Dorothy Day has been called many things: an activist, a journalist, a radical, a bohemian, a mother, a convert, a mystic, a prophet, a faithful daughter of the Church.  After her death in 1980, historian David O’Brien famously called her “the most important, interesting, and influential figure in the history of American Catholicism.”

And then there are the many who call her, quite simply, a saint. Years ago, Archdiocese of New York’s Cardinal John O’Connor wrote in Catholic New York, the archdiocesan newspaper, “Shortly after I announced the study of Cardinal Cooke’s life [as a candidate for sainthood], several people wrote to ask me: ‘Why not Dorothy Day?’… It’s a good question. Indeed, it’s an excellent question.” The Cardinal pondered the question aloud in a homily given at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on November 9, 1997, a day after the hundredth anniversary of Dorothy Day’s birth. He recognized that some might object to his taking up the cause of canonization for Dorothy Day because “she was a protester against some things that people confuse with Americanism itself.” Others, he said, might argue that she was already widely recognized as a saint and therefore formal canonization was not needed. “Perhaps,” Cardinal O’Connor acknowledged, but went on to ask “Why does the Church canonize saints? In part,” he said, “so that their person, their works and their lives will become that much better known, and that they will encourage others to follow in their footsteps — and so the Church may say, ‘This is sanctity, this is the road to eternal life.’ ”