Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

1. By Tristin Marshall Blessed KateriTekakwitha

2. Blessed Catherine Tekekwita • She is known by the Roman Catholic Church as the patroness of ecology and the environment. She is also one of the first Native Americans to be considered Blessed.

3. Early Life • Blessed Catherine Tekekwitha was born in New York Algonquin to a Catholic mother and a Mohawk father. At a young age, her village was plagued by smallpox that which killed her mother and her younger brother. Tekekwitha was sent to live with her two aunts and uncle.

4. After the plague, Tekekwitha was left half blind and weakened and that is where she got her name Tekakwitha, which means “she who bumps into things”. Early Life

5. At the age of eight, Tekakwitha’s family had already planned an arranged marriage for her but she had other plans for herself; she wanted to dedicate her life to God. Early Life

6. Christian Life • When Tekakwitha was eighteen, missionaries settled around her village so sometimes she would sit in the forest and listen to their stories about Jesus Christ and she always remembered the prayers that her mother used to whisper to her in her ear.

7. Ever since Tekakwitha joined the church, she was shunned by her village. They would threaten her life by throwing rocks at her and saying they would torture her to death if she didn’t go back to the religion she was born into. Joining the Church

8. Tekakwitha’s uncle, along with her village, did not like the Christian religion because when the settlers came over, they brought all kinds of diseases like smallpox and other things that killed the Indians so they began to believe that they were bad and they were the devil. Joining the Church

9. KateriTekakwitha • At the age of twenty, Tekawitha was baptized and her name was changed to Kateri which was Iroquois for “Catherine”. After being ostracized by her village, Kateri ran away to live with other Christian Indians. She was known for being being gentle, kind, and having a good-humored spirit. Kateri received her first Holy Communion on Christmas Day, 1677.

10. Kateri’s Life as a Christian • During her life devoted to God, Kateri taught young children and she cared for the elderly, sick, and the poor. Even though she didn’t know how to read or write, she taught herself many prayers. She also liked to make crosses out of wood and place them at different spots in the woods to remind people to stop and pray.

11. People knew Kateri as being very devoted to the Sacraments and she went to church and prayed for hours every sunset and dawn. One priest even said when she prayed her face changed like as if she were looking at God’s face, full of beauty and peace. Kateri was an excellent role model in her village and everyone loved her sweet and devoted personality. Prayer

12. Death • Being that her health was never really good, Kateri died at the age of 23 in 1680. Her final words were “Jesus, Mary, I love you”. Moments after her death, people said that her face suddenly cleared up of the scratches and the smallpox scars and her face was made beautiful by God. After her death, Kateri was known as the “Lily of the Mohawks”, the lily symbolizing her life, short and beautiful.

13. Kateri has taught me how to do right and love more, just as this morality course is teaching me. Kateri is a wonderful example of this because she endured so much to do what was right for her and for God. She also gave back to so many people like the elderly and the poor and she taught children even though she didn’t know how to read and write herself. What Kateri has to do with Morality

14. She is also a wonderful example of what every Christian should be like devoting herself to God and doing what a Christian should do. I believe that she was a great person devoted to God and she probably changed so many lives and made so many people want to do right because she was an excellent role model. After doing research on Blessed Catherine Tekakwitha she made me want to better devote my life to God. What Kateri has to do with Morality