The new book “Dorothy Day: Radical Devotion” introduces readers to the amazing life of Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church. The book reviews her impact on the church and peace and justice movements and provides an informative understanding of the process of canonization.
An extremely cool fact about the volume: It’s a “graphic biography,” written and illustrated in comic book style. (It’s not a “graphic novel” because Dorothy Day’s unbelievable story is, in fact, true.)
The Jesuit Media Lab caught up with author Jeffry Odell Korgen and illustrator Christopher Cardinale to ask them about the project. We’ll share an excerpt from the book below and most of our interview after the excerpt.
Jesuit Media Lab: Set up the excerpt you’ve shared with us. Could you give us a bit of context for where we are in the story?
Jeff Korgen: We join Dorothy in this excerpt, at the start of Chapter 2. Our first chapter focuses on Dorothy’s period as a young adult journalist, working for two radical publications. She struggles with reconciling her religious impulses with the disdain for religion of most of her friends, including Eugene O’Neil. When she becomes Catholic, it disrupts her relationship with her partner, Forster Batterham (as well as some of these friends), and sets her adventure into uncharted territory.
She struggles for a few years to find her place in this new faith, but tries to find her niche, covering radical movements for the Catholic press. We rejoin Dorothy, after a time jump, at the Hunger March of 1932, a significant demonstration at the time, organized by communists — some of them her old friends. She vents her frustrations with an old friend — Mary Heaton Vorse.
Jesuit Media Lab: Why did you choose the format of graphic biography?
Jeff Korgen: I had worked for two years coordinating Dorothy Day’s cause for sainthood, and I was quite enamored with her story. The drama. The people. The history. I thought, “This would make a great musical!” Then I realized I have no skills in that area! But I had scripted and produced three comics — “Wage Theft Comics,” “Worker Justice Illustrated,” and “Migrant/e,”so the idea of a graphic biography made sense.
Dorothy had a love for art and literature — and this project seemed to be a blending of the two. We could showcase some Catholic Worker art and enter into the drama of her story the way a good Netflix biopic would. Besides, the local stage of canonization is all about the question, “Did she live a life of heroic virtue?” Seems to me that’s what most comics are about!
The local stage of (Dorothy Day’s) canonization is all about the question, “Did she live a life of heroic virtue?” Seems to me that’s what most comics are about!
—Jeff Korgen
Jesuit Media Lab: Christopher, what do you like about the comic-style medium? And why were you drawn to this project?
Christopher Cardinale: Sequential art allows you to create a whole world or universe in two dimensions on a page and tell a story. It can convey anything just as well as the written word. But since I’m a more visually oriented person, I get so much out of seeing an artist’s take on a story. Unlimited possibilities in simple line and color on paper. This format works equally well for telling historical stories as it does for telling fantastical ones. I believe that comics are often more accessible to people than the written word alone. Wordless comics that tell stories in images alone eliminate language barriers altogether.
I work as both an illustrator/cartoonist and a community muralist. My artwork has contained social justice themes for as long as I’ve been working professionally, since the mid ’90s. Whether it’s environmental justice, human rights, housing rights or anti-war themes, almost everything I put out into the world either on a wall or on a page has a basis in these issues.
My family attended Quaker Meetings while I was growing up, so pacifism was extolled as a core value. I was familiar with Dorothy Day’s work, but I didn’t know a lot about her. I was involved in activist communities on the Lower East Side and had a couple of friends who worked and lived at the Catholic Worker. So it seemed natural to me when I was referred to Jeff that this was meant to be.
Dorothy Day lived a 20th-century life that has tremendous lessons for 21st-century people. She’s relatable in a way that many saints are not. The Dorothy Day Guild calls her “a saint for our time,” and I think they’re on to something.
—Jeff Korgen
Jesuit Media Lab: Any content we share online connected to Dorothy Day – podcast episodes, articles, quotes on social media — is extremely popular. Why do you think she continues to resonate today?
Jeff Korgen: Dorothy Day lived a 20th-century life that has tremendous lessons for 21st-century people. She’s relatable in a way that many saints are not. The Dorothy Day Guild calls her “a saint for our time,” and I think they’re on to something. She’s also a person that both Catholic “progressives” and “conservatives” find attractive, which makes her a person who can bridge the divisions we see in the church today.
Jesuit Media Lab: What parts of her story do each of you personally find most compelling?
Jeff Korgen: I’m a convert myself, so that internal struggle, that magnet pulling her toward the truth, is something I could relate to. When she is in tears, praying in the basement church of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, praying for guidance, I’ve been there, as have so many of us. “Here I am, Lord!”
Also, the way she kept her relationship to the Archdiocese of New York strong, so that even Cardinal Spellman would vouch for her as authentic to J. Edgar Hoover. And those two got into some heated conflicts — especially, as we show, over the archdiocesan cemetery workers’ strike of 1949.
Christopher Cardinale: It is hard to think about an aspect of Dorothy Day’s life that isn’t inspiring. First, it was incredibly brave of her to pursue a career in journalism as a woman in the early 1900s. It is inspiring that she chose to write about issues that involved the human rights of everyday people. She was an activist that was willing to put her safety on the line for her beliefs. She listened to her inner voice and was true to her convictions even when she had to sacrifice relationships that were dear to her. Most of all, she lived her ideals in so many ways, even when it was inconvenient and uncomfortable. Not many people are willing or able to do that!
Jesuit Media Lab: Jeff, how do you think the movement she started and her legacy might help heal the church and world?
Jeff Korgen: The Catholic Worker’s focus on nonviolence has gone from a fringe belief, viewed warily by prelates, to its place in the Catechism as a legitimate Catholic position. There is a Christian truth to that position that draws people to pacifism and leads just war doctrine adherents like me to insist on a stricter application of it. I think we can thank Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker for this evolution.
It is hard to think about an aspect of Dorothy Day’s life that isn’t inspiring. … She listened to her inner voice and was true to her convictions even when she had to sacrifice relationships that were dear to her. Most of all, she lived her ideals in so many ways, even when it was inconvenient and uncomfortable.
—Christopher Cardinale
Jesuit Media Lab: You have worked very closely with the Dorothy Day Guild, the group promoting her canonization cause. What were the most interesting parts of your involvement behind the scenes?
Jeff Korgen: For me, it was learning more about Dorothy’s pre-conversion life. All that “bohemian lifestyle” stuff boils down to a young adult staying up late in a bar talking about big ideas and literature with her friends. And sleeping with two men she loved. It’s an attempt to make her fit some notion of sainthood that is true for some and not for others. What I found was great continuity between her radical journalist period and her founding of the Catholic Worker with Peter Maurin.
Also, the opposition to her canonization from various quarters was very interesting. Generally, there is great support, but some people with very different perspectives on social and political life agree that Dorothy should not be canonized. They include the “she was a communist” perspective, the “bad mom” perspective, the “she didn’t want to be a saint” perspective, the “church doesn’t deserve her” perspective, and of course the objection to the whole process of canonization as corrupt and ridiculously expensive.
There are others, but you get the idea. I’ve found at least five different takes on the possibility of her canonization within the Catholic Worker alone, as befits a Christian anarchist movement.
