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November 2012

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On Pilgrimage with Dorothy Day

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By Illustrations by Michael O'Neill McGrath, OSFS

Dorothy Day’s public presence is well-known: journalist, 20th-century reformer, cofounder of the Catholic Worker movement, antiwar and civil-rights activist. But beyond her public persona, Day (1897–1980) lived a storied private life. Through her long-running column in the Catholic Worker newspaper, aptly titled “On Pilgrimage,” and her many other works, readers traveled with Day as she embarked on a journey to awaken the social conscience of a nation. Privately, Day was also making a spiritual pilgrimage, seeking personal enlightenment as well.

The following illustrations are from Michael O’Neill McGrath’s new book, Saved by Beauty (World Library Publications). We added text to help tell the story for our readers. All images are used with permission.

Michael O’Neill McGrath, OSFS, is a painter, writer, and speaker who loves to make connections between art and faith. The illustrations in this article are included in his book Saved by Beauty: A Spiritual Journey with Dorothy Day (World Library Publications). Text for this story was written by Assistant Editor Rachel Zawila, who has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri.

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Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi: Mystical ecstasy is the elevation of the spirit to God in such a way that the person is aware of this union with God while both internal and external senses are detached from the sensible world. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi was so generously given this special gift of God that she is called the "ecstatic saint."
<p>She was born into a noble family in Florence in 1566. The normal course would have been for Catherine de' Pazzi to have married wealth and enjoyed comfort, but she chose to follow her own path. At nine she learned to meditate from the family confessor. She made her first Communion at the then-early age of 10 and made a vow of virginity one month later. When 16, she entered the Carmelite convent in Florence because she could receive Communion daily there. </p><p>Catherine had taken the name Mary Magdalene and had been a novice for a year when she became critically ill. Death seemed near so her superiors let her make her profession of vows from a cot in the chapel in a private ceremony. Immediately after, she fell into an ecstasy that lasted about two hours. This was repeated after Communion on the following 40 mornings. These ecstasies were rich experiences of union with God and contained marvelous insights into divine truths. </p><p>As a safeguard against deception and to preserve the revelations, her confessor asked Mary Magdalene to dictate her experiences to sister secretaries. Over the next six years, five large volumes were filled. The first three books record ecstasies from May of 1584 through Pentecost week the following year. This week was a preparation for a severe five-year trial. The fourth book records that trial and the fifth is a collection of letters concerning reform and renewal. Another book, <i>Admonitions</i>, is a collection of her sayings arising from her experiences in the formation of women religious. </p><p>The extraordinary was ordinary for this saint. She read the thoughts of others and predicted future events. During her lifetime, she appeared to several persons in distant places and cured a number of sick people. </p><p>It would be easy to dwell on the ecstasies and pretend that Mary Magdalene only had spiritual highs. This is far from true. It seems that God permitted her this special closeness to prepare her for the five years of desolation that followed when she experienced spiritual dryness. She was plunged into a state of darkness in which she saw nothing but what was horrible in herself and all around her. She had violent temptations and endured great physical suffering. She died in 1607 at 41, and was canonized in 1669.</p>

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