Today we make Lent Madness hist0ry. While Old Testament figures are considered saints in some traditions, we have never before had one participate in the Saintly Smackdown. That ends today as Sarah the Matriarch faces Elizabeth Ann Seton in a pairing that spans many, many generations.
Yesterday, in the Battle of the Consonants, Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky outspelled Nikolaus von Zinzendorf 69% to 31% to advance to the Saintly Sixteen where he'll face Martin Luther.
If you missed yesterday's Limerick Edition of Monday Madness, you can still redeem your entire week by watching it here. Tim and Scott share some limericks (both on air and in print) and, despite some amazing rhymes throughout yesterday's comment section, have officially decided NOT to turn Lent Madness into one giant penitential poetry slam.
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Elizabeth Ann Seton was born in New York City in 1774, two years before the United States declared independence from England. Her father was a very popular doctor, and her maternal grandfather was an Anglican priest. Seton’s parents set examples of service and charity that she would follow her whole life.
Seton had a lonely and difficult childhood, losing her biological mother to death and her stepmother to a family rift. In 1794 she married William Seton at a service performed by Bishop Samuel Provoost, the first Episcopal bishop of New York. She and her family were congregants of Trinity Church.
Three years into her marriage, her father in-law died; a few years later, her husband succumbed to tuberculosis, after having lost the bulk of the family’s wealth and social status. Seton found herself a young widow with five children and few resources. She eventually found solace in the Roman Catholic tradition, into which she was received in 1805.
Her world changed again in the next year when she met the Rev. Louis Dubourg, a Roman Catholic priest who wanted to start a Catholic seminary for women in the United States. This piqued Elizabeth’s interest and drive, and in 1809 Elizabeth founded the Sisters of Charity, the first community of nuns who were also citizens of the United States. She professed her vows and became “Mother Seton.”
Locating their community in Maryland, the sisters dedicated themselves to education, social services, and religious formation. In 1810 the community began
St. Joseph’s Free School, the first Roman Catholic school in America, and launched the Roman Catholic parochial school system in the United States. Mother Seton and her order also founded and operated orphanages in major cities along the East Coast.
Seton remained the Mother of the Sisters of Charity until her death from tuberculosis at age 46 on January 4, 1821. She was the first native-born citizen of the United States to become a saint. Her feast is commemorated on January 4.
Collect for Elizabeth Ann Seton
Holy God, you blessed Elizabeth Seton with your grace as wife, mother, educator and founder, that she might spend her life in service to your people: Help us, by her example, to express our love for you in love of others; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sarah
Sarah (formerly Sarai), daughter of Terah, wife of Abraham, first of the matriarchs in the Old Testament, is the mother of nations.
When Sarah was 90 years old, three strangers came to visit her tent. She and her husband and their household had been living in tents for the last twenty-five years, and she had seen and heard plenty. Abraham and his God were the mainstays of Sarah’s life; even her name had been changed as they journeyed toward a place of promise. She was Abraham’s half-sister and younger by about ten years. Abraham had pulled more than one rabbit out of his hat by diplomatically omitting the nuptial aspect of their association. He was also insistent that God had promised them a child—together. Sarah had heard some crazy things come out of Abraham’s mouth and had seen some crazy things standing at his side, but when she heard the three strangers tell Abraham that she—Sarah—would hold her very own baby in just a short while, she laughed out loud. She had been in the desert a long time, but she wasn’t all the way crazy.
Sarah laughed Isaac into the world and held the living proof of God’s promise in her own hands. If we are honest, we can imagine her making the totally opposite noise some years later when Abraham took the boy off into the badlands, clumsily trying to explain to her that God had asked him to do another impossible thing.
Some years after Abraham and Isaac returned from Moriah, Sarah died. In the first recorded commercial transaction in the Bible, Abraham bought a resting place for the woman who had moved everywhere with him and who had died while he was away on business. And in the first burial recorded in the Old Testament, Abraham lays the bones of Sarah down to rest overlooking the oaks of Mamre from where her daughter-in-law Rebekah would come. Sarah is remembered for her devotion, bravery, tenacity, and laughter.
Collect for Sarah
Ancient of Days, you have called nations into being which number more than the grains of sand on all the beaches in all the world. Thank you for Sarah, who journeyed through deserts toward a land of promise, entertained angels, laughed a promised child into the world, and mothered nations. Help us, like her, to remain faithful to your promises, no matter how unlikely the world may find them. We pray this in the name of your son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
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301 comments on “Elizabeth Ann Seton vs. Sarah”
This is another hard one. I've known many terrific Sisters of Charity, and I admire Seton. But Sarah? She went with her husband and wandered, and was faithful to God. And her laugh is one of the great biblical moments.
I voted for Elizabeth, because I feel like Sarah gets a lot of popularity and attention, being the mother of many nations. I also felt that Elizabeth's story was more interesting and more dutiful.
I really admire Mother Seaton and the work of her order to this day. That said I had to go with Sarai/Sarah. What a great symbol of all that women endure (even Mother Seaton) in the name of faith and family. And she laughed!
Tough choice, none the less because our oldest daughter is Sarah Elizabeth. Both are amazing women, and I hate to choose; but the very crazy story of Sarah and how she faced her extraordinary calling with laughter, and all the ambiguity laughter entails.
Sorry. I can't vote for Sarah after the way she treated Hagar........ It's Mother Seton for me!
Yes. There seems to be no laughter AFTER Isaac is born. She traded her courage for resentment and possessive attachment issues. (As feminist OT scholar Phyllis Tribble suggests, SHE should've been the one asked to sacrifice Isaac.) Can't know, of course, but one can imagine Abraham burying an very old, tired, and bitter woman.
There is a wonderful short story about Sarah, going off into the desert and plotting to undo Abraham's crazy plan to kill her beloved son. It is for that version of Sarah, who refused to let God and her husband take her child, that I vote today. I know that is probably counter to the spirit of Lent, but I am a rebel at heart. Tough choice this one!
I know that story. A year or so ago it was read by Jane Curtain on Selected Shorts which I listen to as a podcast, but is aired by many National Public Radio affiliated stations. If the podcast is still available or if you can track down the story to read, it is marvellous. Sadly, I can't recall the title, just the wonderful story of Sarah helping to do God's unstated will.
I must go with Elizabeth. My stepfather was recently cared for in a Sisters of Charity hospital and I truly felt the presence of God in every person's care of him. It was a rather amazing thing. I also know that the Sisters do an enormous amount of good work in our state, which has so many pockets of need.
Such a TOUGH choice for this round. But alas, while Sarah essentially mothered us all she is renowned throughout the world. Therefore my vote was for Elizabeth as the first saint from the US.
I as taught by the sisters of charity of mother seton in grammar school and in high school in nyc. So I had to vote for mother seton.
Mother Seton has been a personal hero of mine for decades, and I've never liked Sarah's treatment of Hagar and Ishmael. In fact, I wonder if when Abraham took Isaac into the wilderness, Sarah thought at all about how years before she had forced Abraham to send his other son and that son's mother into the wilderness to most likely die. Elizabeth Seton it is.
Without a doubt I had to vote for Mother Seton. The Sisters of Charity have done such great works in making education accessible to the masses. Also their work with the orphaned and the sick touch so many lives. The biggest reason, though, is that I am a product of that Elizabeth Ann Seton education. Went to an all-girl, catholic prep school and got the education of a lifetime. It launched me on a path of further education and gave me the needed skills to work my way through college and into my career all the while making the dearest friendships of my life. 45 years later, I am proud to still call these women my dearest friends. While I am happily an Episcopalian, Mother Seton and the Sisters of Charity gave my life a firm foundation upon which to grow. Elizabeth Ann Seton for the win!
This is going to be a tough battle, but I must vote for the first saint of the Church born in the U.S. What an advance for women she made. I vote for the Mother of the Sisters of Charity. Move ahead, Elizabeth!
Sarah's treatment of Hagar spoils her story for me.
As a fourth-generation Sarah, I had to vote for my namesake. I felt I had made the right choice when I read the biography.
Omitted in Sarah’s bio is her vicious treatment of Hagar and Ishmael. First she abused a pregnant woman, who was pregnant only because Hagar as a slave had no choice about sleeping with Abraham. What if Hagar did crow over Sarah? Does that justify Sarah mistreating her so badly that she had to run away? Then when Sarah did bear a son, she insisted Abraham get rid of Hagar and Ishmael. I think it’s safe to assume she was just fine with Abraham’s wussy decision to send the pair out into the wilderness with nothing but a little food and water. (And how nice for Ishmael to be suddenly rejected by his father.) On the other hand, Elizabeth Ann Seton stood up for her faith against social pressure, educated women, and cared for the poor. Mother Seton for me.
Indeed, it's sad that Sarah's witness goes sour like it does. Some biblical characters rise from the pits to great heights, others are up and down and up and down (like David?). Sarah seems to plummet downhill after flashes of faith. I wonder if it is unfairness (dare I say misogyny?) on the part of the writers that her short-lived laughter becomes bitter spite? Was she truly this fallen? Or was she robbed of her redemption?
It seems we could call many saints to task for their actions or inactions.
We could try to unravel Sara and Hagar through theological reflection though our minds will not likely want to accept how close we are in spirit to those sent away. And today, also, to the spirituality of Islam. We might think it is up to Them to open the door but more importantly, how can we, as Christians, open the door shut by Abraham.
Peaceful dreams friends.
"in 1809 Elizabeth founded the Sisters of Charity, the first community of nuns who were also citizens of the United States. "
I am glad to see that the writer specified "in the United States." Last week at our Wednesday morning Eucharist in the absence of any Anglican saint we celebrated the life Louise de Marillac, a French woman, who along with Vincent de Paul founded the Daughters of Charity in 1633. It was almost two centuries later when
Elizabeth Ann Seton, a recent convert to the Catholic Church, hoped to establish a community of Daughters of Charity. Unable to do so because of the political situation during the Napoleonic Wars, she founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph at Emmitsburg, Maryland on 31 July 1809.
Elizabeth sent to France to request the Rules of the Daughters of Charity. In 1810 the Rules by which she guided her community during her lifetime were brought to her. At the time of her death in 1821, the community numbered fifty Sisters. Eventually in 1850, the community at Emmitsburg affiliated with the Mother House of the Daughters of Charity in Paris and at that time adopted the blue habit and the white collar and cornette. The community in Emmitsburg thus became the first American province of the Daughters of Charity.
Sarah: Matriarch of three religions, whose descendants were as numerous as grains of sand on the earth. Abrahamic, sure. But Sarah did the heavy lifting. It has to be Sarah today.
If my math is correct, when Elizabeth created the convent, her oldest child would have been a teen . What happened to the five children or were they permissible in convents in those days? Curious mom.
My vote is for Sarah.
I wondered, too. She cared for all of them. Some became sisters. http://www.emmitsburg.net/setonshrine/
My mother's name was Sarah, but I had to go with Elizabeth Ann Seton. Not only have the Sisters of Charity done great work, but Seton Hall University is named for her and they made it into this year's other bracket mania (alas...they got smacked down early).
I mentioned this in an earlier comment. I'm rooting for Elizabeth in this bracket. My son is a proud alumnus.
Having lived in the shadow of Seton Hospital for many years, I had to vote for her; however, it is hard to ignore the "mother of all nations."
I'm Roman Catholic, but I had to go with Sarah -- simply based on what might be the funniest bio in Lent Madness history. Thank you, David Creech.
I always get stopped at, "and Sarah laughed." Go Sarah.
Reminds me of "Man plans, God laughs." Love that with Sarah it is switched around.
I was a young widow. I'm an Episcopalian who taught at St. Elizabeth Catholic School. I have a pretty clear choice here.
Finding out I was pregnant at 40 only brought forth stunned silence. (Turned out great, however.) But someone who had the resilience to laugh at being pregnant at 90, even though I don't approve of her treatment of Hagar, and even though I love Mother Seton, got my vote.
Seton's personal story of success and tragedy and death, is intertwined with a religious saga both personally and in the Episcopal Church in New York and its growing competition with emergent Roman Catholicism and other Protestant Denominations. Even as the Episcopal Church was developing it's own identity in the new American republic - catholic & protestant - we see clergy like (Anglocatholic) Henry Hobart with a strong influence on Seton. Her personal crisis in poverty as a widow with 5 children and the fact that Italian Catholics came to her financial rescue seem to have moved her to embrace Roman Catholicism which became our loss. So do I vote for her for the great good she did as a Roman Catholic, or against her because she defected to the "other side?"
Read more on her at http://www.emmitsburg.net/setonshrine/
So far nobody has commented on the parallel visual images of the "roman coin" profiles and hairdos. I see what you did there! When I saw Seton's, I said to myself "how like a roman coin" and then when I saw Sarah I laughed. I was glad to see that some are arguing the merits of Catholic school, as I imagine there are others who would say that Seton has a lot to answer for. Tough choice today!
How can I turn down a native American saint? But Sarah had a baby at 90, and that trumps everything. She laughed at the news, but Sarah is right up there with Eve in mythological importance ("mythos" being mouth, the source of our vital stories about ourselves). "I'm with her" today.
It's Sarah - in honor of my beautiful and fun-loving daughter, Sarah Rosalind.
Another tough choice! Even though I live Crosd the river from Maryland where Elizabeth Seton is a deal, I voted for Sarai/Sarah because of the gentle humor David screech used in portraying her. I will be happy with which ever of these Matriarchs wins this saintly smakdown.
Wow, this is close! As of my voting: Sarah 51% vs. Seton 49%. While I like the idea of laughing at God's prophecies, I find much of Genesis a little too close to mythology for my taste, so I'm going with Seton, who did such incredible work in religious orders for women. Interesting that she found more solace in the Roman Catholic "tradition" than in the Episcopal Church. Canterbury dropped the ball on that one.