Kateri Tekakwitha was officially canonized a “Saint” today.
Today, Kateri Tekakwitha, known as the “Lily of the Mohawks,” became the first native American to be named a saint of the Roman Catholic church. Pope Benedict XVI added Tekakwitha and six others onto the roster of Catholic role models today.
Although she is buried in Kahnawake near Montreal, she grew up in what is now New York state, close to what is now Saratoga Springs. She is considered to have lived in areas throughout the Adirondacks during her life.
Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in Latin at St. Peter’s Basilica, declared each of the seven new saints worthy of veneration by the entire church.
Numerous miracles attributed to Kateri’s intercession were part of the canonization process. A child saved from a fatal fresh eating disease, another child cured of a 65-percent hearing loss, and an ironworker who lost 16 vertebrae, fracturing his ribs and skull through a dangerous fall – and lived tell the tale; were considered miracles attributed to Saint Kateri’s intercession.
Raised by her uncle, near present day Fonda, N.Y., Kateri was inspired by Jesuit missionaries to study Catholicism. After her baptism, she became ostracized by her family and village and was threatened and ridiculed. In 1677 she fled to a Jesuit mission in Quebec where she taught prayers to children and worked with the sick and elderly.
The Mohawk settlement where Kateri was raised was abandoned in the late 1600s. However, the old wood post molds of the defense wall and longhouse buildings were discovered after WWII. Today a shrine is built there in her memory.
She died at the age of 24 from small pox uttering her last words; “Jesus, I love you.”
Kateri’s cause for canonization started in 1932 after more than a century of beseeching from Catholics devoted to her. Pope Pius XII declared her venerable in 1943, Pope John Paul II beautified her in 1980. Finally, Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree for her canonization last December.
Today, Catholics call her Saint Kateri and view her as an example in living a good, holy life.