
Mother Seton: The Paca Street Year (1808-1809)
By Sister Betty Ann McNeil, D.C.
Rev. Louis W. Dubourg, a Sulpician priest and president of St. Mary’s College located at 600 North Paca Street, invited the Widow Seton to establish a school for girls on Paca Street in collaboration with the Society of Saint Sulpice at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore.
Mrs. Seton, a convert to Roman Catholicism, provided religious education to her pupils along with the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic. God soon called her to a life of consecration and service to the people of God as Mother Seton, foundress of the Sisters of Charity. Mother Seton: The Paca Street Year (1808-1809) will focus on the defining moments of call, discovery, and vocation of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Baltimore.