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 Montreal, on 17 Apr. 1680.
Her father was an Iroquois pagan; her mother, an Algonquin Christian. Orphaned at four, she was adopted by a pagan uncle and grew up innocent. In 1675 she came into contact with missionaries and on 5 Apr. 1676 was baptized by the Jesuit missionary Fr. James de Lamberville. Transferred the following year to the mission of St. Francis Xavier at Sault near Montreal, she gave examples of extraordinary piety and mortification and enjoyed great fame for holiness. She is the first North American whose cause of beatification was begun. Her heroic virtues were declared by decree of 3 Jan. 1943.