It’s been 12 years since St. Kateri Tekakwitha was declared a saint by the Catholic church, in October 2012. She was a Mohawk/Algonquin woman who lived in the late 17th century in present-day New York and Quebec, declaring herself a virgin for Christ. Her sainthood has sparked both pride and soul-searching within and beyond Canada’s First Nations.
Beverly Anna Sky Delormier: "I thought it would never happened in my lifetime, but it did and there was a… there's a person I know who's had didn't always come and told her grandmother that she'll come back to church all the time if Kateri gets canonized and she did, so now she's back in church!"
Fr. Richard Saint-Louis: "All that time we we recognize that the church is built with men and women who are sinners and (thank God) we are sinners so it's a challenge for us to be able to recognize that first of all, and recognize also the mercy of God for all sinners and knowing that we are able to spread the Gospel around by the way we live, by the way we act."
St. Kateri’s earthly remains are entombed in St. Francis Xavier Mission Catholic Church in Kahnawake on the banks of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal. The church is not far from the Kateri school and Kateri Memorial Hospital, visible reminders that she lived here, or nearby, in a Catholic community before her death, at age 24.
In this episode we are not retelling St. Kateri’s life story, but rather we’re bringing you voices from a few members of the present day Catholic community in Kahnawake. We will hear about what her sainthood means to them.
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Continue reading “The tomb of St. Kateri Tekakwitha and the faith of Mohawk Catholics”