St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Patron of the environment and ecology
1656 - April 17, 1680
Beatified By: Pope John Paul II
Canonized By: On 10/21/2012 by Pope Benedict XVI
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Virgin, was canonized on 10/21/2012 by Pope Benedict XVI.
Kateri was born near the town of Auriesville, New York, in the year 1656, the daughter of a Mohawk warrior. She was four years old when her mother died of smallpox. The disease also attacked Kateri and transfigured her face. She was adopted by her two aunts and an uncle. Kateri became converted as a teenager. She was baptized at the age of twenty and incurred the great hostility of her tribe. Although she had to suffer greatly for her Faith, she remained firm in it. Kateri went to the new Christian colony of Indians in Canada. Here she lived a life dedicated to prayer, penitential practices, and care for the sick and aged. Every morning, even in bitterest winter, she stood before the chapel door until it opened at four and remained there until after the last Mass. She was devoted to the Eucharist and to Jesus Crucified. She died on April 17, 1680 at the age of twenty-four. She is known as the "Lily of the Mohawks". Devotion to Kateri is responsible for establishing Native American ministries in Catholic Churches all over the United States and Canada. Kateri was declared venerable by the Catholic Church in 1943 and she was Beatified in 1980. Work is currently underway to have her Canonized by the Church. Hundreds of thousands have visited shrines to Kateri erected at both St. Francis Xavier and Caughnawaga and at her birth place at Auriesville, New York. Pilgrimages at these sites continue today.
St. Kateri Teckakwitha is the first Native American to be declared a Saint. Her feastday is July 14. She is the patroness of the environment and ecology as is St. Francis of Assisi.
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Saint Kateri, please intercede for healing on behalf of my cousin Becky who has been afflicted with Hepatitis C for many years after receiving a blood transfusion. I have faith in your intercession. Praise be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
St. Kateri, please pray for healing for my parents, and the renewal and restoration of their marriage if it be God's will. Please pray for healing for my family tree, for freedom from mental illness.
Amen.
heal my hipperness
I am curently doing a project called the HCP "Historical Collaboration Project". I must write a five page essay on whom evre i please as long as it is in the 200 ad to 1600 ad time frame, my teacher gave us some ideas but the first person that came to mind in that time frame was Kateri. i didnt know much about her at first but after reading this web page and watching the video i have learned and all my questions have been answered! I am using some of the facts i learned while reading this! I will try and comment an attachment of my finished project including a slide show , hopfuly before Febuary 28, 2013 !
St Kateri please intercede for my young son who has a serious addiction problem that he will be healed and return to his faith,
I learned about Kateri in 2009 while working in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. I seemed to develop a strong appreciation for her after I started working on the Mescalero Apache reservation nearby. I began to pray to Kateri to safely guide my younger children home to me because they were in danger with their father in Louisiana. When another son welcomed his son four months too early I began a devotion to Kateri asking her to watch over the tiny child. In November of this year my little ones were returned to our home here in New Mexico and as of this posting my grandson is doing very well and should go home from the hospital next month. I do believe Kateri interceded on our behalf and am willing to tell everyone I know of her good works!s
There is a statue at the St. Michael's Elementary School in St. Michaels, AZ on the Navajo reservation. I have known since my days in elementary in the 1970's of St Kateri. I gave my oldest daughter her middle name Tekakwitha. My youngest daughter has been told she looks like St Kateri. In 2000, I made a new friend from Canada and she knew of St Kateri and even gave me the correct pronunciation of St Kateri's name. This shows me how strong an influence St Kateri had on me. I am grateful to St Katherine Drexel for bringing St Kateri closer to us in the Southwestern US.
Dear St Kateri,
We are having some hard times with ecological destruction and water right problems in the Southwest. Pray for us that this beautiful country will be stripped for commercialism or unnecessary misuse.
Dear Saint Kateri,
You know the suffering I endure through my disease, I ask not for healing but rather, to love my pain and my continual decline into death. Please, the thing that is utmost within my desire and which i beg of you, is that my little children,they are too young on thier own...(8,5,3 and 1 years old,) and my wife can gain understanding and consolations as I endure this....ease thier sorrow and grant them understanding and protect them once i am unable to do so any longer. As I uninte my suffing with the sufferings of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Chirst in union with Mary Immaculates and your own prayers use this for the conversion of sinners and both a increase in priestly vocations and a stronger unitive formation of religious with the teachings of the Church. Praise and Golry forever In Christs name we pray, Amen.
St Kateri pray for us
amen...
Thank you for this informative article. I believe St. Kateri is one of my guardian angels. I had a vision of her in a dream around late spring of 2010. She was standing next to a tree smiling very serenely, so very beautiful, and all I could remember is an immense feeling of calm and peace.
I did not know about this saint until today when I happened to come across an image of her. Initially, after the dream, I had thought it was the Virgin Mary dressed in Native American clothing but now I believe it was St. Kateri. I have also had a strong inclination toward St. Francis of Assisi, nature and animals and never really knew why but now how strange to know that St. Kateri and St. Francis are related protectors of the nature and animals!
I have experienced other unexplainable events which I believe to prove our spiritual existence though I prefer not to publicize them since I believe it was really a message meant for me. I would not consider myself a devout, "strict" Catholic though I do pray frequently.
I guess the message I want to leave with you is that the saints are closer than you may realize, and they do answer prayers. My prayer for the longest time was to identify who my guardian angels were or to at least meet/see them -- and it happened! Pray every day. Pray for everyone, every animal, and for the Earth. So many people forget to pray for animals and the Earth but both have life, too. Both also contain many messages and lessons from God if you only reflected and paid attention. Believe and do good. It's that simple. Take care and many blessings I am sure will come to you. Just keep your eyes and hearts open.
for all the people who have faithfully put their cares and the cares of those around them in your competent hands.. i pray for fidelety of their fath and the blessing of grace to their families
St. Kateri is the first Native American Roman Catholic saint. But we Orthodox already have two Native American saints, St. Yakov Netsvetov and St. Peter the Aleut.
For Judy.
Please St. Kateri, in Jesus name, heal my daughter and give her the life that God promised her. Thank you.
St. Kateri, I ask you to look for the welfare of birds in the area where I live.
My brain is injured and needs healing. Please help me.
Please Kateri, ask our Lord to heal my daughter's face of Bell's Palsy.
Please heal me from a chronic neurological condition that impedes me from achieving things I want. I would like to be healthy again!
Let us pray for all people but especially for Alyssa, Stephanie, Carmen, Tom, Patti.
I am praying to St. Kateri for Regina so that she finds a job. I trust in this most beloved Saint to assist her.