A Tour of the Madonna House Training Centre

Catherine and Eddie, Bridges and Cabins

Catherine Doherty and Eddie Doherty arrived in Combermere to stay in 1947, with the invitation of Bishop William J. Smith of Pembroke to start a rural apostolate. It was either the end of their apostolic road or the beginning — time would tell.

Their decision to move to Combermere came after a turbulent time in Friendship House (founded by Catherine in 1930). Catherine knew her apostolate was intended to cover the world and encompass every area of life. To her vision was added the extraordinary ability to go to the heart of the Gospel of Jesus and to make it practical in every aspect. Having been in the centre of the action in the inner cities of New York and Chicago in Friendship House, tiny, rural Combermere was indeed a total change.

It was to an unfinished six-room house that they arrived, after having seen the dissolution of Catherine's dream of Friendship House. Would she, could she, begin again from nothing to build a house of love? Could it be from here that her universal apostolate of the tenderness of God would begin again?

The early years were years of dark faith, in which the seed had to fall into the ground and die. They were years of doubt and years of wondering. The new shoot that emerged was to become known as Madonna House. It would become a house of love, the centre from which all the field houses of Madonna House would go forth — the heart from which each new branch would be sustained and renewed.

This was not evident in 1947, when only Catherine and Eddie and one undaunted staff worker from Friendship House were here. In darkness, the seed that germinated was made of simple little things, like the life of the Holy Family in Nazareth.

In time, people came to live their life's vocation at Madonna House. In time, priests came as well. Madonna House was to become a new family within the Catholic Church known as a public association of the faithful. It was to become a place of bridges, physical bridges and spiritual bridges.

Let us begin with the first bridge, the one that takes us to the island where, through prayer, suffering, writing and action, Catherine forged the way of life that was being given to her by the Holy Spirit. The bridge leading to her cabin is but a few steps from the mainland where the original six-room house is located. But it was a long journey of faith that landed Catherine here when she and Eddie took a promise of celibacy for the sake of the spiritual children who were to come from their faith. Eddie would later become a priest of a Catholic Eastern rite in communion with Rome.

Those who would receive the vocation to live the life of Nazareth at Madonna House would have to live in poverty, chastity and obedience. They would do so as a family.

There would be three branches of the Madonna House family: one of priests, one of women, and one of men. One would not be greater than the other. They would love and serve one another, laying down their lives for one another to restore the vision of family as it was lived in Nazareth by Jesus, Mary and Joseph. They would not exist for themselves — they would learn the ways of love and carry that love to whatever place they would be sent. They would function as one, being careful to preserve their unity of mind and heart. The Russian word that Catherine used for this deep unity of mind and heart is sobornost.

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