The feast day of St. Kateri Tekakwitha is celebrated on July 14. St. Kateri Tekakwitha is the Patron of the environment and ecology. She was known as the “Lily of the Mohawks”.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in Auriesville, NY. She was the daughter of a Mohawk warrior and Catholic Algonquin. She is the first Native American to be declared a saint.
On Easter, 1676, Kateri was baptized by Jesuit missionary Father Jacques de Lambertville at the age of 20. She was devoted to prayer, penitential practices and the care of the sick and aged in Caughnawaga near Montreal. Her relics are now enshrined in Caughnawaga.
When Kateri was four years old smallpox attacked her family. Her mother and little brother died from the disease. Kateri’s face was scarred by the disease and she became partially blind. Her two Aunts and an Uncle adopted her. Because of her conversion, she incurred hostility from her tribe. She went to a new Christian colony in Indianan, Canada. She was devoted to the Eucharist and to “Christ crucified.” She spent much time praying before the Blessed Sacrament.
At the age of 23 Kateri died on Wednesday of Holy Week, at approximately 3 p.m. Within fifteen minutes after her death, her face, which was marked by smallpox, was healed and became beautiful. Father Cholone called others to see what had happened. Miraculous cures at the Sault Mission were frequent that year (1682) and attributed to Kateri. She appeared to many people after her death, always carrying a cross.
Blessed Kateri’s tomb is found at St. Francis Xavier Mission in the Mohawk Nation at Kahnaqake, near Montreal, Quebec. She is honored at the National Shrine of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha in Florida, NY and the Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, NY.
Who can tell me what is most pleasing to God that I may do it?
Quote of St. Kateri Tekakwitha
July is the Month of the Most Precious Blood.
