Kateri (Catherine) Tekakwitha is the first North American Indian to be proposed for canonization. She was born at Auriesville , New York and died at the age of 24 at Caughnawaga near Montreal , Canada . Her mother was an Algonquin who had been baptized at Three Rivers , Quebec . During an Iroquois raid she was carried off to Newark where she was married to a pagan Mohawk chief. Two children were born of this marriage, but only Kateri survived. Her parents and her brother died in a smallpox epidemic when Kateri was 4 years old. He face was disfigured and her eyesight was impaired because of the disease. She was raised by an uncle who at one time had three Jesuit missionaries as guest. Kateri received instructions and was baptized on Easter Sunday in 1676.
Kateri (Catherine) Tekakwitha is the first North American Indian to be proposed for canonization. She was born at Auriesville , New York and died at the age of 24 at Caughnawaga near Montreal , Canada . Her mother was an Algonquin who had been baptized at Three Rivers , Quebec . During an Iroquois raid she was carried off to Newark where she was married to a pagan Mohawk chief. Two children were born of this marriage, but only Kateri survived. Her parents and her brother died in a smallpox epidemic when Kateri was 4 years old. He face was disfigured and her eyesight was impaired because of the disease. She was raised by an uncle who at one time had three Jesuit missionaries as guest. Kateri received instructions and was baptized on Easter Sunday in 1676. 