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by their own church: with great devotion, Elizabeth
poured a little wine into a glass while reciting prayers,
and they then drank from the cup of thanksgiving in
turn, casting their gaze toward eternity. This gesture
evokes the first cup of thanksgiving that JESUS gave
to his apostles (Lk 22:17-18).
A deep yearning for Christ sprang from the hearts
of Elizabeth and her husband. The captain of the ship
who had brought them visited them on Christmas
Day, and William entrusted his wife to him, asking him
to take her back to the United States. This solicitude
of her dying husband moved Elizabeth deeply. On De-
cember 27, William committed his soul to God with
these words: “My Christ Jesus, have mercy! And re-
ceive me! My Christ Jesus…”

The two newlyweds, Elizabeth and William

berculosis, saw his health deteriorate, and his doctors
advised him to go to Italy. Elizabeth and her eldest
daughter, Anne, age eight, accompanied him.
They arrived in where yellow fever was rampant,
and were quarantined in a miserable Lazaretto. Eliza-
beth wrote in her diary: “Not only willing to take my
cross, but to kiss it too, and while glorying Livorno on
November 18, 1803 from New York, in our consola-
tion, my William was taken with an ague which was
almost too much.” And further on: “After both were
asleep, said our Little Office alone. William had not
been able in the day.” This Office consisted of mor-
ning and evening prayers that the couple had com-
posed from the few Anglican books at their disposal.
Elizabeth lived through their quarantine in consol-
ing prayer: “I find my present opportunity a treasure
and my confinement of body a liberty of soul, which
I may never again enjoy while they are still united.”
Little Ann herself seemed to be spiritually transported
to regions beyond her years, but she understood very
well that her father was dying. While reading the epi- Elizabeth with her daughter, Ann
sode of the imprisonment of St. John the Baptist, she
told him: “Yes, Papa, Herod imprisoned him, but Miss The Filicchi brothers, Philip and Anthony, Wil-
Herodias gave him his liberty. — No, dear, she had liam’s business associates, were true friends: without
him beheaded. — Ah!, well, Papa, but released him being asked, they looked after all the formalities for the
funeral, and took Elizabeth and her daughter into their
from prison by sending him to God!”
home. This first contact with Catholic families made a
A deep yearning for Christ deep impression on the young widow. The Filicchis
On December 17, the quarantine ended, but Wil- took them to Florence, a city of incomparable art in its
liam was exhausted. The beauty of the landscape on unique natural setting in Tuscany.
the journey to Pisa, however, brought smiles back to Surrounded with nature and art’s treasures, Eliza-
his face. Friends, the Filicchi family, had prepared a beth regained her zest for life, yet without forgetting
comfortable house for them there. But soon William’s her beloved husband. At the same time, she found
sickness took the upper hand once more, and he asked herself deeply attracted to the contemplation of a
to receive the “sacrament.” The Setons had not the Catholic assembly: “I sunk down to my knees in the
good fortune of being able to receive the sacraments first place I found vacant and shed a torrent of tears.”
of the Catholic Church, the Eucharist and the Anointing Too intelligent and truthful with herself to stifle these
of the Sick, but they followed the practices established new feelings, she asked the Filicchis about the differ- u

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