[StBernard] KATERI TEKAKWITHA: FIRST NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN SAINT

[Westley Annis]

KATERI TEKAKWITHA: FIRST NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN SAINT

 

VATICAN CITY, 20 DEC 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father yesterday signed decrees
acknowledging miracles attributed to the intervention of seven blesseds
(four women and three men) who will shortly be canonised. One of the new
blesseds is Kateri Tekakwitha, the first native North American to be raised
to the glory of the altars.

 

  Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in Ossernenon (present-day Auriesville,
U.S.A.). Her father was a Mohawk chief and her mother a Roman Catholic
Algonquian who had been educated by French missionaries. At the age of four
she lost her family in a smallpox epidemic which also left her disfigured
and with poor eyesight. Adopted by a relative, the chief of neighbouring
clan, she continued to nurture an interest in Christianity and was baptised
at the age of 20.

 

  The members of her tribe did not understand her new religious affiliation
and she was marginalised, practising physical mortification as a path of
sanctity and praying for the conversion of her relatives. Having suffered
persecutions which put her life at risk, she was forced to flee to a native
American Christian community in Kahnawake, Quebec where she made a vow of
chastity and lived a life dedicated to prayer, penance, and care for the
sick and elderly. She died in 1680 at the age of 24. Her last words were:
"Jesus, I love you". According to tradition, Kateri's scars disappeared
after her death to reveal a woman of great beauty, and numerous sick people
who participated in her funeral were miraculously healed.

 

  The process of canonisation began in 1884. She was declared venerable by
Pius XII in 1943 and beatified by John Paul II in 1980. As the first native
North American to be beatified she occupies a special place in the devotion
of her people. Her feast day falls on 14 July.

OP/
VIS 20111220 (320)