Robert_Wild_-_Catherine_Doherty_Servant_of_God

sent. (His side of the family didn’t come. But he brought
a huge pail of vodka along for the celebration.)
Pregnant with child, Catherine immigrated to Canada
in 1921 with her first husband, Boris, whom she had married
when she was hardly 15 years old. Remembering the
confusion and uncertainties of her own arrival, she would
often meet the train in Toronto that was bringing in
Russian refugees like herself. She helped them find jobs
and places of residence. She and her Russian friends
organized a kind of “Russia away from home” colony in
Toronto. There Russians could use their culinary, artistic
and educational skills to make some money and pass on
their heritage to the young and curious. Having become a
Catholic, she was shunned by some Russians as a traitor to
her country. Thus began another aspect of her passion in
this strange land.
In the early 1920s she obtained a job with the famous
Chautauqua Circuit whose purpose was to bring culture
and entertainment to rural areas. Her act consisted in
dressing up in Russian costumes and speaking about that
far away and mysterious land that was totally unknown to
Westerners. She was very popular—especially when she
cried! She discovered that she had a talent for holding the
attention of audiences, a gift she never lost.
On the verge of beginning a new lecture bureau of her
own in 1929, the Great Depression occurred. It was the
last straw. If she could go from nobility to rags, and then
from financial security to the Great Depression, was not
this life all sand! The Lord was telling her how ephemeral
all the foundations of the world were. She finally remembered
a promise she had made to God when close to starvation,
escaping the Revolution: “If you save my life, I will
give it to you.” She decided to give up all her possessions
and follow Christ in as radical a way as possible.
In the 1930s men were on the streets in Toronto, out
of work. She saw the Communists helping and indoctrinating
them in Marxism. The Communists had read the
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