ST. KATERI TEKAKWITHA
1656 to 17 April 1680
Feast Day 14 July (US) or 17 April (Canada)
Kateri Tekakwitha is called the Lily of the Mohawks. Her name Tekakwitha means “putting things in order.” Indeed, she did put her life in order in a short time.
Kateri was a Mohawk Indian born in Ossemenon, what is now Auriesville, New York, ten years after Isaac Jogues and his companions were martyred there. Her mother was a Christian Algonquin Indian, and her father was a pagan Mohawk chief. Her parents and a brother died of smallpox when she was only four. Kateri recovered from the disease, but it left her with impaired vision and her face scarred.
Anastasia, a friend of Kateri’s mother, took care of her and told her stories about the Christian God. When Anastasia left for Canada to join other Christians there, Kateri’s uncle, a Mohawk chief, took Kateri as his daughter.
When Kateri’s uncle and aunts wanted her to marry, she refused. She felt that the Great Spirit was the only one she could love. This angered her uncle.
Kateri learned more about God from a missionary and asked to be baptized. She was baptized at age 20 on Easter Sunday, 1676. It was hard for Kateri to live as a Christian. Her people expected her to work in the fields on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. Sometimes they didn’t feed her. Children made fun of her and threw stones at her. Kateri endured this for two years.
Finally a priest advised Kateri to go to Kahnawake in what is now Quebec, Canada where she would be with other Christians. One day when her uncle was not home, she left for Canada with a Christian named Hot Ashes. When Kateri’s uncle found out she was missing, he followed her but did not catch her.
Kateri brought with her a note from the missionary priest to a Canadian priest that said, “I send you a treasure, Katherine Tekakwitha. Guard her well.” Kateri lived an outstanding Christian life. She went to Mass daily, made frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and prayed the rosary often. She cared for the sick and the old and taught the children.
Kateri suffered from bad headaches. She was not strong and could eat only very little. When she died on 17 April 1680, at the age of twenty-four, witnesses said that her emaciated face changed color, the smallpox scars disappeared and a touch of a smile came upon her lips, leaving her with the face of an innocent child.
She was beatified on 22 June 1980 by Pope St. John Paul II and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 21 October 2012. Her feast day in the United States is 14 July, and in Canada on 17 April.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!