Kateri Tekakwitha

In the story of evangelism to Native Americans, perhaps the best known early convert was Kateri Tekawitha. She lived in villages in what are now upstate New York and Quebec; her father was a Mohawk chief and her mother was Algonquin. When Kateri was twenty years old Jesuit missionaries came to her village and despite family objections, Kateri began receiving instruction in the Christian faith. Following her conversion and baptism, she was persecuted and threatened by villagers, but stood firm in her faith. Finally she went to a Christian Indian village near Montreal. There she became spiritually devoted to the Virgin Mary and practiced many forms of self-denial. After her death at age 24, miraculous cures were attributed to her. Her persistence and heroic virtue continue to inspire Native American Catholics. In 1980 she was "beatified" or declared to have attained blessedness. She is a candidate for sainthood, the first Native American and the first American laywoman to be so honored.