FIRST NORTH AMERICAN INDIGENOUS SAINT
Monday, October 22, 2012 by: Joseph Corbiere
The Lily of the Mohawks, the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha will be canonized on October 21, 2012. Canonization is the last step to being officially recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as a Saint.
A number of local people have gone to witness this historic religious event, including Frances Dubois, my Aunt Margaret Hele and my mother Alice. Other people are travelling from Bay Mills too. Enjoy!!!
“Kateri Tekakwitha (pronounced ['gaderi dega'gwita] in Mohawk), baptised as Catherine Tekakwitha[2][3] and informally known as Lily of the Mohawks (1656 – April 17, 1680), was an Algonquin-Mohawk Catholic virgin and religious laywoman. Born in present-day New York, she survived smallpox and was orphaned as a child, then baptized as a Roman Catholic and settled for the last years of her life at the Jesuit mission village of Kahnawake, south of Montreal in New France.”
“Tekakwitha professed a vow of virginity until her death at the age of 24. Known for her virtue of chastity and corporal mortification of the flesh, as well as being shunned by her tribe for her religious conversion to Catholicism, she is the first Native American woman to be venerated in the Roman Catholic Church. She was beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1980. On February 18, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI announced at Saint Peter's Basilica that Tekakwitha is scheduled to be formally canonized on October 21, 2012.[4] Various miracles and supernatural events are attributed to her name after her death.”
The following are a few websites with more information:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/10/21/kateri-tekakwitha-mohawk-canonized.html
http://www.lily-of-the-mohawks.com/
http://www.cccb.ca/site/eng/church-in-canada-and-world/catholic-church-in-canada/the-saints-and-blesseds-of-canada/3375-canonization-of-kateri-tekakwitha-21-october-2012
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/libretti/2012/20121021.pdf
http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/2012/documents/ns_lit_doc_20121021_notificazione_it.html
