2021-22 Patron Saint Nominee--Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

Kateri Tekakwitha was the first Native American to be canonized by the Catholic Church.  Born in upstate New York in 1656, Kateri was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and Algonquin mother.  Kateri’s mother, who was a Catholic convert, and her entire family died of smallpox when Kateri was four years old.  Kateri herself was disfigured and partially blinded by the disease.

Kateri went to live with her uncle, another Mohawk chief who did not respect the Christian religion and arranged a marriage for Kateri.  Kateri however, converted to Catholicism at the age of nineteen and vowed herself to perpetual virginity and refused to marry.  Her faith brought her social scorn, and Kateri left her village, moving to a Christian Native village near Montreal, Quebec.

As a young Catholic Kateri practiced many acts of self-denial.  She spent hours before the Blessed Sacrament, and prayed for the conversion of the Mohawk nation.  Five years after her conversion, at the age of 24, Kateri died of sickness.  Upon her death, people witnessed a miraculous clearing of the smallpox scars from Kateri’s face.  After her death, several people had visions of the saint and many others received miraculous healing as the result of her intercession.

Kateri was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1980, and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012  She is the patron saint of Native Americans, of conservationists, and of people in exile.  She is nicknamed the “Lily of the Mohawks.”