SAINT FEAST DAY 17 APRIL: ST KATERI TEKAKWITHA

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 17th of April

WELCOME!

SAINT KATERI TEKAKWITHA, VIRGIN

[Today is her feast day in North America. Elsewhere, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha is commemorated on July 14.] St Kateri Tekakwitha (pronounced ‘gaderi dega’gwit-ha’ in Mohawk), known as ‘Lily of the Mohawks’ and ‘Flower of the Algonguins’... was born in 1656 in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, near present day New York. She was the daughter of a Mohawk chief, and her mother was a Roman Catholic Algonguin, having been adopted into the Mohawk tribe after capture. The Mohawk village absorbed people from other tribes, particularly the Huron Native Americans, to replace those who died because of the diseases brought in by Europeans. When she was a child, St Kateri survived an outbreak of smallpox, which killed both her parents and her brother. She herself was left with scars and impaired eyesight.

SHE WAS BAPTISED

According to Mohawk practices St Kateri was probably looked after well by others in her clan, with whom she lived in the longhouse. She became skilled at making clothing and belts from animal skins, weaving mats and preparing food. She also helped the women in seasonal planting and weeding. At the age of 11 years, St Kateri met some Jesuit priests who had come to her village. Her uncle was against her meeting with them as he did not want her to convert to Catholicism. (One of his own daughters had already left the village and travelled to live in a Catholic village near Montreal, now Canada). St Kateri was pressurised to consider marriage at the age of 13, but she refused.

At the age of 18 years, St Kateri met Fr Jacques de Lamberville, and together they studied the catechism. Later, judging her ready for conversion, Fr Jacques baptised St Kateri on Easter Day, 1676. Because of the opposition to her baptism by some in her village, St Kateri travelled far to the Catholic village of Kahnwake on the St Lawrence River in Canada.

SHE WISHED TO REMAIN UNMARRIED FOR JESUS

St Kateri wished to remain unmarried and chose, for the last years of her short life, prayer and extreme penance for Jesus. She put thorns on her sleeping mat; piercing to draw blood was a traditional practice among the Mohawk and Iroquois nations. A priest wrote that St Kateri said, ‘I have deliberated enough. For a long time my decision of what I will do has been made. I have consecrated myself entirely to Jesus, Son of Mary, I have chosen Him for husband and He alone will take me for wife.’ Around the period of Holy Week 1679, friends noticed that St Kateri was becoming frail and looked unwell. When she became even more unwell a priest gave St Kateri the last rites of the Church and soon afterwards, on Wednesday of Holy Week, at the age of 23 or 24 years, St Kateri died saying the words, ‘Jesus, I love you’.

THE ACTION OF GRACE IN HER LIFE

In his homily at the Canonisation Mass, Pope Benedict said, ‘Kateri impresses us by the action of grace in her life in spite of the absence of external help and by the courage of her vocation, so unusual in her culture. In her, faith and culture enrich each other! May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who we are. St Kateri, Protectress of Canada and the first Native American Saint, we entrust to you the renewal of the faith in the first nations and in all North America. May God bless the first nations!,

From: Spiritual Thought from Fr Chris 

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Kateri may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.