Lily of the Mohawks (eBook)

The Story of St. Kateri

Emily Cavins (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
160 Seiten
Servant (Verlag)
978-1-63582-321-9 (ISBN)

Even before Kateri Tekakwitha's canonization on October 21, 2012, many had been inspired by the story of the young Native American mystic who lived in the Mohawk Valley during the seventeenth century. With Emily Cavins's skill for weaving together historical facts and a compelling story, readers will discover Kateri's path to sainthood against the backdrop of her life as a Native American in New York. These pages will reveal: - What led to Kateri's desire to become a Christian - Her piety and self-denial in the face of persecution and illness - Her impact on the Catholic Mohawk community - The long road to sainthood, including two miracles attributed to Kateri. More than just a compelling story of Kateri's short life, readers will also learn how to avail themselves of Kateri's intercession, why Kateri has become known as the patron saint of the environment, and of her connection to St. Francis of Assisi.

Even before Kateri Tekakwitha's canonization on October 21, 2012, many had been inspired by the story of the young Native American mystic who lived in the Mohawk Valley during the seventeenth century. With Emily Cavins's skill for weaving together historical facts and a compelling story, readers will discover Kateri's path to sainthood against the backdrop of her life as a Native American in New York. These pages will reveal:- What led to Kateri's desire to become a Christian- Her piety and self-denial in the face of persecution and illness- Her impact on the Catholic Mohawk community- The long road to sainthood, including two miracles attributed to Kateri. More than just a compelling story of Kateri's short life, readers will also learn how to avail themselves of Kateri's intercession, why Kateri has become known as the patron saint of the environment, and of her connection to St. Francis of Assisi.

Introduction

In the host of saints of the Catholic Church, there has never been one so connected to the earth, yet so joined to the Spirit. The rhythm of the seasons, the cycles of the moon, the bounty of the harvests, and the elements of wind and fire surrounded her each day. And from this organic simplicity, a huge capacity for spiritual communion with Christ was nurtured and matured like a mighty tree, the symbol of the Iroquois. Yet St. Kateri Tekakwitha remained a gentle lily.

A Native American from the Iroquois League, St. Kateri has aptly come to be known as Lily of the Mohawks. Her purity of soul resonates with anyone who learns about her life of hardship during a period of history like no other. Though her life was simple, her depth and spirituality show just why this woman has become a beloved saint.

St. Kateri was born in a small village of the Mohawks to a Christian Algonquin mother and a Mohawk chief. When she was four years old, her parents died of smallpox, while she survived the disease with permanent scars. Baptized at the age of twenty when Jesuit missionaries came to her village, she later moved to a mission in Canada, where she received her first Communion and took a vow of virginity. She died at the age of twenty-four from ill health.

So, what does this simple synopsis fail to reveal to us about the person of St. Kateri Tekakwitha? At her core was an unwavering faith in Jesus Christ—an active faith that enveloped her from the moment she first heard the Gospel until the day of her death; a lively faith, demonstrated through many acts of devotion to Christ and a kindness toward others.

We know about St. Kateri through the writings of several Jesuit fathers, some who observed her life as a Christian and others who recorded the events of their own missionary efforts in the New World. We know about her environment through the writings of early Europeans who had contact with the Mohawks, archaeological surveys of Mohawk sites in present day New York state, and our understanding of the traditions of the Iroquois lifestyle of the seventeenth century, in the context of the political turmoil during her lifetime. Three hundred fifty years have passed since St. Kateri’s death, and hundreds of books have been written about her and the Iroquois. It is upon the shoulders of those who have documented the historical time period and her life that we can view a more complete picture of just who she was.

Amid the academic facts and dates of her life, we can explore the amazing nature of her spiritual journey toward sainthood. And with a better understanding of who she is, we can be proud to claim her as the first Native American saint from North America—someone we can confidently approach with our requests for her gracious intercession.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

There are several variations on the spelling and pronunciation of St. Kateri’s name, but in this book, we will use the spelling of Kateri Tekakwitha. “Kateri” is the Iroquois pronunciation of her baptismal name, which means Catherine, after St. Catherine of Siena. Though Catherine was a common baptismal name at the time, the lives of St. Kateri and St. Catherine of Siena also enjoyed several key similarities, including a lifestyle of asceticism, a vow of virginity, and a young death.

“Tekakwitha” is her Iroquois name, which the Jesuit fathers also called her. In the Iroquois tradition, babies were formally named at particular seasons of the year during traditional ceremonies. A tradition has arisen in later centuries that her name was “Little Sunshine” as a baby, but in early accounts of her life this name was not mentioned. She became known as Tekakwitha after she was adopted by her uncle when she was almost five. It was not uncommon for an Iroquois to change names several times during his or her lifetime. Because Tekakwitha had difficulty seeing in the aftermath of smallpox affliction, her name most likely meant “One Who Bumps Into Things.”1 She received the name Catherine at her baptism at the age of twenty. In this book, she will be referred to as Tekakwitha before her baptism and Kateri after her baptism.

St. Kateri has been identified as the “Lily of the Mohawks,” which was based on a phrase written by Fr. Claude Chauchetiere in his biography of her life.2 He called her a “lily among thorns,” in reference to the difficulty of living a Christian life in the midst of a traditional Mohawk tribe. Thus, illustrations often depict her with lilies—which are also associated with purity, for which St. Kateri is known due to her vow of perpetual virginity.

Author’s Note: Fact or Fiction?

There are many entertaining accounts of the life of St. Kateri that do not distinguish between fact and fiction. In this book, I have only included facts that can be substantiated in written form from the accounts of the Jesuits or related sources—qualifying my personal interpretations with a “perhaps” or a “may have.” This account is based on up-to-date research, as well as recorded accounts from the seventeenth century.

As you will see, the facts of St. Kateri’s life that are available to us will show her worthiness of sainthood without any need for embellishment of my own.

St. Kateri, pray for us. May your powerful journey of faith inspire us all.

TEKAKWITHA’S NATIVE HERITAGE

Tekakwitha belonged to the strongest Native American nation in all of North America: the Iroquois. As she grew, her people experienced a dramatic metamorphosis, caused in large part by the mixing of cultures and religious practices. This element of change paints the backdrop for the story of Tekakwitha.

In the mid-seventeenth century, the Iroquois completely dominated the area in what is today the northeast United States—and were capable of defending their territory from any rival Native American tribe. The Iroquois League was a union of five tribes that included the Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Mohawk—Tekakwitha’s tribe.

In the region, the Mohawk were stationed furthest to the east, bordering the Hudson River on the east and the St. Lawrence on the north. To the west of the Mohawk were the Oneida. In the center were the Onondaga, with the Cayuga and then the Seneca furthest to the west, just below Lake Ontario.

This Five Nation League, the Iroquois, referred to themselves as “The People of the Longhouse” after their dwellings. A longhouse was an elm bark structure, often one hundred feet in length, that could house up to 150 people.3 The Iroquois way of life revolved around the longhouse, which not only served as shelter but hosted many ceremonies and festivals. An Iroquois village was made up of several longhouses built close together.

Each longhouse within a village was the home for one extended family, with smaller nuclear family units—related to the clan mother of the longhouse—stationed along the length of it on either side of a central aisle. In the Iroquois matrilineal culture, a man moved into the home of the woman after they married, and their children were traced through their mother’s lineage.

The term “Iroquois” is a French rendition of a derogatory Algonquin term meaning “The Killer People”—an apt description of the Iroquois among surrounding Native American tribes. The term “Mohawk”—meaning “Man-eaters” due to the Mohawk’s practice of eating their enemies on occasion—is also a term used by other Native American tribes to describe them. The Mohawks called themselves Kanien’gehaga, once translated as “The People of the Flint” but more recently believed to mean “The People of the Diamonds.” Within the Mohawk Valley, there still can be found quartz crystals, now called Herkimer diamonds, which were used as amulets and trade items until glass beads came upon the scene through trade with the Europeans.

Women in the Iroquois League played a central role in their society, not only in domestic food preparation, farming, and child rearing, but also in the most important decisions facing the tribe. They were the ones who chose the chiefs and decided when it was time to go to war. They were also in charge of arranging marriages. The Iroquois were divided into clans within each tribe, and a spouse had to be chosen from a clan other than one’s own.

It is reported by the Jesuits that Tekakwitha was of the Turtle Clan, which was the clan of her father. In traditional circumstances, a child would be of the mother’s clan, but as a captive from the Algonquin tribe, Tekakwitha’s mother would have carried the name of the clan who adopted her.4 When an Iroquois reached puberty, he or she was then given a clan name which had once belonged to a deceased member of the clan, so in a sense the deceased was brought back into the clan. We do not know if Tekakwitha was a clan name or not.

The clan system among the Iroquois acted like the skeletal system of the body holding the society together. The division into clans was crucial in decision making within the tribe and within the league because it kept the clans accountable to one another. A main function of clans was to assist one another during times of grief: one clan would carry on daily chores for the clan that was suffering a loss. Of the three Mohawk clans, Turtle, Bear, and Wolf, the Turtle was the main clan. Even today, modern...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	17.1.2023
Vorwort	Fr. Mitch Pacwa S.J.
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
ISBN-10	1-63582-321-8 / 1635823218
ISBN-13	978-1-63582-321-9 / 9781635823219

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