For those who know me you know I love to travel and twice I have been to the birthplace Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in Osserneon (Auriesville) -- modern-day New York. Kateri was the daughter of a Christian Algonquin woman who was captured by Iroquois and married her non-Christian Mohawk chief father. She was orphaned during a smallpox epidemic and it left her with a scarred face and impaired eyesight. She converted and was baptized in 1676 by Father Jacques de Lamberville, a Jesuit missionary. She was abused and shunned by her relatives for her faith. She escaped through 200 miles of wilderness to the Christian Native American village of Sault-Sainte-Marie. She took a vow of chastity in 1679. She was known for her austere lifestyle. She was known as the Lily of the Mohawks. She died on April 17, 1680 in Caughnawaga, Canada. Her grave became a pilgrimage site and a place of miracles for Christian Native Americans and French colonists. She is the first Native American for canonization which started in 1884 under Pope Leo XIII. She was beatified in 1980 by Pope John Paul II.
It was really something to be at the site of her birth and were several Jesuit's were martyred. The saying is true from Tertullian: “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
Here is the website for the Shrine of Our Lady of the Martyrs in New York.
Prayer for Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha's canonization
O God, who, among the many marvels of Your Grace in the New World, did cause to blossom on the banks of the Mohawk and of the St. Lawrence, the pure and tender Lily, Kateri Tekakwitha, grant we beseech You, the favor we beg through her intercession, that this Young Lover of Jesus and of His Cross may soon be counted among the Saints of Holy Mother Church, and that our hearts may be enkindled with a stronger desire to imitate her innocence and faith. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen. Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us.
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