Robert_Wild_-_Catherine_Doherty_Servant_of_God

in their lives we see how the gospel is concretely lived. She
herself learned much from them, and tried to imitate
them.
This section will concentrate mostly on the saints of
the Western tradition. She had a great love, of course, for
the saints of Holy Russia (she had an icon of St. Seraphim
of Sarov over her bed). But—if I may put it thus—I find
that the Western saints were more like her personal
friends. In her writings she speaks of them as intimates,
people to whom she prays and to whom she turns in her
need. I don’t find this same familiarity with the Orthodox
saints. In any case, what she says about her saintly Western
friends is important for understanding aspects of her own
life with God
St. Francis
St. Francis of Assisi was, by far, the most important and
beloved saint in her life. Appropriately enough, she met
the “tumbler of God” while playing. She was running after
a ball in the convent garden in Alexandria. It rolled up to
a statue of the Poverello on whose granite arms real birds
were perched. “Yes, that is how I fell in love with St.
Francis of Assisi—in a convent garden in Egypt. Can any
one wonder he has been my friend, my confidante, ever
since. He teaches me about love and loving.” (Friendship
House, 47–48) He was her “first love” among the saints.
St. Francis led her to one of his other great devotees, Fr.
Paul Watson of Graymoor.
In the late 20s she came in contact with Fr. Paul whom
I believe was a saint, and for whose canonization I often
pray. He was an Episcopalian (Anglican) pastor of a
parish. It was through reading the works of Cardinal
Newman that he was converted to Catholicism. He had a
very great love for St. Francis, naming the Order he
founded the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement.
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