Blessed Kateri

Tekakwitha

1656-1680

“Lily of the

Mohawks”

Youth Ministry Access, Center for Ministry Development, 2012.

The Algonquin Indians

Were the most populous and widespread

North American Native groupswith tribes originally numbering in

the hundreds!

  They inhabited most of the Canadian region south of Hudson

Bay.

During the 17th century, there was

an Algonquin Indian woman who was baptized Catholic

by missionaries who visited her tribe.

She was later captured by the Mohawk Indians during warfare

and forced to hide her new Christian

faith.

The young girl was captured by a Mohawk chief and soon became his bride.

The Mohawks were the original people of New York.

They were also known as the fiercest of the Five Nations of Iroquois Indians.

In 1656, a baby girl was born to an Algonquin woman and a Mohawk

Chief.

The baby and her family lived in a village near Lake Ontario.

Like others of their time, they lived in a traditional longhouse.

Some longhouses were

up to 200 feet long and housed

several families.

It was not unusual in native culture to wait to name a baby

until the child showed some distinguishing characteristics.

Sadly, Kateri Tekakwitha’s parents would not have the opportunity

to name their baby girl.

The Mohawk Indians were among the first

natives who encountered the

British and other Europeans who sailed to America to create a new life.

Unfortunately, their numbers greatly

decreased, because of the many diseases

that these new settlers brought over from the Old

World.

Smallpox, measles and the flu

were devastating to the Mohawks

who had no immunity.

When Kateri was just four years old,

small pox spread through her village

and took the lives of her mother, father,

and younger brother.

She survived , but was left weaker, scarred and partially

blind.

Orphaned at age 4, Kateri was adopted by her uncle,

also a Mohawk chief of the Turtle Clan.

He gave her the name “Tekakwitha”

which translates to mean…

“One who clears her path with her hands” or “One who reaches out before she walks.”

She was probably named this due to the blindness that occurred

from the smallpox.

Tekakwitha and her new family moved to Caughnawaga

to build a new life after smallpox took most of their tribe.

It is said that Tekakwitha grew into a young woman with a

sweet, shy personality. 

She helped her aunts work in the fields where they tended

to the corn, beans, and squash, and took care of the

traditional longhouse in which they lived.  

She went to the neighboring

forest to pick the roots needed to prepare medicines and dye. 

She collected firewood in the

forest and water from a stream. 

Despite her poor vision, she also became very skilled

at beadwork. 

In 1670 St Peter’s Mission was established in Caughnawaga

The native people

called the Jesuit

Missionaries the

“Black Robes”

Tekakwitha often saw the Black Robes in her village.

However, she was forbidden by her uncle to listen to or speak with them.

He believed that the Black Robes were responsible for bringing disease and bad omens to his village.

In 1674, Father James de Lambervillecame to the mission at Caughnawaga.

The young girl wanted to meet the

Black Robes and learn

about the Christian faith.

Most likely, before she died,

her mother had sharedstories and sang songs

from her Catholic faith

with Tekakwitha.

She asked her uncle to please allow her to study with the missionaries.

At first, Fr. Lamberville was concerned about the daughter of

a chief converting to Catholicism , but her uncle finally agreed to allow Tekakwitha to become

a Christian.

On Easter, April 5, 1676

twenty-year old Tekakwitha

was baptized. 

She was giventhe name of Kateri,

which is Mohawk for Catherine.  

Kateri was named in honor of

St. Catherine of Siena.

Soon after her baptism, Kateri became the village outcast.  Her family refused her food on Sundays because she wouldn't

work.  Children would taunt her and throw stones. 

She was threatened with torture or death if she did not renounce her new Christian religion. 

Because of increasing hostility from her people and because she wanted to devote her life to God, Kateri left her village and fled more than 200 miles

through woods, rivers, and swamps.

Her journey to the Catholic Mission

of St. Francis Xavier at Sault Saint-Louis took more than two months. 

At the mission, Kateri

Tekakwitha and other

Native Americans

were finally able to openly

practice theirCatholic faith.

Although not formally educated and unable to read and write,

Kateri led a life of prayer and penitential practices. 

She taught the young and helped those in the village

who were poor or sick. 

Her favorite devotion was to fashion crosses

out of sticks and place them throughout the

woods. 

These crosses served  as stations that reminded her

to spend a moment in prayer.

On Christmas Day 1677, Kateri made her

First Holy Communion.

On March 25, 1679 Kateri made a vow of perpetual virginity,

meaning that she would remain unmarried and totally devoted to Christ for the rest of

her life. 

Ever since her battle with smallpox as a child,

Kateri’s health was never very good. In 1680 she became fatally ill.

She was only 24 years old when she died.

After she died, two priests witnessed the miracle

of all the smallpox scars vanishing from her face.

Her last words were “Lesos Konoronkwa – Jesus, I love you.”

1943Pope Pius XII

declared her

Venerable.

300 years after her death,

Pope John Paul IIbeatified her in

1980.

Kateri Tekakwithais the first

Native American to be beatified by the Church.

In 2002,Pope John Paul II

named KateriPatroness of

World Youth Dayin Toronto,

Canada.

In 2011,Pope Benedict

XVIsigned a decree

recognizing the miracle

needed to canonize

her.“Blessed”

Kateri will be canonized on October 21,

2012.

Kateri Tekakwitha’s intercession is credited with healing a Washington State boy named Jake

who had been infected with a flesh-eating bacteria. Jake's father is Native American and a member of the

Lummi tribe. Jake’s mother said his health greatly improved after a visit

by a member of the Tekakwitha Conference. The woman, also named Kateri, brought a small coin

with an image of Blessed Kateri and a prayer card to Jake.

Kateri will be the first Native American from the present-day continental United States

to be declared a saint in the Catholic Church!