Catherine Doherty

Catherine de Hueck Doherty (née Ekaterina Fyodorovna Kolyschkina; August 15, 1896 – December 14, 1985) was a Russian-born Catholic activist who founded the Madonna House Apostolate in 1947. She was a pioneer in the struggle for interracial justice, spiritual writer, lecturer, and spiritual mother to priests and laity.

She was born in Russia to wealthy parents and came to Canada after escaping the Russian Revolution. During the Great Depression, she founded Friendship House, which served the poor in Toronto. After its closure, she opened Friendship House in Harlem, New York, in 1938, serving the needs of the black community there.

In 1947, Catherine and her second husband, Irish American journalist Eddie Doherty, moved to the village of Combermere, Ontario, where the Madonna House Apostolate, a Catholic community of laymen, laywomen, and priests, developed and flourished.

Among her more than thirty books, many of which blended a profound spirituality of East and West, was the spiritual classic ''Poustinia.'' "A woman in love with God," she strived and taught others to live the Gospel without compromise.

Doherty's cause for beatification has been introduced in 2000, granting her the title Servant of God. Provided by Wikipedia