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Dorothy Day: From bohemian to beatitude

Dorothy Day: From bohemian to beatitude

Mary McCleary

Of all the modern examples of holiness, Dorothy Day may well be the most approachable. During her bohemian years, she had a number of affairs, an abortion, lived out of wedlock, attempted suicide twice, and became a radical socialist. But all the while she longed for deeper meaning, with an unquenchable desire to help the downtrodden.

Day was born in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York into a stable, middle class family. Although her Episcopalian parents were not churchgoers, they instilled in her a solid Protestant work ethic and a respect for scripture that she retained all her life. Her father, a journalist, moved the family to San Francisco in 1903. In the great earthquake of 1906, her father's newspaper plant was destroyed, and he was left unemployed. It was Dorothy's first encounter with misfortune, and seeing the misery of the people in the city left an indelible impression on the young girl.

Civil War chivalry at Appomattox
Civil War

Civil War chivalry at Appomattox

Mary McCleary

The "Annals of America" contains a stirring account of the momentous encounter between Generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant at the village of Appomattox Court House. The author of the document was Brigadier General Horace Porter, Grant's aide-de-camp. Porter vividly describes the historic meeting of April 9, 1865, at which Grant and Lee discussed the terms of surrender. A little known detail of the event transformed the tenor of the occasion, and helped reconcile the warring officers and nation.

The locale chosen for the meeting was the home of Wilmer McLean, who had the finest residence in Appomattox Court House. Porter noted the features of the house in minute detail, from the seven steps of the porch to the conical-shaped inkstand to the number and location of the doors and windows. Clearly, the historic event had left its imprint on his memory.

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