Catherine Doherty - Women - Women's Health

May 19, 2012


		1 Introduction 2 Her Life 3 Her Spirituality 4 Her Notable Awards 5 Her Name 6 See also 7 External links 8 References

Women's Health Women

Catherine Doherty

Wikipedia

Image:Catherine_Doherty_1970.jpg|right|thumbnail|Catherine Doherty, 1970Catherine Doherty (1896–1985) was a social activist and foundress of the Madonna House Apostolate. A pioneer of social justice, and a renowned national speaker, Catherine was also a prolific writer of hundreds of articles, best-selling author of dozens of books, and a dedicated wife and mother. Her cause for canonization as a saint is now under consideration by the Roman Catholic Church|Catholic Church.

[go back to top]

Her Life

Born Catherine Kolyschkine in Russia on August 15, 1896, her parents, Theodore and Emma Kolyschkine, belonged to the minor nobility, and were devout members of the Eastern Orthodoxy|Orthodox Church who had their child baptized in Saint Petersburg|St. Petersburg on September 15.

Schooled abroad because of her father???s job, she and her family returned to St. Petersburg in 1910, where she was enrolled in the prestigious Princess Obolensky Academy. In 1912, aged 15, she made what turned out to be a disastrous marriage with her first cousin, Boris de Hueck.

At the outbreak of World War I, Catherine de Hueck became a Red Cross nurse at the front, experiencing the horrors of battle firsthand. On her return to St. Petersburg, she and Boris barely escaped the turmoil of the Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution with their lives, nearly starving to death as refugees in Finland. Together they made their way to England, where Catherine was received into the Roman Catholic Church|Catholic Church on November 27, 1919.

Emigrating to Canada with Boris, Catherine gave birth to their only child, George, in Toronto in 1921. Soon she and Boris became more and more painfully estranged from one another, as he pursued extramarital affairs. To make ends meet, Catherine took various jobs and eventually became a lecturer, travelling a circuit that took her across North America.

Prosperous now, but deeply dissatisfied with a life of material comfort, her marriage in ruins, she began to feel the promptings of a deeper call through a passage that leaped to her eyes every time she opened the Bible: "Arise, go... sell all you possess... take up your cross and follow me." Consulting with various priests and the bishop of the diocese, she began her lay apostolate among the poor in Toronto in the early 1930???s, calling it Friendship House.

Because her approach was so different from what was being done at the time, she encountered much persecution and resistance, and Friendship House was forced to close in 1936. Catherine then went to Europe and spent a year investigating Catholic Action. On her return, she was given the chance to revive Friendship House in New York City among the poor in Harlem. After that she was invited to open another Friendship House in Chicago.

In 1943, having received an annulment of her first marriage, she married Eddie Doherty, one of America???s foremost reporters, who had fallen in love with her while writing a story about her apostolate.

Meanwhile, serious disagreements had arisen between the staff of Friendship House and its foundress. When these could not be resolved, Catherine and Eddie moved to Combermere, Ontario, Canada on May 17, 1947, naming their new rural apostolate Madonna House Apostolate|Madonna House. This was to be the seedbed of an apostolate that, in the year 2000, numbered more than 200 staff workers and over 125 associate priests, deacons, and bishops, with 22 missionary field-houses throughout the world.

Catherine Doherty died on December 14, 1985 in Combermere at the age of 89. Since then, the cause for Catherine???s canonization as a saint has been officially opened in the Catholic Church.

[go back to top]

Her Spirituality

The core of Catherine Doherty's spirituality is summarized in what she called "The Little Mandate" ??? words which she believed she received from Jesus|Jesus Christ and which guided her life.

<blockquote>
The Little Mandate
Arise???go! Sell all you possess. Give it directly, personally to the poor. Take up My cross (their cross) and follow Me, going to the poor, being poor, being one with them, one with Me.
Little???be always little! Be simple, poor, childlike.
Preach the Gospel with your life???without compromise! Listen to the Spirit. He will lead you.
Do little things exceedingly well for love of Me.
Love... love... love, never counting the cost.
Go into the marketplace and stay with Me. Pray, fast. Pray always, fast.
Be hidden. Be a light to your neighbour???s feet. Go without fears into the depth of men???s hearts. I shall be with you.
Pray always. I will be your rest.
</blockquote>

[go back to top]

Her Notable Awards

St. George Medal, for bravery on the Russian Front

St. Anne Medal, for continuing in the line of duty under attack

Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Papal Decoration Medal, awarded by Pope John XXIII

Insignia of the Holy Cross, awarded by Pope John XXIII for "exceptional and outstanding work for the Church and for the Pope," 1960

Member of the Order of Canada, "for a lifetime of devoted services to the underprivileged of many nationalities, both in Canada and abroad," 1976

Jules Favre Foundation Award, Acad??mie fran??aise

Dame of Order of St. John of Jerusalem

Woman of the Year, World Union of Catholic Women???s Organizations, Rome

International Mark Twain Society

Poverello Medal

Teresa of Avila Award

Thomas Aquinas|Aquinas Award

International Franciscan Award

Athol Murray Award

Honorary degree|Honourary Doctorates in Humane Letters and Sacred Letters

[go back to top]

Her Name

While she is now known best as simply Catherine Doherty, she first became well known by her first married name, Catherine de Hueck, and after her second marriage some of her books were published under the name Catherine de Hueck Doherty (the file in the Vatican detailing her cause for canonization carries this name at present). Her maiden name was Kolyschkine. Various forms of the name Catherine have also been used on rare occasions — Katie, Katia, Katerina, etc., and for a time she used the pseudonym Katie Hook. Catherine was often called "the Baroness" and, affectionately, "the B."

[go back to top]