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Bl Kateri Tekakwitha
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha below is taken
from Bob and Penny Lord's book,
"Visionaries, Mystics and Stigmatists."
Kateri is born - the Seed Bears
Fruit
The Lord moves in great sweeping motions
when He wants to accomplish something.
The fruit of the Martyrs had to be a
strong focus of the Lord from before the
death of the Martyrs. In Trois-Rivieres,
today a part of French Canada, in the
province of Quebec, a young Indian
Maiden of the Algonquin tribe was raised
under the mantle of the French Jesuits.
She was baptized in Trois-Rivieres and
lived with French settlers for a time.
When the Jesuits pulled their missions
back to Quebec in 1649, as a result of
violent raids by the Iroquois and the
outrageous executions of the Blackrobe
missionaries, the Algonquins were left
on their own and came under the
domination of the Iroquois. Kateri’s
mother was taken prisoner and brought
down the Mohawk river with the rest of
the Indian captives. She landed in
Ossernenon, a beautiful Mohawk village
in what is today, Auriesville, in
upstate New York.
It was in Ossernenon that she met her
husband, a chief of one of the villages.
They married, and settled down there.
Now, we have to remember that Kateri's
mother was as much a captive as she was
the wife of the chief. Nothing is known
about her relationship with her husband
or the people of the village. She was a
foreigner, who spoke a different
language, and had different customs.
We’re sure that she was not able to
practice her Christian religion, because
the Blackrobes had not yet returned to
this area. How she must have grieved,
especially over the loss of her Lord
Jesus in the Eucharist.
She and her husband had two children,
Kateri, born in 1656, and her younger
brother. They lived a comparatively
peaceful life in Ossernenon. Her mother
tried to impart in the children at least
the virtues of Christianity, if not the
actual beliefs of the Faith, to the best
of her understanding. She also tried to
incorporate the teachings of the Church
with the positive values of her Indian
background, even though her Algonquin
beliefs varied somewhat from the
Iroquois or Mohawk.
Kateri was a beautiful child, possessing
the best features of both mother and
father. She was very loved by her
parents, and respected as the daughter
of a chief of the village. But all that
was to come to an end swiftly when she
was about four years old. A deadly
epidemic of Smallpox erupted, and swept
through the village like wildfire. It
had no respect for age, sex or position.
Kateri’s mother died first, then her
brother and her father. Kateri’s mother
had always prayed for the baptism of her
children, and possibly they were
baptized with the Baptism of Desire. But
in her lifetime, Kateri’s mother did not
see her children officially baptized.
Kateri’s brother was never baptized. It
would be 16 years after her mother’s
death that her prayer for Kateri would
be finally answered.
After the death of her family, the most
difficult period of Kateri’s life began.
She was taken in by her uncle, her
father's brother, who was made head
chief of the village. However, as much
as he loved Kateri, the uncle's
personality was different from Kateri’s
father, from what she could remember of
her father. Her actual upbringing was
put in the hands of various aunts who
loved her as a relative, but they were
definitely not her mother.
The Smallpox epidemic had devastated the
village and Kateri personally. In
addition to losing her family, she was
permanently scarred from the disease.
Her face, beautiful before the Smallpox
hit her, became extremely pockmarked.
Her eyesight was severely affected to
the point of being almost blind for the
rest of her life. She walked with her
head down, mostly to protect her eyes
from the sunlight, but also because she
couldn’t see clearly in front of her. It
worked out to her favor after her
baptism as she then walked in this
manner, as an expression of humility. It
was because of this condition that she
was called Tekakwitha. Her uncle looked
at her as she struggled to walk around,
in the early days after her eyesight was
affected. He called her Tekakwitha,
which means literally “She pushed with
her hands.” But Tekakwitha has a very
special meaning among the Mohawks. It
means the ideal woman, one who works
hard and keeps everything in good order:
a prudent, industrious, provident,
loving wife and mother. The chief didn’t
know it, but he was prophesying about
the qualities Kateri would possess when
the Lord put her to work for the
Kingdom.
Ossernenon was considered an evil omen
to the villagers. It had been the scene
of almost total destruction to the
people there. Everywhere they looked,
they could see in their minds’ eyes the
bodies of loved ones who had died from
the epidemic. In addition, Smallpox was
still ravaging the tribe. The chiefs
determined it was best to leave
Ossernenon, because evil spirits were
there.
Her uncle, as main chief of the village,
supervised the building of the new
village, with the palisades for
protection and the longhouses6 for
living. They chose a spot on a hill
facing the river, about a mile to the
west of Ossernenon. It was called
Caughnawaga, which meant “by the
rapids.” In addition to being very
beautiful, it was a very strategic
location. From this vantage point, they
could see their enemies approaching.
This is where Kateri spent her
childhood....
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Bl. Kat |
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