St kateri

St. Kateri Tekakwitha is the First Indigenous North American to be baptized a saint by the Catholic Church. She was born in 1656, in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon. Her mother was an Algonquin, who was captured by the Mohawks and who took a Mohawk chief for her husband. She contracted smallpox as a four-year-old child which scarred her skin. The scars were a source of humiliation in her youth. She was commonly seen wearing a blanket to hide her face. Worse, her entire family died during…

Today marks the feast of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. Four years ago, when she was canonized, I preached a homily about her, mentioning that the reredos behind our altar included a small statue of this new saint. I noted that it was dedicated decades before she was even beatified, and that her journey to sainthood was not exactly brief:

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

Little Saints on Instagram: “St Kateri Tekakwitha aka Lily of the Mohawks, was born in 1656 in New Netherland (Now Auriesville, New York) to a Mohawk father and an…”

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

The recent canonization of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, and her feast day this week, brings to the fore the issue of Native Americans and their many spiritual elements. Across North America are various signs of those influences. On

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St. Kateri Tekakwitha

View the sacred art that adorns each sacred space of Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception with the Interactive Map.