07/14/2025
Happy Feast Day
A very blessed St. Kateri Day
I nearly chose her as my confirmation name. I love her and feel very connected to her. Somewhere along the line, on my French side, a Native American married in. I’ll never know if they (possibly a few individuals) were Abenaki or Mohawk. Many records were destroyed in Canada. Ive gone through records from Vermont and had a hard time looking in Quebec records. Some of my ancestors were Acadian and made their way down to Vermont and some to Louisianna. It was a fun yet frustrating search. Regardless of records, I love my connection to St. Kateri and the deep history my French ancestors gifted me from all the way back to the mid-1600’s in North America.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Feast Day: July 14
Informally known as "Lily of the Mohawks", she is the first Native American saint from the territories of the future United States and Canada, she is popularly venerated as a patroness of ecology. Kateri was born near the town of Auriesville, New York, in the year 1656, the daughter of a Mohawk Chief, in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon. Her mother was an Algonquin, who was captured by the Mohawks and who took a Mohawk chief for her husband. When Kateri was four years old, a smallpox epidemic took her parents, along with her baby brother, leaving her with pocked skin and diminished eyesight. We can sense how much of her vision she lost from the name “Tekakwitha,” literally, “One who walks groping for her way.” What spiritual seeker cannot see themselves in that name? The disease also attacked Kateri and transfigured her face. She was later adopted by her two aunts and an uncle.
Kateri was known as a skilled worker, who was diligent and patient. However, she refused to marry. When her adoptive parents proposed a suitor to her, she refused to entertain the proposal. They punished her by giving her more work to do, but she did not give in. Instead, she remained quiet and diligent. Eventually they were forced to relent and accept that she had no interest in marriage.
Kateri became converted as a teenager. She was baptized at the age of twenty and as a result, incurred great hostility from her tribe. Although she had to suffer greatly for her Faith, she remained firm in it. Kateri went to the new Christian colony of Native Americans in Canada. Here she lived a life dedicated to prayer, penitential practices and cared for the sick and aged.
Every morning, even in the most bitter winter, she stood before the chapel door until it opened at four and remained there until after the last Mass. She was devoted to the Eucharist and to Jesus Crucified. She died on April 17, 1680 at the age of twenty-four. Witnesses described her smallpox scars disappearing, and her face shining with a holy radiance. And in her saintly legacy, she has made a way for countless seekers to follow.
Despite the lack of a formal education, and Christian scriptural materials being rare and suspected, Kateri became a living Bible and living catechism. “Kateri, tell us a story,” her Mohawk companions would ask her, and she would share stories from scripture, and joyfully tell them of God’s plan for humankind, of his love and mercy, of the great dignity of each human person.
The Church finds God’s grace in the cultures of all believers. And in Kateri, we have found the grace of her Native American peoples, who have long modeled the call to be stewards of Creation, seeking to live in harmony with nature. The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) tribes had (and retain) a deep connection with the land, managing resources carefully, and following closely the rhythms and patterns of nature.
Kateri embodied this, often going into the woods alone to seek God’s voice in nature, leaving behind crosses formed with twigs as “stations” for those who followed her. Stanislaus Brzana, bishop of Ogdensburg, anticipated her canonization when he declared, “Kateri was a child of nature. Her sainthood will raise the minds and hearts of those who love nature and work in ecology.” She was beatified by Pope John Paul II and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012.
Devotion to Kateri is responsible for establishing Native American ministries in Catholic Churches all over the United States and Canada. Hundreds of thousands have visited shrines to Kateri erected at both St. Francis Xavier and Caughnawaga and at her birth place at Auriesville, New York. Pilgrimages at these sites continue today. She is the Patron Saint of the environment and ecology.
"Look at this Cross; Oh! How beautiful it is! It has been my whole happiness during my life, and I advise you also to make it yours.
I am very affected by the three nails which fastened our Lord to the Cross; they are but a symbol of my sins."
- St. Kateri Tekakwitha
+ Prayer +
St. Kateri, Star of Native People and Bright Light for all! We thank God for your heroic courage, constant perseverance and deep love of the Cross. Pray for us that our love for Christ may deepen. And may we imitate you in following God's Will even when difficulties arise. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
