1656-1680
Feast Date: July 14
At her canonization in 2012, Pope Benedict XVI prayed, “St. Kateri, protectress of Canada and the first Native American saint, we entrust to you the renewal of the faith in the First Nations and in all of North America!” The daughter of a Mohawk chief and Algonquin woman, Kateri was orphaned in a smallpox epidemic that left her partly blind and disfigured. She was baptized by a French missionary visiting her village in New York state. But, her faith and refusal to marry caused trouble, and she fled to an Indian community near Montreal, where she was revered by French and Indians alike for her mystical gifts and kindness. The “Lily of the Mohawk” is the patron of Native Americans, refugees and the disabled.