Catherine Doherty 1896-1985
Continuing our mini-series on people I have known who may be canonized, one of the most interesting by far is Catherine Doherty, otherwise known as Baroness de Hueck. Catherine was born and raised in the Russian Orthodox Church. The Bolshevik Revolution drove her and her aristocrat husband Boris de Hueck from Russia. She and her husband were refugees in England and then came at last to the United States. She made a promise to God during her ordeal in the revolution to give her life to Him.
On October 15, 1930, she renewed the promise to the Archbishop of Toronto and began to work as a lay apostle, which was a fairly new idea in the church. Eventually she opened what was called Friendship House to assist the poor and homeless – and she herself became one of them by giving everything away. She opened a Friendship House also in New York City at the request of Fr. John LaFarge, SJ, a pioneer in the civil rights movement. Cardinal Hayes and Cardinal Spellman of New York both supported her. Eventually she remarried a journalist named Eddie Doherty and moved to Combermere in Ontario, Canada. She continued her work, but now in the countryside on a farm where she invited people to come and live a devout humble life. Some of those who came were people with great personal needs. This new project was called Madonna House.
Catherine was a great communicator and a person of immense dynamism. Her work at Madonna House and especially her writings on solitary retreat called Poustinia affected the lives of multitudes of spiritually formed Christians. Father Eugene Fulton at Trinity Retreat is one of the priest associates of Madonna House and has innumerable stories to share with us about Catherine Doherty. The cause of her beatification has been opened in Canada and a number of books telling of her life have been published. You would enjoy visiting the website www.madonnahouse.org/publications. You will be rewarded by reading the life of one of the most interesting Christians of modern times.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR
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