Celebrating Kateri Tekakwitha's First Feast Day as Saint Kateri!

Mural at Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church

 On July 14th, we celebrated the feast day of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha at her namesake Catholic Church in Santa Clarita!

This was especially exciting because this is her first feast day as a saint.

Statue of Saint Kateri at St. Kateri Tekakwitha Catholic Church

Known as the Lily of the Mohawks, Kateri Tekakwitha was born an Algonquin-Mohawk in New York in 1656. As a child, she survived smallpox, but was left an orphan, her face marked with scars from the disease. She irritated her guardians by refusing to marry, saying she had taken a vow of chastity. Shunned by her tribe, she left to live in a Jesuit mission village in what is now Canada. She began her catechism, and was baptized into the Catholic faith.

Upon her death at 24, her smallpox scars disappeared.

She gives us several excellent example to follow: chastity, living with an affliction, and living together with nature.

Saint Kateri is the patroness of the environment and ecology.