On Pilgrimage : The Seventies

A collection of Dorothy Day’s “On Pilgrimage” columns from the 1970s. Highlights: Travels around the world, including Tanzania and the Soviet Union; arrest with the farmworkers at age 75; a standoff with the IRS over refusal to pay federal income tax; the end of the Vietnam War; speaking at the Eucharistic Congress; opening a new house of hospitality for homeless women; and the slow, inexorable journey toward the culmination of her “pilgrimage” in 1980. After the tumult of the 1960s, Dorothy welcomed in the 70s the signs of constructive work, pointing to an alternative society. These writings, from her last years, represent a moving testament to a life among the poor, her work as a prophetic peacemaker, her model as a new kind of saint for our times.