Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

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Childhood and Conversion to Christianity

Kateri Tekakwitha was born to a Kanyen’kehà:ka (Mohawk) father and Algonquin mother. She was orphaned in 1660 at the age of four when a smallpox epidemic wiped out most of her village, killing her parents and younger brother. The young Tekakwitha survived but was badly scarred, and her eyesight was impaired.

In 1666, the French launched a punitive expedition against the Kanyen’kehà:ka and destroyed Tekakwitha’s village. Her people then chose to move across the Mohawk River to Gandaouagué. In 1667, three Jesuit missionaries arrived in the community and began to promote Catholicism.

In 1674, Tekakwitha became friends with Father Jacques de Lamberville, who was in charge of the mission. She shared with him her desire to be baptized. Lamberville taught her the catechism, and at Easter 1676, he baptized her as Catherine. Tekakwitha was then 20 years old. The name given to her was in honour of Saint Catherine of Siena, a 14th-century Italian mystic. Today, Tekakwitha is usually known as Kateri Tekakwitha, as Kateri is the Kanyen’kéha (Mohawk language) version of Catherine.

Tekakwitha’s early biographers, notably Father Claude Chauchetière and Father Pierre Cholenec, who contributed to the growth of her cult (a particular form of worship, prayer devotion or group of devotees), insisted that, even before converting to Christianity, she was in disagreement with the ways of life and values of the Kanyen’kehà:ka. Her refusal of marriage proposals and her desire to remain a virgin were used to support this argument.

Departure to the St. Francis Xavier Mission

Kateri Tekakwitha’s baptism and subsequent first communion in 1677 made her the target of persecution in her village. With the help of Father Lamberville, Tekakwitha travelled several hundred kilometres to reach the St. Francis Xavier Mission at Sault-Saint-Louis (today the Kahnawà:ke reserve). There she joined a group of Christian Haudenosaunee women who had chosen to renounce sexuality and marriage and who practised mortification. Tekakwitha submitted herself to severe physical discipline, fasting, flagellation, and exposure to the pain of fire and cold.

On 25 March 1679, the feast of the Annunciation, the Jesuits allowed Tekakwitha, who had demonstrated exceptional piety, to take a vow of perpetual chastity in private. However, life was precarious in a period marked by wars and epidemics. Tekakwitha, whose health was fragile, died on 17 April 1680, following a long illness perhaps brought on by her excessive practices.

Father Chauchetière, a young Jesuit, took to visiting Tekakwitha’s bedside during the last weeks of her life. In his writings, he describes himself as being fascinated by her calm and composed attitude to her approaching death. Even before she fell ill, her confessor, Father Cholenec, mentioned in a confidential letter to his superiors that Tekakwitha was the “most fervent” of all the young Haudenosaunee women who practised prayer and penitence. He also mentions a mysterious light that surrounded her during self-flagellation. The missionaries and Christian Haudenosaunee appear to have been attributing spiritual powers to Tekakwitha while she was still alive and her attitude toward death provided them with further confirmation.

Canonization

In 1680, Father Chauchetière wrote a short biography of Kateri Tekakwitha and painted her portrait. He later wrote a longer biography about Tekakwitha. In another biography, written by Father Cholenec in 1696, the author reports that 15 minutes after Tekakwitha’s death her smallpox scars disappeared and her face became white and shone with beauty. For the Jesuits, this was the first miracle and the birth of the legend of the Haudenosaunee virgin, Kateri Tekakwitha.

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, other Catholic leaders described Tekakwitha in similar ways to her early biographers. Bishop Jean-Baptiste de la Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, the second bishop of Quebec, suggested she was “the Geneviève of Canada,” while Father Pierre-Francois-Xavier de Charlevoix claimed that she was “universally regarded as the Protectress of Canada.”

On 3 January 1943, Tekakwitha was declared venerable by Pope Pius XII. Following this Vatican recognition of her exemplary Christian practices, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 June 1980. This allowed her to be venerated publicly and her feast day, 17 April in Canada and 14 July in the United States, was entered into the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church.

On 19 December 2011, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged a miracle attributed to Tekakwitha, that of healing a young boy in Washington State in 2006. The boy, Jake Finkbonner, had contracted necrotizing fasciitis; also known as “flesh eating disease.” On 21 October 2012, Tekakwitha was elevated to sainthood and became the first Indigenous person in North America to be canonized.

Controversy

While Canadian Catholics see this sainthood as a source of pride, others view Kateri Tekakwitha as a victim of colonialism. It is true that in the numerous biographies written about her, authors often give more pages to the legend than to the historical context. In a period when the Catholic Church wanted to encourage the conversion of Indigenous peoples, her mysticism and piety made Tekakwitha a model to follow.

Legacy

Kateri Tekakwitha’s story has been told in more than 300 books and 20 languages since her death. These accounts have served to spread the word about her cult (a particular form of worship, prayer devotion or group of devotees) in Canada, the United States and around the world.

Conserved in a sanctuary in Kahnawà:ke, her relics are the object of veneration. In the province of Quebec, two churches are named after her, one in the Innu community of Mashteuiash, in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, the other in the Innu community of Uashat, near Sept-Îles. A statue of Tekakwitha stands in the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. She was also featured in Montreal author Leonard Cohen’s novel Beautiful Losers (1966).