The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist

“The Long Loneliness” is the autobiography of Catholic social activist Dorothy Day (1897-1980). Day was the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, which, beginning in 1933, established grassroots, autonomous communities that realized Catholic social teaching through outreach to the poor and disenfranchised. Her autobiography covers her formative years, her involvement in various social justice causes including workers and suffragette movements, her conversion to Catholicism (and the impact of that on her personal life), and her friendship with the Catholic Worker co-founder, Peter Maurin (1877-1949).Despite living in a non-religious family, Day was drawn to God from an early age (“my heart leaped when I heard the name of God” p. 12). As she grew into adulthood, she rebelled against these earlier leanings while becoming more involved in social justice causes, associating with, though not joining, American Communists and socialists. Later on as a young adult, Day once again explored her desire for the Divine, and her budding interest in Catholicism. Living on Staten Island, she gave birth to a daughter, Tamar, with a common-law husband, a biologist who had an aversion to religion. The relationship foundered as Day sought to have Tamar baptized, and to enter the Church herself. Although the Church hierarchy did not always side with Day on her views of social justice, she found that her social activism found meaning in her faith. It was her friend Peter Maurin who provided the Catholic doctrinal and theological underpinnings of both the Catholic Worker Movement and Day’s own social activism. His belief in the centrality of agrarian life also redirected many Catholic Worker activities early on from the city to the country.“The Long Loneliness” is a spiritual autobiography that is at once both in the tradition of Saint Augustine and apart from it. Allusion to Augustine’s “Confessions” is evident right from the start in the title of the first chapter, “Confession,” with its discussion of the Roman Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation, commonly referred simply as confession. Unlike Augustine’s work, and that of the modern master of the form, Thomas Merton, whose “The Seven Storey Mountain” just predates Day’s, in 1948, “The Long Loneliness” does not so much address God directly. Moreover, the two earlier works bear the heavy imprint of the later man on the child and young adult, which is a filtering less evident in Day’s book.Although Day states early in her book (p. 11) that she will focus on herself and not on others (“I feel hesitant to go too deeply in writing of other lives”), a good part of the early book is an accounting of American social activism in the early twentieth century, and the second half is largely focused on her friend Peter. There is spiritual autobiography here, but Day seems to be almost uncomfortable putting herself in the spotlight and so tends to steer away from discussing in any detail some of her early relationships. Nonetheless, she is one of the few who have been considered for canonization as a Catholic saint who has admitted in a positive way the pleasure of sex and human relationships.The title comes from these words by the English nun Mary Ward (1585-1645): “the long loneliness you hear me speak of is not far from me….” Day uses the expression a few times in her book as well as in other writings, including “The Catholic Worker” newspaper. It first appears in her book in reference to feeling lonely after moving to New York City: “I felt the spell of the long loneliness descend on me.” Her childhood closeness to one of her sisters had lessened as Day matured, and she “found no friends; I had no work; I was separated from my fellows” (p. 51). Much later, when her daughter Tamar is a mother herself, Day is reminded “how alone a mother of young children always is” (p. 243). Then again, Day references it in addressing the martyr-like challenge of resisting war when even the Church acquiesces to it: “Again the long loneliness to be faced” (p. 273). Day reveals how to resolve the long loneliness: “we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community” (p. 286). In the Christian context, love and community being so central to the idea of being a follower of Jesus, this revelation is not so remarkable. But in the context of a life selflessly and tirelessly devoted to social justice and peace, these words reflect Day’s observation that one can be surrounded be people and still be lonely. It is in freely giving to others one’s love, however, that one finds community and love is returned.“The Long Loneliness” is an important book about a twentieth-century American saint. Her story reminds us that saints are not sinless, but are God’s heroes in spite of it—or even because of it. Her story is not always compelling reading—the history of early twentieth-century American social activism is not page-turning material, unless by “page turning” you’re skipping over it—but she engages the reader when she turns to her life and Maurin’s. Then, at last you might understand “the long loneliness” and so look into the heart and soul of a saint.

Enjoying the book

Though we have a new president now, we're still living in Trump's America, let's face it -- where many people think you're "smart" if you make millions but pay no taxes, "tough" if you insult and demean others, and "successful" if you live in mansion with gold toilets. Given the regrettable pervasiveness of this ethic of self-interest, vanity and greed, it's refreshing to read a book by someone who devoted her whole life -- motivated by a real love for people and with total humility -- to acting on the Judeo-Christian values that we purportedly adhere to. I've been intrigued by the legend of Dorothy Day for many years and by her work in the Catholic Worker movement to alleviate poverty and provide communal support to the marginalized and dispossessed members of our society, who comprise such a large portion of America even today. In this book she describes what that life was like in language that's so blunt, unadorned and matter-of-fact that she seems to be saying, Given the society we live in, what else I could do! By today's standards, even the most secular among us would consider her a "saint" and a true inspiration.That being said, given Day's training as a journalist and writer, I was disappointed by this book as an autobiography. Aside from a vague sense of chronology that's stronger in her childhood years, the book seems to become increasingly amorphous as she relates what happened in her adult life -- with a frustrating absence of actual dates -- and often digresses into stories about friends or coworkers who, even when this book was first published, would have been unknown to most readers. At the tale end of the book, she sometimes strays into what I can only describe as religious reveries, using liturgical and religious language that even to me, once a devout Catholic, just seemed like gibberish. Those few passages are certainly not a reason to avoid this book, but if what you want is a detailed biography of Dorothy Day, you might look elsewhere.

Dorothy Day’s autobiography is a candid rendition of the faith-based community that she created together with the French Catholic theologian and writer Peter Maurin. The story of her life reveals the paradoxical struggle between her profound loneliness and intense joy. The two emotions of loneliness and joy are never at cross purposes and instead hang in the balance, protected by the bliss of knowing God. Aside from being an inspiration for our own spiritual journeys, Dorothy Day’s astute descriptions of Socialism, Communism, Libertarianism, Democracy, Pacifism, and Catholicism clearly articulate the struggle between labor and capitalism, poverty and greed, and good and evil. The book is not always smoothly written, which can sometimes be a distraction, especially when Day uses her own private lexicon and syntax to craft clumsy sentences. Overall, the work is as imperfect as we all are as human beings. As a final takeaway, we get more than a glimpse into the mission underlying the Catholic Worker; in the words of Peter Maurin: “We want to make the kind of society where it’s easier for people to be good.”

This is not a biography, certainly not hagiography, but the story of Dorothy Day's life told by herself; her search for the truth and for a way of life that could be lived in accordance with that vision, when she had found it. Life was , in the heart of things, often a loneliness, but she found companionship, friendship, and the love of God; and so, she kept going : on the sidewalks, in the slums, wherever she found poverty and misery that could be alleviated. Peter Maurin was her prophet and inspiration, but Dorothy put Peter's ideas into action with an added power. This is a book that really can be life-changing!

My fault. I was looking for the wisdom of a great Christian woman and chose a story of her life.

amazing woman. A sincere life. inspirational story.

A woman who I would have liked to meet

I was hoping for some looser days. But day was always peaceful. What is the long lonliness? It changes a bit