Kateri Tekakwitha

Kateri Tekakwitha (gädälē' dekhäkhwē'&thstrok;schwa;, –dālē' dāgäkwē'tä) [key]or Catherine Tekakwitha,1656–80, Native American holy woman known as the Lily of the Mohawks, b. Ossernenon (now Auriesville, N.Y.). She was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and a captured Algonquin Christian, she was baptized a Roman Catholic in 1676 by a Jesuit missionary. Her tribespeople jeered and stoned her for her adopted faith, and she eventually went to a missionary settlement in Canada. Piety led her to the severest asceticism. She was beatified in 1980.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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