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on her knees before a crucifix, to be binding for one year's time only, but to be renewed at stated periods, if she should so wish to engage herself.

A gentleman named Cooper, a convert like herself, about this time projected a manufactory for the use of the poor and purchased some property at Emmittsburg, in Frederick County, Maryland. The education of children rich and poor was part of his plan, and he invited Mrs. Seton to take charge of that department. Accordingly in May, 1809, Mrs. Seton with her daughter, two sisters of her late husband and one of the ladies who had joined her, proceeded to Emmittsburg. Finding the building on Mr. Cooper's property as yet unfit for them, they took up their residence in a log-hut erected on the side of the mountain below St. Mary's church, by Rev. John Du Bois. Those left in Baltimore soon joined them.

On the 20th of February, 1810, the Sisters left their temporary home to take possession of the log structure erected on their own property, and which has ever since been the site of St. Joseph's Academy. It was a small two-story building with a high porch in front, standing in the valley between the mountain and the village. The house was blessed by Rev. Mr. Du Bois, and the Community placed under the special patronage of St. Joseph.'

The Sisterhood thus formed and consisting of ten members began at once to teach poor children, to visit the sick, and before long opened a boarding-school for girls. In October, 1809, Bishop Carroll visited the new and interesting establishment which augured so much good to the Church. The next year Bishop Flaget, returning from Europe to be

Seton, "Memoir, Letters, and Journal," ii., pp. 14–52. The view of St. Joseph's is from a piece of needlework preserved by the Sisters of Charity at Haverstraw, N. Y., to whose kindness I am indebted for its use.

consecrated, brought a copy of the "Constitutions and Rules of the Sisters of Charity" (Filles de la Charité) founded by St. Vincent de Paul. These were made the basis of regulations which were prepared by some of the Sulpitians for Mrs. Seton's Community. There were, however, points which did not receive Archbishop Carroll's approval, and these were after serious deliberation altered by them. He also made it distinctly understood that they were not to be in matter of spiritual or temporal direction subject to the Community of St. Sulpice at Baltimore, though their Director might be of that body and the Superior at Baltimore might

Exseton

FAC-SIMILE OF SIGNATURE OF E. A. SETON.

individually on rare and uncommon occasions exercise some powers. "I am exceedingly anxious," he wrote, "that every allowance shall be made, not only to the Sisters generally, but to each one in particular, which can serve to give quiet to their consciences, provided that this be done without endangering the harmony of the community; and therefore it must become a matter of regulation." . . . . "It has been my endeavor when I read the constitutions, to consult, in the first place, the individual happiness of your dear Sisters, and consequently your own; 2ndly, to render their plan of life useful to religion and to the public; 3dly, to confine the administration of your own affairs, and the internal and domestic government, as much as possible to your own institutions once adopted, and within your own walls." "I shall congratulate you and your beloved Sisters when the Constitution is adopted. It will be like freeing you from a state in which it was difficult to walk straight, as you as you had no certain way in

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which to proceed. In the meantime assure yourself and them of my utmost solicitude for your advancement in the service and favor of God; of my reliance on your prayers; of mine for your prosperity in the important duty of education, which will and must long be your principal, and will always be your partial, employment. A century at least will pass before the exigencies and habits of this country will require and hardly admit of the charitable exercises towards the sick, sufficient to employ any number of Sisters out of our largest cities; and therefore they must consider the business of education as a laborious, charitable, and permanent object of their religious duty." Modified as he suggested, the rule received his approval in 1812,' and was adopted by the Community at Emmittsburg. At the first election Mrs. Elizabeth A. Seton was chosen Mother Superior, and was periodically re-elected as long as she lived. The Rev. John Du Bois was appointed Superior-General of the Sisters.

Thus, by the providence of God, a lady, born and reared in affluence, amid a purely Protestant social circle, became, after being tried in the furnace of poverty, suffering, and worldly coldness, the foundress of a Community which has to this day, imbued with her spirit, carried out her plans of works of mercy.'

1 "I have read and endeavored before God attentively to consider the Constitutions of the Sisters of Charity submitted to me by the Rev. Superior of the Seminary of St. Sulpitius, and I have approved of the same, believing them to be inspired by the Spirit of God, and suitable to conduct the Sisters to religious perfection.

"BALTIMORE, January 17, 1812."

JOHN, Archbishop of Baltimore.

? White, Life of Mrs. Eliza A. Seton, Foundress and first Superior of the Sisters or Daughters of Charity in the United States," New York, 1833; Baltimore, 1856; Paris, 1857. Seton, 'Memoir, Letters, and Journal of Elizabeth Seton," 2 vols., New York, 1869; Mme. de Barberey, "Elizabeth Seton," Paris, 1868.

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Mother Seton received in November, 1810, a visit from Bishop Cheverus of Boston and Bishop Egan of Philadelphia, who had recently been consecrated in Baltimore. Though Dr. Cheverus had long been the friend, correspondent, and wise counsellor of Mother Seton, they had never met till this occasion when he beheld her with her spiritual children and her academy daily increasing in numbers and credit.

The Sovereign Pontiff added to Dr. Carroll's burthens in 1811 by investing him with ordinary jurisdiction over the Danish islands of Santa Cruz, St. Thomas and St. John, the Dutch island of St. Eustatia as well as Barbuda, St. Kitts and Antigua, with authority to appoint two prefects, one for the Danish and one for the other islands, and to invest them with the power of administering confirmation. He was naturally alarmed at this new responsibility, but as letters had reached him in regard to the condition of affairs there, he was aware that good priests had been innocently exercising the ministry under jurisdiction not recognized at Rome as competent. Archbishop Carroll, seeing that there was danger in delay, accordingly appointed the Rev. Henry Kendall Prefect and Rev. Mr. Hérard Vice-Prefect, that the faithful in the Danish isles might enjoy the exercises of the ministry; and he endeavored to ascertain the state of religion in the other islands confided to his care.'

In Charleston the Rev. Mr. Gallagher, who had long used the trustees or vestry to maintain his position against his bishop, found them ready to carry their usurpation further by excluding him from the meetings of the Board. Archbishop Carroll, to check this spirit, addressed the trustees, showing them that by the uniform rule of the diocese the clergy of the church were, in all cases, members of the

1 Archbishop Carroll to Robert Tuite, of St. Croix.