At the National National Shrine of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha in Fonda, N.Y., a powwow was held recently – a sign of the heritage of the shrine’s namesake, who needs only a certified miracle before she can be canonized as a Roman catholic saint.

If that happens, Kateri Tekakwitha, who was Mohawk-Algonquin and lived in the 1600s, would become the first Native American saint.

To some, it’s only a matter of semantics.

“I grew up thinking of her as a saint, because that’s how my people revered her,” Theresa Steele, a Canadian-born member of the Algonquin nation and member of the shrine’s board of directors, tells Nancy Wiechec of Catholic San Francisco, here. “We’ve always seen her that way.”

As Wiechec writes:

Orphaned at age 4 during a smallpox epidemic, Kateri was left pockmarked and nearly blind by the disease. Later, when she embraced Christianity and prayer and refused to marry, she was scorned by other Mohawks. She was taken from her village to a Mohawk Catholic mission in Canada for her own safety. There she taught prayers to children and tended to the sick and elderly.

Blessed Kateri is patron of American Indians, ecology and the environment and is held up as a model for Catholic youth. The U.S. church marks her feast on July 14.

Msgr. Paul A. Lenz, vice postulator for Blessed Kateri’s cause, told CNS that documentation supporting a healing through her intercession was sent to the Vatican last year.

Kateri Tekakwitha died – her skin reportedly clearing at the moment of her death – April 17, 1680, at a mission near Montreal, in her early 20s. She was declared venerable in 1942 and beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Algonquin, canonization, Gwen Florio, Kateri Tekakwitha, Mohawk, National National Shrine of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Native American news, Pope John Paul II, Roman Catholic, sainthood

Jake Finkbonner’s injury seemed so innocuous. Three years ago, Jake, who is of Lummi descent, fell during a basketball game and bumped his mouth. But necrotizing fasciitis – commonly known as the flesh-eating disease – set in and raced across his face. Doctors removed more damaged flesh every day, but he quickly neared death, according to this story in the Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune.

Finally, a priest advised the 9-year-old’s parents to pray to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, an Algonquin and Mohawk woman who lived in the 1600s and who is the first American Indian to become beatified by the Roman Catholic Church. Beantification is an essesntial step toward sainthood; so is a miracle.

Now the Vatican must decide whether Jake’s recovery is indeed a miracle that can be attributed to Blessed Kateri, known as the Lily of the Mohawks. Both his parents, Elsa and Donny Finkbonner, and their priest have been repeatedly interviewed by church officials.

“Whether they attribute his healing to Blessed Kateri or not, that’s up to the church, that’s up to the Vatican,” says Elsa Finkbonner. “But it doesn’t take anybody to tell Donny and I what happened to him was, in fact, a miracle.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: Algonquin, buffalo post, Kateri Tekakwitha, Mohawk, Native American news, Vatican

The brunch is going to have to stretch over the entire weekend because I’m headed for the National Folk Festival in Butte, America, as soon as I’m done typing. Given how I overindulged last weekend at the Arlee Celebration, I’m going to make a mighty attempt to stay away from the food vendors. But here are some tasty virtual dishes: