Posted on 07/13/2009 10:47:09 PM PDT by Salvation
Those who had charge of her hated the Christian missionaries and Kateri was persecuted because she refused to give up her Christian way of life "I want to be a Christian, even though I should die for it," she said Her foster parents deprived her of all food or Sunday because she would not work in the fields or that day. Beatings, continual criticism, sarcasm and mockery were her constant lot They tried to force marriage on her but she was inspired to remain a virgin and after she became a Christian she took a vow of virginity.
In time, Kateri made her way to Caughnawaga, a community of Christians There she led a life of intense Christian virtue until he death in 1680 at the age of 24. Her renown for heroic sanctity soon spread and many miracles have beer worked through her intercession.
Kateri Tekakwitha followed the generation of Saints John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues and Companions thus bearing out the ancient Christian saying that "the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians"
I admire the virtues which adorned your soul: love of God and neighbor, humility, obedience, patience, purity and the spirit of sacrifice. Help me to imitate your example in my state of life. Through the goodness and mercy of God, Who has blessed you with so many graces which led you to the true faith and to a high degree of holiness, pray to God for me and help me.
Obtain for me a very fervent devotion to the Holy Eucharist so that I may love Holy Mass as you did and receive Holy Communion as often as I can. Teach me also to be devoted to my crucified Savior as you were, that I may cheerfully bear my daily crosses for love of Him Who suffered so much for love of me. Most of all I beg you to pray for me that I may avoid sin, lead a holy life and save my soul.
AMEN
In Thanksgiving to God for the graces bestowed upon Kateri:
bump for later
Flower of the Algonquins
Lily of the Mohawks
Editor's Commentary:
If you visit my website dedicated to my cousin Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, you will find copies of many paintings of this Native American saint.
However, the above recent acquisition, sent to me by Richard Aubrey Payne, and with the artist's permission to use in my site, is the most beautiful and the closest portrayal of who, in my opinion, is the real Tekakwitha.
Kateri is so serene, deep in thoughtful meditation, clutching Rosary Beads with the shining cross - a series of prayers taught by her mother and then by the Black Robes. Study the background to notice the Holy Spirit, descending from above and surrounded by a blazing light, He who enlightened her throughout her life - about whom her mother, Wahwahsekona, Fleur-de-la-Prairie or Prairie Flower, taught her at a very early age. One of the wings of the Dove is connecting to Jesus on the Cross - whom Tekakwitha carried with her, believing that the Son of God died for her and for her sins (she was innocence itself).
Tekakwitha is surrounded by the forest - the French word "sauvage", taken from the latin, meant "people of the forest". Birch bark was undoubtedly used for the canoe that rescued her from her Mohawk tormentors and finally brought her to the "praying village" in New France - the country of her Algonquin mother.
At her feet one can see sweetgrass, the fragrance in a smudging by which our prayers are purified and lifted to the Great Spirit. And there are lilies, the symbol of her paternal Mohawk heritage and as a flower of her maternal Algonquin ancestry. In the background are pine trees, among which there are certainly "cedar", also used in the smudging purification.
The watercolors are subdued like her personality and her surroundings, colors of the forest and its people, with the blazing white light just beyond her head teaching her about the Great Spirit and His enlightment.
It is appropriate that I feature this painting in this issue of our magazine, because April is the month in which two important events took place in the life of my cousin Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.
She died on Wednesday of Holy Week, April 17, 1680.
The Catholic Church in Canada celebrates Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha's holy day on April 17, the day of her death. In the United States, it is celebrated on July 14.
Norm Léveillée, Ed.
BUMP
Thanks for the bump.
I have never heard of her. Thank you for sharing this.
I hate to play the garden-party skunk, but it was the blackrobe jesuit missionaries who unintentionally brought death to these people through smallpox.
In the 1530’s Jacque Cartier described a heavily-peopled St. Lawrence valley. A century later Samuel de Champlain found it depopulated.
The pilgrim fathers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony found a land of empty villages full of skeletons. Squanto had earlier come back from England to find his family and clan all ghosts. The smallpox had swept up north from the Spanish settlements in Florida a few years previously.
“Star of the Natives”? I’d always known her as the “Lily of the Mohawks”, which I like much better.
I also had always heard Lily of the Mohawks.
I guess it was just this site because the Lily title was used on another site and picture below the first story.
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin
[In the Diocese of the United States]
Memorial
July 14th
oil painting on canvas 41 x 37"
by Father Chauchetière 1682-1693
(1656-1680) The daughter of a Mohawk warrior, Kateri was born near what is now Auriesville, New York, and was orphaned by an epidemic of smallpox which left her with impaired eyesight and a disfigured face. When she was baptized at the age of twenty she incurred hostility from her tribe; but she remained faithful and moved to the new Christian colony of Indians in Canada where she dedicated the rest of her life to prayer, penitential practices, and the care of the sick and the aged. She was devoted to the Eucharist and to Jesus Crucified, and was known as the "Lily of the Mohawks".
Source: Daily Roman Missal, Edited by Rev. James Socías, Midwest Theological Forum, Chicago, Illinois ©2003
Collect:
Lord God,
you called the virgin, blessed Kateri Tekakwitha,
to shine among the Indian people
as an example of innocence of life.
Through her intercession,
may all peoples of every tribe, tongue, and nation,
having been gathered into your Church,
proclaim your greatness
in one song of praise.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.Readings from the Commons of Virgins
In my hometown, there is a very, very broad based devotion to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. I know a number of girls/women named after her and a street named after her abuts our parish land.
Ikos:
O Holy Kateri Tekakwitha, you served God throughout your brief life and was found worthy to be your people’s first miracle-working intercessor before the throne of Almighty God. Your people honour your relics to this day, praying for and receiving gifts of both spiritual and physical healing, for you have found favor with the Lord. We join with them in paying you tribute, and sing:
Rejoice First-Fruits of the Blood of the Martyrs!
Rejoice Vessel of the Holy Spirit!
Rejoice Pure Lily of the Mohawks!
Rejoice for you often escaped into the forest to adore the Tree of Life!
Rejoice for you prayed ceaselessly to the Lord Jesus!
Rejoice for the Mother of God was your mainstay!
Rejoice for you submitted to the Will of God!
Rejoice for you endured sickness as though it were a blessing!
Rejoice for Angels carry your soul to heaven!
Rejoice for Joseph Chiouatenhwa joins you in praying for us!
Rejoice for we experience the blessings of your prayers to this day!
Rejoice for the Holy Spirit works miracles through you!
Rejoice O Holy Martyrs of North America, Preachers of Christ Crucified, and our Miraculous Intercessors in Heaven
Thanks for sharing a little bit of your town’s history.
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i have a cloth Relic from her
Meaning?
it is a piece of cloth about 1/4" square that was either touched or worn by her in a golden charm with her likeness and name engraved on it
Being Catholic: Sacred Things, Relics and the Incorruptibles
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