Old family; or, The Setons of Scotland and America

i8o6] ANNA-MARIA SETON. 319
Anna Maria accompanied her parents to Italy, as I have
elsewhere said, and is often mentioned in Mrs. Seton's Jour-
nal. The only thing I possess of my dear and pious young
aunt, whom I never saw, are a few notes in her handwriting,
a lock of her hair, and an image of Our Lord kneeling in the
Garden with the emblems of the Passion around Him, painted
on a small slab of alabaster and given to her by one of the
Filicchi children at Pisa. She was ever after known in the
family as Annina, the Italian diminutive of Anna. She was
received into the Church with her mother, and made her first
Communion in Saint Peter's, New York, on the feast of her
patron saint, July 26, 1806, and was confirmed at Saint
Joseph's (Emmittsburg) on 20th October, 1809, by the Right
Rev. Bishop Carroll. Annina was of a sweet and tender dis-
position, singularly pious and devout, and beloved by all who
knew her. She was on a visit staying with some friends in
Baltimore in January, 18 10, and from there wrote the follow-
ing letter, which breathes all her pure and affectionate heart:
" To the Dearest of Mothers : Union in Eternity with Him.
"My Most Precious Mother, — No letter! well, my Jesus, Thy will be
done. O my mother, my dear mother, what shall I say ? all uncertainty.
I know not what to think ; but, O my mother, pray, do pray for that dear
soul. I can not tell you how much I loved her : she is as it were the sub-
ject of all my prayers and sighs.* Oh, how much I love you ! You are my
dearest, and soul's dearest mother. I have a question to propose to my
mother, and you alone shall decide. The girls are going to have an Exhibi-
tion, and they wish me very much to be in it ; but I do not wish to have any
part in it. They begged me very much, and still I refused. Well, they
begged me again. At last I said : Well, whatever mother says. Do not
you think I had better not act? but whatever you say. Most precious,
dear mother ! it has been a long time since I have received a little word from
my mother. If you can, do write me a little word and tell me your opinion.
" Your ever-loving and affectionate child,
"Anna-Maria."
On her return to Saint Joseph's Anna caught a cold, which
ended in rapid consumption. Her mother kept a journal of
* Her aunt, Henrietta Seton, then recently dead.