blessed kateri tekakwitha 1656-1680 lily of the mohawks youth ministry access, center for ministry...
TRANSCRIPT
Blessed Kateri
Tekakwitha
1656-1680
“Lily of the
Mohawks”
Youth Ministry Access, Center for Ministry Development, 2012.
The Algonquin Indians
Were the most populous and widespread
North American Native groupswith tribes originally numbering in
the hundreds!
They inhabited most of the Canadian region south of Hudson
Bay.
During the 17th century, there was
an Algonquin Indian woman who was baptized Catholic
by missionaries who visited her tribe.
She was later captured by the Mohawk Indians during warfare
and forced to hide her new Christian
faith.
The young girl was captured by a Mohawk chief and soon became his bride.
The Mohawks were the original people of New York.
They were also known as the fiercest of the Five Nations of Iroquois Indians.
In 1656, a baby girl was born to an Algonquin woman and a Mohawk
Chief.
The baby and her family lived in a village near Lake Ontario.
Like others of their time, they lived in a traditional longhouse.
Some longhouses were
up to 200 feet long and housed
several families.
It was not unusual in native culture to wait to name a baby
until the child showed some distinguishing characteristics.
Sadly, Kateri Tekakwitha’s parents would not have the opportunity
to name their baby girl.
The Mohawk Indians were among the first
natives who encountered the
British and other Europeans who sailed to America to create a new life.
Unfortunately, their numbers greatly
decreased, because of the many diseases
that these new settlers brought over from the Old
World.
Smallpox, measles and the flu
were devastating to the Mohawks
who had no immunity.
When Kateri was just four years old,
small pox spread through her village
and took the lives of her mother, father,
and younger brother.
She survived , but was left weaker, scarred and partially
blind.
Orphaned at age 4, Kateri was adopted by her uncle,
also a Mohawk chief of the Turtle Clan.
He gave her the name “Tekakwitha”
which translates to mean…
“One who clears her path with her hands” or “One who reaches out before she walks.”
She was probably named this due to the blindness that occurred
from the smallpox.
Tekakwitha and her new family moved to Caughnawaga
to build a new life after smallpox took most of their tribe.
It is said that Tekakwitha grew into a young woman with a
sweet, shy personality.
She helped her aunts work in the fields where they tended
to the corn, beans, and squash, and took care of the
traditional longhouse in which they lived.
She went to the neighboring
forest to pick the roots needed to prepare medicines and dye.
She collected firewood in the
forest and water from a stream.
Despite her poor vision, she also became very skilled
at beadwork.
In 1670 St Peter’s Mission was established in Caughnawaga
The native people
called the Jesuit
Missionaries the
“Black Robes”
Tekakwitha often saw the Black Robes in her village.
However, she was forbidden by her uncle to listen to or speak with them.
He believed that the Black Robes were responsible for bringing disease and bad omens to his village.
In 1674, Father James de Lambervillecame to the mission at Caughnawaga.
The young girl wanted to meet the
Black Robes and learn
about the Christian faith.
Most likely, before she died,
her mother had sharedstories and sang songs
from her Catholic faith
with Tekakwitha.
She asked her uncle to please allow her to study with the missionaries.
At first, Fr. Lamberville was concerned about the daughter of
a chief converting to Catholicism , but her uncle finally agreed to allow Tekakwitha to become
a Christian.
On Easter, April 5, 1676
twenty-year old Tekakwitha
was baptized.
She was giventhe name of Kateri,
which is Mohawk for Catherine.
Kateri was named in honor of
St. Catherine of Siena.
Soon after her baptism, Kateri became the village outcast. Her family refused her food on Sundays because she wouldn't
work. Children would taunt her and throw stones.
She was threatened with torture or death if she did not renounce her new Christian religion.
Because of increasing hostility from her people and because she wanted to devote her life to God, Kateri left her village and fled more than 200 miles
through woods, rivers, and swamps.
Her journey to the Catholic Mission
of St. Francis Xavier at Sault Saint-Louis took more than two months.
At the mission, Kateri
Tekakwitha and other
Native Americans
were finally able to openly
practice theirCatholic faith.
Although not formally educated and unable to read and write,
Kateri led a life of prayer and penitential practices.
She taught the young and helped those in the village
who were poor or sick.
Her favorite devotion was to fashion crosses
out of sticks and place them throughout the
woods.
These crosses served as stations that reminded her
to spend a moment in prayer.
On Christmas Day 1677, Kateri made her
First Holy Communion.
On March 25, 1679 Kateri made a vow of perpetual virginity,
meaning that she would remain unmarried and totally devoted to Christ for the rest of
her life.
Ever since her battle with smallpox as a child,
Kateri’s health was never very good. In 1680 she became fatally ill.
She was only 24 years old when she died.
After she died, two priests witnessed the miracle
of all the smallpox scars vanishing from her face.
Her last words were “Lesos Konoronkwa – Jesus, I love you.”
1943Pope Pius XII
declared her
Venerable.
300 years after her death,
Pope John Paul IIbeatified her in
1980.
Kateri Tekakwithais the first
Native American to be beatified by the Church.
In 2002,Pope John Paul II
named KateriPatroness of
World Youth Dayin Toronto,
Canada.
In 2011,Pope Benedict
XVIsigned a decree
recognizing the miracle
needed to canonize
her.“Blessed”
Kateri will be canonized on October 21,
2012.
Kateri Tekakwitha’s intercession is credited with healing a Washington State boy named Jake
who had been infected with a flesh-eating bacteria. Jake's father is Native American and a member of the
Lummi tribe. Jake’s mother said his health greatly improved after a visit
by a member of the Tekakwitha Conference. The woman, also named Kateri, brought a small coin
with an image of Blessed Kateri and a prayer card to Jake.
Kateri will be the first Native American from the present-day continental United States
to be declared a saint in the Catholic Church!
