Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
(The "Lily of the Mohawks")
Written and Researched by Margaret Knight Sypniewski, B.F.A.
...
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in Aurielville, New York, to a Mohawk father and an Algonquin mother (a Christian). At age four (4) a smallpox epidemic killed her parents, her baby brother, and left her scarred with pock marks and nearly blind for the rest of her life. She was raised by her two aunts and her uncle, who was also a Mohawk chief. The Auriesville shrine stands on a hill overlooking the Mohawk River. Many Jesuits were killed here during their missionary work. The shrine attracts thousands of pilgrims, both white and Native American.
A few miles up the Mohawk River from Aurielsville is Fonda. Fonda, New York, is where Blessed Kateri had her first encounter with Christianity. To resist her uncle's attempts to marry her off, Tekakwitha was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1676, into the Christian Church and was given her name Kateri (Catherine). There is a wooden shrine at Fonda and a Native American Museum under the Church. Her new religion was not accepted by her relatives, and they refused her food on Sundays, her Christian "day of rest."
On the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve, near Montreal, Canada, is the site where Blessed Kateri fled in July 1676. The Jesuit mission shielded her from the non-Christain Mohawks. Her remains are at the St. Francis- Xavier Mission on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. Kateri walked 200 miles to reach St Francis Xavier. This trip took her two months, as she was very weak most of her life. But because of her faith in God, she somehow made it there.
Blessed Kateri took a vow of chastity on March 25, 1679, and lived a devout and pious life, for her last three years, in Kahnawake. She died at age twenty-four (24), in 1680. Her last words were: "Jesus, I love you." Witnesses to her death say that when she died her pockmarks left her face, and she looked very serene and at peace.
In 2012, Kateri Tekawitha is made a saint by Pope Benedict XVI. St. Kateri Tekakwitha is the first Native American to be declared a Saint. Her feast day is July 14, in the U.S.A. She is the patroness of the environment and ecology as is St. Francis of Assisi.
THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS:
The National Shrine of the North American Martyrs
Website: Click here
THE NATIONAL KATERI SHRINE:
The National Kateri Shrine
Phone: (518) 853-3646
THE KATERI CENTER:
The Saint Francis-Zavier Mission at Kahnawake, Quebec houses the marble tomb of Blessed Kateri with their old stone church.
St. Kateri Tekawitha, Conservationist
136 Shrine Road
Auriesville, NY 12016
Open from May to October.
Phone: (528) 853-3022.
P.O. Box 627
Fonda, NY 12068
Website: Kateri Shrine
This page was last updated on July 18, 2015
