Earlier today at the Vatican, there
was a canonization ceremony for seven new saints. One particularly stands out to
North Americans, as she is the first Native American saint to be canonized by
the Church.
Called the Lily of the Mohawks, St.
Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in what is now upstate New York. Her father
was a Mohawk and her mother was a Christian Algonquin. As a child, she lost her parents
and brother to smallpox. The disease also damaged Kateri’s eyesight and scarred
her face. In fact, the Mohawk name Tekakwitha translates as “one who walks
groping her way.” She was adopted by her aunts and uncles.
She was baptized on Easter 1676 by
French Jesuit missionaries. Missionaries were not welcomed by the Mohawks, because of
the obvious tensions between the French, Dutch, and natives at the time. The
Mohawks blamed French Jesuits for bringing disease. Kateri’s tribe was hostile
to her conversion, so she moved to a colony in Québec made up of Christian
Indians, where she took care of the sick and elderly. She took a vow of
chastity and also subjected herself to self-punishment. She died at the age of
24. It was said that the scars on her face vanished, and soon after, people
reported seeing visions of her. She is the patron of environmentalists,
ecologists, and exiles. Her feast day is July 14.
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