Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Lily of the Mohawks

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the daughter of a Mohawk Turtle clan chief and a Roman Catholic Algonquin mother, was born in 1656. Her parents and brother died in a smallpox epidemic when she was four. She, too, contracted the disease and was left with multiple scars and impaired eyesight.

Her childhood and teen years were difficult as unsympathetic non-Christian relatives in the Mohawk community in Ossernenon, in what are now Auriesville and Fonda, New York, raised her. She began studying Catholicism in private at the age of 18 and was baptized by a Jesuit missionary on Easter in 1676 when she was 20.

After her baptism, her family and village ostracized and ridiculed her — even threatening to kill her. The next year she fled, taking refuge at St. Francis Xavier Mission in the Mohawk Nation at Caughnawaga (Kahnawake), a Canadian village near present-day Montreal, Quebec. There, she lived a life devoted to her Catholic faith — often attending Mass at both dawn and sunset. Kateri was known for her gentleness, kindness and good humor. During the last years of her life she suffered from a serious illness. She died in 1680, at age 24, and was buried in Caughnawaga.

In the late 1800s, Native Americans began making appeals to the Catholic Church that she be recognized for her deep spirituality and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. Blessed Pope John Paul II beatified Blessed Kateri, known as the Lily of the Mohawks, in 1980. Pope Benedict XVI announced February 18 of this year that she will be formally canonized in Rome on World Mission Sunday, Oct. 21.

In commemoration of Blessed Kateri’s canonization, St. Kathryn Parish in Ogilvie, Minnesota, will host a diocesan celebration that day. St. Kathryn’s was chosen as the site for the St. Cloud Diocesan event because Kateri, also known as Catherine Tegakwitha or Takwita, has been their patron since the parish formed in 1946.

Bishop Peter Bartholome, bishop of the St. Cloud Diocese at the time, named the parish St. Kathryn in her honor, saying that at least one parish in the diocese should revere her. He felt that one day she would become a saint and now his prediction is coming true.

 

The diocesan event includes a Mass celebrated by St. Cloud Diocesan Bishop John Kinney at 10 a.m. During the Mass a print of Blessed Kateri will be blessed as well as a stained glass window of her that will eventually be installed in the church. After the Mass there will be a special dinner and program and Native American games for children.

Visit FFF tomorrow to learn more about the dinner and recipes for some of the foods that will be served. CJK