Death of Kateri Tekakwitha
Portrait of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Father Claude Chauchetière, about 1696. Kateri Centre
1680
In 1680, Kateri Tekakwitha, the daughter of a Christian Anishnabee woman and a Mohawk man, died. She was baptized a Christian as an adult and expressed a great piety, especially toward the end of her life. She was seen as a success of the Jesuit missionary work in New France. After her death, her Jesuit confessors wrote the first biography of her life and many began to credit her miracles of intercession. A cult of veneration for the Mohawk virgin formed as early as 1684. She was beatified in 1980 and canonized in 2012. Kateri Tekakwitha was the first Canadian-born saint.
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