Daughter of Charity prep for bicentennial

(11/6) The Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg is gearing up for its 2009 bicentennial celebration and, in an effort to keep the Emmitsburg Board of Commissioners and residents apprised of their plans, updated the board at its October 20 meeting.

Sister Vincentia with The Daughters of Charity said that the bicentennial will start on January 4, 2009, to commemorate the day Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton died, and run throughout the year, just as Mount St. Mary’s Bicentennial did.

“Ours will be a bit more simple but certainly a very good bicentennial, fun,” said Sr. Vincentia.

Although the celebration will extend through the year, a three-day celebration will kick off July 31. The three-day event will begin with an opening ceremony, which will include an entrance procession, prayer service, keynote speaker and showing of movie that documents the founding of The Daughters of Charity.

The celebration will culminate on Aug. 2 with the dedication of the new Seton Legacy Garden and also a reenactment of Seton’s journey from Baltimore to Emmitsburg. Hundreds of people are expected to participate in the procession, which will start of the Grotto of Lourdes at Mount St. Mary’s University and finish at the Legacy Garden.

Sr. Vincentia did ask the board of commissioners to close the South Seton Avenue for two hours so the procession could walk down the road safely; no decision was made on the closing of the road.

Hundreds of visitors are expected to flood Emmitsburg for the three-day celebration, Sr. Vincentia said, which she hopes will bring business to the town. Catholic Churches throughout the country and all local churches have been asked to participate in the celebration by simultaneously ringing their bells at noon for one minute, marking Seton’s arrival in Emmitsburg.