Friends with Saints Series // Dorothy Day

Friendship, as has been said, consists in a full commitment of the will to another person with a view to that person's good.

-Pope Saint John Paul II

Friendships feed our souls in a very particular way. During these times of social distancing, fall out from a global pandemic, and the ensuring separation we've experienced from our friends and family, we have a special place to turn to for friendship.

The holy women of our Catholic Faith: the Saints, the venerables, the servants of God. We have reason to believe through the Church's guidance that these multitude of unique, relatable, remarkable women are worshipping before the throne of God, taking our intentions before Him. They want us to join them in Heaven, after all.

The Saints, Our Friends

We've assembled a grouping of a dozen women who fit this description, lived in the last century or so, and span all walks of life from vocation to nearly every continent, to a plethora of challenges they faced. Eleven are lay women!

The complete discussion of their lives and reflections on how they lived the Works of Mercy out is available in our Misericordia study.

Let's get to know our heavenly friends better and allow a beautiful friendship (or friendships!) to blossom.

Find more companionship with our sister Saints
and be inspired by their Works of Mercy in Misericordia!

Servant of God Dorothy Day

Dorothy Day is a household name for many American Catholics. She was born in Brooklyn in 1897. Her journey in her faith was a winding road. She described her first twenty-five years as her “searching” era, her middle years as her “natural happiness” when she birthed her daughter, completed her conversion to Catholicism, and then her later years “love is the measure” when she co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement.

During those searching years, she had an abortion. During those middle years, she and her common-law husband had a surprise pregnancy and a daughter. As she grew in her faith journey, he could not accept that she and their daughter chose to be baptized as Catholics. She ultimately ended the relationship.

Later she co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement, working to bring the poor and suffering and homeless into the public eye for Catholics. The Catholic Worker Movement opened houses where hospitality reigned and where meeting people where they were mattered. Donations for food and clothing poured in. The communities tending to the poor and offering them a safe place still exist today.

Dorothy believed that lay people should strive to be saints by suffering for justice, acting in charity, living in community, regular spiritual reading and writing, and desiring to share Christ’s love with those in need. She passed in 1980. She provided literal shelter for the homeless but also outreach to those who needed to hear from a loving faith-filled woman who understood their sins and struggles.

Friends with Saints Series // Dorothy Day #BISblog //Click to tweet

Servant of God Dorothy Day, pray for us!