St. Kateri Tekakwitha

This page is dedicated to the first Native American Saint, Kateri Tekakwitha.
The Lily of the Mohawks.

Kateri was born in 1656, in New York, to a Mohawk Chief named, Kenneronkwa.  Kateri's mother was Kahenta and was brought up and baptized at an Indian village near the French colony of Three Rivers in Canada.  During a raid Kateri's mother was taken and saved by her father Kenneronkwa.  Kateri also had a brother.  Kateri's family died of small-pox when she was four years old.  Kateri was then adopted by her two aunts and uncle.  When Kateri was ten years old, war broke out between the French and the Mohawks.  Kateri, and others, fled the village to escape the war.  The French missionaries began to bring the Catholic Faith to the Mohawks after the war.  Kateri was quiet and shy.  Her face was scarred by small-pox and her eyesight was damaged.  Her family wanted her to marry, but Kateri wouldn't.  After she refused they mistreated her.  Kateri suffered all these insults with patience and served everybody with kindness.
Kateri first learned about Jesus from the Jesuit missionaries.  It was her duty to serve them during their visit in her uncle's cabin.  For eight years she was silent about her desire for Baptism.  When Kateri was nineteen years old, she injured her foot and could not leave the cabin.  The missionary, Father de Lamberville, came to see her and she opened her heart to him.
Kateri was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 5th, 1676 in the chapel of St. Peter.  Kateri was 20 years old.  Kateri was put to many tests, but she never grew weak in her faith.  Kateri had much to suffer from drunkards, enemies of Christianity, and even her uncle.  They threw stones at her and called her a witch, but she was fearless.  Kateri set out for the new Christian colony of Indians in Canada, three hundred miles away, with a Christian Oneida Indian Chief known as Hot Ashes and his wife.  Kateri's uncle followed and tried to bring her back, but Kateri hid until her uncle gave up the chase.  In 1677 Kateri arrived at her new home in Canada, Caughnawaga, which lay on the bank of the St. Lawrence River, several miles west of Montreal. 
Kateri made her first Holy Communion on Christmas 1677 after she reached the St. Francis Xavier Mission.  Kateri was devoted to the Holy Eucharist and to Jesus Crucified.  She said: "I offer my soul to Christ the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and my body to Christ the Lord, hanging on the Cross."  The people in the village liked Kateri because she was kind and cheerful in her quiet way.  She walked her simple way among people, helping with the sick, caring for the little children, and doing other works of kindness.  When Kateri found God she loved Him with her whole heart.  Kateri proved her love for Jesus by prayer and sacrifice.  Kateri offered her life to God by a vow: "I have dedicated myself to Jesus, Son of Mary.  I have taken Him for my Spouse, and only He shall have me as a spouse."
On Tuesday of Holy Week Kateri began to be very sick,  She received the Holy Anointing and the Eucharist.  On April 17, 1680, Kateri died.  Her last words were: "Jesus, Mary, I love you!"  She was twenty-four years old. 

Kateri was canonized on October 21, 2012, becoming the first Native American Saint.
Patron of the environment and ecology.
Feast Day July 14.

Print Article | Email Article | Write To Us

Daily News

New American Saints Canonized in Rome (6096)

Sts. Kateri Tekakwitha and Marianne Cope are among the new saints proclaimed yesterday by Pope Benedict XVI.

by EDWARD PENTIN 10/22/2012 Comment

Women religious hold a banner that reads 'Long Live the Pope' as they wait for Pope Benedict XVI to arrive to celebrate a special Mass to canonize seven new saints Oct. 21 at St. Peter's Square.

– Reuters/Stefano Rellandini

VATICAN CITY — An estimated 80,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square to witness and celebrate the canonizations of seven new saints on Oct. 21, including the first American Indian, St. Kateri Tekakwitha.
Also canonized was a second American, St. Marianne Cope.
Under a clear blue sky and warm, sunny weather in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI praised each saint for their exceptional lives, stressing that the words of Mark — “the Son of Man came to serve and give his life for many” — were “the blueprint for living” for each of the newly canonized.
“May the witness of these new saints, and their lives generously spent for love of Christ, speak today to the whole Church, and may their intercession strengthen and sustain her in her mission to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world,” the Pope said.
The new saints  — Jacques Berthieu, Pedro Calungsod, Giovanni Battista Piamarta, Marìa Carmen Sallés y Barangueras, Marianne Cope, Kateri Tekakwitha and Anna Schäffer — were “different in origin, language, nationality and social condition,” the Pope said, but they “are united among themselves and with the whole people of God in the mystery of salvation of Christ the Redeemer.”
As the Holy Father declared in Latin each of the seven saints of the Church, St. Peter’s Square resounded with cheers.
Sunday’s Mass was also noteworthy in that the rite that was used restored some of the traditional rite of canonization that was lost after the Second Vatican Council. And in a further nod to Tradition, the Holy Father also became the first pope since Pope John Paul II in the early 1980s to wear the papal fanon — an ancient papal vestment used exclusively by the Pope when celebrating a solemn pontifical Mass.

‘St. Kateri, Pray for Us’
In his homily, Benedict recalled how St. Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680), daughter of a Mohawk father and Christian mother, sought refuge in a Jesuit mission to escape persecution after her baptism and lived a life “radiant with faith and purity” before her death at just 24.
“Kateri impresses us by the action of grace in her life, in spite of the absence of external help and by the courage of her vocation, so unusual in her culture,” the Pope said.
“In her, faith and culture enrich each other!” the Holy Father added, and he entrusted to her “the renewal of the faith in the first nations and in all of North America.”
“May God bless the first nations!” the Pope said.
Glenn and Shirley Stoner from a Navajo reservation in Arizona were particularly excited to witness the canonization and also make a first trip to Rome. “This is our first time, but for what an occasion,” Glenn Stoner told Catholic News Agency.
In comments to the Register after the ceremony, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia — himself a descendant of American Indians — said the canonization “was a great moment of joy in the history of Native-American Catholics.”
“Every canonization is a gift from God, but it is also the time of a gift to the Church,” he said, adding that “the Mohawk people — and, through them, all Native-American people — have given the Church the gift of St. Kateri, who brings with her into the Church the wonderful gifts of Native-American culture.”
“Every saint is an expression of the inculturation of the Gospel in every time, place and race,” he said. “St. Kateri, pray for us.” (Taken from National Catholic Register)

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/new-american-saints-canonized-in-rome/#ixzz4ELaWBgJV

Please click on the link below for articles on her miracles.
List of Miracles
www.catholic.org


Novena Prayer to St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Kateri,  favored child and Lily of the Mohawks, I come to seek your intercession in my present need: (mention it)
I admire the virtues which adorned your soul:  love of God and neighbor, humility, obedience, patience, purity and the spirit of sacrifice.  Help me to imitate your example in my state of life.  Through the goodness and mercy of God, Who has blessed you with so many graces which led you to the true faith and to a high degree of holiness, pray to God for me and help me.  
Obtain for me a very fervent devotion to the Holy Eucharist so that I may love Holy Mass as you did and receive Holy Communion as often as I can.  Teach me also to be devoted to my crucified Savior as you were, that I may cheerfully bear my daily crosses for love of Him Who suffered so much for love of me.  Most of all I beg you to pray for me that I may avoid sin, lead a holy life and save my soul.

*A novena is prayers said for nine straight days to obtain special graces, prayer petitions, and thanksgiving.

Prayer to St. Kateri Tekakwitha
God of all nations and peoples, you have filled your creation with your mighty presence.  Through your handiwork, you speak to our hearts words that satisfy our every desire.
You called your servant, the Mohawk maiden St. Kateri Tekakwitha, to embrace the Gospel of your Son Jesus Christ, to do your will and to serve others with the gifts you gave her.
May she who held tight to the cross of your Son throughout her short life marked by sickness, suffering and persecution, be our intercessor during our own trials.  May her embrace of the Catholic faith and her openness to sharing Jesus with others inspire us to be new evangelizers to all cultures and peoples.  May she who sought out Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament lead us to similar reverence for the Eucharist so that, like St. Kateri, our last words may be, "Jesus, Mary, I love you."  Amen

Prayer of Intercession to St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Oh St. Kateri Tekakwitha, in your life you experienced pain, sorrow, and hardship. Yet in all things you found joy and peace in believing in Jesus, present to us in the Eucharist and in his love expressed to us on the cross.
O Great Lily of the Mohawks, we ask that you take our intentions (state your intentions here) to the foot of the cross. Ask Jesus, our loving Savior, to bring healing to those who are heavily burdened. Through your intercession, may this favor be granted if it is according to the will of God.
By your prayer, help us always to remain faithful to Jesus and to his Holy Church.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us. Amen 
(Lily of the Mohawks, The story of St. Kateri by Emily Cavens)

Published on Apr 18, 2012

http://saltandlighttv.org/kateri

Father Thomas Rosica CSB reflects on the life of Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha in honour of her feast day on April 17(Canada) & July 14 (USA). Illustrations from Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. Published by Novalis, 2011. Anne E. 

 "I am not my own, I have given myself to Jesus.  He must be my only love."

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray: and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits,
who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.