Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
The EditorsMay 28, 1949

Peter Maurin, who died at the Catholic Worker's Maryfarm, near Newburgh, on May 15, was original in both the French and English senses of the word. He was a personality of winning innocence, integrity and independence; he was a prototype of lay Catholic Action with an enthusiasm for voluntary poverty. Dorothy Day says that the Catholic Worker would never have existed except for Peter. Yet Peter was more a professor than a publicist. Best of all, he practiced literally what he professed. He was a great simplifier. The scholastic scaffolding of St. Thomas' Summa came tumbling down as Peter outlined in his blank-verse "Easy Essays" the medieval teaching on the importance of Big Shots and Little Shots.

He simplified everything. The corporal works of mercy are an inescapable personal responsibility. Peter's impressive knowledge of Irish history gave him the idea of Houses of Hospitality, shelters for the homeless. There are more than thirty of them now, thanks to Peter's inspiration. Before there was a Catholic Worker Peter was visiting AMERICA to explain his program of the Green Revolution to Fathers Parsons and LaFarge. Personal indoctrination was Peter's mission in life. His pedagogy was unique. He would loudly question a sleeping bench-warmer in Union Square until a crowd arrived. "The trouble with the world is," Peter was convinced, "that the man of thought doesn't act and the man of action doesn't think." It would be a delight to angels to hear Peter explain to Gandhi the positive Christianity of Péguy, for Peter's life was a challenge to Brahmin escapism as well as bourgeois smugness.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Many aspects of Pope Francis’ remarkable program of ecclesial renewal weare prefigured in Hans Urs von Balthasar’s vision for the church.
Travis LaCouterJune 27, 2025
Elio, voiced by Yonas Kibreab, and Glordon, voiced by Remy Edgerly, appear in the animated movie “Elio” (OSV News/Disney/Pixar).
Pixar’s best films understand that kids are capable of profound emotional intelligence. As they try to regain their former success, I think that is what they should focus on.
John DoughertyJune 27, 2025
Sister Camille D’Arienzo “didn’t toe the line. She said what she believed. She is a progressive woman who had a very big pulpit, which was over three million listeners a week.”
June 27, 2025
David Foster Wallace gave a reading for Booksmith at All Saints Church in 2006 (Wikimedia commons).
Twenty years ago, David Foster Wallace delivered one of the most widely shared and admired graduation speeches of all time. It still rewards close analysis.
Michael O’ConnellJune 27, 2025