The Madonna House Apostolate is a Catholic Christian community of laymen, women, and priests, all of whom take lifelong promises of poverty, chastity, and obedience and who are dedicated to loving and serving Jesus Christ in all areas of life. Madonna House was founded in 1947 by Catherine Doherty in Combermere, Ontario and has established mission houses throughout the world. It is recognized by the Catholic Church as an Association of the Faithful. History Catherine de Hueck Doherty (1896-1985), foundress of the Madonna House Apostolate, was born in Russia to wealthy, deeply Christian parents. Baptized in the Russian Orthodox faith, she was taught that each person was Christ, and that we were especially called to serve him in the poor. Prayer was love, expressed through service in all areas of human life. Having survived the maelstrom of World War I, the Russian revolution and civil war, Catherine and her husband, Boris de Hueck, were admitted to England as refugees in 1919. While there, Catherine was received into the Catholic Church. In 1920 they immigrated to Toronto, Canada, where Catherine struggled to support her husband and infant son. She eventually regained a level of prosperity but was pursued by an inner call to give away her possessions and to go live with and serve the poor. This call, radical for its time, was blessed by the Bishop of Toronto, Rev. Neil MacNeil. To Catherine’s surprise, other people, drawn by her gospel witness, begged to join her. This was the beginning of Friendship House in Toronto. They begged food and clothing for those in need, and Catherine countered Communist propaganda with the social teachings of the Catholic Church. When misunderstandings and calumny forced the closure of Friendship House in 1936, Catherine moved to Harlem in New York to serve the Afro-Americans. She denounced the way practicing Catholics could deny Christ in their black brothers. Once again a community formed around her, prospered, and spread to other cities. Following the annulment of her marriage, Catherine’s wed the successful Irish-American newspaper reporter Eddie Doherty, and this union became a source of contention in Friendship House. Her broader vision of the apostolate was neither understood nor accepted by her coworkers.]To avoid further division, and shattered by yet another rejection, Catherine and Eddie withdrew to the village of Combermere, in Ontario, intending to quietly live out their retirement. But once again, people came to join her,