Dorothy Day died on November 29, 1980. For many people who consider her a saint, this day would be her feast day.
I am very confident that Dorothy Day was directly involved in my decision to move to Camden twelve years ago. I vividly recall the very moment I knew it was a done deal. Fr. Michael Doyle, the now retired pastor of Sacred Heart Church in South Camden, lured me to the city in a small walking tour of the ‘hood’ surrounding the church. It ended in the house which would become a studio space of my very own. He told me that the beauty I would create within those walls would reverberate throughout the neighborhood, bringing much needed peace and joy- because there is great healing power in beauty.
At the time, I was putting the final touches on Saved By Beauty, my book on Dorothy Day. My head was swimming with the many images, quotes, and stories I had developed about her; and about her deep love for beauty, music, and art. She loved to quote Dostoevsky, her favorite Russian novelist: “In the end, beauty will save the world.” When I told Fr. Doyle that his passion for beauty, peace, and justice reminded me very much of Dorothy’s, he replied in his lilting Irish brogue, “Ah, she was good lady.” That sealed the deal: I accepted his invitation right on the spot and occupied the studio six months later.
In the course of my research, I learned that Dorothy loved St. Francis de Sales, which only strengthened the deep spiritual connections I was already feeling toward her because of her love of beauty. Dorothy was a superb journalist, and as Patron of Journalists, St. Francis played a prominent role in her decision to start the Catholic Worker newspaper. She saw it as her God-given mission to write the truth about what it means to be a prophetic witness of Christ in our modern world, torn apart as it is by constant war and violence, racism and poverty. Like St. Francis, she was a writer with a great reformer’s heart- unafraid to express her own truth, which she expressed perfectly well.
St. Francis de Sales said, “We pray best before beauty.” Dorothy said, “Seek beauty everywhere.” Each of them remind us that beauty is everywhere because God is everywhere- most especially in those marginal nooks and crannies of our broken world where you might least expect to find it. St. Francis spoke of patience as a little virtue with great power; in her journals and letters, Dorothy wrote frequently about her need for patience as she faced major trials and minor tribulations on any given day at the Catholic Worker house.
In dark times of division, unrest, and anxiety- whether we Live Jesus in Annecy, France, the lower east side of Manhattan, or Camden, NJ- we must patiently recall in the heart of every present moment that, “In the end, beauty will save the world.”
Brother Mickey McGrath. OSFS
