Kateri was born in 1656 in a Mohawk village in what is now upstate New York, the daughter of a Mohawk father and a Christian Algonquin mother. Orphaned young by a smallpox epidemic that also left her partially blind and scarred, she was raised by relatives opposed to Christianity, but was drawn to the faith through Jesuit missionaries active in the region.
Baptized at nineteen despite her family's strong disapproval, she faced ostracism and threats from her own community and fled to a Christian Mohawk settlement near Montreal, where she lived a life of intense prayer, penance, and care for the sick and elderly until her death at only 24. Witnesses reported that the smallpox scars on her face vanished shortly after she died. She was canonized in 2012, the first Native American declared a saint.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
Lily of the Mohawks
A Mohawk-Algonquin woman known for her deep Catholic devotion in 17th-century North America, the first Native American to be canonized.
- Born
- 1656
- Died
- 1680
- Birthplace
- Ossernenon (in modern New York, United States)
- Died in
- Kahnawake (in modern Quebec, Canada)
- Country
- United States
- Canonised
- 2012-10-21
- Century
- 17th century
Categories
Why People Pray to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
Saint Kateri is invoked by Native Americans, converts facing family opposition, and those who care for creation and the natural world.
