Saints for the Sick: Heavenly Help for Those Who Suffer by Joan Carroll Cruz

Author:Joan Carroll Cruz [Carroll Cruz, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780895559579
Publisher: TAN Books
Published: 2010-11-01T06:00:00+00:00

53. BLESSED KATERI TEKAKWITHA (1656-1680)

KATERI was the daughter of a young Mohawk chief and a mother who had been converted to the Catholic Religion in Southeast Canada by French missionaries. When their tribe lived near the Mohawk River at a place known as Ossernenon, now known as Auriesville, New York, they became the parents of a beautiful daughter. Since it was felt that only a priest should perform Baptism, it was years before Kateri received this Sacrament.

The family was happy until the year 1660, when an epidemic of smallpox claimed a third of the Ossernenon population. Kateri’s mother, father and younger brother all contracted the disease and died. Only Kateri, at four years of age, survived, but she would retain a reminder of the disease for the rest of her life in the form of badly pitted skin on her formerly beautiful face. As a result of the disease, she also developed a weakness of vision, with an extreme sensitivity to light. Bright sunshine or the glare of water or snow would be a source of pain to her throughout her life. All was well while she worked in the dim longhouse, but outside, if the weather was bright and clear, Kateri found it necessary to shield her eyes and grope her way to where she intended to go. She was finally given the name “Tekakwitha,” which translates into “She-who-feels-her-way-along,” or “She-who-pushes-with-her-hands.”

After the death of her father, the little orphan was adopted by her uncle, the chief of the Turtle clan, who placed Kateri in the care of her aunts. Thereafter, these aunts schemed together and planned to have her married, hoping to provide the family with a young brave who would assist with the hard work, as well as with the hunting and fishing. Kateri had other plans. A few years earlier, when she was 11 years old, the village had been visited by three Jesuit missionaries. After listening to them and attending Catholic religious services, Kateri began to look forward to being a Catholic and leading a life of prayer. It is reported that when she refused to accept the marriage proposal of a young brave whom the aunts had selected for her, she voluntarily left the longhouse, although another biographer claims that she was expelled by her angered family.

Kateri’s desire to become a Christian was confided to Fr. Jacques de Lamberville, who instructed her in the “wigwam of prayer” and baptized her on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1676, when she was 18 years old. It was then that she was given the name Kateri in honor of St. Catherine of Alexandria.

Kateri was now faced with persecution from her uncle, who resented her conversion, especially when she refused to work in the fields on Sundays. Her aunts accused her of idleness and refused to give her food on the days she did not work. Although Kateri already performed most of the housework, her aunts pressured her with commands throughout the day in an effort to break her will.

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