NOTE: Enjoy this excerpt from The American Daily Reader, by CatholicVote president Brian Burch and Emily Stimpson Chapman. To order the complete volume, visit the CatholicVote store today!
Saints aren’t prone to moderation—at least, not when it comes to showing their love for Christ. And Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was no exception.
Born in 1656 in what is now upstate New York, Kateri Tekakwitha was the daughter of a Mohawk chief. When she was only four, however, smallpox came to her village, killing her father and the rest of her family. Tekakwitha survived, but the disease left her face badly scarred.
Later adopted by her uncle, the Mohawk princess lived a quiet life, avoiding others and hiding her face from view. When Jesuit missionaries came around, however, curiosity trumped vanity.
Tekakwitha ventured out to meet them, eager to learn more about Jesus. Faith came quickly. It did not, however, come cheap. First, Tekakwitha’s uncle opposed her baptism. Later, after he consented, both her family and her fellow villagers opposed her efforts to practice the Catholic faith, mocking her for not working on Sundays and criticizing her decision to remain celibate.
Eventually, with the help of her brother-in-law, Tekakwitha escaped her uncle’s house and traveled north to modern-day Canada, where a community of Mohawk Christians and Jesuit missionaries lived. There, Tekakwitha made a vow of perpetual virginity and embarked on a life of extreme penance—frequently fasting, praying for long hours in a freezing chapel, and even sleeping on a bed of thorns.
Tekakwitha’s extreme devotion most likely contributed to her early death at the age of 24. But it also earned her the admiration of all who knew her and led to her veneration by Catholic Americans, Native Americans, and Canadians for centuries after her death.
Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980 and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, the “Lily of the Mohawks” is America’s first Native American saint. Catholics around the world celebrate her feast day on July 14.
