The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in the United States in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ". One of its guiding principles is hospitality towards those on the margin of society, based on the principles of communitarianism and personalism. To this end, the movement claims over 240 local Catholic Worker communities providing social services. Each house has a different mission, going about the work of social justice in its own way, suited to its local region.
Image: Dorothy Day, 1916 (cropped)
Image: Peter Maurin
Dorothy Day was an American journalist, social activist and anarchist who, after a bohemian youth, became a Catholic without abandoning her social and anarchist activism. She was perhaps the best-known political radical among American Catholics.
Day in 1916
Dorothy Day Baptism and Confirmation records from the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour, Chicago, circa 1911.
Dorothy Day and sister Della outside the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour, Chicago, circa 1910.
Day in 1934