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The Catholic Historical Review 87.3 (2001) 529-530



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Book Review

Elizabeth Bayley Seton:
Collected Writings


Elizabeth Bayley Seton: Collected Writings. Volume I: Correspondence and Journals, 1793-1808. Edited by Regina Bechtle, S.C., and Judith Metz, S.C. (Hyde Park: New City Press. 2000. Pp. xxx, 563.)

This collection of letters introduced the present reviewer to an Elizabeth Seton not met in the biographies. The letters are a window into her feelings and, above all, her faith, since letters in this volume come from the years before she became known as Mother Seton, the Foundress of the Sisters of Charity at Emmitsburg. These letters introduce us to Elizabeth Bayley Seton, the young woman of Episcopal faith in the early nineteenth century. For this reason the collection is not only important for an understanding of her organizational abilities, her broad and sensitive relationships, and her faith, but also for the same reasons, they may be valuable to social historians of the era.

These are the letters of a young bride, a young mother of five children, and the close friend of several women. It is a collection of the journal and letters of a young woman when her husband's business faced bankruptcy, a woman who nursed those whom she deeply loved and who faced their deaths with the peace and equanimity of the person of faith. Elizabeth Bayley Seton exhibited the readiness to do whatever she could for her terminally ill husband; she found comfort and support from his business colleagues, and, at the same time, was open to the Spirit within her. Finally these letters are those of one who valued her call to Catholicism more than friends and a peaceful, comfortable life.

The editors are to be congratulated for a valuable collection not only for the Sisters of Charity and all those who honor her as the first native-born saint of the United States, but also for all who wish to know more about how life was lived by the merchant class in the early years of our Republic. The Acknowledgements, Introduction, Biographical Note, and Genealogy are adequate preparation for reading for anyone not already familiar with the life of Elizabeth Seton. The scholar will appreciate the list of Abbreviations (archival designations); and the one who is unacquainted with the standards of modern editions of letters will find the contents less disturbing if he or she has taken the time to read the Editorial Procedures for Volume One. Throughout the text there are ample footnotes which are complete enough to satisfy the reader who only references a portion of the work. The index seems accurate when the word that [End Page 529] is indexed appears directly in the text; however, there is no indication of whether the item is found within the text or in a footnote. On the other hand, one might have a problem if one looks for a concept or theory. This reviewer checked "apostolic succession" and found the nearest reference to it on page 316 rather than 315 as given in the index; the idea is again referred to on page 369, but in neither place was there a clear definition. One would not expect it in the letters--Elizabeth Seton and her correspondents would have recognized the reference. But the definition is missed, especially since the editors were so careful to note other terms (or numbers of psalms) that would not be known by all interested readers.

So many aspects of life that we who live in the twenty-first century take for granted, at least in the so-called "developed" world, become realities when confronted with the opposite in the letters of a young, educated, and relatively affluent young woman in the early nineteenth century. After reading this volume, one is left with a greater understanding of the deep friendship of women with one another, sometimes referred to as a characteristic of women in the early nineteenth century. The frequency of serious illness and death, even among the young, seems to be written in bold...

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