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Our history as a community goes back to Catherine’s response to God’s call. Her first efforts were focused on finding a way of bringing the Gospel to the poorest of the poor in Toronto, Canada, in the mid-1930’s. Archbishop Neil McNeil gave permission to open Friendship House where Catherine and a small group of young men and women sought to live poorly themselves and help the mainly struggling Eastern European immigrants who were coming to Canada at that time. People were hungry; they needed clothing and other basic necessities, as well as help entering the job market.
But there was more. Catherine saw the deeper hunger to know the love of Jesus Christ for all who suffer as he did. So she began to evangelize in simple but very creative ways. Unjust persecution led to the closing of the Friendship Houses that were established in various cities in Canada, but the work soon continued in other forms under Catherine’s leadership, culminating in the present community of the Madonna House Apostolate.
Catherine moved to Combermere, Ontario, Canada, in 1947. There, building on the foundations laid in Friendship House, she founded a new apostolate. Madonna House began like Friendship House had, as a group of laypeople including her husband, Eddie Doherty. With the arrival of Fr. John Callahan and a number of priests in the early 1950s, the membership grew to include priests as well.
At the suggestion of Pope Pius XII, members have been making a commitment to dedicate themselves to Madonna House for life as celibate men and women since 1954. The total membership now numbers approximately 200 — laymen, women, and priests.
The original field of activity of Madonna House was a rural apostolate to the local people in and around Combermere, but the increasing number of guests seeking spiritual and vocational guidance made it necessary to separate what were really two different apostolates.
Madonna House itself developed as a Training Center for lay apostles. Over the years many thousands of live-in guests and volunteers have received invaluable formation here that has served as a basis for vocational commitments later on, or renewal of commitments already made. Among the hundreds of guests each year some receive a vocational call to join Madonna House itself. The scope of the Apostolate now extends from our training center in Combermere to eighteen mission houses in various countries.
