Kateri

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha was just aged twenty-four when she died. She was the first Native American to be ‘beatified’ or declared ‘blessed’ by the Church. Kathleen Byrne studies her life.

Kateri was born in 1656 in Ossernenon, a Mohawk village that once stood on top of a steep hill near modern-day Amsterdam, New York.
Her mother was a Christian Algonquin, taken captive by the Iroquois and given as wife to the chief of the Mohawk clan.
When Kateri was four, her parents and brother died in the smallpox epidemic that swept through the village. The disease not only left the little girl scarred on the face, but it impaired her sight. It also left her orphaned. But she was adopted by her uncle, the new chief.
The villagers built a new settlement on the Mohawk River, about five miles north. It was called Caughnawaga. Kateri matured into a shy yet pleasant young woman. She joined her aunts in their work tending to the corn, beans and squash. She also took care of the traditional longhouse in which they lived.
Kateri became very skilled at beadwork, despite her poor vision. Outwardly she looked no different than the other Mohawk girls but inwardly she was very different.

Torture of prisoners was taken for granted in Kateri’s village and it was usual for all Mohawks to eagerly participate in such torture. But Kateri could not bear to watch human suffering and on such occasions she remained alone in her longhouse.

Kateri showed no interest in dancing and celebrating and the notion of marriage did not appeal to her. As the chief’s adopted daughter, she was considered an excellent catch for a lucky young man. Despite the scarring on her face, she had status, good nature and skills.

Her aunts had other plans. Frustrated by her repeated refusals to wed, they decided to trick her into marriage. Kateri saw through their deception and fled into the cornfield until her perspective husband had gone home.
When she was eighteen years old, the Jesuit missionaries came to the village. Kateri’s uncle, did not want the missionaries, whom he referred to as ‘The Blackrobes’, in the village. He could do nothing about the missionaries however, because a peace treaty with the French required their presence in villages with Christian captives.
Kateri was moved by the words of three Blackrobes who lodged with her uncle, but out of fear she said nothing. When she was nineteen she finally got the courage to take the step of converting.
Father de Lamberville, one of the three missionaries in the village, somehow persuaded her uncle to allow her to attend religious instructions. At the age of twenty, she was baptized with the name Kateri (Catherine) on Easter Sunday.
Kateri’s family were not happy with her choice to embrace Christ. They no longer treated her as a daughter. She was badly treated and used as a servant. When she walked to the spring or the chapel, she was confronted by angry braves; children threw mud and stones at her.

Once, when she was alone in her longhouse, a young man burst in on her. He brandished a large war club and raged at her, demanding that she renounce the Blackrobe’s religion or be killed at once. Kateri reply was, that she would give up her life, but never her faith.

Seeing her so calm with her hands folded and her head bowed, the attacker suddenly lost his nerve. He dropped his club and fled from the house.

Kateri was always in danger, because of her conversion and her holy life created great opposition. On the advice of a priest, she stole away one night and began a 200-mile walking journey to a Christian Indian village at Sault St. Louis, near Montreal. It was a mission village established by Jesuits for converts like Kateri who could not find peace or safety in their own villages. To Kateri, it seemed like a wonderful haven.

The Christmas following her arrival, she made her first Holy Communion. The day she received Our Lord was perhaps the happiest she had ever known. Her motto became, “Who can tell me what is most pleasing to God that I may do it?”

She spent much of her time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament and would often be seen kneeling in the cold chapel for hours. When the winter hunting season took Kateri and many of the villagers far from the village, she made her own little chapel in the woods by carving a Cross on a tree and spent time in prayer there.

When the winter snow covered the ground, Kateri did not hesitate to kneel in the snow to pray. She did all she could to help those in the village who were poor or sick and she practiced extremely severe fasting as penance for the conversion of her nation.

Kateri also had a very great love and devotion for the Blessed Virgin Mary. She quickly learned the Litany of the Blessed Virgin by heart. Her Rosary was always at hand and Our Lady was her role model.

The life of a nun attracted her, but the missionaries denied her permission since she had only been a Christian for three years. Still, Kateri had decided to give her life to Our Lord. On March 25, 1679, when Kateri was twenty-three years old, she dedicated herself to Jesus with a vow of perpetual virginity. At the same time, she offered herself to our Blessed Mother as a daughter.

Kateri was never very healthy and it was further weakened by the rigorous penance she imposed on herself and by frequent fasts. Not long after she took her vow, she became very ill. Soon, she was too weak to visit the chapel or even leave her bed. For months, she suffered with fevers and pains.

Kateri died on April 17, 1680. She was just twenty-four; her last words were, “Jesus, Mary, I love You!” Fifteen minutes after her death, Kateri’s face became radiant and beautiful. The ugly smallpox scars vanished and a sweet smile appeared on her lips.

Immediately after her death, devotion to Kateri began. Like St. Therese of Lisieux, she promised, that she would remember her friends on earth, when she went to heaven. She soon made good on her promise; cures were reported when she was invoked in prayer and through the use of her relics.

In the early twentieth century, petitions were made in Rome for her canonisation. She was declared venerable in 1943; she was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

In a speech to Native Americans, the Holy Father offered Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha as a beautiful example to all and urged people to appeal to her aid:

“My brothers and sisters, may you be inspired and encouraged by the life of Blessed Kateri. Look to her for an example of fidelity; see in her a model of purity and love; turn to her in prayer for assistance. May God bless you as He blessed her. “

Kateri, was named patroness to World Youth Day 2002, which took place in Toronto, Canada. She is also known as ‘Lily of the Mohawks’.

“I am not my own; I have given myself to Jesus. He must be my only love. The state of helpless poverty that may befall me if I do not marry does not frighten me. All I need is a little food and a few pieces of clothing. With the work of my hands I shall always earn what is necessary and what is left over I’ll give to my relatives and to the poor. If I should become sick and unable to work, then I shall be like the Lord on the cross. He will have mercy on me and help me, I am sure.”

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