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Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

Feast Day
Jul 14, 2013
Patronage
Ecologists, Ecology, Environment, Environmentalists, Loss of Parents, People in Exile, People ridicu
<p>St. Kateri Takawitha was born in 1656 in the Mohawk village, near present day Auriesville, New York.&nbsp; She was the daughter of the Mohawk Chief.&nbsp; Her mother was a Roman Catholic Algonquin, who had been adopted into the tribe after her capture.&nbsp; Her mother had been baptized and educated by French Missionaries, just east of Montreal.&nbsp; Mohawk warriors captured her and took her to their homeland.&nbsp; The village was highly diverse, as the Mohawks were absorbing many captured natives of other tribes.&nbsp; The Mohawks suffered a smallpox epidemic, and when Kateri was 4, her baby brother and both of her parents died of smallpox.&nbsp; She survived the disease, but was left with facial scars that impaired her eyesight.&nbsp; She was adopted by her father&rsquo;s sister and husband, a chief of the Turtle Clan. &nbsp;</p> <p>According to the Jesuit&rsquo;s account of Kateri, she was a modest girl who avoided social gatherings, and she covered most of her head due to the smallpox scars.&nbsp; As a youth she was under the care of uninterested relatives. She was taken care of by her clan, her mother and uncle&rsquo;s extended family.&nbsp; She became skilled at traditional women&rsquo;s arts, making clothing and belts, weaving mats, baskets, and boxes, preparing food from game, growing crops, and gathering produce.&nbsp; She was pressured to consider marriage at the age of thirteen, but refused.&nbsp; At the age of ten, the French attacked the Mohawk in present-day central New York in 1666.&nbsp; They drove them from their homes and burned all three of the Mohawk villages.&nbsp; She along with her tribe, fled into a cold forest. &nbsp;</p> <p>After the defeat by the French forces, they were forced into a peace treaty that required them to accept Jesuit missionaries into their villages.&nbsp; While there, the Jesuits studied Mohawk and other native languages in order to reach the people.&nbsp; While the Jesuits lived among them, she was not to have any contact with them to avoid her converting to Christianity.&nbsp; In 1669, several Mohican warriors advance from the east, and launched a three-day attack.&nbsp; Kateri helped the Priests tend to the wounded, bury the dead, and carry food and water to those fighting on the front lines. &nbsp;</p> <p>In 1671, Mohawk chief Ganeagowa, who had led his warriors to victory against the Mohicans, returned from a long hunting trip in the north and announced he had become a Christian.&nbsp; On his trip he had discovered Catholic Iroquois village set up by Jesuits.&nbsp; He made a friend with Fr. Jacques Fremin, who served as a missionary in the Mohawk country.&nbsp; He was encouraged by the Catholic faith of the Iroquois villagers and of his own wife Satekon.&nbsp; He received instructions for several months from Fr. Fremin and was accepted into the Church.&nbsp; Kateri&rsquo;s adoptive parents tried everything they could, including punishment to get Kateri to marry, but she accepted the punishment and continued her resistance to marriage.&nbsp; In the spring of 1675 Kateri met with a Jesuit Priest and started studying the catechism.&nbsp; She was baptized at the age of 20, and only remained in her village for six months.&nbsp; Most of the Mohawks opposed her conversion and accused her of sorcery.&nbsp; She was advised by her priest to join a Jesuit mission just south of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River, where other native converts were gathered.&nbsp; She joined them in 1677. &nbsp;</p> <p>Kateri was said to have put thorns on her sleeping mat and to have lain on them while praying for the conversion of her kinsmen.&nbsp; She spent a lot of time repenting for other&rsquo;s sins.&nbsp; She and others in her village heard about nuns and they wanted their own, forming an informal association of devout women.&nbsp; She was quoted as saying, &ldquo;I have deliberated enough.&nbsp; For a long time my decision on what I will do has been made.&nbsp; I have consecrated myself entirely to Jesus, son of Mary, I have chosen Him for my husband, and He alone will take me for His wife&rdquo;.&nbsp; Everyone noticed how pious she was, and how deep her faith was. &nbsp;</p> <p>It was during Holy Week of 1680, that Kateri&rsquo;s health was failing.&nbsp; She performed extreme mortifications of the body, and offered it up.&nbsp; Soon the people around her knew she had only a few hours left, so the villagers gathered together, accompanied by the Priest to provide last rites.&nbsp; She died on Wednesday of Holy Week, April 17, 1680 around 3pm at the age of 23 or 24.&nbsp; She died in the arms of her friend Maria-Therese.&nbsp; Her final words were &ldquo;Jesus, I love you&rdquo;. &nbsp;</p> <p>The people around her noticed a physical change to her body.&nbsp; About 15 minutes after her death, her face that was so marked and scared by smallpox from her childhood, suddenly changed and became in a moment &ldquo;so beautiful and white&rdquo;.&nbsp; Three people, her mentor &ndash; her companion &ndash; and her Priest, all reported that Kateri had appeared to them in the weeks after her death.&nbsp; Her stepmother reported that she appeared &ldquo;kneeling at the foot of her mattress, holding a wooden cross that shone like the sun&rdquo;.&nbsp; Her companion Maria-Therese reported that she was awakened at night by a knocking on her wall, and a voice asked if she were awake, adding, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve come to say good by, I&rsquo;m on my way to heaven&rdquo;.&nbsp; She was asked to go and tell the Priest she was on her way to Heaven.&nbsp; The Priest reported seeing Kateri at her grave, he said, &ldquo;She appeared in splendor, for two hours.&nbsp; He gazed upon her, and her face lifted toward heaven as if in ecstasy&rdquo;. &nbsp;</p> <p>Fr Chauchetiere had a Chapel built near her gravesite.&nbsp; By 1684, pilgrims had begun to honor her there. The Jesuits turned her bones to dust and set the ashes within the &ldquo;newly rebuilt mission chapel&rdquo;.&nbsp; This symbolized her presence on earth, and her physical property left behind was sometimes used as relics for healing.&nbsp; <span><br /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>Practical Take Away</strong></span></p> <p>St. Kateri Takawitha was born in 1656 in the Mohawk village, near present day Auriesville, New York.&nbsp; She was the daughter of the Mohawk Chief.&nbsp; Her mother was a Roman Catholic Algonquin, who had been adopted into the tribe after her capture.&nbsp; Her mother had been baptized and educated by French Missionaries, just east of Montreal.&nbsp; Mohawk warriors captured her and took her to their homeland.&nbsp; The village was highly diverse, as the Mohawks were absorbing many captured natives of other tribes.&nbsp; The Mohawks suffered a smallpox epidemic, and when Kateri was 4, her baby brother and both of her parents died of smallpox.&nbsp; She survived the disease, but was left with facial scars that impaired her eyesight.&nbsp; She was adopted by her father&rsquo;s sister and husband, a chief of the Turtle Clan.&nbsp; She was batized Catholic at the age of 20, and practiced mortifications to the body, in reperation for her kinsmen.&nbsp; She died at the age of 23 or 24, during Holy Week.&nbsp; She appeared to three people weeks after her death, claiming she came to say good bye, on her way to heaven. &nbsp;</p>