Saint Talk: Blessed Kateri

By Lisa E. Brown

Today we celebrate the feast day of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha who will be canonized this October 20th. Her canonization will make her the first Native American to be classified as a saint by the Catholic Church.

Blessed Kateri, known as the Lily of the Mohawks, is credited as a patron of ecology and the environment. I chose this image of her because the artist accurately depicted her with pox marks on her face due to the small pox she contracted as a child. According to documents written by the Jesuits in the region where she grew up, Kateri was known as a modest and shy girl, devoted to the Eucharist.

On December 19, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged  the miracle needed for Blessed Kateri's canonization. The recognized miracle occurred in 2006 when a young boy suffered a flesh-eating bacterium after a lip injury he received while playing basketball. His parents asked Blessed Kateri for her intercession for their son's healing. Subsequently, he was inexplicably healed.