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Mon Petit Coin   by   Norm Léveillée

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Catherine Tekakwitha
An Iroquois Virgin
Birth 1656 and Death 1680

Surrounding her birth in 1656

The following are excerpts from Sister Francis' translation, A Iroquois Virgin - Catherine Tekakwitha, of Fr. Lecompte's work.
    "... The name Iroquois was given them by the French because the Indians ended all their conversations with the word Hiro (I have said), adding the word Koué, an exclamation of joy or of sorrow according as it was uttered long or short. They called themselves Hodenosaunee (People of the long house). The Iroquois, finished diplomats, indomitable warriors, ambitious, aggressive, patient, and fierce, dreamed of destroying their three great enemies, the Hurons, the Algonquins, and the French. They were singularly succesful, with the first two, and failed by only a narrow margin to wipe out the growing colony of New France. They formed a vast confederation comprising five nations or tribes situated between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. From east to west there were: first the Mohawks, then the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and Senecas. Thus the Mohawk settlement was the nearest to the Hudson River, Lake George, Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River, called at first the Iroquois River. It was in this settlement that Catherine Tekakwitha was born...

    She was born in 1656, at Ossernenon, a Mohawk village of the Tortoise clam. This village was the nearest one to Fort Orange (Albany, NY). It had witnessed the death of the Confessors of the Faith, Jogues, Goupil, and La Lande, and it was from this soil thus consecrated by the blood of the martyrs, that arose upon the banks of the Mohawk River that lily of purity, Catherine Tekakwitha.
    Some claim that she was born at Gandaouagué (The Rapids), distant about two miles from Ossernenon, the present Auriesville. The two sites are not far apart. About 1661, the Ossernenon site was abandoned on account of the small pox infection for a new village about a mile west on the south bank of the river. When this was razed by General Tracy in 1666, the Mohawks moved to the north bank above the rapids, which disappeared when the river became the Barge Canal. Soon after they moved to the hill west of the present site of the town of Fonda (NY)
    Tekakwitha's father was an Iroquois heathen, her mother a Christian Algonquin, who had been intructed and baptized at Three Rivers (Trois-Rivières, Québec). The mother was already noted as a very good woman when, in a skirmish with the Iroquois, she fell into the hands of a warrior who led her away captive. She won the affection of her master. Instead of making her the victim of his cruelty or passion he took her for his wife ... From that day she was incorporated into the nation and enjoyed all its rights ... She prayed without ceasing. Having had the happiness of bringing two children into the world, a boy and a girl, her only desire was to have them baptized, but for this she had no opportunity.
    In 1660 the dreadful scourge broke out among the Mohawks, pursuing its course along the Mohawk River and spreading far into the other districts ... The Christian mother could not escape it. She prepared for death, with contrition for her faults and submission to God's holy will. A meritorious submission, seeing that she had to leave her two children orphans, for it appears that the father had himself succumbed to the disease.
    The two children were stricken in their turn. Catherine did not die, but her little brother did, leaving her alone in the world. She was then four years old. She bore the marks of this terrible disease. "Her face," says Father Chauchetière, "which had been fair enough before, was afterwards quite disfigured and she had almost lost her sight." This last fact is important in Catherine Tekakwitha's life. Her eyes could not bear bright daylight. She was obliged to take refuge in the gloomy cabin, and when she did go out, "she kept herself," adds Father Chauchetières, making use of a word retained among the French, "always wrapped up in her 'couverte.'" Thus at first through necessity, and later from choice, she led an absolutely retired life, far from noise and the eyes of men, confined to work inside the cabin ...
    The name of Tekakwitha was given her, it seems, about this time. The spelling of the word has varied in the course of years. Her first biographers, Cholenec and Chauchetière, write it Tegakouita; Charlevoix, Tegahkouita; then it became Tehgakwita, Tekakouita, and finally Tekakwitha. Its meaning is no less uncertain; a former missionary at Caughnawaga, Abbé Marcoux, interpreted it thus: "One who puts things in order." On the other hand, the learned Sulpician, Abbé Cuoq, gives it this meaning: "One who advances, moving something before her"; as it were, a person moving forward in the dark with extended arms feeling her way; this well describes the faltering steps of the child whose eyes were so painfully affected by disease.
    Tekakwitha's uncle, a former chief, and highly thought of in the village, received her under his roof. Self-interest is seldom absent from the heart of man, particularly that of an Indian. The uncle had no child and no doubt counted on the orphan's useful services."    An Iroquois Virgin - Catherine Tekakwitha, Lily of the Mohawk and the St. Lawrence, 1656-1680", Édouard Lecompte, S.J., Translated by Sister Francis (Isabel Hamilton Melick), Chapters One & Three, pp. 1-10.

There has been so much written about her life that I do not intend to reiterate, in this article, the events of her life at Caughnawaga (Fonda, NY), then at Kahnawaké (near Montréal, Québec). I do, however, wish to continue my article with the events of April 16-18, 1680 in Kahnawaké. (Ed.)

Surrounding her death in 1680

"... The dying moments of the holy girl (at the Sault mission in Kahnawaké, Québec) are described somewhat differently by the two biographers, Fathers Cholenec and Chauchetière, who were, as we have said, her confessors at different times, and both eye-witnesses of her holy death. Each narrative complements the other. The two are here combined.

On the morning of Tuesday in Holy Week, Catherine appeared to be much weaker. They told her that she had not long to live. She rejoiced at this, but was overcome with happiness when they also said that the Body of Our Lord would be brought to her as Viaticum.

There then existed a very strange custom at the Mission. The Blessed Sacrament was never taken to the sick person's cabin. Instead, they laid the patient on a bark stretcher, and, at the risk of seeing him die on the way, brought him to the church, there to receive Holy Communion.

When the question of the Viaticum for Catherine arose, the Fathers hesitated; she was certainly far too feeble to be taken to the church. Should they then discontinue the custom, or let the patient die without this supreme consolation? The missionaires decided to make an exception to the general rule, and the whole village approved their decision; such an exception was justifed with respect to so saintly a person.

The sick gril called to her aid what remaining strength she had, to receive worthily for the last time her Saviour whom she so dearly loved. A small material detail troubled her; she confided to her faithful companion that on account of her poverty she had no suitable covering. Mary Teresa brought her at once what was required.

The rumor spread through the village that the Blessed Sacrament was to be taken into Catherine Tekakwitha's cabin. Everyone wanted to be present at this unusual event. The crowds accompanied the priest out of reverence for Our Lord, and also, as they told one another, that they might see a saint die.

After the general absolution, she received with the greatest devotion "the Viaticum of the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ." Her thanksgiving was, so to speak, a hymn of gratitude to God in the rehearsal of the principal facts of her life, particularly since her baptism, and her coming to the Mission.

Many persons wanted to ask her to pray for them. Father Cholenec requested her to receive them, and to give them a few words of advice. She very willingly complied. And then all day long it was a continual coming and going of persons near her mat ...

When evening came, they prepared to sit up with the dying girl during the night ... The missionary selected two of the most fervent associates of the Holy Family Confraternity. One, the youngest member of the association, was much liked by Catherine for her profound piety ...

The next day was Wednesday in Holy Week, the eve of the two days devoted to the two great mysteries of the Eucharist and the Cross, both special devotions of the dying girl. This was to be her last day on earth. One of the missionaires had had a presentiment of this. Here is Father Cholenec's account:

-Indeed I still remember that at the time she entered upon her last illness, more than two months before her death, one of our Fathers was for this reason sure that God would take her from this world on this very day, so that she might celebrate in Heaven the two great Feasts to which she had been most devoted on earth.

Catherine had herself apparently foreseen the day of her death. On the preceeding night, after her reception of Holy Viaticum, they hastened to bestow the Extreme Unction. She told the Father that it was not urgent and that he could postpone the rite until the next day;...

... Catherine had formed "a little pious confraternity", known as the "Sisters of Catherine" ... They all wanted to be present at the death of their "Sister." ... it seemed probable that the sick gril would die during the morning and they were obliged to go out and gather wood for the feast-days.

... they decided to ask Catherine herself ... She at once said that her Sisters might go for their wood and that they would return in time to be present at her death.

She kept her word. When the women came back at three o'clock in the afternoon, she was still alive and waiting for them. This is how Father Cholenec concludes this incident.

-She waited until they had entered her cabin, and the wonder which I witnessed with my own eyes, is that no sooner had the last person come in, and all were kneeling around her, then her last agony began. Thus everyone had the consolation of seeing her die as they had desired and as she had promised

At three o'clock her agony began, "the most gentle agony in the world." A little later, she lost the power of speech while uttering the names of Jesus and Mary ("Jesos, Wari", Ed.). She could still hear very well, her two biographers remark, and was fully conscious. It was evident that she was trying to make, at least interiorly, the acts suggested to her.

At last, about half-past-three, she peacefully expired,
just as if she had gone quietly to sleep.
This was Wednesday in Holy Week, 17 April 1680.
Catherine Tekakwitha was in her twenty-fourth year.

A quarter of an hour after Catherine's death, a change took place in her which was a cause of great astonishment to the missionaires and everyone in the village.

Father Cholenec himself will tell us about this astounding event:

-At four years of age, Catherine's face had been pitted with small-pox; her infirmities and mortifications had also helped to disfigure her. But this face, so very swarthy and emaciated, changed suddently about a quartet of an hour after her death, and became in a moment so fair and beautiful that, noticing the change (for I was praying beside her), I cried out in surprise and called the Father who was working on the Repository for Maundy Thursday. He and all the Indians came in a hurry on hearing of this miracle, which we were able to contemplate until she was buried.

The priest thus hastily summoned was Father Chauchetière. He was quite as astonished as his colleague. He said,

-It was a further argument for belief which God had granted to the Indians to help them appreciate the Faith.

Father Cholenec adds that on Thursday morning two Frenchmen living at the Prairie de la Magdeleine came to the Sault to assist at the services. They had to pass before the half-open door of the deceased Catherine. Seeing her there on her mat, with so lovely and smiling a face, they said to each other:

-How peacefully that young woman is sleeping!

But having learned a little later it was Catherine herself who had died the previous night, they returned to the cabin, and kneeling down recommended themselves to her prayers. They were so touched at what they saw that they at once asked to be allowed to make the coffin that was to receive so precious a relic.

Father Cholenec aptly concludes his narrative by this reflection:

-I frankly own that my first idea then was that Catherine had that moment entered Heaven, and was shedding in advance a little of that glory of which her soul had just gained eternal possession.

Who will not agree with these sentiments on recalling the virtues of our saintly Iroquois?

The lily of purity had for a moment drooped its head under the icy blast of death. A moment later the revivifying breath of the Holy Ghost made it rise again in all its beauty, even more beautiful and fragrant than ever; a probable foreshadowing of the glory it was then enjoying in the garden of Heaven. Op. cit., Chapter Seventeen, pp. 126-131.

I have continued my series of articles on Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha as a fulfillment of my promise to her to spread knowledge of and devotion to her made in July 2000 and reitereated in July 2004. I will continue this series over the next several months.