350 Years Since the Great St Kateri Tekakwitha's Baptism

The Lily of the Mohawks and Protectress of Canada, St Kateri Tekakwitha, was baptised 350 years ago this past Easter Sunday. 

From Aleteia

By Theresa Civantos Barber

Not only the holiday but the exact date marked 350 years since the baptism of one of the earliest saints of the Americas.

This Easter Sunday marked a milestone that deserves to be celebrated by American Catholics, and especially Native Americans and those of Native American heritage. Not only the holiday but the exact date — April 5 — was 350 years since the baptism of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, one of the earliest and most beloved Catholic saints of the Americas.

As the country will mark 250 years this summer, it is amazing to think of the 100 years between her baptism and the establishment of the United States.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha was a young Mohawk woman who lived with remarkable virtue — and led many other Native Americans to Christ.

Her legacy is still strong today, not only in the beautiful shrine and museum dedicated to her life and Mohawk heritage, but also in the 20% of Native Americans who are Catholic today.

A special celebration

The St. Kateri Tekakwitha National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York, is a truly rare place that honors her faith and her heritage, with events like Native Masses during her feast day weekend and Indigenous Peoples Weekend, a Three Sisters Festival, and supporting the work of Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community. 

Among other things, the shrine grounds are home to the archeological site of the village of Caughnawaga, which was Kateri’s home. Rediscovered in 1950, Caughnawaga is the only fully excavated Iroquois/Haudenosaunee village in the world. 

The shrine celebrated the anniversary with a special Easter Mass. Very Rev. Father Michael Heine, OFM Conv., Minister Provincial of the Conventual Franciscans who care for the shrine, traveled from Maryland for the celebration. 

A life of courage and steadfast love

St. Kateri was the daughter of a Christian Algonquin mother whom Iroquois took captive and gave as wife to the chief of the Mohawk clan — St. Kateri’s father. St. Kateri first learned to pray from her mother. But when she was four, she lost her parents and little brother in a smallpox epidemic that left her scarred and half blind. 

Her Mohawk relatives adopted her and called her Tekakwitha, a name that came from her habit of walking with her hands outstretched due to her poor vision. These relatives were opposed to Christianity, and for some time Tekakwitha was afraid to seek religious instruction, even though she knew her mother had been a Christian. 

But when she was 18, she began meeting with French missionary priest Jesuit Father Jacques de Lamberville for religious instruction. She was baptized on April 5, 1676, at the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, near modern-day Fonda, New York, when she was around 19 years old. She chose the name “Kateri” after St. Catherine of Siena. 

After her conversion, her family treated her with cruelty, making her act as a servant to them. Among other things, because she would not work on Sunday, they would not give her food that day. 

Her situation became dangerous, so after consulting with a priest, St. Kateri Tekakwitha ran away one night and began a 200-mile walking journey to a Christian Indian village called Sault St. Louis or Kahnawake, near Montreal. 

The Christian community at Kahnawake became a haven for her, a place where she enjoyed the friendship of other Christians in a place where she could practice her faith freely. She was reunited with her mother’s close friend, Anastasia Tegonhatsiongo, who became a spiritual mother to her. 

It was at Kahnawake that she came to be known as the “Lily of the Mohawks” because of her kindness, prayer, faith, and heroic suffering. 

When she found out about religious sisters, St. Kateri Tekakwitha desired to form a religious community among the Native American women at Kahnawake, but a local priest dissuaded her. Nonetheless she chose to remain celibate and dedicate her life to God, telling a priest of her intentions:

I have deliberated enough. For a long time, my decision on 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

Because of her desire, the United States Association of Consecrated Virgins considers her a patron saint. 

Pope John Paul II beatified Kateri in 1980, and Pope Benedict XVI canonized her in 2012, making her the first Native American saint from the United States.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us!