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 SETHIANS

739

SETON

of their houses and in their fields, and retained also a few words of Spanish greeting as heirlooms of earlier missions. In 1764 P'ather Frezneda bravely ventured among the Sipibo and succeeded in bringing about a peace between the two tribes, as the result of which both the Sipibo and the Conibo accepted missionaries. The work grew and flourished. Four missions had been established and more priests were on the way, when, without warning or any later explanation, the three savage tribes in August, 1766, murdered all but one or two of the missionaries, slaughtered the Chris- tian converts, and thus in a few days wiped out the work of years. The Setebo missions were not re- newed, but on the establishment of Sarayacd (q. v.) by Father Girbal in 1791, numbers of the tribe were attracted to that settlement, where in due course they became civilized and christianized. See also Sipibo.

Raimondi, El Peru, II (Lima, 1876), book I, Hist, de la Geo- grafla del Peru; Herndon, Exploration of the Amazon (Washing- ton, 1854); Markham, Tribes in the Valley of the Amazon in Jour. Anthrop. Institute, XXIV (London, 189.5) ; Ordinaire, Les sauvages du Perou in Revue d'Ethnographie, VI (Paris, 1887), no. 4; Smyth and Lowe, Journey from Lima to Pard (London,

issG). James Mooney.

Sethians. See Gnosticism, subtitle The Syrian School.

Seton, Elizabeth Ann, foundress and first superior of the Sisters of Charity in the United States, b. in New York City, 28 Aug., 1774, of non-Catholic parents of high position; d. at Emmitsburg, Mary- land, 4 Jan., 1821. Her father, Dr. Richard Bayley (b. Connecticut and educated in England), was the first professor of anatomy at Columbia College and eminent for his work as health officer of the Port of New York. Her mother, Catherine Charlton, daughter of an Anglican minister of Staten Island, N. Y., died when Elizabeth was three years old, leav- ing two other young daughters. The father married again, and among the (ihildren of this second marriage was Guy Carlcton Bayley, whose convert son, James Roosevelt Bayley, became Archbishop of Baltimore. Elizabeth always showed groat affection for her step- mother, who was a tlevout Anglican, and for her step- brothers and sisters. Her education was chiefly con- ducted by her father, a brilliant man of great natural virtue, who trained her to self-restraint as well as in intellectual pursuits. She read industriously, her notebooks indicating a special interest in religious and historical subjects. She was very religious, wore a smaU crucifix around her neck, and took great delight in reading the Scriptures, especially the Psalms, a practice she retained until her death.

She was married on 25 Jan., 1794, in St. Paul's Church, New York, to William Magee Seton, of that city, by Bishop Prevoost. In her sister-in-law, Re- becca Seton, .she found the "friend of her soul", and ius they went about on missions of mercy they were called the ' ' Protestant Sisters of Charity ' '. Business troubles culminated on the death of her father-in-law in 1798. Elizabeth and her husband presided over the large orphaned family; she shared his financial anxieties, aiding him with her sound judgment. Dr. Bayley's death in 1801 was a great trial to his favourite child. In her anxiety for his salvation she had offered to God, during his fatal illness, the fife of her infant daughter Catherine. Catherine's life was spared, however; she died at the age of ninety, as Mother Catherine of the Sisters of Mercy, New York. In 1803 Mr. Seton's health required a sea voyage; he started with his wife and eldest daughter for Leg- horn, where the Filicchi Brothers, business friends of the Seton firm, resided. The other children, William, Richard, Rebecca, and Catherine, were left to the care of Rebecca Seton.

From a journal which Mrs. Seton kept during her travels we learn of her heroic effort to sustain the droop- ing spirits of her husband during the voyage, followed by a long detention in quarantine, and until his death

LuZMJhTH ^1 I

iTom a I'ortrait made m .Ni

York, 1796

at Pisa (27 Dec, 1803). She and her daughter re- mained for some time with the Filicchi families. While with the.se Catholic families and in the churches of Italy Mrs. Seton first began to see the beauty of the Cathohc Faith. Delayed by her daughter's ill- ness and then by her own, she sailed for home accom- panied by Antonio Filicchi, and reached New York on 3 June, 1804. Her sister-in-law, Rebecca, died in July. A time of great spiritual perplexity began for Mrs. Seton, whose prayer was, " If I am right Thy grace im- part still in the right to stay. If I am WTong Oh, teach my heart to find the better way." Mr. Hobart (after- wards an Anglican bishop), who had great influence over her, used every effort to di-ssuade her from joining the CathoUc Church, while Mr. FiUcchi presented the claims of the true religion and arranged a correspondence between Ehzabeth and Bishop Chev- erus. Through ^Ir Filicchi she also wrote to Bishop Carroll. EHzibcth meanwhile addid f a s ti n g to Ik r prayers for light The result w a>- that on Ash \\ ed nesday, 14 Man h, 1805, she was re- ceived into the Church by Fath(T Matthew O'Bru n in St. Peter's Church, Ban 1 1\ St., New "^ ork On 25 March she made her first Communion ^ith extraordinary fer- vour; even the faint shadow of this sacrament in the Protestant Church had had such an attraction for her that she used to hasten from one church to another to receive it twice each Sunday. She well understood the storm that her conversion would raise among her Protestant relatives and friends at the time she most needed their help. Little of her husband's fortune was left, but numerous relatives would have provided amply for her and her children had not this barrier been raised. She joined an English Catholic gentleman named White, who, with his wife, was opening a school for boys in the suburbs of New York, but the widely circulated report that this was a proselytizing scheme forced the school to clo.se.

A few faithful friends arranged for Mrs. Seton to open a boarding-house for some of the boys of a Protestant school taught by the curate of St. Mark's. In January, 1806, Cecilia Seton, Elizabeth's young sister-in-law, became very ill and begged to see the os- tracized convert; Mrs. Seton was sent for, and became a constant visitor. Cecilia told her that she desired to become a Catholic. When Cecilia's decision was kno■^v^^ threats were made to have Mrs. Seton expelled from the state by the Legislature. On her recovery Cecilia fled to Elizabeth for refuge and was received into the Church. She returned to her brother's family on his wife's death. Mrs. Seton's boarding-house for boys had to be given up. Her sons had been sent by the Filicchis to Georgetown College. She hoped to find a refuge in some convent in Canada, where her teaching would support her three daughters. Bi.shop Carroll did not approve, .so she relinquished this plan. Father Dubourg, S.S., from St. Mary's Seminary, Bal- timore, met her in New York, and suggested opening in Baltimore a school for girls. After a long delay and many privations, she and her daughters reached Balti- more on Corpus Christi, 1808. Her boys were brought