Customer Reviews

Elizabeth Bayley Seton: Collected Writings, Vol. 1

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This book is a first-rate collection of primary materials, compiled with scholarly rigor and with the utility of the volume always in mind. Yet it also is very accessible to the general reader. The result of the editors' labors is a meticulously annotated piece of work that, for the first time, seems to enable Seton's story (or, at least, the first part of it) to be told in her own voice. readers of this volume are in for several treats, as they accompany Seton on a journey both intensely spiritual and completely human. Here is a woman who experienced the happiness of marriage and maternity in the United States' era of "republican motherhood." She also suffered the loss of her husband, the agonies and joys of a difficult but absolute religious conversion, and the uncertainties associated with her rejection by many friends and relatives. Through all of these developments, we come to know someone of both strength and vulnerability: a woman of intelligence, passion, humor, and grace.

This book reveals the evolution of a soul from that of a very devout individual to that of a saint. Elizabeth Seton opens her life and soul to the most intensive scrutiny and reveals a metamorphasis to true sanctity. These letters, written with no intention for public evaluation, show how a woman in the early 19th century grows from a rich lady of society to a destitute widow in a foriegn land to a truly great American icon. Elizabeth Seton is a true human with fellings, hurts, dispair, disappointments, and severe trial we can all wish we never face, and she faces it with blind faith and trust. This is a must for anyone who feels they have been abandoned by God and has no where to turn.