Catherine Doherty

Catherine Doherty (1896 – 1985)

Catherine Doherty, destined to be one of the great visionaries of peace and social justice in the 20^th Century, was born Ekaterina Kolyschkine into the minor nobility of Czarist Russia. After traveling Europe and the Near East with her diplomat father, Ekaterina married her cousin, Baron de Hueck, at age 15.

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Ekaterina served (along with Czarina Alexandra and her Grand Duchess daughters) as a Red Cross nurse at the front. Still, unlike the empress, her husband, Czar Nicholas II, and their daughters and son, Ekaterina escaped the bloodbath of the Bolshevik Revolution and fled to Finland. From there, Ekaterina (who would be now known as Catherine) and the Baron fled to England, where she fulfilled her secret desire to convert from Russian Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism.

Settling in Canada, Catherine and the Baron divorced due to the Catholic Church’s refusal to allow cousins to marry and, with her newborn son, looked about for a new life. Catherine sold everything as she believed the Gospel commands of Jesus to be followed literally and not metaphorically. She began a life of poverty serving the poorest of the poor of all colors and faiths. Like her dear friend and fellow convert and social justice maverick Dorothy Day, Catherine began outreach in poor urban neighborhoods offering food, housing, and Catholic and secular education. Also, like Dorothy, Catherine was accused of being a Communist.

Friendship House in Toronto expanded into a new foundation in Harlem where, along with the volunteered help of a young Catholic convert named Thomas Merton, Catherine worked among the poor African American community. Catherine married Chicago newspaperman Eddie Doherty and then founded Madonna House, a new apostolate based upon the mystical concept of the Russian “poustinia” or retreat, where one goes in solitude and silence to commune with God before returning to ministry in the world. Her book Poustinia remains a spiritual classic to this day.

Catherine Doherty died in 1985 at the age of 89. Her cause for canonization has been opened up, and she currently holds the title of Servant of God.

The Catherine Doherty tile was created in 2021. Our 12" X 12" signed and numbered reproduction is created on stretch canvas and is suitable for matting and framing.