National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton
The shrine and basilica
Basic information
Location	339 South Seton Ave Emmitsburg, Maryland, United States
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
District	Archdiocese of Baltimore
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Minor Basilica
Website	www.setonshrine.org
Completed	1965

The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton is a U.S. religious site and educational center in Emmitsburg, Maryland, that pays tribute to the life and mission of Elizabeth Ann Seton (August 28, 1774 – January 4, 1821), the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. It is both a Minor Basilica and a National Shrine.

Born of a prominent Anglican family in New York City, Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was received into the Roman Catholic faith at Saint Peter's Church, Barclay Street in lower Manhattan, March 14, 1805. At the invitation of Rev. Louis William Dubourg, S.S., Mother Seton came to Maryland in 1808 and opened a school next to the chapel of St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. Samuel Sutherland Cooper, a wealthy convert and seminarian, purchased 269 acres of land for an establishment for the sisterhood near Emmitsburg in the countryside of Frederick County, Maryland. According to tradition, Elizabeth named the area Saint Joseph's Valley. In June 1809 Mother Seton established the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph.

The former Fleming farmhouse, informally known as the "Stone House", built in 1750 near Toms' Creek, served as the first headquarters for the community. The first winter proved difficult as the wind blew in icy drafts through the chinks of the building, and the occupants sometimes awoke to find a blanket of snow had drifted into the rooms during the night. In mid-October 1809, Archbishop John Carroll of Baltimore, who had come to administer Confirmation to the children determined that the building was unsuitable, and directed the erection of a new log structure now known as the "White House." In mid-February, 1810, Elizabeth and her companions moved into the recently completed Saint Joseph’s House (now "The White House".) There she established the first free U.S. Roman Catholic school for girls, which became the nucleus of the catholic parochial school system in the United States. After her death in early January 1821, Mother Seton was buried at a cemetery in Emmitsburg that she once dubbed "God's Little Acre."