SuitabookMother Seton and the Sisters of Charity
Alma Power-Waters
- Reading
- Read it as a life story and discuss both the events and the author’s presentation of them. Pause after the losses and conversion to ask what evidence the book gives for Seton’s choices.
- Themes
- Religious conviction and conversion: Seton converts from Protestantism to Catholicism despite opposition from her family and the wider persecution Catholics faced. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Service after personal loss: After her husband’s death and the loss of family wealth, Seton founds the American Sisters of Charity and a Catholic school. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Institution-building and care: The Sisters of Charity establish schools, orphanages and hospitals, and the congregation grows to twenty-one communities by Seton’s death. The book provides an informational account of the institutions attributed to the order and its growth.
- Worth knowing
- Some readers may want support around a husband’s death from tuberculosis, loss of family fortune, religious persecution and relatives’ shock at conversion. The treatment of illness, grief and conflict is not described in detail.