Many of you know that Fr Anthony has appointed five new paintings of saints down the St Mary side of the church. Over the next few months, I will be highlighting some of the stories behind these saints based upon research over the Internet. The first is Kateri Tekakwitha, an Algonquin–Mohawk laywoman. She was born in around 1656 in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, on the south side of the Mohawk River in Northeastern New York state.

She was the daughter of Kenneronkwa, a Mohawk chief, and Kahenta, an Algonquin woman, who had been captured in a raid, then adopted and assimilated into the tribe. Kahenta had been baptized Catholic and educated by French missionaries near Montreal. The Mohawk suffered a severe smallpox epidemic from 1661 to 1663, causing high fatalities. When Tekakwitha was around four years old, her baby brother and both her parents died of smallpox. She survived but was left with facial scars and impaired eyesight. Her name, Tekakwitha, means “she who bumps into things”.

In the spring of 1674, at age eighteen, Tekakwitha met the Jesuit priest Jacques de Lamberville, who was visiting the village. Most of the women were out harvesting corn, but Tekakwitha had injured her foot and was in the cabin. In the presence of others, Tekakwitha told him her story and her desire to become a Christian. She started studying the catechism and at the age of 19, on Easter Sunday, April 18, 1676. Tekakwitha was baptized “Catherine” after St. Catherine of Siena (or Kateri in Mohawk). She participated in tribal life and became skilled at traditional women’s arts, but refused to marry, taking a vow of perpetual virginity. She learned more about Christianity under her mentor, who taught her about the practice of repenting for one’s sins.

The Jesuits’ account of Tekakwitha said that she was a modest girl who avoided social gatherings; she covered much of her head with a blanket because of the smallpox scars.  Upon her death at the age of 24, witnesses said that her scars vanished minutes later, and her face appeared radiant and beautiful. Known for her virtue of chastity and mortification of the flesh, as well as being shunned by some of her tribe for her religious conversion to Catholicism, she is the fourth Native American to be venerated in the Catholic Church and the first to be canonized. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI at Saint Peter’s Basilica on 21 October 2012.