Madonna House/Combermere
About:
About Us
Who We Are
The Madonna House Apostolate is a family of Christian laymen, women, and priests, striving to incarnate the teachings of Jesus Christ by forming a community of love.
We are a Public Association of the Faithful within the Roman Catholic Church, under the bishop of the Diocese of Pembroke.
Staff members of Madonna House come from all walks of life, from various countries and cultures, and have a wide variety of personalities and talents. They have in common a desire to serve God in a very humble way of life, as summarized in our Little Mandate. Our spirit is that of a family — modeled on the holy family of Nazareth, which was a community of perfect charity and love.
Our main house, or Training Centre, is located in Combermere, Ontario, Canada. Madonna House also serves many areas throughout the world through our mission houses; we serve families through a summer program called Cana Colony, and we serve the general public through our newspaper, our publications, and our volunteer programs.
Founded in 1947 by Catherine Doherty, today the community has approximately 200 laymen, women, and priests, dedicated to loving and serving Christ through promises of poverty, chastity, and obedience. (And, in addition to our staff priests, there are approximately 100 associate priests, bishops and permanent deacons who strive to live the spirit of Madonna House in their home dioceses or wherever they are serving.)
Someone once asked Catherine, “What is Madonna House?” She answered:
What is Madonna House? Madonna House is a very simple thing. It is an open door. It is a cup of tea or coffee, good and hot. It is an invitation to work for the common good.
Madonna House is a house of hospitality. It is a place where people are received, not on their education, not on how wonderful they are as painters, or whatever they have to do; they are received simply as people. They are loved.
Our Promises
Madonna House staff are pilgrims in this world, proclaiming the second coming of Christ, when all things will be restored in him. In accordance with the evangelical counsels, we make promises of poverty, chastity, and obedience:
We live a life of voluntary poverty, giving up our personal possessions. Like St. Francis of Assisi, we depend on begging to provide for our needs. Donations of clothing, food, goods, and money come from a variety of sources, and enable us to live out our promise of poverty for the sake of the Gospel of Christ.
We live a chaste life, dedicated only to the love of Christ and a celibate love for one another.
We also live in obedience to our directors, living and working in the place to which we are assigned. There is a director general of laymen, a director general of women, and a director general of priests, who are elected for five-year terms. Together, these three guide the community of Madonna House. Each mission house also has a local director, appointed by the directors general.
The laymen and women of Madonna House wear ordinary street clothes. Their only distinguishing mark is a simple silver cross worn around their necks, with the inscription PAX-CARITAS, Latin for “peace” and “love.”