St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Feast day: July 14
Born in 1656, the daughter of a Mohawk chief and Algonquin woman, young Kateri was orphaned due to a smallpox epidemic. The disease left her partially blind and disfigured. Adopted by her uncle, she refused marriage offers and converted to Christianity. Baptized by a visiting French missionary, she took the name Kateri, after St. Catherine of Siena. Her conversion created hostility, so she fled to an Indian community near Montreal. She gave herself totally to God in long hours of prayer, charity and strenuous penance. Kateri “Lily of the Mohawks” was canonized as the first Native American saint in 2012. She is patron of Native Americans and ecology.
Collect
O God, who desired the Virgin Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
to flower among Native Americans
in a life of innocence,
grant, through her intercession,
that when all are gathered into your Church
from every nation, tribe and tongue,
they may magnify you
in a single canticle of praise.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
