mike Nichols, who championed his cause. Barthel won the American Bar Association Gavel Award for A Death in Canaan, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was made into a CBS-TV film that was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Following A Death in Canaan, Barthel wrote A Death in California, the story of a Beverly Hills socialite caught in the thrall of the man who had murdered her fiancé, which was a Book-of-the-Month Club Featured Alternate and became a four-hour miniseries on ABC-TV. Her next book, Love or Honor, told the story of a New York City undercover cop who infiltrated the Greek mafia and fell in love with the capo’s daughter. After Love or Honor, Barthel collaborated with Rosemary Clooney to write the legendary vocalist’s critically acclaimed autobiography, Girl Singer. With her daughter, Anne Barthel, she has written a screenplay, The Truth About Home, based on a two-part article she wrote in New Choices magazine
Barthel was a staff writer at the weekly Life magazine, contributing editor at New Times, and instructor in feature writing at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her many magazine pieces include cover stories in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, and Notre Dame Magazine. She has written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review and articles and profiles on a wide range of people and issues: Ingrid Bergman, Bob Hope, New York governor Mario Cuomo, Sidney Poitier, Dan Rather, Nancy Reagan, Beverly Sills, Gloria Steinem, Oprah Winfrey; women and guns, medical ethics, the foster-care system, homeless families.
A graduate of the Writer’s Institute at Saint Louis University, Barthel holds an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, New York. Her other honors include the Outstanding Article Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Distinguished Service Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. She lives in St. Louis.
- from her website
With her first book, A Death in Canaan, Barthel uncovered the miscarriage of justice in the case of a Connecticut teenager accused of murdering his mother. Her work brought the case to the attention of celebrities such as Arthur Miller, William Styron, and Mike Nichols, who championed his cause. Barthel won the American Bar Association Gavel Award for A Death in Canaan, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was made into a CBS-TV film that was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Following A Death in Canaan, Barthel wrote A Death in California, the story of a Beverly Hills socialite caught in the thrall of the man who had murdered her fiancé, which was a Book-of-the-Month Club Featured Alternate and became a four-hour miniseries on ABC-TV. Her next book, Love or Honor, told the story of a New York City undercover cop who infiltrated the Greek mafia and fell in love with the capo’s daughter. After Love or Honor, Barthel collaborated with Rosemary Clooney to write the legendary vocalist’s critically acclaimed autobiography, Girl Singer. With her daughter, Anne Barthel, she has written a screenplay, The Truth About Home, based on a two-part article she wrote in New Choices magazine
Barthel was a staff writer at the weekly Life magazine, contributing editor at New Times, and instructor in feature writing at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her many magazine pieces include cover stories in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, and Notre Dame Magazine. She has written book reviews for The New York Times Book Review and articles and profiles on a wide range of people and issues: Ingrid Bergman, Bob Hope, New York governor Mario Cuomo, Sidney Poitier, Dan Rather, Nancy Reagan, Beverly Sills, Gloria Steinem, Oprah Winfrey; women and guns, medical ethics, the foster-care system, homeless families.
A graduate of the Writer’s Institute at Saint Louis University, Barthel holds an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, New York. Her other honors include the Outstanding Article Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Distinguished Service Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. She lives in St. Louis.
- from her website
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
August 21, 2014
I have quibbles with the structure and presentation, but Seton is a difficult subject to build a biography around so Barthel has my sympathies.
On the down side, the first part of the book is a sequential relation of Seton's life from childhood to the death of her husband in Italy, but the narrative is interrupted at irregular intervals with short episodes of her and her husband's three week in quarantine imprisonment while his consumption slowly worsened. The episodic glimpses suggest that the death of her husband was a watershed event in Seton's eventual canonization. It really isn't. Instead it seems that this was a singularly well documented period in Seton's life (given that she had nothing to do but write letters for three weeks), and one with a certain dramatic tension. As an event in Seton's life however, this process of slow build is an anticlimax. The effect of William's death on her life must have been immeasurable, and the process of her conversion to Catholicism appears to have started either at the moment of his death or very soon after, but from the moment of his death William quickly disappears from view as Barthel moves Seton quickly into the orbit of the Felicchi brothers whose spiritual guidance following her husband's death seems to have been formative is creating Seton's Catholic identity. Once the book moves into Seton's widowhood, and the narrative becomes strictly a chronology the structure improves, but the details feel more careful, and the gaps in the story widen. I am certain that this is a result of a change in Barthel's source material. Where Seton was an active letter writer and lively mind with a strong voice and opinions during her early life, her conversion and move to Emmitsburg, MD, cut her off from her social network and radically reduced her need to write letters. This shift from first person narrative to church records is the best way to describe the change of tone and purpose that occurs at the point of her conversion. The events are more formal, and the only intimate glimpses we get of Seton's life are in moments of extremity, which in her later life are mostly the deaths of her daughters and the failings of her sons.
There is also the strange repetition of several phrases at intervals throughout the book. The least justified of those that stand out is the Seton family motto, "Hazard Yet Forward", which is repeated at odd moments to explain why she made some choice, even though Seton's options were generally a Hobson's choice and she was only a Seton by marriage.
On the up side, Barthel does not obscure the human side of Seton, and as much as is possible she renders Seton as a full formed woman of remarkable intelligence and ability who set the template for American women religious into the present. Barthel straightforwardly describes Seton's potential faults as a religious figure, her stubbornness in the face of authority, her probable adulterous relationship with Antonio Felicchi, and her period of doubt after the terrible death of her beloved daughter, and reveals them as moments of growth that eventually matured into a fully formed spiritual wisdom full of humanity. Again, because of the structure of the book, that fully mature Seton is not revealed in the best light, but neither is it so obscured that you can't see the emergence of a Saint.
The final chapters are relatively messy, and are a half-hearted attempt to tie off loose ends. A neater closing and summary would have improved my opinion of this book considerably.
In conclusion, a pleasant read about a remarkable woman.
On the down side, the first part of the book is a sequential relation of Seton's life from childhood to the death of her husband in Italy, but the narrative is interrupted at irregular intervals with short episodes of her and her husband's three week in quarantine imprisonment while his consumption slowly worsened. The episodic glimpses suggest that the death of her husband was a watershed event in Seton's eventual canonization. It really isn't. Instead it seems that this was a singularly well documented period in Seton's life (given that she had nothing to do but write letters for three weeks), and one with a certain dramatic tension. As an event in Seton's life however, this process of slow build is an anticlimax. The effect of William's death on her life must have been immeasurable, and the process of her conversion to Catholicism appears to have started either at the moment of his death or very soon after, but from the moment of his death William quickly disappears from view as Barthel moves Seton quickly into the orbit of the Felicchi brothers whose spiritual guidance following her husband's death seems to have been formative is creating Seton's Catholic identity. Once the book moves into Seton's widowhood, and the narrative becomes strictly a chronology the structure improves, but the details feel more careful, and the gaps in the story widen. I am certain that this is a result of a change in Barthel's source material. Where Seton was an active letter writer and lively mind with a strong voice and opinions during her early life, her conversion and move to Emmitsburg, MD, cut her off from her social network and radically reduced her need to write letters. This shift from first person narrative to church records is the best way to describe the change of tone and purpose that occurs at the point of her conversion. The events are more formal, and the only intimate glimpses we get of Seton's life are in moments of extremity, which in her later life are mostly the deaths of her daughters and the failings of her sons.
There is also the strange repetition of several phrases at intervals throughout the book. The least justified of those that stand out is the Seton family motto, "Hazard Yet Forward", which is repeated at odd moments to explain why she made some choice, even though Seton's options were generally a Hobson's choice and she was only a Seton by marriage.
On the up side, Barthel does not obscure the human side of Seton, and as much as is possible she renders Seton as a full formed woman of remarkable intelligence and ability who set the template for American women religious into the present. Barthel straightforwardly describes Seton's potential faults as a religious figure, her stubbornness in the face of authority, her probable adulterous relationship with Antonio Felicchi, and her period of doubt after the terrible death of her beloved daughter, and reveals them as moments of growth that eventually matured into a fully formed spiritual wisdom full of humanity. Again, because of the structure of the book, that fully mature Seton is not revealed in the best light, but neither is it so obscured that you can't see the emergence of a Saint.
The final chapters are relatively messy, and are a half-hearted attempt to tie off loose ends. A neater closing and summary would have improved my opinion of this book considerably.
In conclusion, a pleasant read about a remarkable woman.
June 16, 2014
(This was originally published on my blog: http://elizabethannsalem.wordpress.co...)
Having been to Elizabeth Ann Seton’s shrine at Emmitsburg, Maryland, several times, I was very happy to review Joan Barthel’s recent biography (published March 4, 2014) of Seton, the first canonized American saint. Barthel handles Seton’s writings well, and gives a nice overview of Seton’s life and her founding of the (American) Sisters of Charity.
I did have several issues with the book, however, the first of which was its lack of depth. While Barthel does cover Seton’s major life events, she seems hesitant to tackle the more problematic facets of her life—her relationships with men, her often dramatic personality and mood changes, and her (in my opinion, as a fellow convert) very quick conversion to Catholicism. Barthel’s narrative also tends to weave back and forth through time at several points, where I would have preferred a more straightforward approach. Barthel also tends to “pad out” sections of the story that she doesn’t have as much Seton-specific information for with segues into, for example, the history of revolutionary New York City or biographical information on John Carroll. Admittedly, this may be my own personal bias as a historian, since I recognized much of Barthel’s source material, but I feel some of the secondary material could have been tied in more seamlessly.
My final quibble of the book is Barthel’s attempt to shoehorn Seton’s story into a presentist narrative regarding the Vatican’s present-day treatment of American nuns, treating Seton’s experiences as merely the first in a long line of clerical abuses toward American female religious orders. While as a feminist and a Catholic, I am highly sympathetic to this current issue in the Church, as a historian, I found something wanting in her characterization of Seton as a proto-feminist (reading Wollstonecraft does necessarily a feminist make).
I would recommend American Saint to anyone who is looking for a general presentation of Seton’s life and work. I am looking forward, however, to one day seeing a future book that takes a more critical and analytical stance toward Seton as a religious thinker and teacher.
Source: ARC from the publisher via NetGalley
Having been to Elizabeth Ann Seton’s shrine at Emmitsburg, Maryland, several times, I was very happy to review Joan Barthel’s recent biography (published March 4, 2014) of Seton, the first canonized American saint. Barthel handles Seton’s writings well, and gives a nice overview of Seton’s life and her founding of the (American) Sisters of Charity.
I did have several issues with the book, however, the first of which was its lack of depth. While Barthel does cover Seton’s major life events, she seems hesitant to tackle the more problematic facets of her life—her relationships with men, her often dramatic personality and mood changes, and her (in my opinion, as a fellow convert) very quick conversion to Catholicism. Barthel’s narrative also tends to weave back and forth through time at several points, where I would have preferred a more straightforward approach. Barthel also tends to “pad out” sections of the story that she doesn’t have as much Seton-specific information for with segues into, for example, the history of revolutionary New York City or biographical information on John Carroll. Admittedly, this may be my own personal bias as a historian, since I recognized much of Barthel’s source material, but I feel some of the secondary material could have been tied in more seamlessly.
My final quibble of the book is Barthel’s attempt to shoehorn Seton’s story into a presentist narrative regarding the Vatican’s present-day treatment of American nuns, treating Seton’s experiences as merely the first in a long line of clerical abuses toward American female religious orders. While as a feminist and a Catholic, I am highly sympathetic to this current issue in the Church, as a historian, I found something wanting in her characterization of Seton as a proto-feminist (reading Wollstonecraft does necessarily a feminist make).
I would recommend American Saint to anyone who is looking for a general presentation of Seton’s life and work. I am looking forward, however, to one day seeing a future book that takes a more critical and analytical stance toward Seton as a religious thinker and teacher.
Source: ARC from the publisher via NetGalley
August 30, 2016
This is really a great book! As an avid book reader I have to say this is one of the best biographical books that I have read in a long time. Hard to put down once starting to read because you want to know what is happening next in Elizabeths life. I find there are less and less non fiction books out there and this was a welcome read to me. I absolutely loved to go through life with her. The trials and tribulations and yet her work is still happening now.
April 3, 2014
This book has great potential but left me dissapointed. It starts off with an introduction by Maya Angelou which tips you off to the type of feminism laced throughout the book. Why does gay marriage and contraception have to be part of all feminist debate? Women reduce themselves when they make sex their argument.
The book is clouded by details and people, sometimes hard to keep track but once i got into the flow of main characters it was fine. I found the author liked to name drop. Mrs. Seaton went to some well attended parties. The author seemed to lose focus once Seaton began her order, there are actually very little details of her order and school life which is what she is famous for. It is interesting to me that she had her small children with her, while becoming a sister. It was also interesting to read about the anti-Catholicism climate in America.
The author is Catholic, which you are not sure of when reading.
I honestly didn't mind the book, I just don't agree with the modern day feminism and I wish the author was more proud of her Catholic faith to explain it properly.
Wouldn't it have been great had the introduction been from a Sister of Charity, rather then Ms. Angelou's small slam on the Catholic faith. After all Elizabeth Seaton was Catholic and quite excited about it.
The book is clouded by details and people, sometimes hard to keep track but once i got into the flow of main characters it was fine. I found the author liked to name drop. Mrs. Seaton went to some well attended parties. The author seemed to lose focus once Seaton began her order, there are actually very little details of her order and school life which is what she is famous for. It is interesting to me that she had her small children with her, while becoming a sister. It was also interesting to read about the anti-Catholicism climate in America.
The author is Catholic, which you are not sure of when reading.
I honestly didn't mind the book, I just don't agree with the modern day feminism and I wish the author was more proud of her Catholic faith to explain it properly.
Wouldn't it have been great had the introduction been from a Sister of Charity, rather then Ms. Angelou's small slam on the Catholic faith. After all Elizabeth Seaton was Catholic and quite excited about it.
May 22, 2014
I was really looking forward to reading this book, however, while I am not sorry to have read it, the author has disappointed me. The first half of the book is poorly organized and goes back and forth between different points in Elizabeth's life. While her connection to early American history is quite interesting the story reads very choppy and disjointed. The second half was better after Elizabeth arrives at Emmitsburg. The other thing that really bothered me about this book was its negative feminism quality especially noted in the Introduction and Epilogue of the book. Using a canonized Saint to push a political agenda is very unsavory and to suggest that a Saint had issues with the hierarchy of their church and therefore supports a cause that came about well after their death is terrible.
August 1, 2024
Disappointing. I could have done without Maya Angelou's and the author's revisionist history and editorial comments on the Catholic Church.
November 17, 2018
American Saint is the biography of Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first Catholic saint from the United States of America. It outlines her life, devotion to prayer, and good works as well as the road to her conversion to Catholicism. A good read about an amazing woman who preceded Mother Theresa.
February 23, 2014
This significant, personal biography was available to me through NetGalley for review purposes, and I was impressed and enthralled with it.Prior to this book I had only a vague idea of the details of the life of the first American saint and how meaningful was her life and the times in which it was lived.
I feel it is an important work, as it lays out the events of Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton's life, though her own diaries and personal correspondence of friends and family members for the judicious reader to reflect upon.Simon Brute, St. Elizabeth Seton's spiritual director in Emmitsburg MD who was with her at her death, told the other sisters "Save everything". This very fine biography illustrates why that was important.
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born a Protestant into an educated and affluent family. Her life experiences changed her and she changed American Catholicism completely. A Catholic myself, who had ancestors who worshipped in some of the same churches that Elizabeth Seton did, I was not aware how much bravery being a Catholic at that time demanded.
Elizabeth Ann Seton, in her lifetime, was a wife, mother, widow and became the definition of what a female religious was in America. Archbishop John Carroll was her friend and she danced at George Washington's birthday Commemoration Ball wearing monogrammed cream silk dancing slippers.
I feel it is an important work, as it lays out the events of Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton's life, though her own diaries and personal correspondence of friends and family members for the judicious reader to reflect upon.Simon Brute, St. Elizabeth Seton's spiritual director in Emmitsburg MD who was with her at her death, told the other sisters "Save everything". This very fine biography illustrates why that was important.
Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born a Protestant into an educated and affluent family. Her life experiences changed her and she changed American Catholicism completely. A Catholic myself, who had ancestors who worshipped in some of the same churches that Elizabeth Seton did, I was not aware how much bravery being a Catholic at that time demanded.
Elizabeth Ann Seton, in her lifetime, was a wife, mother, widow and became the definition of what a female religious was in America. Archbishop John Carroll was her friend and she danced at George Washington's birthday Commemoration Ball wearing monogrammed cream silk dancing slippers.
May 15, 2015
Oscar Wilde said "Every saint has a past and every sinner a future." This particular saint had quite a checkered past. She married young and had five children. Her family and herself included had a slave or slaves. She went from riches to rags, from Protestant faith to Catholicism and to a form of nunnery. She went speedily from wife to widow and to the loss of two children while at fairly young ages. While her character doesn't exude exceptional abilities she did allow for nuns to have an independent voice. I picked this book actually because of the late great Maya Angelou's forward. As I have stated elsewhere I am not a religious person, however, her faith is closer to spirituality than the dogma of "believe in god or else!" although in many respects it was pretty much that dogma she didn't beat other people over the head with this and didn't interfere with other peoples beliefs. She wasn't a radical saint. She didn't go out to spread the word in missionary fields nor set out to change anything major by her faith. She was quiet in her day to day activities. It was a good read, very much recommended.
January 29, 2014
American Saint: The Life of Elizabeth Seton...by Joan Barthel.. Elizabeth grew up giving God the glory for all of nature and everything she saw. She studied the scriptures as a young woman and also the Psalms. He backgound in Spiritual things was void. Her father never attended church or spoke of God. She had many children and was their teacher in subjects, and English and French. She started a school after her husband died. She became a Catholic. She loved to worship God in the beautiful ornate cathedrals . She also taught nuns and sisters . She was very profound in womens movements and charities. She was a leader. New nuns now wanted reform and renewal. With her help womens organizations were formed. Prayers were such an important of her day. She new love, loss grief and sorrow. She made such an impact that she was cannonized by the Catholic Church in 1975. I won this book from St Martin's Press.
March 4, 2014
I won a copy of this book in the Goodreads First Reads Program.
I had never heard of Elizabeth Seton before reading this book. I had no idea that she was the first American born saint. I think this biography did an excellent job capturing the struggles she went through when trying to decide what she believed and what faith was right for her. Once she made her decision, she was completely devoted to her faith despite the conflict that followed her choice.
The first few chapters were a little difficult to follow as they were trying to give background information to explain why it was so shocking for Elizabeth to become Catholic. The time frame went back and forth a lot, and there were a lot of names being thrown around. The book was easier to follow as it went on and focused on Elizabeth.
I had never heard of Elizabeth Seton before reading this book. I had no idea that she was the first American born saint. I think this biography did an excellent job capturing the struggles she went through when trying to decide what she believed and what faith was right for her. Once she made her decision, she was completely devoted to her faith despite the conflict that followed her choice.
The first few chapters were a little difficult to follow as they were trying to give background information to explain why it was so shocking for Elizabeth to become Catholic. The time frame went back and forth a lot, and there were a lot of names being thrown around. The book was easier to follow as it went on and focused on Elizabeth.
April 18, 2014
While learning more about Elizabeth Ann Seton was enjoyable, the author employed a disjointed methodology in telling her story. Many times, the authored jumped from one time period (or one continent) to another for one or two paragraphs, only to return to the previous period. It made it difficult, for me, to get into a rhythm while reading the book.
Additionally, there were plenty of not-so-subtle jabs at the male hierarchy of the Church. For example, when writing about Elizabeth's final resting place (New York or Emmitsburg), the author wrote: "As in Elizabeth's lifetime, men decided where a woman belonged." Elizabeth's larger than life story deserves a better treatment than the political, snide commentary offered by the author. It just came across as the author having an axe to grind.
Additionally, there were plenty of not-so-subtle jabs at the male hierarchy of the Church. For example, when writing about Elizabeth's final resting place (New York or Emmitsburg), the author wrote: "As in Elizabeth's lifetime, men decided where a woman belonged." Elizabeth's larger than life story deserves a better treatment than the political, snide commentary offered by the author. It just came across as the author having an axe to grind.
February 1, 2014
I'm not a religious person but I find it to be an interesting topic. I'd heard the name Seton before, as it survives in some of our present day institutions, but I didn't know anything about the family. As a history lesson alone, this was an interesting book. As a biography, it was a really good read about a fascinating woman I'd never heard of before. The only issue I had was the lack of punctuation in some of the letters made the read awkward but as they were direct quotes, I could understand.
This review is based on an advance copy received from the publisher.
This review is based on an advance copy received from the publisher.
September 5, 2025
The beginning of the book confused me with its telling of Will Seton’s dying in Italy and then jumping back to earlier periods. I put it away and then took it up again later and was so glad I did. I was really touched by Elizabeth Seton’s life—all the hardships of sickness and death of those close to her—the financial difficulties—the controversies with priests, etc. The book ends with many photographs of people and places in her life. I wish I had clicked on the footnotes as I read. This is why I prefer hard copies of books—easier to go back and forth.
This has been my year for reading about Catholicism mostly 20th century with Joan Chittester’s biography and James Caroll’s Why I am a Catholic. This book goes back to the beginning of Catholicism in the USA and tells of early prejudices. Elizabeth Seton’s conversion from Episcopalian to Catholicism was not accepted well by relatives and friends. She was taken with the real presence in the sacrament and with the importance of Mary—as she was a mother too.
This has been my year for reading about Catholicism mostly 20th century with Joan Chittester’s biography and James Caroll’s Why I am a Catholic. This book goes back to the beginning of Catholicism in the USA and tells of early prejudices. Elizabeth Seton’s conversion from Episcopalian to Catholicism was not accepted well by relatives and friends. She was taken with the real presence in the sacrament and with the importance of Mary—as she was a mother too.
February 17, 2025
Just what it says: the life of Elizabeth Seton. As an alum of a college run by the Sisters of Charity, it seemed an appropriate read and I'd picked it up some time ago when it was on sale.
It begins on a ship to Italy with her ailing -- in fact, dying -- husband and some of her children. On arrival, they're quarantined but she makes the acquaintance of prominent Italians and begins to learn of the Catholic faith from them. There are a lot of her letters -- and letters to her -- included and some flashbacks to her life before her conversion. An epilogue gives an overview of how she was declared a saint.
It begins on a ship to Italy with her ailing -- in fact, dying -- husband and some of her children. On arrival, they're quarantined but she makes the acquaintance of prominent Italians and begins to learn of the Catholic faith from them. There are a lot of her letters -- and letters to her -- included and some flashbacks to her life before her conversion. An epilogue gives an overview of how she was declared a saint.
August 25, 2025
Amazing Woman
I learned much from this book about the amazing woman who became the first American born saint. While a mother of young children, she converted to Catholicism to the horror of her family and founded a religious order. Yet the book itself could be better organized and edited.
I learned much from this book about the amazing woman who became the first American born saint. While a mother of young children, she converted to Catholicism to the horror of her family and founded a religious order. Yet the book itself could be better organized and edited.
July 23, 2020
This was very interesting read about the start of Catholicism in the United States and a woman who was a huge part of it. It overlaps the American Revolution so I enjoyed these glimpses into life in the 18th century.
June 26, 2023
Useful information about the life of a saint. It is hard to follow in some parts of the book. For the author, the life of Elizabeth is sorrounded of male clerical control and is constantly falling in political correction.
September 15, 2023
This book is about a person I didn’t know a thing about. I’m glad I read it. It gave insight into life in New York City and it’s religious background. The book read more like a novel. Well researched.
October 12, 2024
I'm not sure on the rating to give it. I wanted to like it more than I did. It jumped around alot and the author seems to have a bias I towards womens rights (with a non Catholic leaning stance). I did appreciate the history though ti understand the time period in which she lived.
March 16, 2020
3.5 stars
July 9, 2021
I enjoyed learning more about the saint I selected for my confirmation as a Catholic. I felt a connection to her.
April 9, 2022
Wonderful, well written book. I learned so much!
January 6, 2015
Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first native-born American citizen to be canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Seton Hall University bears her name, having been founded by a nephew of hers, Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley of the Archdiocese of Newark.
Despite some structural problems, I found this a fascinating biography of this passionate, able, assertive, and devoted woman who within four years of her conversion to Roman Catholicism founded and served as the first leader of a women's religious community.
First the structural problems. The first part of the book moves back and forth between the Setons last ditch attempt to save Will's life through a trip to Italy, and the early years of Elizabeth Seton's life leading up to this death. While illustrating her religious devotion and growing appreciation of Catholicism as explained by her Italian hosts (a business partner of Will's). It ends up to me being a protracted death narrative. I would have favored covering this chronologically rather than the back and forth approach taken. The remainder of the book is chronological.
Aside from this, the biography gives us a good narrative of the formation of this saint--born into a well-to-do New York family, bereft of her mother at age three, daughter of a father who was a distinguished physician who died caring for patients in a yellow fever epidemic, married into a wealthy import-export merchant's family whose fortunes decline after Will's father dies. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's devotion continues to grow under the Episcopal rector John Henry Hobart's direction. It is Hobart's sermons that Elizabeth reads for solace as she desperately tries to care for Will in Italy as he is dying of tuberculosis.
Following Will's death, she returns to the US and is received into St Peters Roman Catholic Church in New York in March of 1805 and confirmed by the first American Bishop, John Carroll in 1806. As an impoverished widow she struggles to survive and feed her children until invited to open a Catholic school for girls in Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1809. In July of that year, she forms the first American community of women religious dedicated to caring for the poor and the education of Catholic girls.
In the forming of this religious community what stands out is both what an able leader Seton is and her struggle with men in the Catholic hierarchy. I do think the author is making a point about the tensions between the male hierarchy and women religious in the US Catholic church, that these go back to the beginnings of the church in this country. The author also traces the deep relationships between Seton and other women and the spiritual friendships that she developed.
Barthel portrays the deep spirituality of this woman as she faces the loss of husband and later, two daughters (two of the three to tuberculosis, from which she also ultimately dies). Her devotion is not a highly theological one but rather one centered around the Eucharist and the scriptures and a life of prayer. In this she perhaps serves as a model for most Christians who do not have advanced theological training but can live devoted and significant lives, nonetheless.
Last of all, I've been struck with what a scourge tuberculosis was until the advent of antibiotics. "Consumption" turns up in so many stories of this period, whether it is a Tolstoy novel or a saints biography or in operas like La Boheme. It is a blessing that this is treatable, while a concern that recent recurrences have resulted in drug-resistant forms of the disease.
The book concludes with an epilogue discussing Elizabeth Ann Seton's canonization and the process involved including the "vetting" of miracles and the use of a "devil's advocate". She became a saint in 1975 and her feast day is January 4.
[This review is based on a complimentary e-galley version of this book provided by the publisher through Netgalley. I have not been in any other way compensated for the review of this book.]
Despite some structural problems, I found this a fascinating biography of this passionate, able, assertive, and devoted woman who within four years of her conversion to Roman Catholicism founded and served as the first leader of a women's religious community.
First the structural problems. The first part of the book moves back and forth between the Setons last ditch attempt to save Will's life through a trip to Italy, and the early years of Elizabeth Seton's life leading up to this death. While illustrating her religious devotion and growing appreciation of Catholicism as explained by her Italian hosts (a business partner of Will's). It ends up to me being a protracted death narrative. I would have favored covering this chronologically rather than the back and forth approach taken. The remainder of the book is chronological.
Aside from this, the biography gives us a good narrative of the formation of this saint--born into a well-to-do New York family, bereft of her mother at age three, daughter of a father who was a distinguished physician who died caring for patients in a yellow fever epidemic, married into a wealthy import-export merchant's family whose fortunes decline after Will's father dies. Meanwhile, Elizabeth's devotion continues to grow under the Episcopal rector John Henry Hobart's direction. It is Hobart's sermons that Elizabeth reads for solace as she desperately tries to care for Will in Italy as he is dying of tuberculosis.
Following Will's death, she returns to the US and is received into St Peters Roman Catholic Church in New York in March of 1805 and confirmed by the first American Bishop, John Carroll in 1806. As an impoverished widow she struggles to survive and feed her children until invited to open a Catholic school for girls in Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1809. In July of that year, she forms the first American community of women religious dedicated to caring for the poor and the education of Catholic girls.
In the forming of this religious community what stands out is both what an able leader Seton is and her struggle with men in the Catholic hierarchy. I do think the author is making a point about the tensions between the male hierarchy and women religious in the US Catholic church, that these go back to the beginnings of the church in this country. The author also traces the deep relationships between Seton and other women and the spiritual friendships that she developed.
Barthel portrays the deep spirituality of this woman as she faces the loss of husband and later, two daughters (two of the three to tuberculosis, from which she also ultimately dies). Her devotion is not a highly theological one but rather one centered around the Eucharist and the scriptures and a life of prayer. In this she perhaps serves as a model for most Christians who do not have advanced theological training but can live devoted and significant lives, nonetheless.
Last of all, I've been struck with what a scourge tuberculosis was until the advent of antibiotics. "Consumption" turns up in so many stories of this period, whether it is a Tolstoy novel or a saints biography or in operas like La Boheme. It is a blessing that this is treatable, while a concern that recent recurrences have resulted in drug-resistant forms of the disease.
The book concludes with an epilogue discussing Elizabeth Ann Seton's canonization and the process involved including the "vetting" of miracles and the use of a "devil's advocate". She became a saint in 1975 and her feast day is January 4.
[This review is based on a complimentary e-galley version of this book provided by the publisher through Netgalley. I have not been in any other way compensated for the review of this book.]
January 3, 2015
I was given access through NetGalley to American Saint: The Life of Elizabeth Seton written by Joan Barthel. Seton's story is pretty amazing, but this book is not. Barthel's style is unimpressive, and the presentation of the story is sometimes confusing. The ending is especially lackluster and distanced. The book starts narrative, jumping through time, but fizzles out to an information dump with Seton's death presented in a series of daily reports. Bathel's research is extensive and I feel I know the facts of her life, and a good amount about her social setting. But I would like to better understand Seton's inner faith life and how it sustained her through the many tragedies she endured during her brief 46 years.
Elizabeth Bayley Seton was born in New York City in 1744 to a well off Episcopalian family. Her father Richard Bayley was an innovative physician who specialized in the treatment yellow fever and who lectured in anatomy at Columbia College. He was so well thought of that even though he was a British loyalist he was allowed to remain in New York City after the British occupation of the city ended. Her mother Catherine was from the prominent Charlton family; her father was an Episcopalian minister. Catherine died in childbirth when Elizabeth was three. After the required year of mourning her father married the 18-year-old Charlotte Barclay, a member of the Roosevelt family. Charlotte was active in charity and Elizabeth accompanied her on her visitations to the poor. It was not a happy union and after five children the marriage ended. Richard went to study in London. Elizabeth went to live with her uncle Bayley.
Having lost two mothers, and abandoned by her father, Elizabeth turned to journaling, music, nature, poetry and religious contemplation for solace.
At age 19 she met the love of her life, William Seton. He was the son of a successful importer. Their marriage was joyful, and she loved her father-in-law. The couple had five children together. Then William's father died. He was the real genius behind the business. The War of 1812 brought an embargo on shipping and the business failed. Plus, William had tuberculosis.
The Italian partner of the importing business offered to host William and Elizabeth in hopes that the climate would improve his illness. But upon arriving in Italy the authorities sent William to a virtual prison for thirty days out of fear he had yellow fever. William died there.
Elizabeth stayed with the business partner, visiting Roman Catholic churches and learning about the Catholic faith. Upon returning to America she pursued her interest in Catholicism, to the dismay of her friends and family.
Roman Catholicism had been illegal in America until a few years before Elizabeth's return. Protestantism prided itself on allowing believers to read and interpret the Bible for themselves, whereas in Catholicism the priest instructed believers on what to believe. The belief in the host actually becoming the body and blood of Jesus Christ was seen as superstition and the veneration of the Virgin Mary was also rejected. But Elizabeth was attracted to the beauty of the churches and worship.
Elizabeth was a mother. She had been involved in starting a charity group that raised money at a time when women didn't do business. She was friends with early feminists. She was educated, sophisticated, and worldly. She was also without an income, relying on the financial help of relatives and friends. And she desperately needed the comfort of her faith.
She did convert to Roman Catholicism. In 1808 she became a Sister of Charity, taking yearly renewed vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and was sent to start a school for girls in Maryland. The hardships the Sisters suffered, the many deaths from tuberculosis, the difficulty of accepting obedience to the priest in charge did not divert Seton from her chosen faith. Seton died of tuberculosis at age 41. She was canonized in 1975.
Elizabeth Bayley Seton was born in New York City in 1744 to a well off Episcopalian family. Her father Richard Bayley was an innovative physician who specialized in the treatment yellow fever and who lectured in anatomy at Columbia College. He was so well thought of that even though he was a British loyalist he was allowed to remain in New York City after the British occupation of the city ended. Her mother Catherine was from the prominent Charlton family; her father was an Episcopalian minister. Catherine died in childbirth when Elizabeth was three. After the required year of mourning her father married the 18-year-old Charlotte Barclay, a member of the Roosevelt family. Charlotte was active in charity and Elizabeth accompanied her on her visitations to the poor. It was not a happy union and after five children the marriage ended. Richard went to study in London. Elizabeth went to live with her uncle Bayley.
Having lost two mothers, and abandoned by her father, Elizabeth turned to journaling, music, nature, poetry and religious contemplation for solace.
At age 19 she met the love of her life, William Seton. He was the son of a successful importer. Their marriage was joyful, and she loved her father-in-law. The couple had five children together. Then William's father died. He was the real genius behind the business. The War of 1812 brought an embargo on shipping and the business failed. Plus, William had tuberculosis.
The Italian partner of the importing business offered to host William and Elizabeth in hopes that the climate would improve his illness. But upon arriving in Italy the authorities sent William to a virtual prison for thirty days out of fear he had yellow fever. William died there.
Elizabeth stayed with the business partner, visiting Roman Catholic churches and learning about the Catholic faith. Upon returning to America she pursued her interest in Catholicism, to the dismay of her friends and family.
Roman Catholicism had been illegal in America until a few years before Elizabeth's return. Protestantism prided itself on allowing believers to read and interpret the Bible for themselves, whereas in Catholicism the priest instructed believers on what to believe. The belief in the host actually becoming the body and blood of Jesus Christ was seen as superstition and the veneration of the Virgin Mary was also rejected. But Elizabeth was attracted to the beauty of the churches and worship.
Elizabeth was a mother. She had been involved in starting a charity group that raised money at a time when women didn't do business. She was friends with early feminists. She was educated, sophisticated, and worldly. She was also without an income, relying on the financial help of relatives and friends. And she desperately needed the comfort of her faith.
She did convert to Roman Catholicism. In 1808 she became a Sister of Charity, taking yearly renewed vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and was sent to start a school for girls in Maryland. The hardships the Sisters suffered, the many deaths from tuberculosis, the difficulty of accepting obedience to the priest in charge did not divert Seton from her chosen faith. Seton died of tuberculosis at age 41. She was canonized in 1975.
September 3, 2014
This book about the life of Elizabeth Seton, who went on to become the first person born from the U.S. to be canonized a Saint. The first part of this book is like a whose, whose in our founding as a nation. Though her father was went back to England during the war. When he came back he was not treated like some other people who had followed with the King because he was a Doctor and they were hard to come by in any town. Her mother died during child birth to her younger sister and her father remarried into the Roosevelt family, but her step mother did not take a liking to her or her new sister. Raised in a Protestant home she was taught to read the bible but more than that her father believed that young women should now certain languages, music, math etc. very which was very progressive for that time. By her late teens early twenties she was going to dances and parties with the Hamilton’s and other people that helped shape our country. During one of these gatherings she meet a young man named William Seton and they were married some time later. They would eventually have five children. William Seton along with his father and brother owned a shipping business that would eventually go out of business. Her husband being so sick was told to travel to Italy. Just the two of them went to Pisa, Italy and were put into quarantine. William would die two days later and a women from the town came to help her to bury her husband. Then she started to spend days together and she started going to church with her. What was amazing to her was that at every mass the Eucharist was celebrated, her church only celebrated the Eucharist was only on special days. The more she stayed and went to church the more she was enjoying the celebrating of mass. When she came back to America she converted to catholic, and some members of her family stop talking to from that time forward. Her sister in law, a daughter and some other friends converted. By 1809 she needed to leave New York and went to Baltimore where a Bishop there help her get started with property and they started a school for needed children and widow mothers. Later this would become the sisters of charity, the first American congregation of religious sisters. They would later go on to open more schools and orphanages always looking out for the needs of children. One of her daughters would go on to become a sister and later a grandson would become a Priest. This was a very well written book with a lot of information, and the author made the story very interesting. A very good book. I got this book from net galley.
March 13, 2014
Elizabeth Seton led a very full life. As part of an influential family, she interacted with many of the founding fathers and other important political figures. A brave voyage to Italy in search of a cure for her husband led to her conversion to Catholicism, despite the social stigma associated with being a Catholic. Both before and after her conversion, she helped lead charitable institutions devoted to helping women and as a Catholic, she fought for women’s rights within the church.
I loved the way the author started this book with an immediate connection to modern day women’s rights issues within the Catholic Church. I also enjoyed her storytelling. There were very vivid place descriptions, which I appreciated both for their beauty and their likely factual basis. I suspect determining the way a place looked in the past is much easier than verifying how people were feeling. That makes vivid descriptions a nice way to spice up narrative non-fiction without taking liberties with the facts. The author did a great job including direct quotes to cover the more personal aspects of the story, which also made the story seem more reliable and more vividly real.
Unfortunately, as the story progressed, the author began commenting on the direct quotes she shared. These comments often included the author’s interpretation of Elizabeth’s religious views and became annoyingly preachy. This interrupted the story, as did the author’s choice to skip around in time. Personally, I always prefer a story be told in chronological order, with no more than two timelines running at once. This book broke from that format in sometimes confusing ways. The strangely abrupt chapter endings didn’t help either. Despite the problems with the construction of the story, I thought this was pretty well done narrative non-fiction. The book seemed well written and well researched. Someone who was more interested in the details of Elizabeth Seton’s religious views and didn’t mind a bit of preaching might be able to enjoy this much more than I did. The book does also give a small but interesting glimpse of the modern Catholic Church, which could be of broader interest.
This review first published on Doing Dewey.
I loved the way the author started this book with an immediate connection to modern day women’s rights issues within the Catholic Church. I also enjoyed her storytelling. There were very vivid place descriptions, which I appreciated both for their beauty and their likely factual basis. I suspect determining the way a place looked in the past is much easier than verifying how people were feeling. That makes vivid descriptions a nice way to spice up narrative non-fiction without taking liberties with the facts. The author did a great job including direct quotes to cover the more personal aspects of the story, which also made the story seem more reliable and more vividly real.
Unfortunately, as the story progressed, the author began commenting on the direct quotes she shared. These comments often included the author’s interpretation of Elizabeth’s religious views and became annoyingly preachy. This interrupted the story, as did the author’s choice to skip around in time. Personally, I always prefer a story be told in chronological order, with no more than two timelines running at once. This book broke from that format in sometimes confusing ways. The strangely abrupt chapter endings didn’t help either. Despite the problems with the construction of the story, I thought this was pretty well done narrative non-fiction. The book seemed well written and well researched. Someone who was more interested in the details of Elizabeth Seton’s religious views and didn’t mind a bit of preaching might be able to enjoy this much more than I did. The book does also give a small but interesting glimpse of the modern Catholic Church, which could be of broader interest.
This review first published on Doing Dewey.
February 17, 2014
I was fortunate to get an advance copy of this book from the publishers through Netgalley. As a Catholic, I've always have had a special interest in Saints. As a Catholic woman, I've read about the lives of many women Saints. I had never read a complete biography of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. This seems especially odd since I took her name as my confirmation patron. All that I knew about her was her starting the Catholic school system in America. This book really opened my eyes to the hardness of her life and her deep spirituality that developed.
The first 1/3 of the book detailed her upbringing and the early part of her marriage. I didn't realize how close her family was to the American Founding Fathers. I wish this book had a family tree listed. It got confusing to me when a mother would die and family members would raise the children. I wasn't always sure who went with who.
The next part of the book was her conversion. She was rejected by family members when she became Catholic. Her raising her children, by herself, was full of hardship and poverty. It was ironic that she began a charity, as a young married woman, for widows and their children. She was in need of help now.
She ended up in Maryland and started her order of sisters that taught school. This was the first order of sisters to begin in the United States.
The author of this book had an interesting narrative style. She occasionally added accounts of her opinion of the American Catholic Church into the book. But these accounts followed St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's own struggle with the vows she and her sisters took of "poverty, chastity, and obedience." Her struggle was to obeying some requests of the patriarchal church.
I would recommend this book to those people who enjoy reading history and biographies.
The first 1/3 of the book detailed her upbringing and the early part of her marriage. I didn't realize how close her family was to the American Founding Fathers. I wish this book had a family tree listed. It got confusing to me when a mother would die and family members would raise the children. I wasn't always sure who went with who.
The next part of the book was her conversion. She was rejected by family members when she became Catholic. Her raising her children, by herself, was full of hardship and poverty. It was ironic that she began a charity, as a young married woman, for widows and their children. She was in need of help now.
She ended up in Maryland and started her order of sisters that taught school. This was the first order of sisters to begin in the United States.
The author of this book had an interesting narrative style. She occasionally added accounts of her opinion of the American Catholic Church into the book. But these accounts followed St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's own struggle with the vows she and her sisters took of "poverty, chastity, and obedience." Her struggle was to obeying some requests of the patriarchal church.
I would recommend this book to those people who enjoy reading history and biographies.
March 21, 2014
Elizabeth Ann Seton was a wife and mother, later a widow, immersed in family life and responsibilities and deeply religious. Born in 1774 in America she was a devout Protestant for her first 31 years, but then converted to Catholicism, and went on to establish the first Catholic school in the nation, at Emmitsburg, Maryland, and the first religious community of nuns founded by and for Americans, the Sisters of Charity. On Sunday September 14th 1975 she was canonized, the first American-born saint in the Catholic Church. A remarkable woman by anyone’s standards, this detailed and well-researched biography is both accessible and informative. I’d never heard of Elizabeth Seton before and was intrigued to find out about her. At times it reads almost like a novel, which helps bring the real woman to life, although Joan Barthel is perhaps a bit too respectful towards Seton’s faults. Devout she may have been, but she certainly didn’t put her spiritual yearnings and aspirations second to her children’s well-being. The account of the canonization process itself adds further interest to the book, although the foreword by Maya Angelou seems out of place and Barthel’s own introduction where she fulminates against Pop Benedict XVI’s “crackdown” on American nuns adds a jarring note. Nevertheless this is an enjoyable and readable account of a pivotal figure in American Catholicism and I very much enjoyed it.
August 13, 2014
Elizabeth Seton was the first native-born American to be declared a saint. Born into a life of comfort and privilege in the 18th century, circumstances beyond her control forced her into near poverty. She was at the mercy of kind relatives, many of whom turned away from her when she converted to Catholicism. Elizabeth went on to found the first order of American nuns. Her charitable and religious works are remarkable because of the constant resistance and dissent to the male clergy that she had to face. The biographical details of her life are interspersed throughout the book with interesting bits of Catholic history in America. I did have a difficult time keeping track of all the individuals in the book, though: too many names and relations I kept getting mixed up.
With a foreword by Maya Angelou, and an introduction that speaks pointedly about the situation currently facing the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, some may dislike what they see as a feminist slant to the book. Whether you like the word "feminist" or not, Elizabeth challenged male authority and overcame obstacles that were nearly impossible for most women of her time to attempt. She deserves her place alongside other sainted women in Catholic history.
With a foreword by Maya Angelou, and an introduction that speaks pointedly about the situation currently facing the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, some may dislike what they see as a feminist slant to the book. Whether you like the word "feminist" or not, Elizabeth challenged male authority and overcame obstacles that were nearly impossible for most women of her time to attempt. She deserves her place alongside other sainted women in Catholic history.
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