TEKAKWITHA, Catherine, Venerable. - Indian virgin, b. in 1656 at Ossernenon, an Iroquois village near present-day Albany (where a decade earlier the Jesuit martyrs St. Isaac Jogues and companions had been killed), d. at Caughnawaga, near Montréal, on 17 April 1680.

Her father, an Iroquois, was a pagan; her mother, an Algonquin, a Christian. Orphaned at the age of 4, adopted by a pagan uncle, she grew up innocent. In 1675 she came into contact with the missionaries, and on 5 April 1676 she was baptized by the Jesuit missionary Father Jacques de Lamberville. Having moved the following year to the mission of St. Francis Xavier at Sault near Montréal, she gave examples of extraordinary piety and mortification, and enjoyed a great reputation for holiness. She is the first Native American woman whose cause for beatification has been opened. Her virtues were declared heroic by decree of 3 January 1943.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: Positio super intr. causae et super virtut. ex officio compilata (Sectio Hist., n. 38). Città del Vaticano 1938; it contains the complete collection of the sources, many unpublished. An English version of this Positio was made: The Positio of the Hist. Section of the S. Congreg. of Rites on the Cause... of the servant of God Kathar. T., the Lily of the Mohasaki, Nuova York 1940. In addition: E. Lecompte, Une vierge iroquoise: Catherine T., le lit des bords de la Mohasaki et du St-Laurent, Montréal 1926; P. Cholence, Vita di C. T. prima vergine irocheese, 1636-50, trad. it. Isola Liri 1938; J. Wynn, Kateri T., Nuova York 1932.

Ferdinando Antonelli

@incollection{ec11_tekakwitha_caterina_venerabile, author = {Antonelli, Ferdinando}, title = {Tekakwitha, caterina, venerabile}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1866--1867}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/tekakwitha-caterina-venerabile} }

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Tekakwitha, Catherine, Venerable

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