God's Blessed Time
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CHAPTER 7 hg GOD’S BLESSED TIME The zeal which impressed her new Catholic friends was to cause a serious break in Mrs. Seton’s relations with her older non-Catholic connections in the summer of 1806. It has been said that Elizabeth Seton was very fortunate in the number of men of exceptional virtue who crossed her path. If in proportionate degrees these men benefited from her friendship, how much more impressive is the evidence of Mrs. Seton’s influence on women. Her encouragement to Rebecca Seton has already been noted. After her conversion, Mrs. Seton had an even greater influence on Cecilia Seton, Rebecca’s youngest sister and Elizabeth’s sister-in-law. Cecilia, together with her sister Harriet, and her cousin, Eliza Farquhar, had been tremendously aroused by the fervor of Elizabeth’s formal inquiry on the Catholic faith. While Harriet, and “Zide’s”a first enthusiasm cooled under parental frowns, Cecilia’s only grew stronger. The girl became obstinate at James Seton’s house where she lived, and many notes passed between her and the “sis” she adored. Elizabeth advised patience and told Cecilia to let the Lord be her first confidant in regard to the “secret” they shared. She must yield to those who had authority over her. “Of course you are a prisoner,” she wrote, “but it is a Prisoner of the Lord.”1 As the girl’s yearning to become a Catholic increased, her health grew worse. When Elizabeth began to fear that Cecilia might die outside the Church, she wrote to Father Cheverus in Boston, asking his advice. The solace Cheverus wrote in reply2 allayed her fears but did not dissuade Cecilia. On 17 June 1806 Cecilia made the decision to become a Catholic,b and three days later she made her formal profession of faith to Rev. Michael Hurley, O.S.A.3 The storm which now broke was violent. Up to the time of Cecilia’s conversion, the Setons, Ogdens, Hoffmans, and other friends had disapproved of Mrs. Seton’s course of action and family relations had been cool and restrained; but the general attitude had been more one of pity for the “poor fanatic” and her foreign friends. The conversion of one of their blood relations while she was living under their own roof was an entirely different matter. Even warmhearted Dué was alienated for a while. a “Zide” was Eliza Farquhar, the third member of the trio of girls so interested in Catholicism after Mrs. Seton’s conversion. b Hurley in a letter to Cecilia used the words, “Remember the 17th of June; it stands recorded in Heaven.” Cecilia herself said, “I was received and united to the Catholic Church on the 20th of June.” 161 Cecilia had been staying at Charlotte Ogden’s, at 44 Wall Street, when the Setons began to suspect her perfidy. Charlotte Seton Ogden, wife of Gouverneur Ogden, was Cecilia’s older sister. She was the most bitter of all the Setons on the subject of Cecilia’s conversion and it was the attitude of the Ogdens which remained most vividly in Mrs. Seton’s memory in later years. Both Charlotte Ogden and Mary Hoffman Seton accused Cecilia of deception.4 The family first tried to put pressure on Cecilia by confining her to her room. When she remained adamant, they told her that she would be responsible for depriving Elizabeth Seton of her livelihood. It is not clear what the Seton family believed the New York State Legislature could do but they spoke wildly of petitioning to remove Elizabeth from the state, but it is quite obvious that religious prejudice flamed wildly for a time as a result of Cecilia’s conversion. They threatened to send Cecilia to the West Indies on a vessel then ready to sail. They even threatened to burn down Elizabeth’s house over her head.5 When they warned Cecilia that “if she persevered that they would consider themselves individually bound never to speak” to her or Elizabeth again, that she was no longer welcome in any of their homes, she quickly tied up her clothes in a bundle and went over to live with Elizabeth.6 When Charlotte discovered Cecilia’s absence, she wrote a peremptory demand that Cecilia answer the question, “Are you a Catholic?”7 Cecilia replied that she had left Wall Street “in a firm resolution to adhere to the Catholic faith,” and could only return when the family could receive her in that faith.8 When she asked Charlotte about the rest of her clothes, Mrs. Ogden replied acidly, “You had best apply to those who have hitherto supplied you.”9 Later, when Charlotte had calmed enough to relent, she, wrote, “Fearful, you may want clothes, I send you those bundles which you left here. It is likewise your brother’s wish that if you really intend to leave us all, you will let him know where the remainder are to be sent.”10 Meanwhile back at James Seton’s, Mary, his wife, was investigating Cecilia’s bureau and when she found there Catholic literature she immediately blamed Elizabeth for proselytizing the girl. She wrote Cecilia coldly: In respect to your sister [Elizabeth Seton] I will be very explicit. If she had never been a Roman, neither would you. I decidedly say [that] I firmly believe that she has acted toward me both cruel and unjustifiable, and I candidly own to you so far from keeping your change of religion a secret, I openly shall confess it, that others may not trust Mrs. Seton’s liberality of principle as I have done.11 162 In spite of Cecilia’s assurances that she would not think of instilling Catholicism in Mary’s children,12 the James Setons told Cecilia she was no longer an example worthy of the children’s emulation.13 When Elizabeth wrote an account of that July of violence and anger to Antonio Filicchi in London, she had high praise for Rev. Michael Hurley, who had “behaved like an angel” and was their one true friend through the crisis. She told Antonio that she wished “the so long desired refuge of a place in the order of St. Francis” could be obtained for his converts. Just what “a place in the order of St. Francis” implies is not clear. Mrs. Seton occasionally referred to a “secret” in her letters to Filicchi;c this may have been a secret fantasy to enter [or associate herself in some way with] a Franciscan order.14 Antonio replied from London that the “new St. Cecilia” should remain with Elizabeth, and he enclosed a letterd for John Murray giving orders that Mrs. Seton be allowed to draw unlimited sums.15 When Elizabeth showed her reluctance to accept such generosity, Filicchi spoke strongly, “I command you” to call upon Murray “for any and for as many pecuniary wants” as Cecilia and Elizabeth’s family might have. Antonio Filicchi had just returned to Italy, having had a miraculous escape in the Alps Mountains which he attributed to Elizabeth Seton’s prayers. He felt a better Christian, he said, through her good example, “Through you my mercantile interests are blessed by God with an uninterrupted success.” It seemed simple justice to Antonio that Elizabeth accept in return a small part of the rewards he had through her prayers.16 Antonio was not the sole sympathizer. Francis Matignone wrote from Boston, “A step so courageous of a person so tender in years and in spite of such obstacles, is without doubt, as you have expressed it, a visible miracle of grace...[assuring Elizabeth that] in spite of my silence I take a very lively interest in all which concerns you; I wish every day at Mass the action of God’s grace in all your concerns and a continuation of His favors.”17 Harriet Seton and Eliza Farquhar hoped the storm would blow over and they wrote Cecilia, “How ardently we long and pray for that c [Although Melville indicated that Mrs. Seton may have sought to “enter a Franciscan order,” it is also possible that she wished to board and teach in a convent school since she had heard of the congregation of religious women established under the auspices of Saint Sulpice in Canada. She may have become acquainted with the Franciscans in Italy through the Filicchi family. Ed.] d The enclosed letter to John Murray & Sons of New York was a scathing denunciation of Mrs. Seton’s “Christian” friends. Mrs. Seton did not deliver it, but Filicchi himself sent a duplicate direct to Murray. e Francis Anthony Matignon was the pastor of Holy Cross Church in Boston which Bishop Carroll had dedicated in 1803. At the time of this letter, 22 September 1806, Jean Cheverus was his assistant. When Cheverus became bishop in 1810 Matignon became his former assistant’s subject and continued to serve at Holy Cross Cathedral, to complete twenty-six years of service in Boston’s first church. Father Matignon wrote fewer letters to Mrs. Seton than some of her other friends. 163 hour which will bring usf to one fold, under one shepherd.” And though they feared the consequences if they should be found in communication with the pariah, they added, “Tell the blessed H. [Hurley] to pray for us.”18 The “angel,” Mr. Hurley, so beloved by Cecilia, Elizabeth, and the others was a young Augustinian priest who had come to New York from St. Augustine’s Church in Philadelphia in July 1805 to assist in the crisis caused by yellow fever that summer.