St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin
Feast day: July 14
“Who can tell me what is most pleasing to God that I may do it?”
This was the motto of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, a young Native American girl whose brief life was exemplary in displaying heroic virtue in the face of brutal rejection by her own people. Born in 1656 near present-day Auriesville, New York, St. Kateri was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and a Christian Algonquin woman captured in a raid. Her parents and brother died from a smallpox outbreak, and she herself was left with a scarred face and permanently impaired vision from the disease. With the influx of Jesuit missionaries into her tribe, St. Kateri became a Christian and received the sacraments. But despite her constant ill health and the ensuing persecution from her own people for her choice to follow Christ, St. Kateri never gave up hope but instead was a light of joy and goodness to those around her. Her faith remained strong even when she had to move to another tribal settlement to avoid harassment and bullying for what she believed.
As a result of a peace treaty with the French, St. Kateri’s Mohawk tribe permitted Jesuit missionaries into their settlement. It was from these missionaries that St. Kateri learned the Catholic faith. Describing her as a mild-mannered and well-behaved young girl, Father Jacques de Lamberville also noted the extreme effort that St. Kateri made to remain a Christian in a secular society and that she suffered for her choices. She was baptized Catherine in honor of St. Catherine of Sienna. Differing with a local custom to be engaged to a boy at 13, she wished to devote her life to Christ and remain unmarried with Jesus as her spouse.
Living in a pagan culture, St. Kateri chose to be Christ amongst her people through her acts of kindness and hard work despite being harassed, stoned and threatened for her faith. She was accused of sorcery by her fellow men and was refused food on Sundays because she would not work. She was threatened with torture or death by some if she did not renounce her faith. Treated as little less than a slave and living in danger, she was advised by a priest to move 200 miles away to the Catholic indigenous mission of St. Francis Xavier near Montreal.
Known as the “Lily of the Mohawks” for her heroic suffering, St. Kateri remained the embodiment of beauty and peace as she shined the love of Jesus. She often went to the woods alone to speak to God, and she was devoted to the Blessed Sacrament, as she often knelt before our Lord in a cold chapel for hours. She loved the Rosary and carried one with her always as she taught the young and helped those who were poor or sick. She wore around her neck a crucifix and kissed it often out of gratitude. Although she hoped to start a convent for Native American sisters, she accepted the advice of a priest not to do so as she was considered too young in the faith. Dying at the age of 24, her last words were, “Jesus, Mary, I love you.”
To this day, St. Kateri is viewed as a bridge between the Native American and European cultures. Pope St. John Paul II remarked of St. Kateri, “We are all edified by her complete trust in the providence of God, and we are encouraged by her joyful fidelity to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In a true sense the whole Church, together with you, declares in the words of St. Paul: ‘Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine, glory be to him from generation to generation in the Church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever.'”
Reflection
Oh my Jesus, I want to be like St. Kateri as I live in the secular culture of the 21st century. Keep me close to you through the sacraments and give me the courage to defend the practice of my faith.
Prayer
O God, who desired the Virgin Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
to flower among Native Americans
in a life of innocence,
grant, through her intercession,
that when all are gathered into your Church
from every nation, tribe and tongue,
they may magnify you
in a single canticle of praise.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.