π Saint Kateri Tekakwitha π
Lily of the Mohawks – First Native American Saint
π Born: 1656, Ossernenon (Auriesville), Iroquois Confederacy, New France (present-day New York, USA)
⚰️ Died: 17 April 1680 (aged 24), Kahnawake, New France (present-day Quebec, Canada)
π Venerated in: Catholic Church
✝️ Beatified: 22 June 1980 by Pope John Paul II
π Canonized: 21 October 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI
π️ Major Shrine: Saint Francis Xavier Mission, Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada
π
Feast Day: 14 July (USA)
17 April (Canada)
π Attributes: Turtle clan, Native American dress, cross, lily, and rosary
π Patronage: Ecologists, Native Americans, the environment, people in exile, and those ridiculed for their faith
“Who can tell me what is most pleasing to God, so that I may do it?”
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (1656 – April 17, 1680), known as the "Lily of the Mohawks," was a Mohawk/Algonquin woman canonized as the first Native American saint in the Roman Catholic Church. Born in Ossernenon (modern-day New York), she embraced Catholicism at 19, took a vow of perpetual virginity, and lived her final years at the Jesuit mission in Kahnawake, near Montreal. Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980 and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, she is celebrated for her faith and resilience.
Born around 1656 in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, Kateri (named Tekakwitha, meaning "She who bumps into things") was the daughter of Kenneronkwa, a Mohawk chief, and Kahenta, a Catholic Algonquin woman captured and assimilated into the Mohawk tribe. At age four, smallpox killed her parents and brother, leaving Kateri with facial scars and impaired eyesight. Adopted by her father’s sister and her husband, a Turtle Clan chief, she grew up in a diverse village that integrated captives, including Huron rivals, to replace losses from warfare and disease.
Kateri was modest, skilled in traditional women’s crafts like clothing and mat-weaving, and covered her scars with a head covering. At 11, she met Jesuit missionaries Jacques FrΓ©min, Jacques Bruyas, and Jean Pierron, who inspired her interest in Christianity, despite her uncle’s opposition. Pressured to marry at 13, she refused, declaring Jesus as her only spouse.
Kateri’s childhood was marked by conflict, as the Mohawk navigated tensions with French and Dutch colonists over the fur trade. In 1666, French forces attacked, burning Mohawk villages, including Ossernenon, forcing Kateri and her family to flee. They rebuilt Caughnawaga (near Fonda, New York), where Jesuits established a mission. In 1669, during a Mohican attack, 13-year-old Kateri aided Father Pierron in tending the wounded and burying the dead. That year, she participated in the Haudenosaunee Feast of the Dead, which included her parents’ remains, though Father Pierron criticized the ritual.
By 1673, her adoptive mother and aunt pushed for her marriage, but Kateri resisted, hiding to avoid it. In 1674, she met Jesuit priest Jacques de Lamberville and expressed her desire to convert. She studied the catechism and was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 18, 1676, at age 19, taking the name Catherine (Kateri in Mohawk), after St. Catherine of Siena.
Facing hostility from some Mohawks who accused her of sorcery, Kateri endured threats and harassment. In 1677, she fled 200 miles to the Jesuit mission of St. Francis Xavier in Kahnawake, a Christian Native community south of Montreal. Living in her sister’s longhouse, she was mentored by clan mother Anastasia Tegonhatsiongo and other Mohawk women, who guided her in Catholic practices. Kateri practiced intense penances, including lying on thorns, a traditional Mohawk blood-drawing ritual, despite Jesuit concerns about her frail health. She responded, “I will willingly abandon this miserable body to hunger and suffering, provided that my soul may have its ordinary nourishment.” With Marie-ThΓ©rΓ¨se Tegaianguenta, she attempted to form a Native religious order, but the Jesuits rejected the proposal. On the Feast of the Annunciation in 1679, Kateri vowed perpetual virginity, described by Jesuits as the “first Iroquois virgin,” though she could not receive formal consecration.
Kateri’s health declined during Holy Week 1680. On April 17, at age 23 or 24, she died in Kahnawake, surrounded by villagers and priests Claude ChauchetiΓ¨re and Pierre Cholenec, who administered the last rites. Her final words were, “Jesus, Mary, I love you.” Witnesses reported that her smallpox-scarred face became clear and radiant within 15 minutes of her death. Posthumously, she appeared to Anastasia, Marie-ThΓ©rΓ¨se, and ChauchetiΓ¨re, affirming her heavenly ascent.
Miracles attributed to Kateri include the healing of Joseph Kellogg, a Protestant child cured of smallpox in the 18th century using a relic from her grave, and recoveries of Father RΓ©my’s hearing and a Montreal nun’s health. In 2006, Jake Finkbonner, a Lummi boy in Washington, survived a flesh-eating bacterium after prayers to Kateri and the use of her relic, a miracle recognized by the Vatican in 2011. A second miracle, also certified in 2011, led to her canonization.
Kateri’s veneration began soon after her death, with pilgrimages to her gravesite by 1684. Her remains were ground to dust and placed in Kahnawake’s mission chapel as relics. Declared venerable by Pope Pius XII in 1943, she was beatified in 1980 and canonized on October 21, 2012, becoming the first Native American woman saint. Her feast day is July 14 in the United States and April 17 in Canada and the Episcopal Church. Known as the “Lily of the Mohawks,” she is depicted with a lily, cross, and Native symbols like feathers or turtles, symbolizing purity and her cultural heritage. She is the patroness of Native Americans, the environment, and the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins.
Kateri is honored at shrines like the Saint Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine in Fonda, New York, and the National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods in Michigan, inspired by her practice of placing crosses in the forest. Her life bridges Mohawk and Catholic traditions, though some Mohawk traditionalists critique her canonization as tied to colonial narratives, while others see her as a unifying figure.
Mohawk scholar Orenda Boucher notes mixed feelings about Kateri’s canonization, with some traditionalists viewing her story as entangled with colonization’s impact on Kahnawake. Mohawk writer Doug George-Kanentiio cautions against her extreme penances as a model, particularly for women, and fears her sainthood may draw Iroquois from ancestral values. Chaz Kader highlights how Catholic narratives emphasizing her persecution by Mohawks can perpetuate harmful stereotypes. Conversely, some Native Catholics, like those interviewed by Paula E. Holmes in the 1990s, embrace Kateri as part of their heritage, valuing her as a bridge between cultures.
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