Lent 2021 Open Wide Our Hearts Blog

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

 St. Kateri Tekakwitha is the first Native American to be recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. She was born in 1656, in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon in New York. Her mother was a Christian Algonquin, who was captured by the Mohawks and who took a Mohawk chief for her husband.

At age 4 she contracted smallpox in an epidemic; her family died and it left her half-blind and her face badly scarred. The scars were a source of  humiliation in her youth. She was commonly seen wearing a blanket to hide her face. 

At age 19, Kateri Tekakwitha converted to Catholicism, taking a vow of chastity and pledging to marry only Jesus Christ. She took the name Kateri, in honor of St. Catherine of Siena. Her decision was very unpopular with her adoptive parents and their neighbors. Some of her neighbors started rumors of sorcery. To avoid persecution, she traveled to a Christian native community south of Montreal.  There she came to be known as the “Lily of the Mohawks” in recognition of her kindness, prayer, faith, and heroic suffering.

According to legend, Kateri was very devout and would put thorns on her  sleeping mat. She often prayed for the conversion of her fellow Mohawks. According to the Jesuit missionaries that served the community where Kateri lived, she often fasted.  She confided in a missionary that she often meditated on the great dignity of being baptized. She was  powerfully moved by God’s love for human beings and saw the dignity of each of her people.

Upon her death at the age of 24, witnesses said that minutes later her scars  vanished and her face appeared radiant and beautiful. St. Kateri Tekakwitha was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on Oct. 21, 2012. She is the patroness of  ecology and the environment, people in exile and Native Americans.

What struck you most from her story? Why?

Additional Resources:

St. Kateri by Saint Kateri National Shrine

St. Kateri biography video by Catholic Online