| Catherine Doherty |
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HER LIFE She was born Catherine Fyodorovna Kolyschkine in Nizhny Novgorod , Russia . Her parents, Theodore and Emma Kolyschkine, belonged to the minor Nobility and were devout members of the Russian Orthodox Church who had their child baptized in St. Petersburg on September 15 , 1896. Schooled abroad because of her father's job, Catherine and her family returned to St. Petersburg in 1910 , where she was enrolled in the prestigious Princess Obolensky Academy . In 1912 , aged 15, she made what turned out to be a disastrous marriage with her first cousin, Boris de Hueck ( 1889 – 1947 ). At the outbreak of World War I , Catherine de Hueck became a Red Cross nurse at the front, experiencing the horrors of battle firsthand. On her return to St. Petersburg, she and Boris barely escaped the turmoil of the Russian Revolution with their lives, nearly starving to death as refugees in Finland . Together they made their way to England , where Catherine was received into the Roman Catholic Church on November 27 , 1919 . Emigrating to Canada with Boris, Catherine gave birth to their only child, George, in Toronto in 1921 . Soon she and Boris became more and more painfully estranged from one another, as he pursued extramarital affairs. To make ends meet, Catherine took various jobs and eventually became a Lecturer , travelling a circuit that took her across North America . Friendship House See Also: Friendship House Prosperous now, but deeply dissatisfied with a life of material comfort, her marriage in ruins, Catherine began to feel the promptings of a deeper call through a passage that leaped to her eyes every time she opened the of the Diocese , she began her lay apostolate among the poor in Toronto in the early 1930s , calling it Friendship House . Because her interracial approach was so different from what was being done at the time, she encountered much Persecution and resistance, and Friendship House was forced to close in 1936 . Catherine then went to Europe and spent a year investigating Catholic Action . On her return, she was given the chance to revive Friendship House in New York City among the poor in Harlem . In time, more than a dozen Friendship Houses would be founded in North America. In 1943 , having received an Annulment of her first marriage, she married Eddie Doherty , one of America's foremost Reporters , who had fallen in love with her while writing a story about her apostolate. Madonna House See Also: Madonna House Apostolate Serious disagreements arose between the staff of Friendship House and its foundress, particularly surrounding her marriage. When these could not be resolved, Catherine and Eddie moved to Combermere , Ontario , Canada on May 17 , 1947 , naming their new rural apostolate Madonna House . This was to be the seedbed of an apostolate that, in the year 2000 , numbered more than 200 staff workers and over 125 associate priests, deacons, and bishops, with 22 Missionary field-houses throughout the world. Catherine Doherty died on December 14 , 1985 in Combermere at the age of 89. Since then, the cause for Catherine's Canonization as a saint has been officially opened in the Catholic Church. HER SPIRITUALITY The Little Mandate The core of Catherine Doherty's spirituality is summarized in a "distillation" of the Gospel which she called "The Little Mandate" — words which she believed she received from Jesus Christ and which guided her life. It reads:
The spirituality expressed in The Little Mandate is also known as "the Madonna House way of life." The duty of the moment A central theme in Catherine Doherty's spirituality is ''the duty of the moment'':
Poustinia See Also: Poustinia Catherine Doherty is perhaps best known for having introduced the concept of . A poustinia is a small, sparsely furnished cabin or room where one goes to Pray and Fast alone in the presence of God for 24 hours. HER NOTABLE AWARDS
HER NAME While she is now known best as simply Catherine Doherty, she first became well known by her first married name, Catherine de Hueck, and after her second marriage some of her books were published under the name Catherine de Hueck Doherty (the file in the Vatican detailing her cause for canonization carries this name at present). Her Maiden Name was Kolyschkine. Various forms of the name Catherine have also been used on rare occasions — Katie, Katia, Katerina, etc., and for a time she used the Pseudonym Katie Hook. Catherine was often called "the Baroness" and, affectionately, "the B." SEE ALSO
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