“Look at this cross. Oh, how beautiful it is! It has been my whole happiness during my life, and I advise you also to make it yours.”
~ St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Feast Day: July 14
Born: 1656
Died: April 17, 1680 (24 years old)
Beatified: June 22, 1980
Canonized: October 21, 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI
- St. Kateri Tekakwitha was the first Native American saint in the United States and Canada.
- The name Tekakwitha translates into "she who bumps into things."
- Kateri converted to Catholicism at the age of 19 and soon after took a vow of perpetual virginity.
- St. Kateri was baptized as Catherine. Kateri is the Mohawk form of Catherine.
- Kateri's patron saint was St. Catherine of Siena.
- Kateri's parents and baby brother died of smallpox when she was only four years old.
- When Kateri was unable to practice her faith fully in her tribe, she abandoned everything to live at the Jesuit mission at Kahnawake, south of Montreal.
- St. Kateri practiced self-mortification as a sacrificial offering to God. She put thorns on her sleeping mat, offering her suffering for her family's conversion. She ate very little and was often ill.
- There are four shrines honoring St. Kateri in the United States: Shrine of Our lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, NY; National Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine in Fonda, NY; The National Shrine of the Cross in the Woods in Indian River, MI; and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
- After her death from smallpox, her skin miraculously healed as the scars disappeared, leaving her more beautiful than before her death.
- Tekakwitha's gravestone reads: Kateri Tekakwitha, Ownkeonweke Katsitsiio Teonsitsianekaron, The fairest flower that ever bloomed among red men.
- St. Kateri is the patroness of the environment and ecology due to her closeness with nature during her life.
