Up and Down Emmitsburg, Maryland: A Spiritual Journey
One of my favorite pilgrimage sites in the Eastern U.S. is the land where Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton prayed, taught, served, and walked. For her feast day on January 4th of this year, I published an article with Blessed is She that invites you to journey this hallowed ground with me.
“The windshield wipers sloshed away the beady raindrops as our headlights shone through the dark and stormy night, illuminating the sign that announced, “Maryland Welcomes You.” Some feet ahead, a small historic marker denoted “hallowed ground,” and we exited the southbound turnpike towards Emmitsburg.
Although our minivan’s odometer registered 2,700 miles over ten days this trip, this was incontestably our hardest day on the road. Despite obstacles, we continued onwards, seeking peace after desolation.
Emmitsburg promised rest.
This quiet town nestles below the Pennsylvania-Maryland border, in the Catoctin region of the Blue Ridge mountains. Small and unassuming like my hometown far south, it nonetheless offers something different: mountains, forests, and colonial antiquity. The signs declaring it “hallowed ground” refer, in one sense, to the lives lost on the Gettysburg battlefields only twelve miles north. But this designation also indicates something deeper here, for “hallowed” has not only a historical but also a spiritual meaning. Emmitsburg is land where Saints walked, making this place a microcosm for the journey of our lives.
In June 1809, a little woman in a widow’s dark bonnet journeyed toward northern Maryland. Several young women also clad in black accompanied her, addressing her as “Mother Seton”; the three little girls who ran alongside the group called her “Mamma.” God had led Elizabeth Ann Seton down many paths: wife, mother, widow, convert, educator, consecrated woman, religious foundress. Now, He had called her to journey forward in faith––through forests, over hills, and across valleys––to Emmitsburg.”
Click here to read the article in full!
