When God Leads You in a New Direction

Sometimes God calls you to one sort of life and then leads you in a new direction.

As we celebrate July 4th, the day our nation went in a new direction, two saints come to mind. They also went in a new direction. Both were married; both were mothers; both were wealthy. And then...

The saint of the day is St. Bertha of Artois. She was a beautiful French noblewoman. Her father was a count who served King Clovis II; her mother was a princess, the daughter of the King of Kent, England. Bertha married Seigfried, a relative of Clovis, at the age of twenty and became the mother of their five daughters.

The marriage lasted twenty years until Siegfried died. Bertha was only forty years old and with her connections, still had a lot of living to do. Yet she did something strange. She left it all behind—the court, the favor, the prestige, the wealth, and the thought of remarriage.

She founded a Benedictine convent in Blangy and, ever a mother to her children, took two of her daughters, Deotila and Gertrude, with her. She served as Abbess for many years and then in her old age, her daughter Deotila took on the responsibility. Bertha spent her last years alone with Our Lord, praying night and day.

What lead to her discernment of this new direction in her life?

Perhaps she read St. Paul's advice to the widowed. We will never know. Alas the year 725 was a long time ago and not much detail from her life is known.

But we do know a lot about St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, whose life seems to parallel St. Bertha's. And as our nation's first canonized native born American saint, we can celebrate her on July 4th as well.

Elizabeth spent the early part of her life as American "nobility." She was born in 1774 into New York City society, as the daughter of a prominent physician and public health official, Richard Bayley. She was even a member of the respectable "in" religion, Episcopalian.

At the age of nineteen she married William Seton, a descendant of Scottish nobility, who had made his fortune in the import export business. They dealt in fine European products. The very first Strativarius violin ever brought over to this country was purchased and sold by his company. Business was great. The couple bought a beautiful home on Wall Street and seemed set up to live a long and prosperous life together.

But it was not to last. Political troubles between France and England caused blockades at sea and destroyed the business. The family lost their home. The strain dealt a blow to William's health. He died just weeks before the couple's tenth wedding anniversary, leaving Elizabeth a widow with five children under the age of eight.

At age 29, Elizabeth was still young and beautiful—not to mention educated, cultured, and a great dancer. With her connections, she still had a lot of living to do.

Yet she did something strange. She left it all behind—because like St. Bertha, she found something better.

Not even fifteen months after her husband died, Elizabeth became a Roman Catholic. This was not the thing in polished New York society. Friends and relatives distanced themselves lest the contagion affect them. Elizabeth tried to start a school to support her children but when parents discovered that the teacher was Catholic, they pulled their children out, sweeping their crinoline skirts aside as they passed out the door.

But Elizabeth clung to her newfound faith and, like Bertha, trusted that God would lead her. After a period of setbacks lasting three years she too heard the call to the religious life. And ever a devoted mother, she took the kids with her.

Thanks to the Sisters of Charity who carefully preserved St. Elizabeth's letters, journals, and other written documents you may read her full story here.

For the purposes of Catholic dating, I'd like to bring out simply one thing both saints knew...

God had a plan for them. When their marriages ended and all seemed lost, He had something even better in store for them—Himself.

So today as we celebrate the boldness and courage of the founders of our nation, remember also the boldness and courage of these two saints. They never dreamed of the twists and turns their lives would take from being single, to being married, to becoming mothers, to becoming widows and single mothers, to becoming the foundresses of religious communities. But God knew. It was all about the one most important thing, becoming holy.