The Saints: Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

11656 - 1680/ Fesast - July 14

Born to an Algonquin mother and Mohawk chieftain father in upstate New York, Kateri alone of her family survived a smallpox epidemic that left her face disfigured and her eye sight damaged. She lived with Mohawk relatives near what is now Fonda, N.Y. After she was baptized at Easter in 1676, her own people began persecuting her and she fled to Quebec to live with Christian Indians there. Known as the “Lily of the Mohawks” for her kindness, she was beatified in 1980.