Glancing Backward

The case for a Mohawk saint

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the New York Dioceses surely will know of Kateri Tekakwitha if my friend has her wish fulfilled.

The newly-appointed Cardinal is described as an outgoing prelate who greets and waves at arriving and departing church go-ers from the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He welcomes those of broad ethnic and racial backgrounds.

My friend is confidant the Cardinal would have been delighted to welcome Mohawk/Algonquin Kateri Tekakwitha if she had visited three centuries later.

Her name translates roughly as “one who puts things in order.” Her life earned a nomination for Sainthood with a first step of canonization.

Our Seneca Keepers of the Western Door, interacted with Jesuits, then Presbyterian/Congregationilists, Methodist, Baptist and Quaker missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries. Seneca villages were divided between so-called pagan and Christian parties.

Chief Red Jacket criticized Christianity for disregarding the “old ways.” He became a thorn in the side of post-Revolutionary missionaries assigned to Seneca reservations following the 1797 Big Tree Treaty, those who opened schools for the teaching of reading and English, agriculture, crafts and instruction in the Protestant Bible.

At the eastern boundaries of New York in the 1600’s were the Mohawk folk, Keepers of the Iroquois Eastern Door, with black-robed Jesuits as their missionaries from nearby Quebec.

Young Kateri (Katherine) was baptized near the banks of the Mohawk River, now Fonda, N.Y., where she lived in the palisade Caughnawaga Village. Her short, eventful life ended at age 24. The Jesuits realized many sainted European young women had passed on at early ages too.

Our present-day Kateri supporter hopes to introduce Cardinal Dolan to a rare 1891 book- “The Life and Times of Kateri Tekakwitha…” by Ellen Walworth.

Walworth was motivated to research and promote Kateri’s cause by her uncle, the Reverend Father Clarence A. Walworth.

During Ellen Walworth’s lifetime of research, she evaluated the Mohawk girl as a worthy saint, justified through the eyes of Jesuit priests, many of them humble unheralded saints upholding their religious vocations in wild upstate New York.

Thirty years before Kateri, Father Isaac Joques had been tortured, forced to run the gauntlet for his faith and finally dying for his efforts.

So why Kateri for sainthood? As a four-year old she was left an orphan when her parents and brother died in the space of a few days, probably from smallpox. This disease permanently limited her eyesight, causing a peculiar style of walking and general physical weakness. Such conditions caused her to stand apart from her Mohawk peers.

These conditions upset her adopting uncle and aunts who hoped for an early marriage, one that would enrich their family Turtle Clan.

A first “mystic experience” brought three Jesuits to “Turtle Castle” in the midst of drunken debauchery, in time to rescue the “spirit child” Kateri. This was the first in a lifetime series of blessings. Kateri believed her dead Christian mother in Heaven had summoned the priests.

Orsamus Turner (”Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase”) described her as a “sainted Seneca maiden.”

Why? As a teenager she refused to marry, even to a handsome warrior chosen for her. Firmly staring at her suitor, she emphatically refused. She had decided to protect what had become a vocation of virtue. Her uncles and aunts “had it” turning her into their slave.

Why? Joy on Easter Sunday 1676. Kateri was baptized fulfilling a lifetime dream. The Jesuits began to believe this Mohawk woman somehow was chosen of God. According to Walworth, her baptism caused Kateri to “shine with Angelic joy.” Villagers looked on in awe. Some priests regarded her as a Genevieve of New France.

Goodness can breed cruelty. Drunken Mohawk men insulted her, young warriors threatened her with hatchets but her willpower won out over her persecutors. Moving to Sault St. Louis, Quebec brought deeper spirituality, more time for prayer, to attend mass and to learn Iroquois hymns.

On Christmas Day 1677 she made her first communion. Kateri’s vow of virginity was kept onto death, her final days spent on a bed of thorns. On her last day, her confessor broke with tradition and carried the sacrament to her bedside. Taking the host into an Indian dwelling had been taboo.

Perhaps sainthood will be based on her unswerving faith as a Mohawk woman. Perhaps the Jesuits wished credit for an Indian saint after long years of proselytizing.

Perhaps Kateri Tekakwitha simply was a maiden chosen by God.

The newly-appointed Cardinal is described as an outgoing prelate who greets and waves at arriving and departing church go-ers from the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He welcomes those of broad ethnic and racial backgrounds.

My friend is confidant the Cardinal would have been delighted to welcome Mohawk/Algonquin Kateri Tekakwitha if she had visited three centuries later.

Her name translates roughly as “one who puts things in order.” Her life earned a nomination for Sainthood with a first step of canonization.

Our Seneca Keepers of the Western Door, interacted with Jesuits, then Presbyterian/Congregationilists, Methodist, Baptist and Quaker missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries. Seneca villages were divided between so-called pagan and Christian parties.

Chief Red Jacket criticized Christianity for disregarding the “old ways.” He became a thorn in the side of post-Revolutionary missionaries assigned to Seneca reservations following the 1797 Big Tree Treaty, those who opened schools for the teaching of reading and English, agriculture, crafts and instruction in the Protestant Bible.

At the eastern boundaries of New York in the 1600’s were the Mohawk folk, Keepers of the Iroquois Eastern Door, with black-robed Jesuits as their missionaries from nearby Quebec.

Young Kateri (Katherine) was baptized near the banks of the Mohawk River, now Fonda, N.Y., where she lived in the palisade Caughnawaga Village. Her short, eventful life ended at age 24. The Jesuits realized many sainted European young women had passed on at early ages too.

Our present-day Kateri supporter hopes to introduce Cardinal Dolan to a rare 1891 book- “The Life and Times of Kateri Tekakwitha…” by Ellen Walworth.

Walworth was motivated to research and promote Kateri’s cause by her uncle, the Reverend Father Clarence A. Walworth.

During Ellen Walworth’s lifetime of research, she evaluated the Mohawk girl as a worthy saint, justified through the eyes of Jesuit priests, many of them humble unheralded saints upholding their religious vocations in wild upstate New York.

Thirty years before Kateri, Father Isaac Joques had been tortured, forced to run the gauntlet for his faith and finally dying for his efforts.

So why Kateri for sainthood? As a four-year old she was left an orphan when her parents and brother died in the space of a few days, probably from smallpox. This disease permanently limited her eyesight, causing a peculiar style of walking and general physical weakness. Such conditions caused her to stand apart from her Mohawk peers.

These conditions upset her adopting uncle and aunts who hoped for an early marriage, one that would enrich their family Turtle Clan.

A first “mystic experience” brought three Jesuits to “Turtle Castle” in the midst of drunken debauchery, in time to rescue the “spirit child” Kateri. This was the first in a lifetime series of blessings. Kateri believed her dead Christian mother in Heaven had summoned the priests.

Orsamus Turner (”Pioneer History of the Holland Purchase”) described her as a “sainted Seneca maiden.”

Why? As a teenager she refused to marry, even to a handsome warrior chosen for her. Firmly staring at her suitor, she emphatically refused. She had decided to protect what had become a vocation of virtue. Her uncles and aunts “had it” turning her into their slave.

Why? Joy on Easter Sunday 1676. Kateri was baptized fulfilling a lifetime dream. The Jesuits began to believe this Mohawk woman somehow was chosen of God. According to Walworth, her baptism caused Kateri to “shine with Angelic joy.” Villagers looked on in awe. Some priests regarded her as a Genevieve of New France.

Goodness can breed cruelty. Drunken Mohawk men insulted her, young warriors threatened her with hatchets but her willpower won out over her persecutors. Moving to Sault St. Louis, Quebec brought deeper spirituality, more time for prayer, to attend mass and to learn Iroquois hymns.

On Christmas Day 1677 she made her first communion. Kateri’s vow of virginity was kept onto death, her final days spent on a bed of thorns. On her last day, her confessor broke with tradition and carried the sacrament to her bedside. Taking the host into an Indian dwelling had been taboo.

Perhaps sainthood will be based on her unswerving faith as a Mohawk woman. Perhaps the Jesuits wished credit for an Indian saint after long years of proselytizing.

Perhaps Kateri Tekakwitha simply was a maiden chosen by God.