Throughout my Internship in the archives at Caritas Christi, I have learned a lot, especially about some of the sisters' work throughout the 20th century. Along with this I have also gained much more insight into Elizabeth Seton and her canonization process. In my time at Caritas, I first learned about the sisters' work in the Hill district of Pittsburgh and in particular, about Sister Cyril Aaron. It was interesting to learn about the ways these sisters helped establish schools and care for the poor and vulnerable in our area. Sister Cyril and all the sisters after Mother Seton have truly carried on her legacy in a way that would make her proud. I was able to read through all of Sister Cyril’s addresses and writings and they really show her noble character, that she embodies the spirit of piety passed down from Mother Seton. Her work with House of Mary which would later become the Ozanam center stuck out to me the most. It also struck me that she left her position as dean at Seton Hill in order to fulfill her calling to help those in needs. I was aware of the work the sisters had done previously but was unaware of a lot of the details surrounding it, it was interesting to learn about the figures behind this work.

In my research on Mother Seton’s canonization, I have been able to learn a lot of information that was new to me. I wasn’t aware of how long it took and how many people put effort into her canonization process. It was a shock to me that the entire process took almost 70 years after the idea was brought to the attention of the Vatican. It was interesting to see how many people pushed for a common goal over the long span of this process. There were a variety of people involved, many affiliated with the church along with many who were not. It was shocking to see how long it took for the first visible progress in the cause to be made, which was around 30 years between it being brought to the Vatican's attention between 1907-9 up until Mother Seton’s cause was approved to move forward in 1940. It then took another 19 years for her to be declared venerable but progress began to speed up after this. She would be beatified 4 years later in 1963 and then canonized 12 years after that in 1975. The length of this progress shows the serious dedication of the cause's promoters. There were multiple postulators(2), vice-postulators(3) and mothers of the sisters(3) throughout the process. This in it self shows how long this process really took.

The most interesting part of this research for me was being able to examine all of the old photos and news clipping that were collected in the archives. It is one thing to read about but seeing photos of everyone involved, along with all the celebrations and ceremonies was really cool. The most interesting clippings and photos were of the 3 verified miracles of intercession used for Mother Seton’s canonization. The stories of these 3 were very interesting to examine and were all new to me. The photos and video from the canonization were also interesting, it was cool to see all the sisters present at the canonization mass as well as Carl Kolin and Ann O’Neil, 2 of those healed by Mother Seton’s intercession. 

Overall, my internship experience has allowed me to improve my ability to find useful information in immense quantities of documents. I feel I can now better sift through information and find what is truly useful and important. It has also allowed me to learn much more about the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill and their work as well as learn much more about Mother Seton and the legacy she left behind. The experience has allowed me to learn things I otherwise wouldn't have and most likely given me access to information that would otherwise not have been known to me or would be hard to come by on my own. The experience has taught me alot and allowed me to do work I found to be enjoyable.