Mother Seton, St. Joseph's, and the Mount

Two foundations, a year apart, made Emmitsburg a place of pilgrimage. In 1808, Father John Dubois — a French priest who had fled the Revolution — founded Mount St. Mary's on the mountainside above town. In 1809 Elizabeth Ann Seton arrived (about June 24), and on July 31, 1809, in the Stone House, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's were formally established — the first community for religious women founded in the United States. With it came St. Joseph's Academy & Free School.

Seton lived in Emmitsburg until her death in 1821. Her community's work — schools, hospitals, orphanages — spread across the country from here. On September 14, 1975 Pope Paul VI canonized her — the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized. Her remains rest in the Basilica that now bears her name on South Seton Avenue, and the Daughters of Charity still keep their provincial house in town.

Saint Joseph College (1902–1973) later stood on the St. Joseph's grounds; that campus is now FEMA's National Emergency Training Center. Two centuries of Emmitsburg meet on one hillside: the Mount (1808), Mother Seton's valley (1809), and the fire-service campus that trains America's responders today.