Servant of God Dorothy Day (1897-1980) was a pacifist, social commentator, journalist, convert to Catholicism, and cofounder of the Catholic Worker movement. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she was baptized in the Episcopal Church. Day lived her young adult life as a political radical and socialist, sympathizing with anarchists and communists. She was increasingly drawn to Catholicism because she saw it as the Church of immigrants and the poor. After giving birth to her daughter Tamar in 1926, Day converted to Catholicism. Day cofounded the Catholic Worker movement in 1933 with Peter Maurin to live and spread the vision of Catholic social teaching. Day was honored by the University of Notre Dame with the Laetare Medal in 1972. She died in 1980 in New York and her cause for canonization was launched by Cardinal John J. O'Connor, Archbishop of New York, in 1997 on what would have been her one-hundredth birthday.
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Reviews
Commonweal "This 1948 book is full of high-grade ore and some unforgettable passages that demonstrate not only Day's gripping reportage but her luminous humanity and spirit. . . . We cannot but learn from her many pilgrimages, and this 1948 collection, circumscribed and limited though it may be, reveals something essential and timelessly challenging about her." Expository Times "Dorothy Day, a putative twentieth-century saint of American Catholics, founder of the Catholic Worker movement, has bequeathed to posterity diary entries for 1948. Accompanied as they are by an introductory setting-of-the-scene chapter, they constitute a searing critique of facets of modern western society and culture, allied to a relentless hopeful resolve that refused to be daunted, and a love of the church triumphantly surviving clear-eyed recognition of its warts. Here is a rebuke to complacency, completely devoid of sentimentality, and a challenge to action." New Oxford Review "Happily, Eerdmans has brought Dorothy Day's On Pilgrimage back into print. If you are only going to read one book by Dorothy Day, read this one. It is likely the best introduction available to her ideas and character." Publishers Weekly "This collection . . . offers an intimate glimpse into Day's life and work. . . Whether she's writing about a visit to her daughter's farm or her work with the poor, Day locates the gift of God's love in every moment."