By Corazon Damo-Santiago
Kateri Tekakwitha could not see well because of smallpox that affected her eyes and left scars on her face and body. But when she died on April 17, 1680, “her true beauty in the eyes of God” was reflected, narrates Margaret Bunson in Kateri Tekakwitha, Mystic of the Wilderness.
The scars on her face vanished, emphasizing the beautiful bone structure and “lovely angles of her heritage—an exquisite creature restored.” Even her complexion lightened to radiant white. She was beautiful—“a marvelous transformation within minutes following her death” at the age of 24, with no traces of a body ravaged by sickness.
Loved God at an early age
Her birth name, Ioragode, means “sunshine.” She is a mystic Mohawk, a genuine red skin, a “true symbol of America’s past.”
Her father is Tsaniton-Gowa, a Mohawk chief in Ossernenon Village. Her mother, Kahontake, a Christian, is an Algonquin woman who was captured during a Mohawk raid in New France.
In 1660 a smallpox plague killed her parents and brother, but spared the 4-year-old Ioragode and her mother’s friend Anastasia, also a Christian.
An orphan, Ioragade was left to the care of Iowerano, his father’s brother-in-law who became the chief of the tribe. His wife Karitha, her sister Arosen and an adopted sister Enita were tasked to take care of her until she gets married.
Anastasia warned her that Mohawks hate Christians, believing they brought okis, the evil spirits of the plague, and so she should not talk about it to her new family. Iowerono, the new chief, moved to a new settlement and called it Kannawage.
Her uncle also gave her a new name—Tekakwitha, which means “one who pushes with her hands,” being unable to see things around her with clarity. Sensitive to bright light and glare of water and snow, she moved around with the aid of her hands.
When Tekakwitha was 11 years old, black-robbed missionaries were allowed by the council of Mohawks to enter their settlements. She was assigned to be one of the servers for Fathers Jacques Bruyas, Jean Pierron and Jacques Frémin.
She heard them pray after dinner. Although she did not understand what they said, she knew they were speaking to the One True God, who her mother and Anastasia called Rawanniio. Her mother taught her the sign of the cross and emphasized a good God.
That God knows what is in everyone’s heart, as Father Bruyas remarked, made her feel closer to God. And that God being able to hear every whisper helped her express what is in her heart, for herself to ponder about.
“Great God, I hear Your voice in the wind, sharpen my ears to hear You better. Make my heart pure to know You and my hands ready to do your work. I want to serve You as a Christian, my own true God,” she said, as noted by Lilian M. Fisher in Kateri Tekakwitha, The Lily of the Mohawks.
Hidden from view, she listened to the catechism lessons of Father Pierron to the Mohawks. She continued to absorb Christian doctrines when Father Boniface became the catechist. She watched the priests treat the sick and administered extreme unction.
She wanted to worship with the converts and sing with them, but Iowerano did not allow her. She was prepared for marriage to Okwire, a warrior, she received death threats when she rejected him.
In 1673, 30 of the 300 Mohawks were converted to Christianity. Kateri expressed her desire to be a Catholic, too, and be named after Saint Catherine, of Siena the mystic and contemplative. Father Jacques de Lamberville did not baptize her immediately. She had to take lessons and join Christian community activities to prepare her for baptism.
Angel in the flesh
On Easter Sunday of 1676 she became a child of God through the rites of baptism. Tekakwitha was baptized Catherine. Kateri was the Mohawk form of the name. The entire Mohawk population witnessed a distinguish member of the clan convert to Christianity.
Having been taught about the importance of penance, as a way to atone for sins and make amends to please God, Kateri fasted, made her own place of prayer in the woods where she carved a cross on the trunk of a tree, which served as an altar in the forest and became a special place for her.
Kateri, now a Christian, lost her interest in Mohawk activities. She did not join rituals which she considered pagan and a cruel practice. Conspicuously absent in tribal activities she was expected to attend, her own people started to distance themselves from her. She was mocked, insulted and ridiculed publicly. She was even accused of having an affair with his uncle, which compounded resentment against her. She remained silent and intensified her prayer life and sacrifices for spiritual growth.
She fasted twice a week and gave her food to the poor. To make her food for other days less desirable, she sprinkled ashes on them. For sleep to be less desirable, she slept on hard rocks. Thin and pale and disregarded by her own community, Father Lamberville advised her to move to a mission house on Kahnawake, facing Montreal Canada for her own safety. He gave her a note of introduction to Father Frémin, Superior of the Mission of Saint Francis Xavier.
“I am sending you a treasure, guard it well.”
Kateri was happy in her new home. Although she has progressed spiritually, it was the practice to delay her first communion. It was set 20 months after her baptism, on Christmas Day of 1677.
As a Christian, she never missed Masses at 4 a.m., and in the evening. She prayed with the congregation and visited the Blessed Sacrament often and made confession and penance. Her spiritual benchmarks did not remain unnoticed, so the accusation that persisted about her relationship with her uncle seemed absurd for someone everyone considered “angel in the flesh.”
Patron saint of ecology
and environment
After her return from a mission in Hospital Dieu that was administered by the Daughters of Saint Joseph, she expressed her desire to take the vow of chastity.
Father Pierre Cholenec, her spiritual director, a Jesuit, wrote in her autobiography that the “vow of chastity was so unusual and appeared so incompatible with the life of the Indians.”
Realizing her great progress in “every kind of virtue,” he discerned, “Kateri’s decision could come from no other source than from God Himself.” So on March 25, 1679, after receiving Holy Communion, she was allowed to make a vow of perpetual virginity.
She lived a penitential life, increased her fasting and devotion. She contracted a serious illness but recovered. She continued her spiritual work without complain. But in winter, she suffered different ailments and during Holy week, everyone realized she was dying. At 3 in the afternoon of April 17, 1680, she died.
Although Iroquois custom dictates she was to be covered with a blanket and buried in a bier or bark, the priest consented she be buried in a special wooden casket, which made it possible to identify her when she was exhumed in 1684. Reports of unusual favors, cures and blessings were immediately reported which resulted in a petition for her beatification.
Proclaimed Venerable in 1941 by Pope Pius XII, she was beatified on June 22, 1980, by Pope John Paul II and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012.
Kateri, also fondly called Lily of Mohawks, is the first native American to be declared saint. She is the patron saint of ecology and environment, as well as people in exile.
n Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris College in Calauan, Laguna.