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Calling itself "the definitive biography of Elizabeth Seton,"  American Saint , by  New York Times  best-selling author Joan Barthel, was just released on March 4, 2014.  American Saint  is the first full-length biography of St. Elizabeth Seton to be written in nearly fifty years. Published by St. Martin's Press, the book includes a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet Maya Angelou and has garnered advance praise from well-known novelist Mary Higgins Clark. Drawing heavily from the saint's own collected writings,  American Saint  traces Elizabeth's life from her childhood as a wealthy Episcopalian to her death as an impoverished Catholic who founded the first order of American nuns and became the first American-born canonized saint. The book does not shy away from the darkness of Elizabeth's earlier years. Her mother died when Elizabeth was just three years old, and her father remarried one scant year later. Elizabeth's father and stepmother...

By Jean M. Heimann, Cross-posted at Catholic Fire Today is the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which recalls Mary's visit with her cousin Elizabeth. This event is also the second joyful mystery of the rosary -- the first being the Annunciation. Elizabeth had been barren all her life, but in the Annunciation, Mary learned that her kinswoman was miraculously expecting a child in her old age. Upon hearing this good news, Mary fervently desired to share in Elizabeth's joy and serve her during the last part of her pregnancy. So she went "with haste" to visit Elizabeth and remained with her for three months. Mary's first action after God had come to dwell in her was one of self-denying charity. She undertook a troublesome journey in order to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Thus, she proclaimed charity to be the virtue which above all Christ brought with Him from heaven. God made Mary's visit the occasion of a wonderful miracle. On her entranc...