Illustration by Christopher Cardinale from “Dorothy Day: Radical Devotion” by Jeffry Odell Korgen (Paulist Press, 2024)

On September 24, 2015, Pope Francis became the first Pontiff to address the United States Congress. In his remarks, Francis hailed the spirit of Americans who raised up the needs of the country and world in service to the future, not themselves:

The complexities of history and the reality of human weakness notwithstanding, these men and women, for all their many differences and limitations, were able by hard work and self-sacrifice – some at the cost of their lives – to build a better future. They shaped fundamental values which will endure forever in the spirit of the American people. A people with this spirit can live through many crises, tensions and conflicts, while always finding the resources to move forward, and to do so with dignity. These men and women offer us a way of seeing and interpreting reality. In honoring their memory, we are inspired, even amid conflicts, and in the here and now of each day, to draw upon our deepest cultural reserves.

In his speech, Francis highlighted the witness of four Americans – Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Merton, and Dorothy Day – as exemplars of these values. For many, the former two names will be quite familiar, but the latter names may require some to do a quick Google search. The Cistercian monk Thomas Merton’s writings continue to find new generations of followers, and Dorothy Day’s writings and public witness likewise inspire those who see the intertwining of social justice and radical hospitality.

The witness of Dorothy Day is furthered by a new graphic novel retelling of her life and work: “Dorothy Day: Radical Devotion,” written by Jeffry Odell Korgen (with Friar Mike Lasky of The Order of Friars Minor Conventual) and illustrated by Christopher Cardinale (Paulist Press, 2024). Korgen was part of the effort to have Dorothy Day canonized by the Roman Catholic Church as a “Servant of God,” the initial title of a person under ecclesiastical consideration for sainthood. For many more beyond her own tradition, Day remains a significant 20th-century voice for the poor, already treasured for her decades of steadfast and fierce devotion.

The book sequences Day’s life (1897-1980) into several chapters. The prologue opens with Day’s family living across the Bay when the Great Earthquake of 1906 struck San Francisco. Her parents joined the efforts to provide shelter and food to the suddenly displaced crowding nearby Oakland. Looking around the church hall filled with people, the young Dorothy asked, “Mother, why can’t people treat each other like this all the time?” (p. 5)

This moment was formational for the child who would grow up as a journalist (when female reporters had a harder time getting established) and become involved with writers, intellectuals, unionists, and suffragists as the United States entered the First World War and a turbulent period of change. Day began a relationship with a reporter named Lionel Moise, though it ended when he abandoned Dorothy when she became pregnant. She chose to have an abortion.

Day developed her writing, publishing her first novel in 1924 while experiencing further heartache in subsequent relationships. By 1926, she gave birth to her daughter Tamar with a partner named Forster, baptizing the child into the Roman Catholic faith, though this relationship with Forster came to an impasse when Dorothy herself wished to be baptized and Forster emphatically rejected any desire to be a believer as well.

By 1932, Day reported on a hunger march in Washington, DC for Commonweal magazine. She worried that the march was largely led by Communists and labor activists, with no fellow Roman Catholics in sight. Before she left the rallies in the nation’s capital, she prayed at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, reciting the Magnificat and praying “Here I am, Lord, show me a way to use the gifts you gave for my fellow workers and the poor” (p. 35).

This moment of great devotion was a watershed moment in Day’s life. Shortly after arriving home, she met Peter Maurin, whose passion for a Christian faith suffused by the prophetic texts of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospel teaching of Jesus was a lightning bolt to Day’s discouraged faith. While he could be exasperating in his constant chatter to Day and anyone else in earshot, Maurin inspired Day to begin forming what would be later called The Catholic Worker movement, empowering workers, setting up houses of hospitality and farming communities. When Day asked where this project will find its funding, Maurin replied, “In the history of the Saints, capital was always raised by prayer. God sends you what you need” (p. 39).

With a meager budget, Day began publishing The Catholic Worker in 1933 to spread the message of faith and action for the poor. The early days were filled with privation as well as wonder, as little by little, the various projects proposed by Maurin took shape. Day became a familiar voice, challenging public and episcopal authorities about their inaction or support of inequity. She began supporting striking workers around the country, a move that unsettled some of her own faith back at the Catholic Worker office. Day’s drive to provide a Roman Catholic voice amid some of the nation’s greatest labor tensions raised eyebrows for those more content with the acts of alms and hospitality safely contained in the many places where Catholic Worker volunteers provided services.

As decades passed, Day supported a peaceful resistance to the air raid drills in New York City, decrying the constant tension of only preparing for war. She intersected with Black civil rights leaders including Bayard Rustin and fellow activists like the Roman Catholic priests the Berrigan Brothers and Baptist Clarence Jordan of Koinonia Farm in Georgia. She also began to meet a new generation who cited her writings (particularly her memoir “The Long Loneliness”) as an inspiration and call to their own action. Her FBI file grew apace as her activism irritated J. Edgar Hoover. She wrote many letters to the IRS, rejecting the insistence she pay federal income taxes, citing their use to fund weapons of war.

Day entered her later years still fierce in her convictions. She was a person quite willing to stare down armed police officers and bishops alike. Even after her death in 1980, her witness never faded. In the recent years, the Archdiocese of New York formed a committee to raise her name up for canonization, a befitting effort though one Day herself rejected firmly. In May 1974, Day said, “Don’t make me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily!” (p. 93)

The graphic novel provides a thoughtful and informative introduction to Day’s life and development of her staunchly faith-driven way of serving neighbors in need and questioning the inequities of social and economic systems. She was unafraid to speak for the poor, following the example of Jesus and Christianity’s exemplars of women and men who joined the disenfranchised and gave them food and dignity alike.

For teen and adult readers, this book introduces Day and does not obscure her complexity, struggling with doubt and navigating great challenges, especially when her convictions said to run toward those in need and confront those who needed to be challenged.

May we be unsettled by Dorothy Day, Servant of God!