Kateri Tekakwitha - Santa Fe, New Mexico
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GT.US
N 35° 41.197 W 105° 56.208
13S E 415234 N 3949594
This bronze statue is found in front of the old Cathederal Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.
Waymark Code: WM8AJ3
Location: New Mexico, United States
Date Posted: 03/01/2010
Views: 13
Kateri Tekakwitha was the first Indian of North America to be promoted a saint.
Wikipedia tells us:
"Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha or Blessed Catherine Tekakwitha; 1656 – April 17, 1680) was a Mohawk-Algonquian woman from New York and an early convert to Christianity, who has been beatified in the Roman Catholic Church.
Kateri Tekakwitha the daughter of a Mohawk chief, Kenneronkwa, and a Catholic Algonquin woman, Kahenta, was born in the Mohawk fortress of Ossernenon near present-day Auriesville, New York. Kahenta was baptized and educated by the French in Trois-Rivières like many of the Abenaki. She was captured there at the start of a war with the Iroquois and taken to Kenneronkwa's homeland. When Kateri was four, smallpox swept through Ossernenon, and Tekakwitha was left with unsightly scars on her face and poor eyesight. This outbreak took the lives of her brother and both her parents, Kahenta (Flower of the Prairie) and Kenneronkwa (Beloved). She was then adopted by her uncle, who was a chief of the Turtle Clan. As the adopted daughter of the chief, many young men sought her hand in marriage. However, during this time she began taking interest in Christianity. Her mother was Christian and had given Kateri a rosary, but her uncle took it away and encouraged her not to follow that religion.
In 1666, Alexandre de Prouville burned down Ossernenon. Kateri's clan then settled on the north side of the Mohawk River, near what is now Fonda, New York. While living here, at the age of 20, Tekakwitha was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 18, 1676 by Father Jacques de Lamberville, a Jesuit. At her baptism, she took the name "Kateri," a Mohawk pronunciation of the French name "Catherine". Tekakwitha literally means "she moves things."
Unable to understand her zeal, members of the tribe often chastised her, which she took as a testament to her faith. Kateri exercised physical mortification as a route to sanctity. She would occasionally put thorns upon her mat and lie on them, all the while praying for the conversion and forgiveness of her kinsmen. She discontinued this practice when her close friend, Marie Therese, and her confessor expressed their disapproval. Because she was persecuted by her Native American kin, which included threats to her life, she fled to an established community of Native American Christians in Kahnawake, Quebec, where she lived a life dedicated to prayer, penance, and care for the sick and aged. In 1679, she took a vow of chastity, as in the Catholic expression of Consecrated virginity. A year later, on April 17, 1680, Kateri died at the age of 24. Her last words are said to be, "Jesus, I love You!"
According to eyewitness accounts, Kateri's scars vanished at the time of her death revealing a woman of immense beauty. It has been claimed that at her funeral many of the ill who attended were healed on that day.[citation needed] It is also held that she appeared to two different individuals in the weeks following her death.
The process for her canonization began in 1884. She was declared Venerable by Pope Pius XII on January 3, 1943. She was later beatified on June 22, 1980 by Pope John Paul II, and as such she is properly referred to as Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha within the Roman Catholic Church. "
Associated Religion(s): Catholic
Statue Location: Santa Fe New Mexico
Entrance Fee: none
Artist: unknown
Website: [Web Link]
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Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the statue. A waymarker and/or GPSr is not required to be in the image but it doesn't hurt.