St. Joseph College and Mother Seton Shrine | |
Location | 16825 S. Seton Ave. Emmitsburg, Maryland |
---|---|
Coordinates | 39°41′40″N77°19′19″W / 39.69444°N 77.32194°W Coordinates: 39°41′40″N77°19′19″W / 39.69444°N 77.32194°W |
Area | 165 acres (67 ha) |
Built | 1809 |
Architect | Lind, E.G. |
Architectural style | Second Empire, Gothic Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 76000994 [1] |
Added to NRHP | January 1, 1976 |
Saint Joseph College and Mother Seton Shrine are two closely related campuses in Emmitsburg, Maryland, United States. It forms a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. [1]
The campus is the original site of Saint Joseph's Academy, a Catholic school for girls from 1809 until 1973. The 107-acre (0.43 km2) Saint Joseph College campus includes a variety of significant buildings including the Second Empire Burlando Building, St. Joseph's Chapel, and an early 19th-century brick barn. [2] The chapel embraces a combination of the Italianate and Romanesque Revival styles.
In June 1809, Elizabeth Ann Seton (later canonized as the first native-born U.S. saint) arrived in Emmitsburg, Maryland and established Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School, the first free parochial school for girls in the United States. This school laid the foundation for the Catholic parochial school system in the United States. [3] [4] Mother Seton wrote classroom textbooks and trained her Catholic sisters to become teachers, [5] and accepted all students regardless of ability to pay. [3] Saint Joseph's Academy and Free School developed into Saint Joseph College High School (1890-1946), Saint Joseph's High School (1946-1982), and Saint Joseph College (1902-1973), a four-year liberal arts college for women. [6] In 1973, Saint Joseph College closed its doors and ceased operations due to declining enrollment numbers and rising operating costs. Students and faculty were merged with Mount Saint Mary's University, formerly a liberal arts men's college located two miles (3 km) south of Emmitsburg on U.S. Highway 15. Even after the school closed, The Daughters of Charity have continued Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton's legacy of helping educate children around the world. [7]
The college campus was purchased by the U.S. Government in 1979 for use as the National Fire Academy. It is home to the National Fire Academy, United States Fire Administration, National Emergency Training Center, and Emergency Management Institute (EMI), which is operated by the Directorate of Preparedness branch of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The campus also includes the learning resource center (LRC) library, the National Fire Data Center, and the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial.
The second part of the historic district is part of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, which continues to be operated by the Daughters of Charity. The significant buildings here include the Stone House, which predates Mother Seton's arrival here, the White House, and Mother Seton's former tomb. [2] The White House is the first building constructed after the founding of the college and occupied on February 20, 1810. [7] It has subsequently been expanded. Mother Seton is now buried in the nearby basilica that bears her name, but she was previously buried in a brick Gothic Revival mausoleum in St. Joseph's cemetery. The Seton Shrine also includes the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and the adjacent St. Joseph's Provincial House, but they are outside of boundaries of the historic district.
Emmitsburg is a town in Frederick County, Maryland, United States, 0.3 miles (0.5 km) south of the Mason-Dixon line separating Maryland from Pennsylvania. Founded in 1785, Emmitsburg is the home of Mount St. Mary's University. The town has two Catholic pilgrimage sites: the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, which is on the campus of Mount St. Mary's, and the Basilica and National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was the first native-born United States citizen to be canonized as a saint. The Seton Shrine is one of the top eight Catholic pilgrimage destinations in the United States.
Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, SC, was a Catholic religious sister in the United States and an educator, known as a founder of the country's parochial school system. After her death, she became the first person born in what would become the United States to be canonized by the Catholic Church. She also established the first Catholic girls' school in the nation in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she likewise founded the first American congregation of religious sisters, the Sisters of Charity.
The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore is the premier see of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in the United States. The archdiocese comprises the City of Baltimore and 9 of Maryland's 23 counties in the central and western portions of the state: Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, and Washington. The archdiocese is the metropolitan see of the larger regional Ecclesiastical Province of Baltimore. The Archdiocese of Washington was originally part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity in their name. Some Sisters of Charity communities refer to the Vincentian tradition, or in America to the tradition of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, but others are unrelated. The rule of Vincent de Paul for the Daughters of Charity has been adopted and adapted by at least sixty founders of religious institutes for sisters around the world.
Mount St. Mary's University is a Catholic, liberal arts university in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Currently, the campus includes the largest Catholic seminary in the United States. Lay students can pursue a Master of Arts in Theology at the Seminary. The undergraduate programs are divided between the College of Liberal Arts, the Richard J. Bolte School of Business, and the School of Natural Science and Mathematics. The university has over 40 undergraduate majors, minors, concentrations, and special programs, bachelor's/master's combinations in partnership with other universities, 8 master's programs, and 6 postgraduate certificate programs.
The Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, commonly called the Daughters of Charity or Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent De Paul, is a Society of Apostolic Life for women within the Catholic Church. Its members make annual vows throughout their life, which leaves them always free to leave, without need of ecclesiastical permission. They were founded in 1633 and state that they are devoted to serving the poor through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
The College of Mount Saint Vincent (CMSV) is a Catholic liberal arts college in New York City. It was founded in 1847 by the Sisters of Charity of New York.
The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul of New York, most often known as the Sisters of Charity of New York, is a religious congregation of sisters in the Catholic Church whose primary missions are education and nursing and who are dedicated in particular to the service of the poor. The motherhouse is located at Mt. St. Vincent in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.
The Sisters of Charity Federation in the Vincentian-Setonian Tradition is an organization of fourteen congregations of religious women in the Catholic Church who trace their lineage to Saint Elizabeth Seton, Saint Vincent de Paul, and Saint Louise de Marillac.
The Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth are a Roman Catholic apostolic congregation of pontifical right, based in the Convent Station area of Morris Township, New Jersey, USA. The religious order was established in 1859 in Newark, New Jersey, following the example of Elizabeth Ann Seton's community that was founded in 1809 in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
The Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill were founded by Sister Aloysia Lowe. In 1870, she and sisters Blanche O'Keefe, Maria Theresa O'Donnell, Maria Kavanaugh and two novices were sent to western Pennsylvania from the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati and began their work, founding and staffing schools. The sisters later expanded their work to include healthcare.
Seton Hill Historic District is a historic district in Baltimore, Maryland. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The National Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton is a U.S. religious site and educational center in Emmitsburg, Maryland, that pays tribute to the life and mission of Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. It is both a Minor Basilica and a National Shrine.
Mother Seton House is a historic home located on the grounds of St. Mary’s Seminary at Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is a 2+1⁄2-story red brick house, similar to other small homes built in the early 19th century for the predominantly French community nearby. It was built in 1808 as the home of Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774–1821), the first American-born woman beatified and canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. In the 1960s it was restored to its original appearance through the efforts of a committee, which continues to operate the home as a museum. Mother Seton House is located adjacent to the St. Mary's Seminary Chapel.
The National Fire Academy (NFA) is one of two schools in the United States operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) at the National Emergency Training Center (NETC) in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Operated and governed by the United States Fire Administration (USFA) as part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the NFA is the country’s pre-eminent federal fire training and education institution. The original purpose of the NFA as detailed in a 1973 report to Congress was to “function as the core of the Nation’s efforts in fire service education—feeding out model programs, curricula, and information…”
A Lourdes grotto is a replica of the original grotto at Lourdes, France or a grotto honouring Our Lady of Lourdes unassociated with the Lourdes site. Some such grottoes are called simply "Lourdes grottoes"; others are described as replicas, or as honouring Our Lady of Lourdes.
Several special routes of U.S. Route 15 exist. In order from south to north they are as follows.
The National Emergency Training Center (NETC) serves as an interagency emergency management training body for the United States government. The college campus was purchased by the U.S. Government in 1979 for use as the National Emergency Training Center. NETC is home to the National Fire Academy, United States Fire Administration, Emergency Management Institute (EMI), which is operated by the Directorate of Preparedness branch of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The campus also includes the learning resource center (LRC) library, the National Fire Data Center, and the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial.
Euphemia Blenkinsop, born Catherine Blenkinsop, also known as Mother Euphemia, was an Irish-born American religious sister and teacher, and visitatrix of the Daughters of Charity in the United States, from 1866 to her death in 1887.
Media related to St. Joseph's College and Mother Seton Shrine at Wikimedia Commons