July 14th - St. Kateri Tekakwith - Lily of the Mowaks

 

 Today we celebrate the memorial of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha known as Lily of the Mohawks, who was born in 1656 in northern New York State, near Auriesville near where St. Isaac Jogues and companions were martyred.

When she was four years old, her Christian mother, an Algonquin and her father a pagan Mohawk chief died of small pox. The disease also attacked Kateri and scarred her face and injured her eyesight. Because of her poor vision, Kateri was named "Tekakwitha", which means "she who bumps into things."

She was adopted by her two aunt and an uncle. Due to Jesuit priests, she converted to Catholicism as a teenager and was baptized at the age of 20. Persecuted for her faith, she stayed firm in it.

She spent much of her time in the woods and was considered a mystic. She made a vow of virginity and asked to become a nun, but was not allowed because she was not European. Two years later, she escaped to Canada to live in a settlement of Christian Indians near Montreal and in the Christian colony she lived a life dedicated to prayer, penitential practices, and care of the sick and aged and helped missionaries convert Indians to the Christian faith.

Every morning in the bitterest winter, she stood before the chapel door until it opened at 4am. She remained there until after the last Mass. She was devoted to the Eucharist and Jesus Crucified. When she died April 7th, 1680 at the age of 24, witnesses who attended her death, said her body glowed and the scars on her face disappeared and became like that of a healthy child.

In 2006, a 6-year-old boy cut his lip during a basketball game in Washington state. Jake Finkbonner developed a flesh-eating bacteria. Over the next few weeks, it destroyed his lips, cheeks and forehead. Doctors told the family the boy was going to die. The family's priest asked his congregation to pray to Kateri on Jake's behalf. A representative from the Society of Blessed Kateri placed a pendant of Kateri on the boy's pillow. The next day, the infection stopped progressing and Jake recovered. Investigators from the Vatican approved the miracle attributed to Kateri's intervention. She was canonized in 2012. As we prepare to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, let us ask Saint Kateri to intercede for the American Indians. May they have child like trust, in imitation of the Indian who bumped into things and is called the lily of the Mowhawks.