Archbishop Timothy Dolan will be on hand at the 5:30 p.m. mass at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Shrub Oak Saturday to help celebrate the 35th anniversary of the patron saint’s canonization.
Dolan, who has visited St. Patrick’s Church in Yorktown and in December visited Assumption Church in Peekskill, is visiting at the invitation of Seton Pastor Monsignor Thomas Sandi. Sandi met with the archbishop in New York Wednesday.
“This is a great honor,” Sandi said. “We thought it would be nice for him to meet our people and for our people to meet him.”
“He really cares for the people of the archdiocese,” he added.
The church, the first ever named for the first American-born saint. Born in Aug. 28, 1774 in New York City, Seton died Jan. 4, 1821. Her Feast Day is typically celebrated the last Sunday of January, Sandi said.
Other events planned this weekend include a volunteer dinner Friday night and and priest panel on Sunday at 4 p.m. in the church. Monsignor Joseph Giandurco, a former weekend associate at Seton, will be on hand for the Q&A event. Pope Benedict XVI has declared 2010 a Year for Priests.
Sandi said the Saturday afternoon service will feature someone dressed as Elizabeth Seton, joined by five Seton school students who will portray her children. A Catholic convert and the widow of a wealthy businessman, Seton was canonized in 1975 by Pope John XXIII.
“You need these things,” Sandi said of the individuals portraying Seton. “History doesn’t mean anything until it comes alive.”
The last such visit was by Edward Cardinal Egan in 2001.
Photo: Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, greets children outside Assumption Church in Peekskill Dec. 6. Assumption Church celebrated its 150th anniversary in August. (Seth Harrison/The Journal News)
1 Comment
My sister was the first Elizabeth Ann to be baptized in that parish in the 60’s. I remember Monsignor Nugent from back when I went to Seton. When he wanted us to remember something he used to start out by saying, “When you look into your glass of milk tonight at dinner”. Funny the things that stick in our minds 40 years later. Sr. Gabriel was even there when I attended, only then she taught first grade.