The Approved Miracle of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton *

Abstract

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774–1821) was a convert to Roman Catholicism and foundress of the Sisters of Charity, the first sisterhood native to the United States. She is also the first person born in the United States to be canonized a saint. The second of three cures attributed to the intercession of Mother Seton was of Anne Theresa O'Neill. Anne was born at Baltimore in 1947 and, at the age of four, was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia at St. Agnes Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. At the time, acute leukemia, like other aggressive malignancies, was considered a fatal disease without any treatment that assured a cure. In essence, no effective therapy for disease control and sustained remission existed. Anne's cure, which was considered acceptable by the Sacred Congregation of Rights in 1959, would contribute directly toward Mother Seton's beatification and ultimate canonization on September 14, 1975, outside Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome by Pope Paul VI. Ms. O'Neill attended both the beatification as a thirteen-year-old girl and the canonization ceremony at age twenty-seven, as a mother of several children and accompanied by her mother and husband.