Kateri Tekakwitha Thesis

Sinéad Healy

Mrs. Rule

Christian Women Code 7

12 February 2018

St. Kateri Tekakwitha

Kateri Tekakwitha is not the typical Christian Woman. She is a source of intrigue due to her Native American background. Despite her popularity, due to her uniqueness, she lived a life typical to all other notable Christian women, and similarly, leaves behind a legacy that inspires others, and instills Christian values. Tekakwitha is a model for perseverance after devastation, and finding God through nature and purity.

Kateri Tekakwitha, or Lily of the Mohawks, was born in 1656 to a

Mohawk Warrior and a captured Algonquin Christian woman. She is remembered today for her purity and devotion (“St. Kateri,” para. 2). At the tender age of four, Tekakwitha had

However, Kateri refused her family’s request. Her unusual defiance prompted ridicule and threats from her family and community. Her family even punished her by allocating additional difficult workloads to her (notre dame website). Eventually Kateri met visiting Jesuit missionaries, who taught her about the faith of mother, Christianity (“St. Kateri,” para. 4). To solidify her identity as a Christian she chose to be baptized at the age of 19. After Saint Catherine of Siena, she was given the name “Catherine” or “Kateri” by the missionary to the Mohawks, Jacques de Lamberville. Her decision to become Christian mirrors her mothers experience with Christianity, as her mother had been “missionized by Jesuits at Trois Rivieres” (Shoemaker, 53). Kateri’s baptism sparked further disapproval as her Uncle was a fervent opposer of Christianity, and he was quite influential in the clan. Therefore, she was subject to persecution, and so she was forced to flee to Kahnawake, a village near Montreal (Shoemaker,

Here she was free to strengthen and learn more of her faith. Though more mild, Kateri experienced issues similar to those of her old life. Once again, she was pressured to marry, yet she convinced them by telling them “how she was inspired by the holy spirit,” and so they finally came to terms with the fact that her only spouse shall be Jesus Christ. Tekakwitha finally decided to dedicate her life to Christ, when she officially declared a vow of virginity along with other women with similar inclinations. Here in this village, Kateri immersed herself in her faith and began the practice of self mortification. To repent for her sins she whipped herself; walked on coals, ice, and snow; fasted and mixed ashes with her food; and slept for three nights on a bed of thorns. Though quite extreme, her harsh penitential actions demonstrate her willingness to do as God asked. She lived a very humble and pure (pure of sin through penance and virginity) life. She further dedicated herself to God by daily attendance to mass. On April 17, 1680, Tekakwitha died as her brutal self matriculation had caught up with her, leaving her ill, supposebly with tuberculosis (Shoemaker, 54-55). The last words spoken by Tekakwitha were “Jesos Konoronhkwa” (“Jesus, I love you). It is said that her small pox scars disappeared and her face “radiated with beauty” after her death. Witnesses report that within minutes of her death, the smallpox scars vanished from her face,