Saint of the Day: St. Kateri Tekakwitha

(1656-1680)

Her life

+ Tekakwitha was born around 1656 of a young Christian Algonquin woman and a non-Christian Mohawk chief. Baptized when she was almost twenty, she received the name “Kateri” at baptism, in honor of Saint Catherine of Siena. 

+ Shortly after her baptism she took a vow of virginity, offering herself totally to God. Although she desired to enter a religious community, the idea of an established community accepting a Native American woman was unheard of at that time. 

+ The last years of her life were spent in prayer and caring for and sick at a Jesuit mission near Montreal, even as she herself was dying of tuberculosis.

+ Saint Kateri Tekakwitha died at Kahnawake, Canada, in 1680; She was canonized in 2012.

+ Nearly every year since 1939, Native American Catholics and those who minster in their communities have gathered for the annual Tekakwitha Conference. To learn more about the Tekakwitha Conference, visit: http://tekconf.org/ 

For prayer and reflection

“Dear brothers and sisters, Kateri’s life is further proof that apostolic zeal implies both union with Jesus, nourished by prayer and the sacraments, and the desire to spread the beauty of the Christian message through fidelity to one’s particular vocation. Kateri’s last words are very beautiful. Before she died, she said, “Jesus, I love you.”

May we too, like Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, draw strength from the Lord and learn to do ordinary things in extraordinary ways, growing daily in faith, charity and zealous witness for Christ.”—Pope Francis 

Spiritual bonus

On this day we also remember Blessed Angelina di Marcisano. A widowed noblewoman, she gave away her wealth and property and founded the Franciscan Sisters of the Third Order Regular. Known as a traveling preacher and for her care for the sick, the poor, widows, and orphans, she established 12 houses for Franciscan tertiaries before her death in Foligno, Italy, on July 14, 1435. Devotion to Blessed Angelina was confirmed by the Holy See in 1825. 

Prayer

O God, who willed the Virgin Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
to flower in a life of innocence
among the Native peoples of North America,
grant, through her intercession,
that all gathered in your Church
from every nation, tribe and tongue,
may glorify you in a single canticle of praise.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal)
Saint profiles prepared by Fr. Silas Henderson, S.D.S.