Brother Edward Shields, FSC, speaks with an attendee at the 50th anniversary of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton’s canonization celebration in Emmitsburg, MD, at Brother James Miller Guild booth, Sept. 14, 2025.
By Chris Swain
Everyone loves a good hero’s story. Whether it be from sports, fiction or history, there is something about the deep meaning and timelessness that resonates with us.
Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton is one such story, one that is particularly American, and one that intertwines and resonates with another hero’s story I hold dear.
Thousands made the pilgrimage to Emmitsburg, Maryland, on the weekend of Sept. 13-14, to the Seton Shrine to be present for the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of her canonization — the canonization of the first U.S.-born saint. I was blessed to be among the crowds.
I learned more about Seton’s life and the advancement of her cause as they were both told through exhibits in the Shrine and extolled from the pulpit during homilies. She had a practical, resilient and service-oriented life. Her deep faith and continual seeking anchored her as a wife, widow and convert to Catholicism, through the founding of the Sisters of Charity and throughout her life.
Seton’s lived experience was one rich with meaning and purpose, while she faced many disruptions, challenges and obstacles. These she met and embraced with a particular spirit, pragmatism and resolve.
During the weekend anniversary celebrations, the Seton Shrine hosted a gathering and opportunity for about 20 guilds of U.S.-born individuals whose causes for canonization are under consideration to be shared and exhibit to attendees.
These stories of deep faith, heroic virtue and authentic self-giving each witness a particular kind of Gospel living and witness the beauty of how the faith has been lived out by those “on the way” among us as Americans.
It was humbling and inspiring to share the story of the other hero story I hold dear, Blessed James Miller, FSC.
There is a rich connection between Seton’s story and Miller’s — both are individuals who brought their full selves to the ministry of education, both moved to embrace a call beyond their existing comfort zone and geography, and both witnessed daily a faithfulness that demonstrated the life-giving dignity and concern for those they encountered.
Their stories differed plenty as well. Brother James responded to a call as a missionary to Central America. He left his native Wisconsin and his farm upbringing to offer education and a better life to the young people he taught in Nicaragua and Guatemala, particularly the indigenous Mayan youth.
His call sent him outward from the U.S. to serve young people in Guatemala, where eventually he was martyred. His life was one of sacrificial courage.
Seton’s and Miller’s lives tell the story of an American Catholicism with wide and deep roots in bringing to life the faith and church here and abroad. They tell the story of two individuals not defined by one dimension of their vocation, showing the powerful and multitude of ways that their “yes” transformed the communities they found themselves.
And they both offer an invitation to the unfinished work at hand — the continued building up of our church and world today.
A different kind of hero’s story.