Dorothy Day Guild History

The Dorothy Day Guild was established in 2005, five years after Cardinal John O’Connor officially requested the opening of her cause, designating Msgr. Gregory Mustaciuolo as postulator. A guild is a group of friends and supporters of an individual’s cause for sainthood. Members of the Dorothy Day Guild pray and advocate for Dorothy’s canonization and work to promote her legacy and unique witness to the Gospel. 

The Dorothy Day Guild’s earliest members were present at the first exploratory meeting Cardinal O’Connor convened where they reflected together on Dorothy’s sanctity and on the uniqueness of her legacy, laying the groundwork for his decision to petition Rome.

Much of the Guild’s work since 2005 has been assisting in gathering the extensive evidence attesting to Dorothy’s holiness, including interviews with family, friends, and associates; copies of all the writings by and about her; and transcriptions of her diaries and journals – an immense task given Dorothy’s decades-long writing career! As part of this canonical process, over one hundred volunteers, including many Guild members, worked on the official transcriptions of Dorothy’s personal letters and journals.

Since its foundation, the Guild has also been at work promoting Dorothy’s legacy of voluntary poverty and Gospel nonviolence through writing and educational events. The Guild’s newsletter has been a source for original scholarship on Dorothy, reflections from the Catholic Worker and other peace movements within the Church, and personal testimonies from those whose lives have been changed by their encounters with Dorothy both during her lifetime and after her death. The Guild has also organized many events over the years to bring the faithful together to learn and pray about how to carry this legacy forward and share Dorothy’s witness to the Gospel with those who have yet to encounter her story.

In 2015, the Guild put out a call for petitions from the faithful in support of Dorothy’s canonization, including any evidence of special requests, or favors that had been granted when they prayed through Dorothy’s intercession. Devotion among the faithful was already widespread; even before the formal establishment of the Guild, many people who had known or been inspired by Dorothy’s legacy had been praying to her.

The Guild celebrated the closing of the diocesan phase and the beginning of the Roman stage of the canonization process in December of 2021, when the evidence attesting to Dorothy’s holiness was officially sealed and sent to the Vatican.

In this new moment, the Guild has moved from an office in the Archdiocesan Center to Manhattan College in the Bronx. We are now eagerly awaiting news from Rome while we continue to work, pray, and attempt to live out Dorothy’s legacy in our own communities!