Preview of a new biography of

Blessed Catherine Tekakwitha

Preview of a new biography of Catherine Tekakwitha.
Translated and Published by Fr. William Lonc, S.J.

This biography was written by Fr. Félix Martin, a French Jesuit who arrived in the Montreal area around 1842 and had strong contacts with the Iroquois community at Caughnawaga. For example, he was involved in designing renovations for the church there and participated in the re-installation of the large out-door cross on the lawn behind the church.

Fr. Martin's story is based on the biography by Fr. Cholenec. We may recall that Fr. Cholenec was at Catherine's side when she died; he noticed the change in her complexion that suddenly occurred at that moment. Although based on Fr. Cholenec's book, Fr. Martin adds additional historical material along with additional spiritual reflection on Catherine's heroic virtues. Unfortunately at that time in the 1800's, there was still an ambiguous use of the words "virginity" and "chastity". This ambiguity often puzzles a modern reader. For one thing, some English translations state that Catherine never felt the urge for sex. If this be so, then there is not much justification in extolling her chastity and/or virginity. Such an urgeless body would disqualify Catherine from membership in the ordinary ranks of us mortals and all her self-inflicted mortifications and penances would appear to be pointless.

But, the story as told by Fr. Cholenec and repeated by Fr. Martin is the story of a young woman who really does experience-really does feel-the humanly ordinary sexual urges. The big difference is that she has decided not to submit to them. Why not? Because, as a young girl she set her heart on belonging only to God and to be with Him. Not only that. She wanted to belong to Him as a spouse belongs to a spouse. From this point of view-and Fr. Bill offers it as the realistic point of view-submitting to the humanly normal sexual urges would be "cheating" God; cheating Him to whom she wanted to belong totally. Body and Soul. No IF'S, AND'S, or BUT'S.

This is where her heroism comes in. To safeguard her special relationship with God, she does whatever is needed to keep her humanly normal sexual urges under control. That is why her self-mortification is heroic. She spares nothing to safeguard her chaste relationship with her Spouse nor does she spare anything to safeguard her physical virginity as her token of love for Him. So, she is safeguarding her chastity and physical virginity because she wants to be a spouse to God. Fr. Lonc thinks that her story is much more intelligible and much more inspiring once the chastity/virginity ambiguity has been resolved. His translation of Fr. Martin's story hopes to convey this message. Moreover, since Fr. Martin's French text has never been published, the full French text appears in an Appendix for the convenience of the reader.

The book should be available by the middle of April 2006, and will cost probably about $30 CDN or about $25 US, plus applicable taxes and shipping. The book will have about 250 pages, including some maps and indexes: one index for the English translation and a separate one for the French original.

The suggested selling price--as quoted to the National Library of Canada-- is $24.95 CND plus taxes plus shipping. If it is purchased at the Saint Mary's University bookstore, they can get a discounted price of $23.75 CND.
The address is:
Bookstore
Saint Mary's University
Halifax, NS B3H 3C3
or bookstore@smu.ca

For additional information, please contact Fr. Bill at william.lonc@smu.ca for further details.

Index of Articles

 

Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines
Copyright © 2003 & 2004 & 2005 & 2006 Norm Léveillée
© Tous droits réservés
Created 1 Feb 2003