Table Of ContentD O ROT H Y DAY
A n D T H e
c AT H O l i c wO R k e R
D O ROT H Y DAY
A n D T H e
c AT H O l i c wO R k e R
The Miracle of Our Continuance
Photographs by Vivian Cherry
Text by Dorothy Day
Edited, with an Introduction and Additional Text by Kate Hennessy
empire state editions
An imprint of Fordham University Press
New York 2016
Catholic Practice in North America
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell and John C. Seitz, series editors
Funding for this book was provided by
Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker : the miracle of our continuance / photographs by Vivian
Cherry ; Text by Dorothy Day ; Edited, with an Introduction and Additional Text by Kate
Hennessy. — First edition.
pages cm. — (Catholic practice in North America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8232-7136-8 (hardback)
1. Day, Dorothy, 1897–1980—Portraits. 2. Catholic Worker Movement—Pictorial works. 3. New
York (N.Y.)—Social conditions—20th century—Pictorial works. I. Hennessy, Kate, 1960– edi-
tor. II. Cherry, Vivian, 1920– Photographs. Selections. III. Day, Dorothy, 1897–1980. Works.
Selections.
BX4705.D283D66 2016
267’.182—dc23
2015036364
Printed in Italy
18 17 16 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
Vivian dedicates this book to Steven and Linda Rachel Schmidt
Kate dedicates this book to all those who are continuing the
Catholic Worker traditions, especially the New York City houses—
Maryhouse and St. Joseph’s
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Introduction 1
1. House of Hospitality 16
2. The Paper 43
3. The Farm 60
4. The Duty of Delight 84
5. Protest and Prison 107
6. Prayer 116
Epilogue: What Can One Person Do? 128
Excerpt Sources 130
Index of Photos 133
prEfaCE
I
t is difficult to imagine American Catholicism today without
Dorothy Day. Compelling and prophetic, she captures the
imagination through her vision and work for a world, as she was fond
of saying, “where it is easier to be good.” Dorothy Day spent her
life not only championing the poor but also, guided by the works of
mercy, feeding, clothing, and sheltering the poorest of the poor. She
did so in a way as simple as it is breathtaking, while living among them
and giving up her own longing for peace, privacy, and comfort.
Dorothy Day was born on November 8, 1897, in Brooklyn,
New York, third child of five to Grace Satterlee and John Isaac Day.
Raised in a newspaper family, she started working as a journalist at
the age of eighteen. After the birth of her daughter, Tamar Teresa,
in 1926, Dorothy converted to Catholicism, and in 1933, influenced
by Peter Maurin, a French peasant and day laborer with a Catholic
program of social action, she launched the Catholic Worker newspa-
per. The paper’s mission was to speak to the growing numbers of
homeless and unemployed at the height of the Great Depression.
This quickly turned into the creation of a house of hospitality in the
tenements of lower Manhattan as it became clear that Dorothy and
Peter not only had to speak of the social problems of the day, but
they needed to help the people they were addressing in any way
they could. The opening of the house of hospitality was closely fol-
lowed by the purchase of a farm as a way to provide work and food.
ix
From these small beginnings, the Catholic Worker movement was
launched, and from a first run of 2,500 in May 1933, three years later
the paper reached a circulation of 150,000.
Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker: The Miracle of Our Contin-
uance is a collection of photographs taken by Vivian Cherry, a pho-
tographer on assignment, twenty-two years after that small begin-
ning, over the course of several weeks in 1955 and on a return visit in
1959. In 1955, the Catholic Worker was based on the Lower East Side
of Manhattan, from which the movement continued to publish the
paper, fed hundreds of men on the daily soup line, and permanently
housed dozens of people. There were also two farms, Maryfarm sixty
miles north in Newburgh, New York, and the Peter Maurin Farm on
Staten Island.
The photographs have been arranged in a manner that reflects
the essential work and philosophies of the Catholic Worker. These
elements existed from its beginnings, were present when these pho-
tos were taken, and are still going strong today. Each chapter is ac-
companied by a selection of excerpts taken from Dorothy Day’s col-
umn “On Pilgrimage” and other articles she published in the Catholic
Worker, spanning forty-seven years from 1933 to 1980. (Sources for
the excerpts, along with photo captions, are provided at the end of
the book.) Dorothy considered writing her vocation. As a journalist,
she wrote numerous articles for publications other than the Catholic
Worker, and she published five books, including The Long Loneliness,
the story of her conversion, which has remained in print since 1952.
Dorothy died on November 29, 1980, in her room at
Maryhouse in Manhattan, the women’s house of hospitality she’d
opened four years previously. In 2000, Cardinal John J. O’Connor of
New York City opened her cause for canonization, and the Vatican
subsequently conferred on her the title of Servant of God. The
Dorothy Day Guild has been formed to further the cause, which was
unanimously endorsed in 2012 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops. The Catholic Worker continues to thrive and expand—
x
