Kateri Tekakwitha

Who was Kateri Tekakwitha?

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, baptised as Catherine Tekakwitha and informally known as Lily of the Mohawks, is a Roman Catholic Saint, who was an Algonquin–Mohawk virgin penitent and laywoman. Born in Auriesville, she survived smallpox and was left with scars on her face and body when cured. She was orphaned as a child, then baptized as a Roman Catholic and settled for the last years of her life at the Jesuit mission village of Kahnawake, south of Montreal in New France, now Canada.

Tekakwitha professed a religious vow of chastity until her death at the age of 24. After her death, the scars on her face allegedly cleared. Known for her virtue of chastity and corporal mortification of the flesh, as well as being shunned by her tribe for her religious conversion to Catholicism, she is the fourth Native American to be venerated in the Roman Catholic Church. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980 and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI at Saint Peter's Basilica on October 21, 2012. Various miracles and supernatural events are attributed to her intercession.