Catherine Doherty - Cause for Canonization

Catherine was a lay person

It is well known that the present Holy Father is seeking to canonize more lay people. It has been a common criticism for many years that countless religious are canonized out of all proportion to the laity. (In the Commons for the Divine Office we don't even have an Office for a holy couple, Sts Joachim and Anne, for example.) The practical problem seems to be that lay people do not have a community behind them to do the necessary work. I think the Congregation of the Saints should somehow address itself to this abnormality. It is inconceivable that there is a lack of heroic holiness among lay people to warrant their canonization. By the grace of God, Catherine has such a community, but what about all those who do not?

Eddie and Catherine sitting
on the steps of Madonna House

The importance of canonized laity is obvious: most of the Church is lay; heroic sanctity among the laity is a reality; they need to see the Church publicly raise lay people to the heights of the altar so they can be encouraged and inspired in their Christian lay vocations. I would say that the lay character of Catherine's holiness would be the most pastorally relevant aspect for her canonization.

She was married twice, had a child, worked in the world, and tried to take the gospel into the marketplaces of modern cities. She was inspired to develop a spirituality that is neither monastic nor religious, but is precisely about loving God in the ordinary tasks of everyday life. Her constant theme, even before it was emphasized by Vatican II, was that holiness is possible in every walk of life. And she especially emphasized—because often not preached or taught very clearly in her day—that lay people could become holy by doing their daily tasks with great love.

Catherine and the apostolate of the laity

Lay Catholics in the post-Vatican II age are more familiar with the Church's teaching which urges them to take up their responsibilities in the marketplaces of the world. In the early part of this century, it was not so much insisted upon. It was not strongly encouraged, and was often misunderstood, both within and outside the Church. Catherine will go down in history as one of the pioneers of the lay apostolate in the Church of the 20th century. Already in the late 20’s and early 30’s she was a prominent lay person, opening up soup kitchens and store fronts for the poor, and speaking out on injustices in both Church and society. It is difficult for us now to imagine how revolutionary and prophetic she was. And she paid the price for it. Her life can serve as a model of lay heroism and dedicated activity as a member of the Church in society.

Catherine was married, with a family

Catherine with her son, George.

Catherine’s married and family existence went through many stages. It’s because she tried to live these stages as a Christian, and maintain her love for God, the Church, and neighbour throughout, that her married life has tremendous relevance for the people of our day.

Her first marriage was very tragic and unhappy. Her husband was unfaithful to her. She was a psychologically battered wife, and knew all the pain of a broken covenant and of trying to raise a child in such circumstances. She didn’t handle every situation perfectly. Her son, especially, had wounds from a very confused family situation. She had to go through the travail of obtaining an annulment from the Church, and all the pain that entails. So many in broken marriages today would find support and consolation in her heroic struggles to remain faithful to God and the Church in such circumstances.

After more than a decade of her second marriage, she and her husband, Eddie Doherty, decided to give up their conjugal rights and live a celibate life as members of the new community of Madonna House which the Lord was fashioning. Not to imply that this choice is to be imitated, or that it is the “culminating ideal” of married life, but it is one option recognized by the Church. Here too she can serve as a model for those called to this choice in the Lord.

Catherine had a great love for the poor and for those suffering from injustice

A love for the poor and those deprived of their rights has always been a concern of the Church. But especially in our century, the Church herself has called for a “preferential option for the poor.” And Pope Paul VI has said that there can be “no real peace without justice.” Often, if the people of our time do not see this concern for justice in the lives of Christians who are canonized, they do not see any particular relevance of these saints to their own lives in the contemporary situation which demands a concern for the poor.

Catherine, even as a child with her mother, was part of that movement of the Russian intelligentsia in the late 19th century called “going to the poor.” The wealthy and learned would go into the villages of the poor and try to bridge the gap between wealth and poverty, ignorance and learning. When Catherine arrived in Canada in 1921 she would often meet the train loaded with refugees, and seek to help them find lodging and employment. As a member of the famous Chautauqua Circuit, and later as a member of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association in the 20’s, she spoke out forcibly against the peril of Communism when few on this side of the ocean could see any real danger.

Dorothy Day gives a kiss
to Catherine Doherty
Rome, 1957

In the early 30’s, during the Great Depression, she went into the poor sections of Toronto and helped those on the streets with food, clothing, and instruction in the Catholic social teachings of the Encyclicals. In 1938 she went into the heart of black Harlem and became one of the Catholic pioneers in interracial justice in the United States. She had the courage not only to help those oppressed by such injustice, but to publicly denounce such injustice in Church and society. Nor did she simply counsel obedience and patience under the present legal system. As one imbued with the prophetic spirit, she had a vision beyond the time-bound contemporary scene. She possessed the moral courage of the gospel to say that such laws and prejudices were unjust and must be changed. We have in our archives a long report she wrote at the request of the American bishops, pointing out the racial injustice in Church and society.

Later (in 1947) she began the third phase of her work, the Madonna House Apostolate in Canada, continuing to assist the poor in countless ways such as clothing, Cooperative Move-ments, the first mail order book service in Canada for those in rural areas, and many other outreaches to neighbour. She had, all her life, an extraordinary love for the poor. As she requested, her grave cross has the saying, “She loved the poor.”

Catherine and the union of Orthodoxy and Catholicism

Perhaps the greatest tragedy in the 2,000 year history of Christianity was the split between the Eastern and Western Churches. Our present Holy Father, John Paul II, considers the reunion of these two great churches as his first priority.

Staff Member and Catherine
working at the wood stove in the
Madonna House kitchen

Catherine was born in Russia and baptized in the Russian Orthodox Church. But as a child she attended a Roman Catholic school in Alexandria, Egypt. Her father’s mother was Polish Catholic. Thus she grew up breathing with “the two lungs” of Orthodoxy and Catholicism, to use a phrase of the present Pope. When she fled to England she made a profession of faith in the Catholic Church.

But perhaps it was not until her return to Canada in 1947, and the Madonna House, Combermere, phase of her life, that her Eastern roots began to flower. In her own person she became a blend and a harmony of the riches of the East and the West. She has written a number of books, trying to explain to the West the treasures of Eastern spirituality. Her life is a bridge across which many can walk towards greater union and understanding between these two “Sister Churches,” as Pope Paul VI called them. The Madonna House community continues this charism. Catherine’s canonization, therefore, would have great relevance for this movement of the Spirit in our time, towards the reunion of East and West.

Catherine’s writings

Suffice it to say that, if she were canonized, the people of God would become more aware of the depth and extent of her writings. Even during her lifetime her books were being translated into many languages, a proof of their universal relevance. What is already published is only a fraction of what she has written and what someday will be available to the Church. Her canonization would give the Church’s approval to her writings, and they would immeasurably enrich the life of God’s people.

The community Catherine founded

“By their fruits you shall know them.” Catherine founded one of the new ecclesial communities in the Church. Her canonization would be a witness to the fact that God continues to inspire new communities in the Church in every age. The spirituality she has bequeathed to this community is, even now, a source of spiritual food and support for thousands of people. Her canonization would increase the spread of this spiritual treasure for the Church universal.

A woman of the century

Some canonized saints are known for their holiness in only a limited area of the Church’s life (for example, as a cloistered nun, as a founder of a religious order, etc.) Catherine’s life and experience spanned almost a whole century (1896–1985), and she was involved personally in most of the cataclysmic events of our time.

George stands with Catherine
after she is made a member of the
Order of Canada “for a lifetime
of devoted services to the
underpriviliged of many nationalities
both in Canada and abroad.”

She was a nurse in the First World War and knew that terror at first hand. She was personally caught up in the Russian revolution, and lost some of her relatives in it, barely escaping with her own life. She experienced what it was to be a refugee, both in England and Canada, and to know life at the bottom of the social ladder. She knew real poverty in her life in Canada, and often did not know where the next meal would come from. She knew what it was to work for her livelihood.

She publicly fought Communism in North America. She set up some of the first soup kitchens and clothing rooms for victims of the Depression. As a journalist she personally witnessed the onslaught of Nazism in Germany and saw the horrors of civil war in Spain. With a son in the Second World War, Catherine knew the personal agony of a mother of a soldier.

She was a pioneer in racial justice in the United States. She was in the vanguard of social action in the Church in this century. She rejoiced in the Second Vatican Council. With her faith instincts she navigated her community through the turbulent waters of the post-Vatican II era, when so many lost the essentials of their Catholic life. She came through all these 20th century events with her faith intact and still completely loyal to the Church.

She is, then, a kind of “total person.” One of the reasons, among many others, that I myself trust her teaching, is that it has been tried and tested in the crucible of suffering, and in most of the cataclysmic events of the 20th century. Her canonization would be a beacon of light for others who must now go through their own historical trials in the Third Millennium. She can be a guide for the people of God in how to remain faithful to Christ and the Church in the midst of life’s vicissitudes. She would not be a “plaster of Paris” saint, unremoved from life. Everyone would find something in her life to inspire and encourage them.

— Father Robert Wild, Postulator for the Cause

Publications featured in this issue:

A Talk on Sobornost, a video of a talk given by Catherine Doherty

Poustinia: Encountering God in Silence and Solitude, by Catherine Doherty

Living The Gospel Without Compromise, by Catherine Doherty

Download the complete Adobe PDF version of this newsletter — including all Testimonies, Favours Received, and more — in its original printable layout.

You can find previous issues and French translations in our newsletter archive.

The Pastoral Relevance of Catherine's Cause