The Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Museum

nvited to start a school in Baltimore, Maryland in 1808, Elizabeth Seton left New York, the city of her birth, with regret and sailed for Baltimore. There she opened a school on Paca Street and within a year took vows as a religious. Soon other young women joined her and thus was founded the Sisters of Charity, the first American congregation of women religious.

The small group moved to Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1809. Here Elizabeth Seton, now Mother Seton, opened St. Joseph Academy. The revenues from this school enabled the sisters to educate the poor country children.

In the valley in Emmitsburg, the spiritual daughters of Saint Elizabeth Seton increased in numbers. In 1814 she sent three sisters to an orphanage in Philadelphia. Later in 1817, three sisters went to her own New York to open an orphanage on Prince Street.