Dorothy Day (1897-1980)

There’s never been anyone quite like Dorothy Day in the history of Catholicism in the United States. Born in Brooklyn, the daughter of a newspaper reporter, her family moved to San Francisco when she was young, and later to Chicago. During her college years at the University of Illinois she became a pacifist and was arrested for her opposition to World War I. Little by little she was drawn to the Catholic Church, which she saw as the “Church of the poor.” In 1927 she converted to Catholicism while living on Staten Island. She supported herself and her daughter through her writing. During the Depression, as Communism made inroads with the poor, she wanted to find a way to show the poor that the Church was on their side. In 1933, she and Peter Maurin, a former Christian Brother, founded the Catholic Worker movement. It consisted of a newspaper and houses of hospitality that were set up tot help the poor. No group in the history of American Catholicism has taken upon itself to live out evangelical poverty in such a radical manner, in solidarity with the poor.