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Lucas Jackson / Reuters
A statue of St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Auriesville, New York, seen on Friday.
VATICAN CITY - She was known as Lily of the Mohawks, or the Pocahontas of the Catholic Church. But on Sunday, Kateri Tekakwitha went down in history as the first Native American saint.
Born more than 300 years ago in the Mohawks village of Ossernion - today Ausierville, forty miles from Albany NY - she was one of seven people canonized by Pope Benedict XVI Sunday in an open-air ceremony held in Saint Peter’s Square.
One of the remaining six was also American: Mother Marianne Cope, a 19th century Franciscan nun who cared for leprosy patients in Hawaii.
Kateri had a short life – she died at 24 – and yet, as for most saints, her devotion to Christianity, sacrifices and “heroic virtue” were so inspirational that her legacy survived for generations.
Alessandra Tarantino / AP
Pope Benedict XVI kisses the altar as he celebrates a canonization ceremony, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday.
Her mother was a Christian Algonquin woman who was captured during a raid and given as wife to a Mohawks tribal member. She was born in the middle of the 17th century, a time of infighting between rival American tribes, deadly diseases and colonization. And a time when French Jesuit priests preached in the area, trying to convert locals to Christianity.
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Kateri was only four years old when a smallpox epidemic spread among the Mohawks tribe. Her parents and younger brother were killed and although she survived she was left with permanent scars on her face and an impaired vision. The Jesuit priests were held accountable for having brought the disease, and three of them were slaughtered.
Tiziana Fabi / AFP - Getty Images
A faithful wearing Indian headress attends a special mass to name seven new saints in St Peter's square at Vatican on Sunday.
And yet, at the age of 20, Kateri swapped the Totem for the Crucifix.
She converted to Catholicism after living close to French Jesuit priests, something her family and village saw as a betrayal for siding up with colonizers. She soon became a pariah in her own tribe after refusing to marry a Mohawk man, and was forced to leave the village to practice freely her new faith. She walked hundreds of miles to Quebec, Canada, to join a community of Christian women, and took a vow of lifetime chastity.
Soon her devotion led to self-inflicted painful penances. She is believed to have walked barefoot in show, for whipping herself bloody with reeds, praying hours in an unheated chapel on her bare knees on a cold stone floor or for sleeping on a bed of thorns.
In the end, the punishing penances are believed to have contributed to the weakening of her health, until her premature death at 24 years old. And it was immediately after her death, the legend goes, that it became clear she would be on her way to sainthood. Her smallpox scars, witnesses claimed, miraculously disappeared minutes after her death.
Although the petition for her canonization was filed in 1884, she was only blessed – the first step to become a saint – by Pope John Paul II in 1980.
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The miracle that sealed her sainthood came in 2006, when Jake Finkbonner, then a 5-year old boy from Ferndale, WA, miraculously recovered from a flash-eating bacteria, allegedly through Kateri’s intercession. Jake contracted Necrotizing fasciitis, a potentially deadly infection, after cutting his lip on a baseball field. In a matter of days, his condition became so critical his parents gave him his last rites and discussed donating his organs.
When medical help seemed hopeless, his father Donny, a Catholic member of the native American Lummi tribe, turned to Kateri, already an icon in the local catholic community and the subject of many stories he heard as a child. His congregation prayed Kateri and his mother even placed a small relic, a small piece of Tekakwitha’s wrist bone, on his body. Soon after, Jake recovered.
On his website, Jake also remembers the role played by doctors: “Please don't confuse the issue which is that my survival is a miracle”, he writes. “We thank the doctors at Children's Hospital for all that they did to save my life. I wouldn't be here without them”.
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The canonization of Kateri has been welcomed with mixed feelings in the 2.5 million-strong Native American community. While most of the 680,000 catholic Native Americans are thrilled to finally have their own saint and icon, others still resent the role of Catholicism during the colonial era and the way it affected the indigenous traditions, culture and customs.
Some traveled to Rome to see the ceremony. Dressed in a traditional Indian Squaw brown dress and braided hair, Valery Moran had come from Saskatchewan, Canada, to support her hero. “I am honored to witness the canonization of our first aboriginal saint”, she told NBC News.
"She is my role model, I named my baby after her. My baby is called Kateri."
Bill Volker, a falconer and sole representative of the Comanche Nation, had mixed feelings about the canonization. "It’s bittersweet, but I am delighted. It’s the right direction after all these years,” he told NBC News in St. Peter’s Square. “Our relationship with the all churches have not always been the best in the Americas, but I think this heralds a new day for us”.
The Vatican's complicated saint-making procedure requires that the Vatican certify a "miracle" was performed through the intercession of the candidate — a medically inexplicable cure that can be directly linked to the prayers offered by the faithful. One miracle is needed for beatification, a second for canonization.
The five other new saints are: Jacques Berthieu, a 19th century French Jesuit who was killed by rebels in Madagascar, where he had worked as a missionary; Giovanni Battista Piamarta, an Italian who founded a religious order in 1900 and established a Catholic printing and publishing house in his native Brescia; Carmen Salles Y Barangueras, a Spanish nun who founded a religious order to educate children in 1892; and Anna Schaeffer, a 19th century German lay woman who became a model for the sick and suffering after she fell into a boiler and badly burned her legs. The wounds never healed, causing her constant pain.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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This is an OUTRAGE not cause for Celebration! So, in the "name of Christ" these invaders brought disease, forced their beliefs on a culture, took people from their famillies, cause death and destruction...and a little girl to experience SO MUCH PAIN AND SUFFERING becoming permanently scarred to the point of torturing herself. WE CALL THIS BULLYING in today's language, don't we??
HOW VERY SAD that the Catholic Church decides to HONOUR their own CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY in such a way.
Not surprising, tho. This is the same CRIMINAL ORBANIZATION that allows and tollerates, and continues the practice of RAPING LITTLE BOYS.
DISGUSTED.
If a secular organization had done what the Roman Catholic Church had done, every member of the leadership would be in jail.
We will see. If the top officials at Penn State get jailed for ignoring Sandusky's rapes, your view will be legitimized. They are at least charged right now, why is the pope not being looked at?
The Pope was looked at. The Nazi Pontiff took the coward's way out and declared to the DoJ that he had "diplomatic immunity".
"Soon her devotion led to self-inflicted painful penances. She is believed to have walked barefoot in show, for whipping herself bloody with reeds, praying hours in an unheated chapel on her bare knees on a cold stone floor or for sleeping on a bed of thorns."
Salvation is by grace through faith and not by works. Furthermore, Jesus was already was already inflicted for us, as the wrath of God was poured out upon him instead of us. To inflict penance upon oneself is to not have faith in Christ's blood that was shed for us.
Becoming a saint is not something that can be earned or achieved by longevity. Everyone who receives Christ and remains in him is a saint, simply because they believe in Christ.
"The seven heads you saw are seven hills upon which the woman sits."
"The woman you saw is that great city who rules over the kings of the earth."
Rome was literally built on seven hills and is famous for it. She was also that great city who ruled over the kings of the earth at the time that the angel was giving John the information in the book of Revelation.
Rome/Vatican is mystery Babylon, for she is that woman who rides the beast and who is that city that sits on seven hills.
Hey, how about that 19th century B.C. Egyptian obelisk that sits out in the middle of St. Peter's square that was used for sun worship? Talk about blasphemy! No one questions these things though and that is because they don't study the word of God for themselves and are therefore deceived. I could on and on with the worship of Mary, the Eucharist, Purgatory, salvation, etc, etc.
Roman Catholicism is paganism wearing christian clothing.
You are misimformed, as are many others about the Church.
She did have great faith, as she left everything and everyone she knew to follow it. She was so ashamed that she sinned against God that she punished herself for it. She felt she was not worthy of his salvation because she was a sinner. God saw her devotion and faith, and blessed her for it.
The Catholic beliefs made her sick in the head.
God had nothing to do with any of this.
Pack of sick basturds!
Christianity so thoroughly crushes the self-esteem of its believers (particularly women, minorities, and gays) that it fairly common for abused believers to resort to inflicting self-injury. I used to be a cutter until I ditched Christianity and embraced a faith that actually does affirm life, hope, and peace.
Catholicism ruined my mother's life. The Church drove her to drink. The Church dehumanized her. When she was broken and in need, they withheld communion and turned her away. F--k the church.
Butterfly, the Church refused my mother last rites because she was a divorced, escaped an out and out abuser. I hear you loud and clear.
I am a collapsed Catholic, left the Church years ago, never to return, and took my money with me. I am sure my money was missed more than myself.
The Pope is a pompous a$$.
Plus he did not "create" this saint. If she is indeed some holy woman, she did that herself.
Agreed. Nobody needs the Pope's endorsement in order to be a decent, life-affirming human being.
The reactions people are posting here are shameful. She was a holy person.
Stop judging others someone somewhere-7123766.
Its not Her, its Them that need a bit of bashing. Hypocrites all. 300 Years later, jeez, and finally she's worthy of recognition. disgusting.
Her body her choice. Not one of us felt her commitment or can see in to her heart. How am I to respond to people who refuse to allow others the constant desire to find heroism in the simple concept of faith. Act on your own beliefs not on the totally worthless words of constant degradation.
OT - Word of the Law and will of God's to the 12 tribes of Israel, and gentiles who joined their faith.
The 4 Gospels are the Will of God, and His New Testament-shed blood of Jesus (acceptable atonement) for all mankind concerning deliverance from the curse of the law, and sin,death, the grave. There is in place a partial blinding of Israel until the time of the gentiles is completed.
Luke 21:24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
These reasoning in the NT are written to the church. Illumination to truth comes only through Jn. 3:3-8
1Co.6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
1Co. 6:20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Out of 49 records concerning the use of the word saint in the NT.
Here are a few:
Eph. 2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household --- Co.l1:2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. --- Col. 1:12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. -- Phlipp. 4:22 All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. -- Jude 1:3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.
And notice the time that is soon approaching: Mat_12:30 "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
Who's side RU on. --- It's the fruit of the tree - He who loves God's Word and does it in spirit & truth.
Rev_11:18 "And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth."
Catholicism truly bites the big one!
This girl flagellated herself to death and these sick perverts in Rome elevate her to Sainthood and Canonization?
They haven't got a clue.
Google "The Pope Song" by Tim Munchin!
He says it best!
ROFLMAO it took about 400 years the church knowledge us, indigenous from the northeast cost of our turtle island, but the Papal bulls are still on going, that considered all aboriginal life in the AMERICAS, heathens, a subspecies!!!!! The best that the Vatican can do is to retire those claims on us and apologize to all the destruction they have done to all aboriginal people around the world. Destroying our language spirituality and our tribal way of life for an imaginary g o d and a man called JC!!! For some of you rednecks and hardcore Roman Catholics or just Christians, "Papal bulls" look it up!!! I believe is all a money deal and the church using us to make the $$$$
I have not use of a "Native" saint, I go to Kahnawake Reserve often, that is where that Kateri shrine with her remains are, the old K. town is so small, imagine the tourist invasion and the curious that want to see the "indians" and you find some of them in your backyard being scrutinized like animals in the zoo!!! Screw the church!!!!
I was thinking the same thing about the papal bulls. The catholic church refuses to rescind them and they are still a part of the church.
Therefore, the church has made a saint out of a being they have decreed is a heathen animal, and not a human.
Papal Bull? More like Papal Bullsh!t!
I am a Bible believing Christian, but these Vatican folk and Roman Catholics are nutty. I'm pretty sure it doesn't say in the bible that the pope should be the leader of the church or that some random kid gets healed from a disease that the pope gets to make him a saint and we should all pray to him and ask him for healing.-NOPE. Jesus Christ is the one who heals. Not the pope and not anybody else. Jesus is the one who set the rules that people should follow-not the Vatican!
So......you believe in the supernatural, and believe that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father by virtue of raping his own mother without having sex with her can make you live forever if you symbolically (or literally, if you're Catholic) eat his flesh and drink his blood and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a woman made from a rib was convinced by a talking snake to eat the fruit from a magical tree.....................and yet you have the nerve to call Catholics nutty.
The American Indians beliefs were so pure and right on before christians started spewing thier lies and magic to them.
The ones who still think old school should be the ones to look up to.
What a tragedy it is that the Catholic "religion" believes that one has to earn sainthood. The truth is all Christians are saints. Their deception needs to be confronted with the truth for any hope of rescue from damnation...Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.
ROFLMAO it took about 400 years the church knowledge us, indigenous from the northeast coast of our turtle island, but the Papal bulls are still on going, that considered all aboriginal life in the AMERICAS, heathens, a subspecies!!!!! The best that the Vatican can do is to retire those claims on us and apologize to all the destruction they have done to all aboriginal people around the world. Destroying our language spirituality and our tribal way of life for an imaginary g o d and a man called JC!!! For some of you rednecks and hardcore Roman Catholics or just Christians, "Papal bulls" look it up!!! I believe is all a money deal and the church using us to make the $$$$
I have not use of a "Native" saint, I go to Kahnawake Reserve often, that is where that Kateri shrine where her remains are, the old K. town is so small, imagine the tourist invasions and the curious that want to see the "indians" and you find some of them in your backyard being scrutinized like animals in the zoo!!! Screw the church!!!!
It's about time… This religion lost me years ago when I became aware of the double standard being upheld, in which men are idolized for their leadership and strength, while women for their subservient and submissive qualities. The bottom line is that, the lack of female visibility in the church is harming their bank account. The God I know is about loving, not dividing, one another.
and now another idol added to the catholic religion. it's a good move by the antichrist,(pope), the American Indians have lots of money and land so they better keep their eyes open. it's sad because all the catholics are out of favor with the Lord due to their idolatry and all they need to do is read the first two commandments and live by the simplicity of what they say." they have eyes but do not see, they have ears but do not hear".
I wonder if the Jesuit priests of the 17th century liked to rape native children as much as the Jesuit priests on reservations do today? I wouldn't be at all surprised if "saint Kateri" was repeatedly raped and molested just like these native children were:
She was the only one to survive the relentless process of destroying her culture by the Catholic Church. What nerve to make her a saint.
Did they check with Mr. Brown in Mass. to see if it was really an indian?
F*CK RELIGION. The church is evil. Clergy are the most evil liars and crooks ever. If you give the church money, YOU ARE AN IDIOT. I'll be so happy when religion is gone from our planet.
Please join the fight... FFRF.ORG
Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The Roman Catholic Church, Islam, Mormonism, and the Baptists will be the undoing of the human species if left unchecked. None of the aforementioned faiths have any respect for life, freedom, human dignity, and peace. All four stand against science, civil rights, gender equality, and freedom of expression. While the Church can't attack witches in America, they are still actively persecuting/murdering witches in Africa.
Although I am not an atheist, I fully support everything that FFRF stands for.
....i really hate albino white people. i can't wait until the dreaded albino disease comes to liberate the true human beings of color from these blue eyed animals. i enjoy watching them smear chemicals on their body to protect them from our sun. they burn red from the sun if they don't and then they develop cancers. i'll serve their food for money and vacuum their offices but i curse them in my prayers, even when i'm smiling.
What are you talking about?!
Bulgarian, now that post is a sad, sad commentary on a genetic problem, Albinism is not a disease, its a genetic mishap, whether white or black, something very wrong with you, if you truly believe what your writing. You made need some in-house treatment for a mental disorder border line obsession.
The Bible is the same, catholic or anyother. I'm wondering where they get all those things from? If you want to know the truth, read the Bible! I was a catholic once, I mean in the universal church. When I read the Bible never found anything like that, actually God doesnt like people talking to the dead. My suggestion for the benefit of your soul...read the Bible and don't believe whatever whoever say! Test everything yourself! You will be amaze!
The best way to stop being a Christian is to actually read the Bible. There's a reason why the RCC has been a historic foe of literacy for the masses. The Bible is the #2 most immoral book ever written (only bested -- slightly -- by the Koran).
May I ask what you're basing such a comment on? In other words, what is your truly logical, moral, reasonable, and foundational premise for such a belief? Thank you.
Slave of JC: I base what I say on the fact that both old and new testaments boldly endorse the practice of slavery. The Bible also demands the execution of the following "criminals": gays, witches, people who own idols, children who mock priests, women who get raped and don't yell loudly enough, people who practice other religions. It permits parents to stone their children to death for premarital sex and drunkenness. It's just a dastardly book.
Isn't that a Plains Indian Head Dress that fool is wearing? What Hypocrites, Slaughter of the Innocents, burnings, inquisitions, Crusades, Nazi Collaborators an all inclusive organization, disgusting. I wounder what The Christ would say about the Church, certainly nothing he experienced except with the Pharisees.
Glad I left the church years ago, it certainly never disappoints just confirms what it truly is.
The Church never fails to fail. I am 42 and I can tell you straight up that the Church (particularly the Roman Catholic Church) has rarely -- if ever -- endorsed life, love, liberty, peace, wisdom, science, kindness, or human dignity.
TO the catholic hater, grow up. To the native american, I know your past was horrible but the future looks bright today as one of your people is a saint. :)
ROFLMAO!
And you think making this young woman a "saint" somehow rectifies the horrors of the past and makes the future "bright" for Native Americans?
I'm sure that makes up for all the children who were raped by priests on Indian reservations, including 80% of the kids in some communities.
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/frontline-priests-molested-nearly-80-of-the-towns-children/news/2011/04/19/19000
In fact "saint Kateri" sounds like she was abused by the church too, and she died as a result of that abuse.
The Church's past is horrible. The Church's present day is also horrible. The Church is still persecuting witches in Africa -- with deadly consequences. There were even some children murdered because Christian missionaries convinced the locals to murder some little kids accused of witchcraft.
OMG! A Native American holding a christian cross....what a disgusting perversion of truth and justice. She was probably raped by a priest.
So (as we now know) there was sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts, that organization is no longer a good
one?
At the very least, she was brainwashed by a priest.
To be honest , I do not see why we need to pray to someone who is not God for intercession. That seems like asking a lobbyist to intercede.Why can I not just pray directly? Am I so low that He will not listen? I think not. I think it is wonderful that a person of Algonquin descent was recognized for her faith in God. I do not believe in religion at all. I do however believe in faith. God has many names , depending on where you are in the world. I have faith in God , but absolutely no faith in religion. Religion is an interpretation by man. The God I believe in will listen to my prayers , He created me and therefore I am High and do not need a lobbyist. Bless this woman for her faith. Her life reads short and tragic with much pain.
I'll pray for you. As a Catholic I was taught to. One of the interesting things that I got from reading the lives of some of the women saints is that they "fell in love" with Jesus. Really, in some way or another all of them did.
Yes, Jesus was their love.
I appreciate & welcome your prayer. I shall pray foryou also. I love my God and all that he stands for . I simply cannot embrace doctrines. I am a saved Christian and am thankful for all that God has given me. I will not demean yours or anyone else's belief. If it sounded that way , I appologize. I was stating that I do not understand praying to other than God. I do understand asking for help. Its that what is meant?
Lily of the Mohawks-does not that title speak to your heart? Yes there is holiness and purity of heart
and spiritual heroism.
Yes, there are miracles too.
A "sign" of this is the tilma with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe
which is in a church in Mexico city. It has along proven history of existence.
Scientists have studied it and can't explain it's existence. It is hundreds of years old
yet should have deteriorated after a few decades. They can't explain how the
image was
created on the cactus tilma.
You can even see reflections in the eyes of the image.
mysteries abound, no question but I have a problem with cheese sandwich likenesses or potato chip icons. A true faith for sheep, The Christ would be appalled at what is rationalized and performed in His name. despicable.
Our lady of Guadalupe is taken from the local pagan traditions. It was absorbed by the Catholic Church and turned into Mary. I can't believe people still believe in the Lady of Guadalupe nonsense. Funny how the Catholic Church worked to re-educate Native peoples and now suddenly they make one a saint. From the look of that statue of her maybe she embraced whiteness and euro-centric ideas which is why they made her a saint. I can think of hundreds of other Native Americans who I would call saints because they fought and suffered under the hands of the Church and Anglo people. They never gave in and suffered because of it. Those people are saints.
The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe exists to this day. It has been studied by scientists who simply
cannot explain it.