Katharine Tekakwitha: The Life of the Mohawks 9780823295951

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KATHARINE TEKAKWITHA

The PosiTIO ofthe H£storicalSect£onof the Sacred CongregatzrmrfRites on the INTRODUCTION oF THE CAusE/or BEATIFICATION and CANONIZATION andon theVrRTUES rfthe SERVANTQ[Gon

TEKAKWITHA

KATHARINE

TMLt'lyof

Bezngthe OriginalDocumentsfirstpublish£dat

the ~t'canPolyglotPress1llYW donet'ntoEnglish andpresentedfortheEdificah'on oftheFaitlful

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FORDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS .N'.EW'YORK

Copyright

1940

by

FoRDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS

Reprinted 2002

Cum licentia SS.

CoNGREGATIONis RITUUM

ISBN 13: 978-o-8232-1899-8 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Extracts from The jesuit Relations and Allied Documents are printed by special arrangement with The Burrows Brothers Company, Cleveland, Ohio.

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY Statement of the Most Reverend Relator-General . . . . . Summary of the Life and Virtues, Signal Favors, and Reputation for Holiness of the Servant of God, Katharine Tekakwitha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15

DOCUMENTS !-Fragment of a Letter of Father James de Lamberville, 1677 .

69

11-Extracts from a Letter of Father Chauchetiere, 1682 . . . .

70

III-A Brief Life of Katharine Tegaskouita, Christian Iroquois, about 1682 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

77

IV-Extracts from the Narrative of the Mission of the Sault, Father Chauchetiere, author, 1686 . . . . . . . . . . .

93

V-Extract from the Work, The Present State of the Church and the French Colony in New France, Jean de St. Vallier, Bishop of Quebec, author, 1688 . . . . .

104

VI-Extract from a Letter of Father Chauchetiere, 1694 . VII-Extract from a Letter of Father Chauchetiere, 1694 . VIII-The Life of the Good Katharine Tegakoilita, Now Known as the Holy Savage, Father Chauchetiere, author, 1685, 1695 Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

105 106 111 114

BooK 1 1-Birth of Katharine . 2-Her Early Years. . 3-Plans for Her Marriage 4-The Misery Caused Her by Persuasions to Marry 5-God Prepares the Place Where Katharine Is to Be Honored 6-Katharine Is Baptized on Easter Sunday, 1676 7-Her Fervor Mter Baptism . . . . . . . . . . .

v

119 121 123 125 126 135 138

Contents

Vl

8-The Persecution She Suffc::red for Two Years . . . . . g-The Victory She Gained Over Her Persecutors . . . . to-How She Left Her Country for the Mission of the Sault . 11-The Details of Her Voyage . 12-God Makes Katharine Known BooK II 1-She Takes Instruction . . . . . 2-She Seeks What Is Most Agreeable to God . 3-Remarkable Progress Under Guidance of the Holy Ghost 4-Katharine and Her Companion Submit Their Devotions to the Judgment of Obedience . . 5-Katharine in the Woods During the Hunt 6-Her Austerities . . . . . . 7-Her Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament 8-Her Devotion to the Blessed Virgin . . 9-Katharine's Conduct When Accused of Sin BooK Ill 1-Concerning Things Preceding Her Last Illness 2-God Takes Her From This World 3-The Last Sacraments . 4-Her Death 5-Her Burial and \Vhat Took Place There 6-The Principal Virtues of Katharine Tekakwitha IX-Letter of Peter Remy, 1696 .

. . .

. .

169 171 174 176 179 181

187 188 192 199 200 202 204 206 208 215

X- The Life of Katharine Tekakwitha, First Iroquois Virgin, by

Father Cholenec, 1696

. .

. . . . . . . 239

BooK I 1-Birth and Youth of Katharine . . . . . 2-Baptism . . . • . . .•.• 3-Leaving Her Country to Dwell at the Sault BooK II 1-Beginning of Her Life at the Sault 2-Her Religious Fervor . 3-First Communion . . 4-A Winter at the Hunt .

Contents

Vll

5-Victim of a Great Calumny . . . . . . . . . . . 6-Second Communion, and Admission into the Holy Family (Confraternity); Further Progress 7-The Story of Katharine's Companion 8-Spiritual Friendship . . . g-Contradictions to Virginity 10-Love of Suffering . 11-Vow of Chastity 12-Virtues of Katharine 13-Her Death and Its Circumstances

260 262 266 271 273 280 287 290 300

BoOK III 1-Apparitions of Katharine . . . . 2-Cures and Other Miraculous Facts; Testimony About Katharine's Reputation for Holiness . . .

311 315

XI-Extract from a Letter of Father James de Lamberville, 16g6 . 339 XU-Letter of Father Cholenec to Father leBlanc, 1715 . .

341

XIII-Letter and Life of Katharine Tekakwitha, first to vow virginity among the Iroquois barbarians, by Father Cholenec to Father Michael Angelo Tamburini, General of the Society of Jesus, 1715 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 XIV-Extract from the Work, Recent journey in Canada, by De Bacqueville de Ia Potherie, 1716 . . . . . . . 408 XV-Extracts from The Annals of Hotel Dieu, Quebec, by Mother Juchereau (of Saint Ignatius), 1713-1723 . . . . . . 414 XVI-Extracts from a Letter of Father Nau, 1735 . . . 419 XVII-Extracts from the Work, History and General Description of New France, by Father de Charlevoix, 1744 . . 422 XVIII-The Process Instituted by Authority of the Ordinary in the Episcopal Tribunal in Albany, 1931-1932 . . . . 440 SUPPLEMENT XIX-Extract from a Letter of Father Remy Joseph Tellier, 18.t4

441

XX-Petition of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, 1884

444

XXI-Petitions of Many Indian Tribes, 1885 .

447

Contents

Vlll

APPENDIX !-Bibliography II-Geographical Charts . .

. .

III-Observations of the Most Reverend Relator-General Index to The Summary

.

. . . . . . . .

. .

INTR ODU CTO RY

THE SERVANT OF GOD Katharine Tekakwitha was a North American Indian, a genuine redskin, the first of that great and sorely tried human family to be presented to the Sacred Congregation of Rites as a candidate for the honors of the altar. She belongs to the nation of the Iroquois, well known for their warlike unrest in the history of the colonization of North America; and among the Iroquois to the tribe of the Agniers, commonly known as Mohawks, from the name of the river along which they had built their villages. In 1656 Katharine Tekakwitha was born in one of these villages, Ossernenon, the nearest to Fort Orange (now Albany, in the United States). It was the same village where about ten years previously three of the eight holy Jesuit martyrs canonized in 1930, Isaac Jogues, John de la Lande and Rene Goupil, had been so barbarously put to death. Katharine's mother was a member of the Algonquin tribe, a Christian, instructed and baptized at Three Rivers. She had passed over to the Iroquois in a tragic manner, as a prisoner of war, but was fortunate enough to win the affections of one of the Chiefs of the Mohawk tribe, a pagan who finally married her. Two children were born of this marriage, a girl, who was 1

2

Katharine Tekakwitha

our Servant of God, and her younger brother. All too soon, however, the young family was destroyed. Katharine was not yet four years old when she lost her father, mother and brother in a great epidemic of smallpox. The little orphan had not escaped from the terrible malady, but was taken in by a pagan uncle, another Chief of the tribe, a man strongly opposed to Christianity and to the missionaries, who at this time were prevented from making any approach among the Iroquois. In 1666, however, after a vigorous campaign of the Viceroy, De Tracy, they finally yielded. Iroquois delegates were dispatched to the Viceroy and free access for the missionaries was provided among the conditions of peace. In fact three Jesuit Fathers were ordered to accompany the above-mentioned delegates on the return trip to their country. It was on that occasion that Katharine, a girl of eleven, saw missionaries for the first time, when the Fathers sojourned in the very village of the Servant of God. They actually received hospitality in her uncle's hut, for he was one of the village chieftains, and Katharine was charged with looking after their needs. It seems that this first contact with· the missionaries left a deep impression on the young girl's mind. Three years later, in 1670, a permanent mission was established in the same village. Katharine was then fourteen. One might expect to see her immediately among the first catechumens of the mission. We discover, however, not without a certain surprise, that only in 1675, five years later, she comes in contact with the missionaries and begins preparation for Baptism. This was due in great measure, it seems, to the family atmosphere which was contrary to Christianity. To this period belong also the repeated attempts made to induce the young girl to marry. This she most firmly refused to do, thereby

Introductory 3 -+- -+- ~ -+- =+= -+- += += 7VVVV - exciting both admiration and scorn and a veritable persecution by her relatives, who could not understand how a you'ng girl could make such a refusal. Only in time, when they were won over by the firmness and meekness of the Servant of God did they cease to annoy her on this matter. In this state of affairs, and remembering that her family was and remained pagan, it is permissible to believe that the Servant of God encountered many grave difficulties whenever she tried to come openly into contact with the missionaries. Moreover, it must also be remembered that she was timid and reserved by nature. The biographers agree, however, in bringing out that even during this time Katharine's life was singularly modest and virtuous. In particular they give evidence of her love of virginity, a fact which appeared to be in such absolute contrast with the habits and traditions of the country that it was believed impossible of explanation short of attributing it to a special grace of the Holy Ghost. Finally, in the autumn of 1675, the chance visit of Father de Lamberville to the hut of the Servant of God marks the beginning of her very fervent catechumenate, which was followed with exceptional rapidity by Baptism administered to her on Easter Sunday of the following year, in 1676. We have no intention here of following in detail the various phases of her life after Baptism, a brief period which lasted only four years, but one rich in events and in extraordinary facts, of which we have much information. These the Most Reverend Consultors will find summarized in the Summarium, in which the life of the Servant of God, and especially that part of it which deals with the time after Baptism, is reviewed. There is, however, a gap which should be noted, namely, the complete absence of any mention of the Sacrament of

4

Katharine Tekakwitha

Confirmation. This silence cannot be explained as an omission on the part of the biographers, for both Father Chauchetiere and Father Cholenec certainly would not have neglected mention of Katharine's Confirmation if this had actually taken place. And so, because of this silence, if for no other reason, we are led to believe that the Servant of God did not receive this Sacrament. It is not the part of the historians to judge whether this fact should be taken into consideration with regard to the progress of the Cause. We can note, however, that it would be difficult to accuse the Servant of God of negligence. The only Bishop then living in Canada was Monseigneur de Laval, who resided in Quebec, a distance of some three hundred kilometers or more from the Mission Sault Saint Louis, where the Servant of God lived. Monseigneur de Laval had been in Montreal and in this mission in 1676, a year before Katharine arrived there. He did not return to it before 1681, a year after her death, for he had spent the intervening years ( 1678-8o) in France. For sake of completeness it can also be noted that in 1678, before beginning his journey to France, Monseigneur de Laval was in Sorrel, where he administered Confirmation to several persons; but even Sorrel is about eighty kilometers from the Mission of the Sault and we do not know whether the missionaries were informed, or whether it would have been in any way possible to bring their neophytes there. It seems to us that these data sufficiently explain why the Servant of God never received Confirmation, and exonerates her from blame of negligence.

The Cause.-Anyone who glances at the last paragraph of the SummariumJ wherein are recorded the principal facts concerning the reputation for holiness which our Servant of God

Introductory

5

enjoyed while still living, and more so after death-a reputation that spread rapidly over all Canada and soon reached even Europe-would be immediately led to ask this question: If the reputation for holiness of this Iroquois maiden were really such, why has her Cause of Beatification been long delayed? This delay finds an explanation in the set of circumstances and historical events which it will be enough only to mention. One must consider the location of the missions, and of the Mission of Sault Saint Francis Xavier, which at the time of the death of the Servant of God, was a little less than thirty years old, and which did not then have a definite and permanent site, so that within forty years after the death of the Servant of God it moved successively into three new localities, until it was established in 1719 at Caughnawaga, (Canada) where it continues even now. One must also take note of the fact that the ecclesiastical organization of Canada was still in its elementary stages. Suffice it to say that until 1836 the only episcopal see of the whole vast country was that of Quebec, and as we have already said, this was some three hundred kilometers from the mission. One must also keep in mind the political conditions, which were anything but peaceful, as well as the turbulent events that prepared and finally led to Canada's passing from the French to the English, an event which was ratified in the Peace of Paris in 1763. We must also reckon with the fact that this transfer had for the missions in general long and painful consequences, which were owing to the more or less open hostility of the new government. Finally one must also remember the history of the Society of Jesus, which had been entrusted with the mission where reposed the remains of the Servant of God. In 1783 the mission

6

Katharine Tekakwitha

was given up by the Jesuits, and in 18oo the last Jesuit Father living in Canada after the Suppression, died in Quebec. It was only in 1842 that the Jesuit Missionaries re-entered Canada, and only in 1903 was the old Indian mission of the Sault given into their hands. Considering all these circumstances and these historical events, it is not surprising to see that the good missionaries of the Sault could not bring about regular canonical processes while eye-witnesses were still available. A confirmation of this impossibility is had in the fact that even all the other Canadian causes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries suffered the same fate; the ordinary Process was made only in the second half of the last century, and therefore their introduction at the Roman Curia is recent. This happened in the Cause of the Venerable Mary of the Incarnation (1672), which was introduced in 1877; to the Cause of the Venerable Marguerite Bourgeoys (1700), which was introduced in 1878; to the Cause of Father Montmorency Laval ( 1708), which was introduced in 1890; and to others. The Cause of the Jesuit Martyrs, canonized in 1930, was introduced only in 1916. Apropos of these martyrs, one can note that when in 1884 the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore asked the Holy See to introduce their Cause, it asked also to have the Cause of Katharine Tekakwitha introduced. The Cause of the Martyrs had precedence. Their Canonization having taken place in 1930, the Cause of Tekakwitha was taken in hand after much waiting and well-wishing on the part of many. The ordinary Process instituted at Albany in 1931-32 was brought to Rome and opened on July 11, 1932. Since it was to be treated as an historical cause, according to the rules of the Motu Proprio (February 6, 1930), of the glorious Pontificate of His Holiness

Introductory 7 -+-- -+-- -+- -+- -;- -+- ......- ...,._ Pope Pius XI, its study was entrusted to the Historical Section. The latter has examined the material inserted in the Process, it has made a critical study of the sources used, it has completed the researches and has officially prepared the present Positio. The Documentation.-Everyone knows what the American Missionaries in general and the Jesuit Missionaries in particular have merited by their Relations, which besides being very precious sources of the history of the missions, are often also of great interest as history of the culture of the people and countries of the New World. This tendency, so widely diffused among the Missionaries of the Society of Jesus, of noting down in writing the most salient happenings in the mission has made possible today the presentation to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, of the Cause for the Beatification of the Iroquois maiden, Katharine Tekakwitha. In fact, we owe all that we know of her life and virtues almost exclusively to the three missionaries of the Society, De Lamberville, Chauchetiere and Cholenec, who were all eye-witnesses and knew the Servant of God intimately. Of the first, Father James de Lamberville, we have only three excerpts of letters (Doc./, Ill, XI), of which the fullest and most important is the one reproduced as Document Ill. Information is there given regarding the Baptism and the life led by the Servant of God in her native village, among the pagans before she was transferred to the Mission of the Sault. No one could know better than Father de Lamberville all that refers to this period, for it was he who first approached the Servant of God; it was he who instructed her and admitted her to Baptism, and it was he who also advised her to flee to the Mission of the Sault.

zvvvv

8

Katharine Tekakwitha

Father Claude Chauchetiere had arrived at this mission a few months before Katharine was transferred to it. He was able, therefore, to know her intimately, to watch and follow her in her steps toward a more fervent life. He was also present at her death. Convinced that he was dealing with a person of exceptional virtue and true holiness, he became her first biographer. His Life of the Servant of God (Doc. VIII), dates back to 1685, and besides her Life he has left information concerning the Servant of God in various letters (Doc. II, VI, VII), and in the Annals of the Missions, written by him in 1686 (Doc. IV). We come finally to Father Peter Cholenec, also a missionary of the Sault at the time of Katharine's arrival. In fact, Father James de Lamberville had directed and recommended her to him and it was he who took special care of her and became her director and ordinary confessor. Father Cholenec also contributed several documents to the biographical literature on the Servant of God and wrote with considerable detail. One of his first writings, probably of the year 1682 (Doc. III), is limited to the general description of the religious life led by Katharine in the mission and of the singular circumstances that accompanied and followed her death. Mter fifteen years, in I6g5, he finally began to write a biography (Doc. X), in which direct and personal information is abundant and in which different points in relation to Father Chauchetiere's Life are clarified and settled. The other two writings of Father Cholenec relating to Katharine, both written in 1715, contain no actually new facts, but much useful information and explanation. Two biographies have been compiled, the first, meant for the general reader, was published in Paris in the Edifying Letters of 1717 (Doc. XII), and it served as a basis for the rich

9

Introductory - - - + - -t- ....... -t-

-+- -+-- ......

+= zvvvv --

literature on the Servant of God from that time to the present day. The second biography, of a more personal nature, was directed to the Father General of the Society of Jesus (Doc. XIII). The question of the vow of chastity is here brought under particular consideration. The writings of these three Fathers constitute the basis of documentation regarding the life and virtues of the Servant of God. The question arises at once: What is the total value of these writings? Without entering into a detailed examination of them, and referring the reader for this to the critical introductions at the head of the various texts, we think it may be affirmed that the three missionaries were not only well informed but also sincere. Moreover, this shall be one of the points in regard to which the attention of the Most Reverend Historical Consultors will be called for their authoritative judgment. As to the chronology, the writings indicated above are distributed over a period of thirty-five years, beginning with the death of the Servant of God, and therefore they contain much of the important data on the reputation for holiness which she enjoyed at the time among her contemporaries. There are many other evidences, however, of the reputation for holiness, even in this ancient period, which we have tried to reproduce on a large scale (Doc. V~ XIV~ XV, XVI~ XVII). Among these the letter of the Pastor, Remy, to Father Cholenec in 16g6 (Doc. IX), must be particularly noted, for it offers us a very vivid picture of the extent of the veneration of the faithful, natives and non-natives, for the Servant of God, to whose intercession they had recourse with great confidence. On the basis of all this documentation we can draw a very complete picture of the life of the Servant of God, of her virtue

10

Katharine Tekakwitha

and reputation for holiness; and this has been done in the Summarium, compiled with great diligence by the ViceRelator, Joseph Low. We shall note finally that in order to illustrate the continued interest which the unique spectacle of the Servant of God has continued to arouse even to our day, we give in the Appendix a bibliography of the older and more modern publications that pertain to her. Moreover, in order to facilitate the reading of these texts, wherever geographical data occur it was believed useful to add several maps with the indication of the principal places where the life of the Servant of God was unfolded.

F.

ANTONELLI,

O.F.M.,

General Relator Rome, March, I938

Note.-We think it useful to reproduce the brief article on the Iroquois written for the Italian Encyclopedia by the Viennese professor, Richard Dangel. About the year 1570 (according to local tradition, under the guidance of Hiawatha, who has been sung by Longfellow), the five Indian tribes of Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga and Seneca united into a powerful league. The Tuscaroras were also received in 1722. The league which had been called Ongwanonsionni was designated by the French with a word taken from the Algonquin language, Iroquois, a name used later by ethnologists to designate also a larger ethnic and linguistic group. In 1643 these tribes were supplied with firearms by the Dutch and after fierce battle waged against the Hurons and the Algonquins, became the masters of all the region about Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. They were not nomadic, but were engaged in the cultivation of the fields; they produced maize, pumpkins, beans, tobacco, and watermelons. Hunting was only a secondary occupation. They obtained from the maple a sap that was then prepared as an intoxicating drink. The houses, inhabited by several families, were rectangular in

Introductory - - -+- -+-

11

~

.....,_ .....,_ -+-

=+= =+-- zvvvv - -

shape and at times 50 meters long; the roof and the walls were covered with the bark of trees. The different families were placed along the sides of a central corridor extending the whole length of the house and in the center the common fireplaces were lit. The villages were often fortified with palisades. The social conditions of the tribes that made up the league show a marked tribal system with two matrimonial classes and a rigorous maternal heredity. Several large families (ohwachira) formed a tribe, several tribes a matrimonial class, and marriage among these was prohibited. Every tribe and every matrimonial class possessed a totem animal; moreover there were spirits for personal protection (oyaron), usually animals, plants or inanimate objects which were revealed in the sleep of boys and girls who had been to the solitude of the woods at the time of maturity. The lands of the ohwachira belonged to the women and they even elected the Chiefs that formed the League Council. The women also decided the fate of the prisoners of war, whether they were to be adopted or tortured, and in their hands lay also the decision of war or peace. These powerful tribes therefore, on whose bloody and cruel struggles are founded the popular stories of the Indian torture pole, were theoretically governed by women. The laws and activity of the Grand Council of the Iroquois, fully described by Morgan, were a masterpiece of Indian politics. It settled the arguments among its members and it called forth the admiration of the most able European diplomats because of the prudence and wisdom with which it represented its members. The rest of the League (about w,ooo members) already so famous, lives today in the State of New York and in Canada.

TH E SU MM AR Y

The

PosiTIO

of the

HISTORICAL SECTION

GREGATION OF RITES

on the

of the

SACRED CoN-

for of the

INTRODUCTION OF THE CAUSE

BEATIFICATION AND CANONIZATION

and on the

VIRTUES

SERVANT OF GoD KATHARINE TEKAKWITHA

of the Life and Virtues, Signal Favors and Reputation for Holiness of the SERVANT OF GoD SuMMARY

KATHARINE TEKAKWITHA I. LIFE OF THE SERVANT OF GOD 1.

Birth, native land, and parents of the Servant of God.

Although her contemporary biographers do not agree among themselves in assigning the year of the birth of the Servant of God, still, on the authority of Father Cholenec, the most accurate contemporary biographer, we believe that she was born in 1656; but no knowledge of the day or month has come down to us. 1 [""] The Servant of God had her origin from the chief tribe of the Indian Nation of the Iroquois, whose French name was "Agniers," and English "Mohawks." She was born in the village of Ossernenon, which was abandoned later on account of the pestilence in the year 166o, but settled again not far away under the name Gandaouague. Soon afterwards, in the year Marginal documentation of The Summary as printed in the original Posmo has been transferred in this book to a special index_ Superior numerals here printed refer to this index: page 463.]

[0

15

16

Katharine Tekakwitha --1\l\lSl\1 --+-+- -+- -.... -+- -+- -+- - 1667, it was wiped out in war, and established once more in a distant place called Caughnawaga. These three villages were near small towns inhabited by colonists, which still exist under the names of Auriesville and Fonda, both within the territory of the present-day United States of America.2 The names of the parents of the Servant of God are likewise unknown. The father was a pagan of the tribe of the Mohawks of the Iroquois; the mother a Christian, of the Indian Nation of the Algonquins. During a war between the colonists and the Iroquois, this woman was captured by the savages, and would have suffered the usual fate of captives, capital punishment, had not an Iroquois chieftain asked for her as wife. Joined, then, in wedlock with this man, she bore two children, a boy and a girl. The latter was given the name Tekakwitha. 8 The pious mother had a very good influence on the children. She is said to have remained faithful to Christ and to have kept until her dying breath a great love for the daily "Common Prayer," deploring only the fact that she could not secure for her children the grace of Baptism; and some there are who assert that such a child was the reward given to such a mother.• 2.

-=+

Girlhood of the Servant of God among the pagan barbarians.

In the year 166o, when a smallpox epidemic had fallen upon the country of the Indians, it soon carried off the parents and brother of the Servant of God; and while Tekakwitha, a child only four years old, alone survived, her face remained disfigured and her eyesight was impaired. After that she could scarcely bear the light of the sun without a covering over her

The Summary - - _,_ -+- .......

17

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head, and for this reason had to remain at home most of the time, often alone, which though others considered a serious disadvantage, she herself, from that time forward, looked upon as a singular grace whereby she was to be guarded from diverse dangers to her soul. 5 After the child had lost her parents, her uncle, prominent among the head men of the Mohawks, but strongly opposed to the Christian religion, took her into his house, not without some consideration of his own advantage, for he hoped that through her a husband, a skilful hunter, would in due time be added to the family. 6 Thereupon the womenfolk, in Indian fashion, instructed her in every household task and craft; and the Servant of God gradually began to excel as most observant and skilful with head and hand. 7 Since, however, the chief object in life for Indian girls was that by domestic efficiency and beautiful ornaments each should attract a very good husband, even the Servant of God, submitting to the women of the house, for a time wore the usual feminine adornments, although all the time, from a certain natural aversion, she despised that sort of vanity. After receiving Baptism, however, she sought by severe acts of penance to atone for what she called the fault of her youth. 8 When scarcely eight years old the Servant of God was bound by her relatives, according to custom, to a certain child of her own age; a rite which the Indians considered not as a marriage but as a beginning of a sort of familiarity which might in time develop into a marriage. From this initiative, nothing more followed. When, however, the maiden had become old enough to marry, her relatives sought seriously to give her in marriage. But the Servant of God frustrated such

18

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Katharine Tekakwitha

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--+- - -

efforts, made, it would seem, on several occasions, by sudden flight. Wherefore her relatives, baffled in their designs, showed their anger by persecuting the maiden cruelly, treating her no longer as an adopted daughter, but shamefully, as a captured slave. After offering a long resistance, at once gentle and courageous, to such annoyances, Tekakwitha could at last resume the old kindly relations with her relatives, and from that time on no further attempts of the kind were repeated." 3· First relations of the Servant of God with the Missionaries, and Baptism ( 1676).

The Jesuit Mission among the Iroquois passed through its first, most difficult, and least fruitful period between 1632 and 1648. Between 1642 and 1649, eight Jesuits won the crown of martyrdom, among whom were three who were done to death by the Mohawk Indians in the village of Ossemenon. All of these, known as the "North American Martyrs," were inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints in 1930. For several years after the martyrdom of the Servants of God a constant state of war existed between the colonists and the Iroquois. At length, however, a military expedition commanded by the Seigneur de Tracy dealt such devastation with fire and sword to the Mohawk villages that in 1667 all the Iroquois were forced to ask for peace and for missionaries. And so, in the early autumn of that year, three Jesuits arrived at the new village of Caughnawaga [N.Y.], which had just been founded, and were given lodging in the house of the uncle of Tekakwitha, who, being then a child of eleven years, was appointed to serve them. Although the missionaries stayed there but three days, their pious manner of life seems to have made a lasting impression on the girl's mind. 10

The Summary 19 - t - -+- - t - -+--+- += =+-= zvvvv - Until they were able to establish permanent mission stations, the missionary Fathers set up what they termed a "wandering" mission; but at Caughnawaga, at least from the year 167o, there was a permanent station, under the patronage of Saint Peter, of which Father James de Lamberville was in charge from 1674· Because of the open and general antagonism of the Indians, the number of catechumens and baptized Christians scarcely increased. The Servant of God seems to have attended the public instructions given by the missionaries, but because of her excessive natural shyness, and even more because of her fear of her uncle, on whom she was entirely dependent and who was one of the chief opponents of the missionaries, she never dared to approach a missionary with a view to discussing the Christian faith or the question of Baptism. 11 And so the Servant of God remained unknown to Father de Lamberville for about one year. But in the autumn of 1675. at harvest time, when practically everybody was working in the fields, the missionary, making his round of visits to the infirm and aged, found Tekakwitha alone at home, suffering from a sore foot. Thus by an unforeseen chance, or, as some prefer to think, at the prompting of some Heaven-sent instinct, there came to Tekakwitha a Father to whom she spontaneously revealed both her holy desires and intentions and the difficulties which would have to be overcome, and who gladly received her among the catechumens. 12 From that time forward, Tekakwitha was constant in her attendance at the usual instructions for the catechumens. But Father de Lamberville soon perceived that the soul of the Servant of God was, so to speak, naturally Christian; and when, upon careful investigation, he found that Tekakwitha had won the esteem of all, he gave her a private catechetical course in

+

20

Katharine Tekakwitha

the winter of 167 5-76, with the result that she made wonderful progress in the knowledge of the faith and in piety. 13 Although the missionaries were accustomed to administer Baptism only to catechumens who had been tried for several years, Father de Lamberville, impressed by the rapid and sure progress of his pupil, deeply moved also by her earnest pleas, decided to admit her to Baptism on the coming Easter ( 1676). And so T ekakwitha, who was twenty years old, with ineffable joy of mind and heart and with gratitude to God, was admitted to Holy Baptism in the village church at Caughnawaga on Easter Sunday (April 5· 1676), and was thenceforth called Katharine. 14 4· From the time of the Baptism of the Servant of God until her departure from the Mission of Saint Peter at Fonda to the Mission of Saint Francis Xavier at the Sault (1676-1677). The Servant of God had scarcely received the grace of Baptism when she shaped her manner of life to a perfection beyond all expectation. As a result of this, Father de Lamberville, who, according to the general practice of the mission, tried to form his neophytes to the ordinary Christian life with the help of certain general rules, worked out for Katharine's personal use a plan of a higher life, which included a more frequent practice of prayer. The Servant of God followed this plan with the most faithful constancy till the hour of her death, as is clear from the evidence Father de Lamberville gathered on this point from the Fathers of the Mission at the Sault when he had learned of Katharine's death. According to this plan of life, the Servant of God performed her domestic duties with all diligence, and devoted to prayer whatever time remained. 16 But this exemplary way of life soon irritated alike the

The Summary

21

-+- -+-- -+- -+-- .....,_ 7VVVV - obdurate pagans and the more lax among the Christians, and gradually a sort of general persecution grew up on every side against the Servant of God. Her pagan relatives were angry that Katharine should abstain from her usual daily tasks on Sundays and Holydays to devote herself entirely to prayer, and they did not hesitate to use energetic measures, commanding her, threatening her and finally depriving her of food. Others of the savages hooted and jeered at the pious girl as she went to church, and even the children threw stones at her. The crowd hurled mocking catchwords at her, and called her "the Christian." Things went so far that a fierce young brave broke into Katharine's house and threatened to cut off her head. To this universal persecution the Servant of God opposed her sweet and indomitable patience, with which in the end she conquered all her opponents. 16 At this same period there befell the Servant of God a new and very hard trial, for which her uncle's wife, a pagan and hostile to the girl, was responsible. She falsely accused Katharine of having sinful relations with her husband. Father de Lamberville, having duly investigated the matter, soon saw that the accusation was a pure calumny.17 The same Father de Lamberville, consulted by the Servant of God in the midst of these bitter trials, after a thorough consideration of the case, earnestly recommended two things: continual prayer, and Hight to the Mission at the Sault. 18 The missionaries of the Society of Jesus had learned by experience that the baptized Indians, as a general rule, could not persevere in their Christian way of life, especially if they belonged to the fierce tribes of the Iroquois, unless they were removed from the pagan villages and settled in their own entirely Christian villages. Accordingly, for many decades they

- - ...,._ -t- .......

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Katharine Tekakwitha

had considered the foundation of a mission post of this sort, which they were at length able to establish on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, not far from the city of Montreal, in a part of the country called Pairie de la Madeleine. This Christian mission post was transferred some years later to a more suitable site, and, under the name of Sault Saint Louis, became well known to French and Indian alike, and was made the refuge of the neophytes of good will from the different Indian tribes, and from it they often made apostolic journeys through their native villages. 19 Since several well known Christian Iroquois had already removed to that mission, whenever any of these in their wanderings came to the village of Caughnawaga, and, as is the Indian custom, spoke in the council meetings, Katharine always experienced great consolation. But when they departed, she suffered great anguish of spirit and burned with a desire to follow them. Her desire was all the greater because a short time previously an adopted sister of the Servant of God and her husband, both fervent Christians, had removed to the village at the Sault. But her uncle stood in her way. He was a bitter enemy of the Christians and was deeply angered by the departure of neophytes from his village. 20 It happened, however, that the husband of Katharine's sister came to Caughnawaga with the other Indians on one of their customary journeys at a time when her uncle was abroad about his business. The Servant of God went straightway to Father de Lamberville, and arranged with him for her early flight. 21 The Father wrote letters to the Fathers of the Mission at the Sault, which the Servant of God, who could not read, was to carry to them. In these letters she was praised and recom-

The Summary -+- ...,._ -+-

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+

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23

mended highly. Soon after this, Katharine, with her adopted sister's husband and another Christian, eagerly began the long hard trek of nearly two hundred miles through woods and swamps. Her uncle was soon informed of the unexpected flight of his ward and in violent anger started in immediate pursuit. But, baffied by the precautions taken by the two companions of the Servant of God, he was finally forced to return to his village having accomplished nothing. The journey of the three travelers came to a happy end when, in the month of October, 1677, they reached the Mission of Saint Francis Xavier at the Sault. 22

5. Katharine's arrival at the Sault and her First Communion. At that time the Christian village of Saint Francis Xavier at the Sault was enjoying its first fervor. Three Fathers of the Society of Jesus were engaged in the apostolic enterprise: Father Fremin, an experienced campaigner, Father Cholenec, who had been there some years, and Father Chauchetiere, who had arrived at the post only three or four months before. These three missionaries, in their various relations or reports, have left so clear a description of the whole manner and way of life at that mission, that even today we seem to see with our own eyes all the surroundings and circumstances among which the Servant of God spent the last years of her life. 28 It was only natural that Katharine should make her home in the same house in which her adopted sister was living, which was under the direction of an older woman, Anastasia Tegonhatsihongo. After reading the letters of Father de Lamberville, the missionaries gave special care to Katharine, and Father Fremin himself undertook her direction, which he entrusted to Father Cholenec shortly afterwards. 24

24

Katharine Tekakwitha

The completely Christian manner of living which flourished in the Mission at the Sault, thrilled the soul of the Servant of God. She seemed to be looking on some rare sight, the like of which she had never seen before, so that she devoted herself with fervent generosity to Christian piety and perfection, without, however, neglecting the work usually done by the women at home and in the fields. 25 While traveling from her native village to the Mission at the Sault, she passed through Montreal, and there learned something of the kind of life led by nuns. And so, shortly afterwards, impelled by a desire for a religious and solitary life, she proposed to set up a convent with two other women, on an island in the Saint Lawrence. Father Fremin weighed the whole matter carefully, enlightened them as far as it was advisable on the monastic state of life, and took pains to direct the praiseworthy fervor of the neophytes into more ordinary channels. To Katharine, however, he proposed instead a more detailed rule of life, admirably adapted to her outstanding gifts and pious aspirations. 26 From the very first months of her stay at the Sault, Katharine's manner of life (the general lines of which the inhabitants soon began to describe in a sort of proverb, saying "Katharine knows only two paths, the path to the fields and the path home; she knows only two houses, her own home and the church") far surpassed the expectations of the missionaries, who decided for once to make an exception to their rule, the wisdom of which was proved by experience, of waiting at least a few years after Baptism before giving Holy Communion to the neophytes. Therefore, on the next Christmas Day, 1677, to her inexpressible joy and spiritual consolation, Katharine for the first time received the Holy Eucharist, from

The Summary

25

which she derived new and evident increase of spirituallife. 27 6. Conduct of the Servant of God during the winter hunting season (1677-1678).

It was the Indian custom that everyone should spend the whole winter on a hunting expedition. In the summertime they lived on the meat they were careful to preserve, and they made money from trading with the skins. The Indians at the Sault were wont to leave for the hunt only after the Christmas festivities; and in the winter of 1677-78 Katharine went along with them as a favor to her adopted sister. 28 It is readily understood that life on these uninterrupted journeys would be somewhat relaxed; so that the Servant of God is all the more to be admired for living in the forests and in tents covered with snow and ice, an almost monastic life. She spent solid hours in prayer before a cross fashioned from branches of trees, and daily assisted in spirit at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. She mortified her frail body with exercises of penance, while she was assiduous and punctual in doing her share of the work. A truly wonderful example of persevering fervor! 29 And yet Katharine ha~ to undergo the trial of another grave calumny. It was late in the evening one day when a hunter came into the common tent and, being on the point of exhaustion, he heedlessly lay down on the one pallet there which he supposed was free, and straightway fell asleep. The next morning his wife found him on the pallet near Katharine. Further, when the same warrior was later looking for help to get his canoe ready, he asked Katharine to assist him, knowing that she was always ready to perform a service of charity. In this combination of circumstances, which was altogether for-

26

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Katharine Tekakwitha

--+= -t- --+- --+- ..... -+- -+- - -

tuitous, the wife found the grounds of an accusation against the Servant of God, suspecting her of sinful relations with her husband. 30 When they had returned from the hunt, the wife laid the accusation before the Superior of the mission. After that some rumor of the incident, unfavorable to Katharine, began to make its calumnious rounds. 31 Though the missionary had complete faith in the virtue of the Servant of God, he nevertheless made suitable inquiries, and subjected the girl herself to a severe cross-examination. While Katharine felt the heavy weight of this calumny, she endured everything with remarkable patience.82 After her death, the woman who had calumniated her, clearly recognized her error and her fault and was sincerely sorry for both. 33

7· Spiritual relations of the Servant of God with certain pious women. It was a custom of the mission to place over each house wherein several families dwelt in common, one of the older women of tried virtue, who directed the daily order, the common prayers and hymns, and in general the whole course of the domestic routine, and, in the name of the missionary, saw that it was followed out. In the house in which Katharine dwelt, this position was held by a certain Iroquois woman, named Anastasia Tegonhatsihongo, who had formerly been acquainted with the mother of the Servant of God, and, as it appears, was related in some way to Katharine herself. As may be readily understood, in a short while a closer intimacy sprang up between Anastasia and Katharine. This in tum soon developed into so close a spiritual friendship that Anas-

The Summary - - -t-

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27

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£

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tasia became her spiritual mother and guide, and played a leading part in the inner life of the Servant of God until the latter's death. 84 But Katharine's true companion in virtue was an Indian maid of the Oneida tribe, named Mary Theresa Tegaiaguenta, who had been baptized by Father Bruyas, but only after severe hardships suffered in the winter hunting season of 1675-1676 had she been converted to a fervent and exemplary life. 3 ~ One day Katharine and Mary Theresa, while assisting at the building of a new church, engaged in a pious conversation in which they disclosed to one another the Divine Grace manifested in the course of each of their lives. Moved by like desires of piety and penance, they entered upon a spiritual friendship which was afterwards approved by the missionaries. It is remarkable what progress in Christian perfection both women now made, stimulated by mutual rivalry. 86

8. Last part of her life. After the winter expedition was ended, the Servant of God returned home, as Easter of the year 1678 was approaching. She saw the ceremonies of Holy Week for the first time after her return. They were solemnly carried out by the whole mission, and deeply moved her soul. On Easter Sunday she received Holy Communion for the second time. 87 At this time, because of her extraordinary practice of all the virtues, the missionaries enrolled the Servant of God in the pious society called "The Holy Family," a privilege they were wont to accord only a few of the Christians, and that only after several years oftriat.B8 As the winter hunting season again approached (1678167g), the prospect of the hunting life, though much more

28 --l\lSl\1\l -+-

Katharine Tekakwitha =-+" __._ - -

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comfortable because of the abundance of food and other like advantages, could not tempt Katharine away from home. The bitter experience of the previous winter, and much more the ardent desire for those spiritual favors of which she foresaw that she would be deprived on the chase, persuaded her to remain at the mission, which during the winter months was almost deserted. 39 Meanwhile a certain number of Katharine's tribesmen, drawn by the reputation and example of the Servant of God, followed her and made their way to the Mission at the Sault, where they endeavored to lead a pious life. 40 But the Servant of God, weak from childhood, suffered great torments at this period of her life from almost uninterrupted infirmities, such as weakness of eyesight, headaches, frequent fevers and especially a weak and easily unsettled

stomach. And yet she in no way moderated her customary fervor nor her various practices of piety and virtue. 41 During the last months of her life, her sufferings were increased to an extraordinary degree; and yet, struggling on with what little remained of her exhausted energies, Katharine would try to drag her frail and tortured body to the chapel and there she would remain in prayer. But more often, overcome with excessive pain, she was forced to lie motionless on her humble pallet, frequently alone, from dawn until dusk, while the others went forth to their daily tasks, leaving the invalid a little water and some morsels of food. And even under these most trying conditions, the Servant of· God spent all of her time in prayer and contemplation. 42

The Summary -+-

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II. VIRTUES OF THE SERVANT OF GOD 1.

Katharine's virtues in general.

Katharine had received at birth a naturally fine character. While she was still a child and a pagan, it was noticed that she shrank from all that was evil, that she was gentle, even timid, not curious, nor proud. Thus, even then she appeared prepared by nature for the practice of every Christian virtue. 1 For that reason Father de Lamberville confessed that at his very first meeting with Katharine he was deeply moved, and forthwith had a presentiment that the little pagan girl was predestined by God to accomplish great things. 2 And in fact, soon after receiving the grace of Baptism, Katharine straightway surpassed every expectation by her marvelous growth in the practice of virtue. 3 The missionaries accordingly state with all simplicity that so solid and so rapid a progress in the path of virtue cannot be explained unless it be taken for certain that the soul of the Servant of God was directed immediately by the Grace of the Holy Ghost, who rapidly led the girl, so docile to His inspirations, to the unitive life! Katharine's biographers have left us a general description of the state of soul of the Servant of God at the time of her transfer to the Mission at the Sault, in which they clearly show that Katharine, within scarcely a year and a half after her Baptism, had made remarkable progress in the practice of every virtue.~ Descending to details, they repeat similar descriptions, speaking of the time of the virgin's residence at the Sault, setting forth her proven holiness and her frequentation of the

30

Katharine Tekakwitha

Sacraments, and giving a general conspectus of the virtues which shone forth in Katharine. 6 To these must be added a eulogy of Katharine composed by Father Cholenec, who describes the last months of the Servant of God and says that she was already ripe for heaven, asserting that she had reached a high peak of sanctity, at which few arrive even in old age. 7 2.

Heroic faith of the Servant of God.

That the Servant of God had the virtue of lively faith is clearly stated by Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholenec, her two chief biographers. 8 The roots of this deep feeling of faith may be said to spring from the early education received from her Christian mother who, had she not died so prematurely, would undoubtedly, on the very first occasion of a missionary's arrival, have procured for her children the grace of Baptism, which until her death she begged for them in her prayers. 9 The Servant of God, though she grew to maidenhood in a completely pagan household, had a constant longing one day better to understand and openly to embrace the faith of her mother. It was surely because of this longing that Tekakwitha, although a pagan, became so pre-eminent in purity of virtue and morals that she might rightly be said to have been even then a Christian by desire. 10 When finally she obtained the grace of Baptism, as her life became more perfect, so her firm sense of faith became more manifest. First of all, she had the utmost respect for the missionaries as the dispensers and apostles of the Faith, and, in general, showed especial esteem for those of her own race who by their apostolic journeys aided in the propagation of the Faith. 11

The Summary

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31 ~

zvvvv --

....... So extraordinary was her love of the Catholic religion and its sacred and salutary ceremonies, that she bravely bore the persecution occasioned by the now open practice of her Faith. 12 The season of the winter hunt, generally looked forward to by the others, since they were wont to spend it away from home in a more easy-going and comfortable sort of life, she preferred to pass at home, despite hunger and other inconveniences, because of her great love for the graces of holy religion. 13 The remarkable constancy with which the Servant of God, at home and abroad, even while at work, walked ever in God's presence, a constancy which colored her whole spiritual life and made it most fruitful, certainly bears witness to a most solid and unwavering faith. u Further clear evidence of her lively faith is to be gathered from that invincible love of prayer and of God's house which burned so ardently in the Servant of God that the missionaries did not hesitate to affirm that she had been endowed by God with the gift of constant prayer. 15 The pre-eminence attained by the Servant of God in the virtue of faith is further evident from the great fear of sin and the very tender conscience which her biographers attribute to Katharine. 18 - - -t-

3· Heroic hope of the Servant of God. Father Cholenec asserts from personal experience that the Servant of God manifested a firm and lively hope. Indeed, without a firm confidence in God's help Katharine could scarcely have succeeded in bearing the difficulties and adversities of her life. 17 When the Servant of God was told that she was near death, the news filled her with peaceful joy. 18

32

Katharine Tekakwitha -+- -+- --+- ....... --+- -+- - -

--7\Z\7\l'V --+- --.... Katharine's firm hope of entering into a happy eternity is patently evidenced by the following incident. When Mary Theresa, her pious companion, was standing by her deathbed, Katharine consoled her, saying that she would soon be in heaven watching over her, and promised that if she failed in good, she would accuse her, but if she persevered she would love her always and always pray for her. 19 Likewise, although the Servant of God refused throughout her lifetime to pray for others who asked her prayers, saying that she, being a neophyte still young in the Faith, was not worthy that her prayers should be answered, yet on her deathbed she readily promised, to all who asked, that her intercession in heaven would certainly help them. 20 4· Heroic love of God and piety of the Servant of God.

Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholenec never hesitated to give the highest praise to Katharine's love of God. The Servant of God, asked sometimes by one of the missionaries whether she loved our Lord, appeared so deeply moved that she could hardly utter a word, and just sighed: "Ahl Father!" 21 This charity was the root and stock of her whole spiritual life and reached such heights that the Servant of God seemed at all times and in all places united in heart with her Celestial Spouse, and no longer served God for hope of reward but out of pure love for Him. 22 For she had learned to seek and find God on all occasions; and by her bearing and conduct she clearly manifested that God was always in her heart and mind. Even during the tasks shared in common, she was eager for pious conversations and devout hymns by which her own continuous spiritual converse with God was nurtured. 23

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zvvvv - -

She proposed to herself as the supreme and highest rule of her life the following resolution: Always to do that which she knew would be more pleasing to God. 24 Surely Katharine offered the best possible example of love of God by renouncing absolutely the married state, which at that time was among the Indians the only state of life, and embracing, eventually under vow, the state of virginity, even though she knew that this decision would give rise to dire want and many other discomforts and tribulations. 25 Finally, that she might give open expression to her ardent love of God, one night she branded on her feet with burning coals the lasting signs of slavery with which the Indians used to mark their captive slaves, and straightway, lost in prayer for a long time before the closed door of the church, she offered to her Heavenly Spouse the exquisite pain so caused. 26 It is no wonder that of this intense love of God there was born a very deep piety, which, according to Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholenec, developed in marvelous fashion toward the two chief Mysteries of God's love, the most Holy Eucharist and the Lord's Cross. 27 Early every morning, even through the snows of the harshest winter weather, Katharine would wait barefoot in prayer before the yet unopened church door, drawn thither by love and longing for Christ our Lord. Then she would assist at the first and second Masses. She received Holy Communion as often as she was permitted, and with ever increasing fervor. Her visits to Jesus in the Eucharist were frequent and she repeated the pious practice of Spiritual Communion often during the day. Sundays and feast days she passed, so to say, entirely in the chapel. Her devout bearing in God's house stirred the piety and admiration of all; and devout women, in

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Katharine Tekakwitha

receiving Holy Communion, strove to be as near as possible to Katharine that they might feel themselves the more drawn and enticed to devotion. 28 Sometimes, in the depth of winter, the Servant of God would be almost frozen stiff by her constant watch in the chapel and the missionaries would invite her to warm herself a little at the hearth in the nearby parish house. She would always accept the invitation, but very soon, with a peaceful smile, she would return to her Spouse, going into the church and remaining motionless in devout adoration of the Holy Eucharist. 29 She always wore a cross pendant about her neck. During the winter hunt, she used to pray and perform her devotions before a cross which she had set up on a tree in the forest. 80 She set a crown on this twofold devotion of Christian piety by a special offering, when, during the solemnities of the Mass on one of Our Lady's feast days, having received Holy Communion, by a spontaneous act she vowed her soul to Christ the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and her body to Christ the Lord hanging on the Cross, as a perpetual holocaust. And from that time on, as far as she thought it within her power, she increased still further her fervor of prayer and penance. 81 5· Devotion of the Servant of God to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholenec, the chief biographers of the Servant of God, have both paid the highest tribute to Katharine's constant, tender, and fervent devotion to the Most Holy Virgin. 32 For Katharine had with singular love chosen the Blessed Virgin Mary as her mother, and honored her as a shining exemplar and a safe refuge in this life.38

35 The Summary - - -+- -+- -+- -+- -t= -+- .....-- =+-- zvvvv - She was accustomed to have the rosary beads at hand and to recite them frequently; and this she did in the coldest part of winter standing or walking barefoot in the snow, out of penance and love. 84 The Servant of God also frequently recited the Litanies, the Angelus, and other prayers to Mary which she had carefully learned; on Saturdays, and on Our Lady's feast days she always performed some special works of virtue and penance. 85 She likewise wished that one of Mary's feasts be chosen for making her offering of herself to Christ in the Eucharist and on the Cross, as well as for pronouncing her vow of virginity. 38 There was of necessity a connection between her great love of Mary and her not less conspicuous love of chastity; and the Servant of God, on the day before her death, ascribed to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin the precious grace of a chastity preserved intact throughout a lifetime, amid numerous and serious difficulties. 87

6. Heroic love of the neighbor of the Servant of God.

Tekakwitha, when still a pagan child, showed herself most ready for those little chores in which young people are wont in various ways to help their elders. When she had grown up, she was always ready to lend a helping and a skilful hand to those of the household and to others as well, so that she deserved the reputation of a good and strenuous worker. 88 It was at the prompting of charity that she accompanied her adopted sister and the latter's husband on the winter hunt, to help them. 89 Above all, the Servant of God preferred to suffer discomforts from others rather than offer other.!! any occasion of suffering. By her endless patience she both put herself beyond

36

Katharine Tekakwitha

the reach of annoyance, and made herself incapable of ever wounding the charity due her neighbor! 0 She entertained a good opinion of all alike. Whatever could be praised, she praised, and for the rest tried to find some excuse. She never said more than seemed necessary that the truth might appear. 41 Accordingly, all her contemporaries agree in saying that the Servant of God never spoke evil of others, not even of her calumniators and persecutors; but rather for such persons she was wont to offer special prayer to God! 2 She used also to pray for all unbelievers, that they might be converted to the true Faith; especially did she pray for her own kith and kin who were still pagans! 3 When asked, however, to pray for others, she would humbly refuse, confessing herself to be a mere child in the Faith, who had no claim on God. But as she lay on her deathbed she readily promised all who asked that in heaven she would aid them by her prayers!4

7. Heroic prudence of the Servant of God. Her biographers also praise the prudence of the Servant of God. 45 Katharine, scarcely arrived at the Sault Mission, so easily grasped the general idea of a plan of life designed according to Christian principles, that she was observed to learn more and make greater progress in one week than many others did over months and even years. 46 She was ready and willing to submit her whole spiritual life to the direction of her confessor. At that time there flourished among the Indians of the Mission at the Sault a general, but in part excessive, fervor in the practice of penances. When

The Summary

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Katharine saw such practices, including some that were too rigorous, she naturally took it for granted that the missionaries approved of them too, and she undertook penances of the same sort. But when she had been instructed by the missionaries, she preferred prudently to submit the choice of her penances to the judgment of her director. 47 But after Katharine's death, some of her imitators, carried away by their fervor, and lacking her prudence, fell into the gravest excesses in the matter of penance.•s Amid the varied circumstances of her life, which were sometimes very difficult, and could easily have become real occasions of sin, the prudent virgin succeeded in keeping body and soul unharmed. •o A further mark of prudence was the discernment whereby Katharine rejected a third companion who desired to share the spiritual friendship existing between Katharine and Mary Theresa, prompted less by a sincere intention than by a spirit of pride, which the Servant of God was quick to detect. 50 It was with this same prudence that she arranged her whole devotional life, clearly distinguishing the obligations of prayer and of labor, and assigning to each its fitting time and hour. 51 Finally, a supernatural prudence was certainly manifest in Katharine's firm persuasion, scarcely in accord with the ordinary opinion of mankind, that her infirmities, and in particular the deformity of her face and the weakness of her eyes with all the consequent disadvantages were rather to be accounted a blessing of Heaven than a constant inconvenience and burden. 52 8. Heroic justice of the Servant of God.

Both of the chief biographers of the Servant of God agree in saying that Katharine was characterized by a truly insatiable

38

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=+

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hunger and thirst for justice, and was filled with the desire of an ever better knowledge of the good and of a more constant execution of it when once it was known. 53 Katharine ever made it the chief purpose of her life to fulfil the holy will of God, as best she could, without the least shadow of respect for creatures or thought of self. 54 She rendered eminent service to her Lord and Master by the voluntary offering of herself, fearlessly made and faithfully fulfilled in her life. 55 She showed due reverence and obedience to each of the Superiors of the Mission in every circumstance of her life.58 She likewise constantly paid every debt of charity to her neighbors, whether well disposed toward her or hostile; she offered most fervent prayers for all, was of assistance to all in their work, always gave excellent example, and, by her consummate patience, remained steadfast amid the varied circumstances of her life, wiping out the debt of the faults of others by her penances.67 g. Heroic fortitude of the Servant of God. Through all the varied and most trying episodes of her life, the Servant of God clearly manifested an unusual steadfastness of soul, which her biographers attest and praise. 58 Though an orphan, not yet reborn by Baptism, and placed in a household in which the members were extremely hostile to the Christian faith, with uncommon constancy she refused more than once to be forced or frightened into marriage.59 After she had become a Christian, she was forced, because of her strict observance of her religious duties, to suffer a cruel persecution, which she at length overcame by the unbending fortitude of her soul. 60

The Summary 39 - t - -+- -+- -+- =t= -+- =-+=- ...... That her faith might be the better and more securely guarded, and nourished by good works, she courageously decided to leave her native land. 61 With wonderful fidelity and constancy, even to the time of her death, she followed the rules and norms whereby her spiritual directors sought to gttide her life. 62 The pains and discomforts of life, to which were joined continual weakness and infirmity of body, were never used as an excuse for leading a somewhat easier and less strenuous life; but she was always joyful and kind to all, and by constant fortitude, severest penance, unending prayer, and busy toil, she hastened unwearily on to the heights of virtue. 63 And so, Father Cholenec, her spiritual director, did not hesitate to affirm from personal experience that above all else, this constant and faithful practice of the Christian virtues brought the Servant of God to a lofty degree of these virtues. s•

zvvvv --

10.

Heroic temperance of the Servant of God.

Father Chauchetiere and Mother Juchereau treat in special chapters of the extraordinary practice of austerities and penance upon which the Servant of God expended a remarkable fervor during her whole life. 65 Just at that time the general fervor of the Christian Indians of the Mission of Saint Francis Xavier at the Sault was at its peak, and the real untamed courage of these barbarous nations reappeared among the neophytes in their harsh practices of penance and austerity, of which the missionaries have left on record some very remarkable examples. Katharine, too (which does not seem strange), presuming the consent of the missionaries to this general practice of penance, brought all of her natural bravery to her self-inflicted punishments. Besides, her

40

Katharine Tekakwitha - - 7\7\Z\Z\/ --=ot= -=F --+- -+- -+- _...,. -+- - t - - principal instructress, Anastasia, often spoke of the pains of hell and the penances of the Saints, adding that the Christian Iroquois were bound in a special way to practices of penance to be offered for their fellow countrymen who were still pagans. 68 And so, though Katharine shone with a marvelous innocence of life, she was moved by a lowly esteem of herself and a deep love for the Cross of Our Lord, and she thought that penance was especially necessary for hersel£. 67 Thus, as we have already said, by a special oblation she dedicated to Christ crucified her body, which was to be crucified by the austerities of her life. Every day, and many times a day, she contemplated with pious devotion Christ fixed to the cross and counted for naught the suffering of her life and her own severe penances. 68 One day, while trees were being felled in the forest, it happened that she was laid low by a blow from a large and very heavy falling branch, and she was thought to be dead. When at length she regained her breath and came to her senses, she uttered words of thanks to Jesus Christ, by whose favor she had been spared life and limb. This favor, she said, had been granted her only that from then on she might more intensely dedicate the rest of her life to suitable and fitting penance. 69 While on one occasion she lay stricken with a serious illness, her pious companion thought that Father Cholenec should be informed of her rigid austerities, which, arguing from what was the common practice, they had considered permissible. Though struck with admiration, he nevertheless prescribed, in this matter of penance, suitable norms to be observed by the Servant of God, who thenceforth followed them closely. 70 She found one reason for continued penance in the feminine ornaments which, while still a child and still under the

The Summary - - ...,.__ ...,.__ -+- -+- -+- -+- -F ...-

zvvvv

41

guardianship of her women relatives, she had been obliged to wear at their insistence.11 Another occasion of her severe austerities was the Sacrament of Penance itself, which Katharine had become accustomed to approach weekly with the greatest zeal. For, beginning with a careful examination of her conscience, she then added a severe scourging of her body, anticipating by this rigorous penance the expiation proper to the sacrament. 72 Katharine had already acquired some knowledge of the practice of flagellation at Montreal, on a visit to the convent of the Sisters attached to the hospital in that city. And so, very shortly after her arrival at the mission, she first took up the practice of beating herself with a bundle of thorny switches, and later used to conceal herself in a rude abandoned hut with her pious companion, where they scourged each other with whips. Finally both importuned Father Cholenec and obtained from him a special instrument known among ascetics as a "discipline," together with a "hair-shirt," of which they made very frequent use. 73 Not yet satisfied with such austerities, the Servant of God added frequent fasts; she also rendered her scanty allowance of food unsavory by mixing ashes with it. 74 The winter season in those regions, marked by bitter cold and snow, offered her ample opportunity for new austerities. Katharine accepted every chance, and would often walk alone and barefoot over the ice and snow, and would also recite the rosary walking in this fashion or standing half buried in the snow. Whenever she had to go out to work in company with the women, she would if possible lag behind to escape notice, remove her shoes, and with feet bare do yet further penance. 7G Her companion, Mary Theresa, has related that one day,

42

Katharine Tekakwitha

while bringing home a heavy log, Katharine fell in the frozen snow, and that she found her with her body girdled with an iron chain studded with sharp points of iron. But Katharine only smiled and refused any assistance, and carried her heavy load all the way to the village, bravely and cheerfully concealing from the others her pain, which was certainly severe.76 One day Katharine asked Anastasia, her spiritual mother, what was the worst kind of pain. Anastasia replied that she considered it the pain caused by burning live flesh. On the following night, the Servant of God secretly left the house, and with burning sticks branded her limbs with the signs of slavery with which the Indians were wont to mark their captives and slaves. Katharine's intention in doing this was to dedicate herself by these marks as a perpetual slave of Christ. Then she hastened to the door of the church, which was closed, and again dedicating herself to her beloved Spouse, spent the night there in prayer. 77 Another time, together with her pious companion, Mary Theresa, she placed a burning coal between the toes of one foot, and the keen pain of the resulting burn she endured for the time it takes to recite the whole of the "Ave Maria." 78 Finally, having once heard the story of Saint Aloysius and his penances, though she was by now almost consumed with her continued sickness, Katharine one day secretly brought home some sharp thorns which she had gathered in the woods, and at night strewed them upon her poor pallet. Then, fully undressed, she lay down on the thorns, and so passed that night and the two following in the most acute suffering. When her companion at last learned of this pious exploit, she went to the missionary, who, though inwardly moved with admiration, straightway sternly forbade Katharine that sort of immoderate

43

The Summary

=+-

zvvvv --

- - -+- -+- -+- -+- =t= -+=+penance, and ordered her to burn the thorns. With perfect obedience, Katharine at once hastened to carry out the command.79 II.

Heroic Poverty of the Servant of God.

Her biographers testify that Katharine always loved simplicity in food and dress. 80 In infancy and childhood she only endured the wearing of the fine dresses and ornaments so highly esteemed by the Indian women, and on which they spent so much time, because of the insistent demand of her women relatives in whose charge she was placed. 81 Later, and especially after she had received Baptism, the Servant of God renounced all feminine adornments, and was satisfied with one simple cloak, which she used to wear over her ordinary dress only on Communion days. 82 Katharine gave serious thought to the choice of the state of virginity, confirmed by vow. Although she was quite aware that she would have to endure poverty for the rest of her life, since she would be entirely deprived of the help of a husband, yet she could not be turned from her holy resolve. 83 Likewise, when the time for the winter hunt was drawing near, and the Servant of God had once more been invited to accompany the rest of the household, she refused the more abundant and more comfortable living of the hunters, and stayed behind at the mission, though there she would have but scanty fare. She thought nothing of this inconvenience, in view of the great graces she could hope for at the mission and its church. 84 When at length she lay on her deathbed and was awaiting Holy Viaticum, she confessed to her companion that she did

44

Katharine Tekakwitha

not have a single tunic with which to clothe herself decently for so solemn a religious act. And so her devoted companion had to lend Katharine her own tunic. 85 12.

Heroic chastity> and vow of virginity> of the Servant of God (1679).

Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholenec have repeatedly confessed their inability worthily to praise the purity of life and the chastity which were special virtues of the Servant of God. 88 In fact, such was the natural love of purity with which she was endowed, that even from the time she was a pagan child and urged by serious complaints of her relatives, Tekakwitha stoutly resisted every suggestion, every command that she marry. The thing seems indeed scarcely credible, and is surely deserving of the highest admiration, in view of the fact that in those days all the Indians were accustomed from childhood to excessive indulgence in the vice of impurity. 87 In a short while Father de Lamberville realized the nobility of soul of his neophyte, and deliberately furthered Katharine's transfer to an exclusively Christian village, seriously fearing lest amid the prevailing filth and vice she should end by suffering some harm to her purity. 88 On her way to the Christian Mission at the Sault, she came to know the religious life of the nuns at Montreal, and saw that the excellence of this life consisted in the consecration of their virginity to God by vow. Katharine set this life before herself as a model, and soon afterwards, in a spirit of intense fervor, she desired to enter upon a monastic life, with two other pious women, on an island in the Saint Lawrence River. 811 But the missionaries could not grant their neophytes such a request. Katharine, however, who had formed a high idea of

The Summary - - -+- -+- -+- -+- -+- -+- --E= ......

45

zvvvv --

the value of the state of virginity, offered to God at least the promise of a chaste life, and never lost the hope and desire of dedicating her virginity to God. Consequently she rejected with constancy the advice of those who urged that she marry. Thus, as the missionaries testified and as was commonly believed, unsullied purity came to be the truly outstanding characteristic of her life. 90 Katharine gratefully attributed this grace to the devotion she unremittingly cherished toward the most pure Mother of God. 91 When, finally, contrary to every expectation, suddenly her adopted sister, a good Christian but scarcely capable of a higher type of life, seriously proposed to Katherine the married state as the common norm and, as it were, the only possibility of a livelihood, Katharine, who seems to have visited Montreal again and to have had another occasion to admire the nuns, was grief-stricken at these repeated importunings of her sister and had recourse to Anastasia, her spiritual instructress. But even she, although a very fervent Christian, was utterly incapable of appreciating so lofty a vocation, and showed opposition to Katharine leading a life of virginity. Thereupon Katharine brought the matter before her director, who was at that time Father Cholenec. In his timely instructions and explanations he spoke to her at some length of the state of matrimony and of virginity, of the evangelical precepts and counsels.92 After hearing the arguments on both sides the Servant of God, to put an end to the discussion, earnestly implored that she might make an explicit vow of chastity. Father Cholenec, after serious consideration, finally proposed that Katharine take three whole days for mature deliberation. But after

46

Katharine Tekakwitha --l\ISlSISI =+- =+ -+- -+- -+- -+- -+- -+- - scarcely ten minutes, Katharine cast aside all hesitation, presented herself before the Father, and said that she wished to bind herself to Christ Our Lord alone, by an irrevocable vow. So at last, with the consent of the missionary, she chose the following feast of the Annunciation, March 25, 1679, as the day for pronouncing her vow. On that day, during Mass and after receiving the Holy Eucharist, she made her vow of perpetual virginity to Christ Our Lord. 93 Before Father Cholenec administered Holy Viaticum to the Servant of God, desiring to establish as it were by a final testimony the almost incredible fact of a perfectly innocent life among the barbarians, he once more questioned Katharine about any sins she might perchance have committed against the virtue of chastity. But the Servant of God, brought now by illness to death's very door, denied any such sin with her last breath and a decisive gesture. She thus revealed how hard she found it to endure, in the hour of death, that the virtue which was so dear to her should be the object of any suspicion.'* The sublime example of chastity and virginity which Katharine gave during her lifetime, enjoyed such lasting renown among the Indians even after her death, that some of their number tried to enter upon a similar life of chastity.'5 It now remains thoroughly to examine a difficulty which may easily occur to one who reads and compares the principal biographers, Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholenec. For Father Chauchetiere expressly says: "If someone had thought to have her make the vow, the vow of chastity would not have been wanting to her, who was not wanting to the vow; and this makes me believe that she had the merit of the vow. The Father [Cholenec] was sorry after her death that he had not allowed her to make the vow.'' 96

The Summary

47

But to this assertion there are opposed the repeated declarations and descriptions of Father Cholenec, which we may gather together at this point: ( 1) About the year 1682 Father Cholenec refers to Katharine as "this first Iroquois virgin/' for this very reason, that she consecrated her virginity to our Lord. 97 (2) The same Father Cholenec entitled his large biography of the Servant of God, completed about the year 16g6, "The Life of Katharine Tekakwitha, First Virgin of the Iroquois." 98 (3) Speaking then of the chastity and virginity of Katharine, Father Cholenec in express words again calls the Servant of God the first virgin "of the New World": "In her great and glorious title of virgin, however, Katharine was more blessed than others and attained a higher place, not only among the Indians of the Sault, but also among all those of northern France who have embraced the faith; because she was the first in that new world, who by a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost consecrated her virginity to Our Lord . . ." Mter this, the same Father Cholenec alludes to the opinion of theologians who claim that the Most Blessed Mother of God was the first virgin consecrated to God by a vow of virginity; and attributes to the virgin Katharine a similar distinction among the Indians. 99 (4) Father Cholenec continues his narration: "It was the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25, 167g, at eight o'clock in the morning when, a moment after Jesus Christ gave Himself to her in Communion, Katharine Tegakoiiita wholly gave herself to Him, and renouncing marriage forever, promised Him perpetual virginity. With a heart aglow with love she implored Him to be her Spouse, and to accept her as His bride." 100

48 - - 7S)\I\l\/

Katharine Tekakwitha

=+= =E --+- =+=

--t- ...... --t- - t - - -

(5) In like manner the same Father Cholenec, in his second biographical work, of the year 1715 (which he dedicated to Father LeBlanc), writes at length of the circumstances which led Katharine to pronounce her vow: "On learning that they were Christian virgins consecrated to God by a vow of perpetual chastity, she gave me no peace until I had granted her permission to make the same sacrifice of herself, not by a simple resolution to guard her virginity, such as she had already made, but by an irrevocable pledge which would oblige her to belong to God beyond recall. . . . For this great event she chose the day on which we celebrate the festival of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Virgin. The moment after she had received Our Lord in Holy Communion she pronounced with admirable fervor her vow of perpetual virginity." 101 (6) In words similar to these, in a third biographical work of the same year, 1715, Father Cholenec describes the same event to Father Tamburini, General of the Society of Jesus: "And so, at about eight in the morning, [March 25] while the priest was saying Mass, at which the neophytes received Holy Communion, Katharine gave herself to Jesus Christ as a spouse and dedicated her virginity with a vow. . . . The angels who stood looking on as witnesses would know [the fervor of her soul] and surely they were in admiration of this difficult thing to do, . . . and they were overwhelmed with equal joy when they beheld this savage woman added to their number by the vow of chastity." 102 (7) The same Father Cholenec in this same report to his General, makes, though only in passing, a statement which may help to solve the above mentioned doubt, for he says: "During almost three years that she lived among us, she

The Summary - - - + - -+- ........ -+- -+- -+-

49

...... 7VVVV - [Katharine] so strove to hide the shining deeds we here relate, that only the missionary who was her confessor knew of them [and in that last year this was Father Cholenec himself!]. Indeed, in her earnestness to hide them, she did not disclose them all to him." 103 It appears, therefore, that the doubt raised about the vow of virginity pronounced by the Servant of God is to be solved in the following manner: namely, that Katharine certainly made the vow (as Father Cholenec very clearly asserts in his three biographies, adding also all the circumstances that led to the vow); but that she pronounced the vow in an entirely private manner, without any words spoken aloud, without the knowledge of any of those then present, save her confessor, who kept a profound silence as to what took place. After the unexpected death of the Servant of God the following year, the same confessor, Father Cholenec, was sorry, not because he had denied her permission to make the vow, but because he had not made her pronounce such a vow publicly before the people in an audible voice. Such seems to be the solution of the doubt occasioned by the somewhat obscure expression used by Father Chauchetiere. ~

13. Heroic obedience of the Servant of God.

The Servant of God, Katharine, from her very infancy excelled in an exact and reverent obedience; she showed herself ever compliant in all things to her uncle and to the women of the household who took care of her. 104 Moreover, even in things which went against the natural inclination of her character, the child was most submissive, and in what concerned feminine dress and adornment showed herself obedient to their commands. 105

50

Katharine Tekakwitha

After her conversion to the Faith of Christ, she gave such glorious examples of submission and obedience that her biographers did not hesitate to heap praise upon her for this virtue. 106 The various rules and norms of the spiritual life, which she had received from Fathers de Lamberville and Fremin, she observed with admirable constancy to her dying day. 107 Again and again she submitted her whole spiritual life to the direction of her confessor, and whether he denied or accorded a request, she obeyed to the letter. 108 She also submitted her austere penances to her spiritual director, with humble conformity of will; and if he sometimes ordered her to abstain from penances which she very much desired to practise, or the practice of which she had already begun, she straightway manifested a loyal obedience. 109 14. Heroic humility of the Servant of God.

Although all unanimously praised Katharine's great innocence and fervor, with the sincere and profound humility for which she was conspicuous, she esteemed herself as the least of all. She sincerely thought in her heart that she was a very great sinner to whom only austere penance was fitting. 110 Contrary to the universal custom of Indian women, Katharine strove to be and to appear most modest in her apparel and in her actions. 111 Whenever she heard or surmised that anyone was praising her even by the slightest word, she would feel herself blushing with embarrassment and humbly hide her head with a veil, which she always wore because of the weakness of her sight. 112 When a missionary was once speaking of the heavenly glory prepared for Katharine, as for all faithful Christians,

The Summary - - - + - -+- ..................... -+-

51

=+=- =+- zvvvv - -

the humble Servant of God scarcely dared let her mind dwell upon so rich a reward as destined for her also. 113 She was at pains to conceal as much as she could her works of piety, especially the austerities she practised; she even preferred to appear less penitential, rather abstaining from such works than performing them in the presence of others who might be looking on. 114 Father Cholenec clearly stated that Katharine concealed even from her spiritual director (to whom she was always most devoted), many of her practices of penance and other virtues and many experiences of her spiritual life, acting thus because of the excessive humility which characterized her.m With this same humility, the Servant of God had the strength to support, endure and sustain courageously, and without detriment to her spiritual life, the false accusations, the calumnies, and the persecutions with which ill-disposed people from time to time tormented her. 116

III. DEATH AND BURIAL OF THE SERVANT OF GOD 1.

Death of the Seroant of God (168o).

Both of the principal biographers of the Servant of God (Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholenec), took pains in special and lengthy chapters, to describe accurately her death with all the circumstances that preceded and followed it. 1 Katharine Tekakwitha died on Wednesday of Holy Week, April 17, 168o, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, at the age of twenty-four. 2 The last sickness, which led to her death, was marked by continuous fevers, frequent vomitings, severe pains in her

52

Katharine Tekakwitha

stomach and head, finally a general loss of strength extending over a period of two months; perhaps also a severe cold that Katharine had contracted while working in the snow.3 When her sickness grew worse as Holy Week approached, the missionaries began to think seriously of administering the Last Sacraments to Katharine. It was at that time customary for anyone stricken with a serious illness to be carried to the church and there to be fortified with the Last Sacraments, the better to insure that the savages should really have a high opinion of the rites of religion! But the extreme weakness of Katharine, or rather a high esteem of her virtues, persuaded the missionaries to depart from custom and to administer the Last Sacraments to the Servant of God in her own house. 5 On Tuesday of Holy Week, accompanied by the wondering inhabitants who wished to witness the passing of "the Saint," the Most Holy Eucharist was solemnly brought from the church into the house where Katharine lay in a very weak condition; and there the Servant of God with heartfelt joy and extraordinary devotion received the Viaticum of the Body of Christ, while her mind remained intent in adoration and veneration throughout the whole day and the following night. Meanwhile the people swarmed to her bedside and Katharine at the request of the Fathers endeavored to encourage them with pious words. 6 Katharine herself removed the doubts of the Fathers as to whether they should administer Extreme Unction immediately, declaring, as if she knew the hour of her death, that it could certainly be put off until the morrow. And so she received Extreme Unction on Wednesday morning. 7 The women, who of course wished to be present at her

The Summary 53 -+- -+- ........ -+- -+- -+- '"+= ....... zvvvv death, Katharine then sent off to their necessary tasks in the fields, promising that she would not die until the last one of them should have returned. 8 To Mary Theresa, who had been her special companion in the Lord, and who seemed quite unconsolable, she bade farewell in most tender and pious words. 9 After midday, when Fathers Cholenec and Chauchetiere were present, and all the women had returned from the fields, Katharine, wholly intent upon the things of God, entered into a brief and peaceful agony. Her last words were: "Jesus, I love Theel" She breathed her last so gently that those who stood by doubted for a time whether she was sleeping or dead. 10 Father Cholenec, when finally certain that Katharine had died, gave a short sermon to those who were present, in which he praised the dead girl. 11 A short time afterwards, while all looked on and were deeply moved, the face of the dead girl, which had been disfigured by smallpox scars, was seen to take on so bright and wonderful a beauty, that two young French colonists, knowing nothing of the change that had occurred nor of Katharine's death, entered the house which they happened to be passing, and, catching sight of the striking beauty and fresh color of the girl who lay on the pallet, exclaimed in admiration: "See, what a beautiful Indian girl is sleeping there!" And they could hardly be brought to believe that the girl they beheld was Katharine, now dead. 12 Later, when the Indians assembled for night prayers in the church, Father Cholenec again pointed out what a treasure they had possessed and lost in Katharine. 18 The Fathers thought moreover that the very day of her death had been determined by a special disposition of Provi-

54

Katharine Tekakwitha

dence; for they clearly recalled that during her life Katharine had always been conspicuous for her special devotion to Christ in the Eucharist and on the Cross, and that it was on the very eve of the Triduum consecrated to these mysteries that she had departed to Christ her Spouse, to assist at these very mysteries in the heavenly kingdom and celebrate them with the Saints forever. 14 2.

Burial of the Servant of God.

Because of the special veneration they felt for the Servant of God, certain French colonists, acting against every custom of the savages, had a wooden coffin prepared, in which Katharine was placed. On the day following her death Katharine was buried with solemnity in the presence of both savages and French. 1G Father Chauchetiere wished that the body of the Servant of God be buried in the church itself, but Father Cholenec did not consent, and designated a place for the burial in the common cemetery which (as appeared some years later), Katharine herself had one day foretold would be her burial place.16 Afterwards some sort of monument was erected over the grave. 11 But when the church of the mission had been destroyed by a sudden storm in 1683, and a new and larger church was being built in the year 1684, Father Chauchetiere being then in charge of the mission, the body of the Servant of God was transferred from the common burial ground to the church. This was done at night, and many of the faithful assisted with devotion. 18 Afterwards when the mission was repeatedly moved from place to place, the relics of the Servant of God always accom-

The Summary .....,_ ...,._ -+- -+- -+- -+-

55

=+== ...... 7VVVV - -

panied it, while all the other bodies of the dead were left in the cemeteries. 19 At present the relics are no longer kept in the church, but the better to safeguard them against all danger, they are piously preserved in the parish residence of the town of Caughnawaga (Canada), in a special case skilfully fashioned out of ebony wood, sealed in 1895 with a new seal. These relics are still a much-visited object of pilgrimage. 20 The place where she was first buried always remained marked by a huge upright cross. In 1843, when the Fathers of the Society of Jesus returned to Canadian territory, the cross which in the course of time had fallen down, was with solemn ceremony replaced with a new one and in it were inserted relics from the bones of the Servant of God. 21 Finally, probably in I 888, a new marble monument was erected, in which these relics were enclosed. It was dedicated in I8go and is still an object of veneration. 22 IV. SUPERNATURAL GIFTS, REPUTATION FOR HOLINESS, AND WONDERS OR MIRACLES I.

Supernatural gifts of the Servant of God.

The Servant of God, Katharine, during her life so excelled in the love and practice of prayer, that the missionaries did not hesitate to assert that she had been endowed by God with a genuine supernatural gift of prayer. 1 On a certain day before her last illness when Katharine together with other women was digging a grave for a child that was related to her, and they were all discussing their meeting in that cemetery after death, some of them jokingly asked Katharine just where her own grave would be. Katharine pointed to a particular spot and replied: "It will be

56

Katharine Tekakwitha

there!" After her death, that very place was designated for her burial by Father Cholenec, who learned only some years later of Katharine's prediction. 2 According to a pious custom the women were wont to watch at night by the bedside of the sick. The younger of the two women who had been appointed for this office on Katharine's last night, came to Father Cholenec after the usual evening prayers had been recited in the church, to ask his advice concerning a penance that she desired to perform in behalf of the dying girl. With his consent, she hid herself in the woods and with great fervor performed the exercise of the "discipline" for the happy death of Katharine. Meanwhile the Servant of God herself sent the other woman keeping watch at her side to summon her companion who was performing the penance. At the latter's return she secretly thanked her and with a suitable exhortation assured her of the grace of God.• Apparently Katharine foresaw the day and even the very hour of her death. For when the missionaries who had just given her Viaticum were in doubt as to whether Extreme Unction should be administered immediately, she answered with the utmost assurance that the next day would be time enough to administer that sacrament; and to the women who wanted to be present at her death, she gave the assurance that she would not die before they had all returned from their necessary tasks in the fields. That this proved to be the case has already been told. • 2.

Reputation for holiness of the Servant of God during life.

In the documents we frequently meet certain general remarks on her virtues during life and her reputation for sanctity after death. The better, however, to bring out the

The Summary ..,.__ -+- -+- -+- -+- -+-

+- ....... zvvvv

57

origin, extent, and continuity of this reputation, it will be worth while to dwell somewhat on a few testimonies.ft Anastasia, an eye-witness, has left us the praises of Tekakwitha in her childhood and youth.8 Father de Lamberville, who was able to admit the Servant of God to Baptism after a short catechumenate, commended her to the missionary Fathers at the Sault in few but well weighed words of praise, and after Katharine's death, did not conceal his unfeigned admiration for her. 1 Katharine had hardly reached the Mission at the Sault when Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholenec were writing her praises, and Father Fremin, seeing that she far surpassed all the other neophytes, admitted her to First Holy Communion after a short time (which was contrary to custom), and received her into the sodality of the "Holy Family"; and after her death he praised her highly. 8 The reputation of the girl's religious life also attracted many of her fellow tribesmen from afar to the mission at the Sault; and there a married couple, who were neophytes, being deeply moved by Katharine's pious example, decided to visit her as a mistress of the Christian life, and both from that time forward strove to lead pious lives in imitation of so excellent a model.9 As the last hour of the Servant of God was approaching, all the inhabitants of the mission desired to see "the saint die," and commended themselves to her prayers. 10 3· Reputation for holiness of the Servant of God after death.

Both of the principal biographers of the Servant of God, Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholenec, have given us a clear and detailed account of how the reputation for holiness sprang up

58

Katharine Tekakwitha

--l\ISISZSL ....... --... -+- --+- --+- ........

--t- -+- - -

immediately after her death and quickly spread beyond the limits of the mission. 11 Almost immediately after Katharine's death, Father Cho· lenec lauded her before those present, and afterwards in the church, and all were of one voice in praising the exceptional virtues of the virgin and her shining examples of holiness. 12 The wooden coffin, presented by the French colonists because of their special reverence, could not be closed before the whole populace had been permitted to gaze again and again upon the countenance, in a sense glorified, of the Servant of God. 13 The day on which Katharine's burial took place every sign of grief was banished amid a sort of universal joy. It turned out to be almost a feast day; for all shared the conviction, as it were, that the Servant of God, already a "Saint" in Heaven, was interceding for those whom she had left behind. 14 Finally, Father Chauchetiere was wont to visit her grave to pray; and the Jesuit Fathers used to say that Katharine Tekakwitha had become the glory of the old Fathers of the Mission and the glorious reward, even if belated, of all the hard labor and sweat they had long expended in cultivating that barren field of the Lord.u It was only natural that the Indians were the first to appreciate the outstanding excellence of the virtues of Katharine, a member of their own race; and as early as 1681 Father Chauchetiere, with the help of little pictures of the Servant of God and books portraying her life in pictures, and lastly a large picture of the Servant of God which was hung in the church (all these pictures and drawings being the work of Father Chauchetiere, although he was not particularly skilled in the art of painting), took care to propose the holiness and

The Summary 59 ....... -+- ....... -+- -+- ....... -+=- ...... zvvvv singular virtues of Katharine as a model for the savages, making use of the method best adapted to their mental capacities. 16 As for the French colonists living in Canada, the reports of the wonderful example set by Katharine seemed to them so extraordinary and so contrary to the opinion commonly entertained of the Indians, that in the beginning they were unable to believe what they heard; and even the Superior of the whole Jesuit Mission in Canada, upon receiving from Father Chauchetiere a brief account of the Servant of God, written shortly after her death, was at first unwilling to believe what was there recounted. 11 But when more precise and detailed accounts of Katharine's life and virtues had been widely distributed, and particularly when to these was added the report of favors obtained through Katharine's intercession, the Servant of God became known far and wide and was revered by Indians and Canadian colonists alike. 18 It is enough to recall the testimony of the Parish Priests Geoffroy and Remy, who were in charge of the nearby villages of Laprairie and Lachine, and certain other accounts (of the years 16g6, 1715, 1716, 1735) among the documents submitted, and the continued spread of the reputation for holiness and of the veneration enjoyed by the Servant of God becomes evident.19 Meanwhile pilgrimages to the grave of the Servant of God, not only each year on the anniversary of her death but also on other days, began to be made by individuals and by pious groups, sometimes of laymen, sometimes of ecclesiastics, sometimes composed of entire parishes. These pilgrimages became ever more numerous; novenas to beg Katharine's help began to be made more frequently; Masses also, especially in honor

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Katharine Tekakwitha

of the Holy Trinity, were commonly celebrated in thanksgiving for the favors granted by God to Katharine during her lifetime, and for favors received through the intercession of the Servant of God. 20 The Bishop of Quebec himself, St. Vallier, did not hesitate to extol the life of the Servant of God and declare, of his own personal knowledge, that her grave had been made illustrious by miracles. A certain gentleman, one of the noblemen who governed the colony of Canada, personally saw to the distribution of engraved pictures of Katharine in France and even at the royal court: to such an extent had Katharine's reputation spread throughout the colony and the islands subject to the French rule in America. 21 It was quite fitting that the remains of the Servant of God should soon be transferred from the cemetery to the mission church; and this was done four years after her death. This church was believed by the missionaries to be favored with special graces in view of the merits of the Servant of God. 22 Moreover, among the proofs of the high esteem in which Katharine's virtue and holiness were held, may justly be reckoned certain significant titles with which her contemporaries honored her. Such were: A Treasure; 28 The First Virgin of the Iroquois; 24 The Apostle of the Savages; 2 & The Guardian Angel of the Mission; 26 Our Good Protectress; 27 Our Protectress and Advocate before God; 28 The Powerful Patroness of the Mission or The Powerful Protectress of the Mission; 29 The Genevieve of New France,-&0 The Protectress of the Colony of Canada. 81 Among the testimonies which show that her reputation for holiness continued during the nineteenth century, it is right to recall the letters of postulation for the introduction of the

The Summary - - ....,._ -+- -+- -+-

=+-= -+- ............... zvvvv

61

Cause of the Servant of God, addressed to the Supreme Pontiff by the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884, and by many Indian tribes in 1885.82 Finally, clear proofs of the reputation for holiness which the Servant of God enjoys even in our day may be drawn from the Process instituted by the authority of the Ordinary in the Diocese of Albany (N.Y.) during the years 1931-32, namely: 33 The Servant of God Katharine, generally called "The Lily of the Mohawks," in the United States as well as in Canada, is renowned and held in the highest veneration, and is believed to have been adorned with heroic virtues. 34 The Indians who remain still venerate with great fervor this illustrious child of their race, and declare that they are greatly encouraged by her example. 85 Continuous pilgrimages, both of individual Catholics and of great crowds (as many as twelve thousand on one day, it is reported), flock to two places especially: her birthplace, now Auriesville, New York, and the place where she was buried, now Caughnawaga, Canada. 86 Pictures and relics of the Servant of God are requested from all sides; and letters are sent there from all over the world, to implore the help of the Servant of God, or to thank her for favors received. 81 4· Wonders and favors attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God.

Immediately after the death of the Servant of God, the fervor of the Indians of the Mission at the Sault began to increase beyond all expectation, thanks to her exemplary life of extraordinary holiness. 38 On the Friday after her death, which was Good Friday,

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Katharine Tekakwitha

during the sacred ceremonies (especially as the priest uncovered the Cross, for which Katharine had shown such love), the whole church began to resound with weeping and sobbing, so that the sacred rites had to be interrupted twice; and thenceforth everyone in the mission was talking of reforming his life and of giving himself entirely to God. 39 The practice of performing penitential exercises began to increase remarkably; and a company of devoted followers of Katharine, called the "Society of Katharine," introduced a new penitential custom which they called "public penances." This consisted in the practice of austere penances which they offered to God for those of the faithful who were most in need of the divine assistance. Moreover, the missionary Fathers were of the opinion that this general and continued fervor was to be attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God. 40 The historians, furthermore, furnish definite information, including particular circumstances of the events, regarding apparitions of the Servant of God after her death, of which the principal ones are the following: 41 One week after her death (Wednesday in Easter Week) she appeared to her spiritual mother, Anastasia; and a little while afterwards to her spiritual companion, Mary Theresa!2 More remarkable proved the apparitions which Father Chauchetiere experienced. The first was in the early morning of Easter Monday, the fifth day after her death; the second in the following year, on September first; and the third in the year 1683, on April twenty-first. In these apparitions, Katharine ordered him to paint her picture; and, moreover, two simultaneous visions appeared: namely, of an Indian condemned to be burned, and of the mission church in ruins. These visions were verified by subsequent events. 43

The Summary - - -+- -+- -+- "'+-- -t= -+-

63

-+- ...... zvvvv --

For when war had broken out with the Iroquois, certain Christian Indians were captured and thrown into the Hames for the Faith of Christ. The mission church was overturned and destroyed in a violent storm in the year 1683, though all the missionaries escaped unharmed. They attributed their safety to Katharine's intercession before God, since they considered that it was only through a miracle that they had been able to remain unharmed among the ruins of the church! 4

5· Miracles attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God. But the faithful began to have the greatest esteem for the deceased Servant of God, and confidence in her, when scarcely a year after her death there began a series of favors and miracles, especially cures, which were attributed to her intercession. Both principal biographers have left us a detailed account of the first cure of this kind, granted in favor of a French colonist, Claude Caron. 45 There followed such a number of similar favors, granted to Indians and French alike that the fame of the Servant of God spread far and wide throughout the whole colony in a very brief time. Various contemporaries have composed a long series of testimonials to these favors. 46 Among these testimonials, first place certainly belongs to a letter of the parish priest, Father Remy, who was in charge of the village of colonists called Lachine, just opposite the Mission at the Sault. For at first he had serious doubts of the whole affair, but afterwards, as a result of a personal experience during his own illness, he became one of the chief promoters of devotion to the Servant of God, and in his letter to Father Cholenec (who at that time was preparing a full biography of Katharine), presented a long series of reported favors which he

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had heard personally from his parishioners. This same priest was accustomed each year on the anniversary of the death of the Servant of God to lead his parishioners to her grave in solemn procession. 47 Better known than others, because of the high position of the persons involved, were the cures to which MM. Du Luth, Captain in the Navy, and De la Colombiere, Canon and Vicar General of Quebec, have testified. 48 Of far wider extent were the favors attributed to the Servant of God in the matter of spiritual cures. Especially souls troubled by impure spirits found in Katharine a singular helper and patroness before God. 49 The missionaries ascribed to the powerful intervention of the Servant of God the obtaining of many favors for which they had besought the Lord; above all, the truly marvelous preservation of the Sault Mission during the violent uprising of the Iroquois, who barbarously devastated and plundered all the surrounding country. 50 Furthermore, the faithful used to commend with confidence their domestic animals and their other household possessions to the protection of the Servant of God, with the happiest results. 51 To pass, then, to certain manifestations of confidence in the Servant of God and in her help, on the part of the Faithful. In the first place, her grave was visited by devoted pilgrims in constantly increasing numbers. 52 People frequently promised to make such a visit if a favor were granted, and to make an offering for Masses to be said.n Earth taken from the grave, as well as small bits of Katharine's garments, were applied with confidence to the sick, even beyond the territory of the mission. 54

The Summary ---+- -+-

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-t-

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The cross which during her lifetime Katharine was accustomed to wear suspended from her neck, was applied to those afflicted with disease. 55 Novenas to obtain favors were made by the sick or their relatives; or devout persons were requested to make them at her grave at the Sault.~' The Sacrifice of the Mass, too, was often celebrated, sometimes to obtain a favor; also in thanksgiving to Christ for a favor received.~ 7

Finally, from the Ordinary Process of the years 1931-32, it is clearly evident that the confidence of the faithful in the Servant of God both in procuring favors and in obtaining cures, is great even today, and is not left unrewarded.~ 8 The Rectors of the churches in Auriesville and in Caughnawaga give testimony of the many letters which are sent to them from the whole world, with detailed accounts of favors obtained through the intercession of the Servant of God, and of cures granted in answer to novenas.~9 A girl, nearly deaf and dumb, is said to have been immediately cured after a pilgrimage to the shrine at Auriesville. 80 A man excessively addicted to drinking, after making a novena in honor of Katharine, felt himself entirely freed from that vicious habit.61 In the Process, two cures which were consU:lered miraculous, were discussed in considerable detail. A certain Monica Caroll, while still a child, suffered so grievously from a diseased hip as to be incapable of walking without assistance. At her own request, she was brought by her mother on a pilgrimage to the shrine at Auriesville, and there a relic of the Servant of God was applied to her. That same week, without using any other remedies, having returned home with her mother, she was

66

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Katharine Tekakwitha -+- __..., --+- -+- - -

found to be cured and perfectly able to walk, and she remained so from that time forward. 62 A boy, Thomas Hughes, who was suffering from a wasting away of the bones of one foot, was carried by his mother to the shrine at Auriesville, and through the intercession of the Servant of God was restored to complete health. 63

THE DOCUM ENTS

DOCUMENT I FRAGMENT OF A LETTER FROM FATHER jAMES DE LAMBERVILLE TO FATHER CHOLENEC, Autumn, 1677, recommending the Servant of God. From the Life of the Servant of God, by Father Cholenec, the original of which is preserved in the Archives of Hotel Dieu Monastery, Quebec. (Cf. Doc. X) Father James de Lamberville was born in 1640, at Rouen. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1661, and about 1672, he was sent as a missionary to Canada. He departed from this life in 1711 at Sault Saint Louis, with the reputation of having been an excellent missionary. (Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Comp. de jesus, Vol. II, Bruxelles, Paris, 1891, p. wgg.) He was the most important witness for the first part of Katharine's life. In charge of the mission at Fonda, not far from the site of the birthplace of the Servant of God, after meeting and preparing her, he baptized her in 1676. He also advised that Katharine should be sent to the Christianized Mission of Saint Francis Xavier, at Sault Saint Louis. When sending Katharine to this mission, Father de Lamberville gave her a letter addressed to Father Cholenec. In this letter the Servant of God was introduced and recommended as "a treasure." Unfortunately we possess only a small fragment of this letter, which is recorded by Father Cholenec in his biography of the Servant of God. (Doc. X; Doc. VIII) Chronologically, this is the first written information we have of the Servant of God, and for this reason we consider it very useful to reproduce it separately .

. . . Katharine was directed to me by Father ]ames de Lamberville. The letter she brought from him contained among other things this message: "Katharine Tekakwitha is going to live at the Sault. Will you kindly undertake to direct her? You will soon know what a treasure we have sent you. Guard it well! May it profit in your hands, for the glory of God and the salvation of a soul that is certainly very dear to Him." 69

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DOCUMENT II

EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER OF FATHER CHAUCHETIERE concerning the Mission of Saint Francis Xavier among the Iroquois, October 14, 1682. From Thwaites, The jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Cleveland, 1goo, Vol. LXII. Father Claude Chauchetiere was one of the most zealous and esteemed missionaries in the mission of the Jesuit Fathers in Canada. He was born September 7, 1645, at Poitiers. At the age of eighteen he entered the Society of Jesus, and in 1675, being thirty years old, was sent to Canada. His missionary activity was almost exclusively in the Mission of Saint Francis Xavier at Sault Saint Louis, near Montreal, where he arrived in 1677, a few months before Katharine. He remained there until 1693. During this year he was called to the Jesuit College at Montreal to be professor of Mathematics and Physics. From here he was sent to Quebec in 1707, where he died April 17, 1709. (Cf. Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Comp. de ]Csus, Vol. II, Bruxelles, Paris, 1891, p. 1099; Guilhermy, Menologe de la Comp. de jesus, Vol. I, Assistance de France, Paris, 18g2.) Father Chauchetiere is one of the most important witnesses for the life of Katharine. In our documentation there are five different passages under his name concerning the Servant of God. Among them is an extensive biography to which we shall give particular notice in its proper place. (Cf. Doc. VIII.) 'He was an eye-witness of the life of the Servant of God at the Sault ( 1677-80) and was present at her death. A first account of the life and virtues of Katharine written by him in the year of her death unfortunately has not reached us. Chronologically, the first information we possess of the Servant of God from his pen is included in a letter, dated October 14, 1682, in answer to one of his brothers in France, who had asked him for information about the mission at the Sault. What he tells concerning the Servant of God is brief, as might be expected, but of great importance are both his descriptions of her widespread renown for sanctity, and his report of the veneration which was manifest at her tomb. Besides this direct information we shall reproduce several passages describing the location of the mission, the reli-

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gious practices, the daily observances, and the fervor and devotion of neophytes. Such information helps us to know the surroundings in which the Servant of God lived. This letter is preserved in a manuscript, of which we shall speak particularly at the introduction of the following document (Doc. Ill). The passages have been taken from Thwaites.

We are in a very high and beautiful location, with a fine view, 6o leagues distant from Quebec, which is called "the Iroquois mission." It is the finest mission in Canada, and as regards piety and devotion, resembles one of the best churches in France. The river St. Lawrence here forms a lake two leagues wide; and the place where we are is so high that the waters of this great river fall here with a loud roar, and roll over many cascades, which frighten one to look at. The water foams as you see it do under a mill-wheel. [The jesuit Relations, Vol. LXII,

P· I67.] We have a chapel 25 feet wide, and nearly 6o feet long. We have three bells, with which we produce a very agreeable carillon; and the savages will soon have another bell, weighing two hundred livres, to complete the harmony. The usual exercises of our mission are as follows: In the early morning, the bell is rung at four o'clock, the hour at which we rise, as in our houses in France. Many of our savages, through a spirit of devotion, come at once to the church, to adore the Blessed Sacrament; and they remain there until the first Mass, which is said in winter at a quarter to seven, and in mid-summer at five o'clock. While they are saying their prayers, I withdraw to my room, which is six feet long and five feet wide, to make my meditation; after this, I say the first Mass, at which many are present although the bell is not rung for it. The second, which is the Mass for the savages, is said at half

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past five. I am present at it; the whole village also attends it every day, without a single person being absent; and the prayers are said aloud. Afterward the third Mass, which is for the children, begins, at which also I am present. We make them pray all together, after which I give them a short instruction on the catechism. Such is my daily occupation. In addition to this, the savages come frequently during the day to visit the Blessed Sacrament, when they go to the fields and when they return from them. From eight o'clock until eleven, which is the hour for our repast, my occupation is visiting the savages, or working to make books for them (because, as their nature is very fickle, of which they themselves complain, they must be often visited, either to give them suitable encouragement, prevent and appease their disputes, or to prepare the newcomers for receiving the Sacraments). There are sixty cabins, that is to say, from 120 to 150 families, as there are at least two in each cabin. To perform these visits with profit demands all the time of one missionary; another would be required for the children, and one for those who are more advanced, who need to be instructed in virtue. My work is made easier in this way: I sketch upon paper the truths of the Gospel and the practices of virtue invented by Monsieur de Nobletz. Another book contains colored pictures of the ceremonies of the Mass applied to the Passion of Our Lord; another contains pictures showing the torments of hell; another the creation of the world. The savages read these with pleasure and profit, and these books are their mute teachers. One of our catechists, with the assistance of these books, preaches long sermons; and I experienced much pleasure yesterday when I found a band of savages at the door of a cabin learning to read in books of this kind. [Ibid., PP· I6gff.]

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You will be pleased to hear from me respecting the austerities practiced by certain savage women, although there may be some indiscretion in their doing so; but it will show you their fervor. More than five years ago some of them learned, I know not how, of the pious practices followed by the nuns in Montreal who are hospital sisters. They heard of disciplines, of iron girdles, and of hair shirts. This religious life began to please them very much, and three of them formed an association, in order to commence a sort of convent; but we stopped them, because we did not think that the time had yet come for this. However, even if they were not cloistered, they at least observed chastity; and one died with the reputation of sanctity, three years ago this spring. [Here the writer clearly alludes to Katharine Tekakwitha. See Doc. VIII.] They, and some others who imitated them, would be admired in France, if what they do were known there. The one who began made her first attempt about Christmas in the year 1676, when she divested herself of her clothing, and exposed herself to the air at the foot of a large Cross that stands beside our cemetery. She did so at a time when the snow was falling, although she was pregnant; and the snow that fell upon her back caused her so much suffering that she nearly died from it, as well as her child, whom the cold chilled in its mother's womb. It was her own idea to do this, to do penance for her sins, she said. She has had four companions in her fervor, who have since imitated her. Two of them made a hole in the ice, in the depth of winter, and threw themselves into the water, where they remained during the time it would take to say a rosary slowly and reflectingly. One of the two, who feared that she would be found out, did not venture to warm herself when she returned to her cabin, but lay down on her mat with lumps of

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ice adhering to her shoulders. There have been several other contrivances for similar mortifications, which men and women have discovered for the purpose of tormenting themselves and which constitute their usual exercise of penance. But we have made them give up whatever was excessive. During the past two years, their fervor was greatly augmented since God has removed from this world one of these devout savage women who live like nuns, and she died with the reputation for sanctity. We cease not to say Masses to thank God for the graces that we believe we receive, every day, through her intercession. Pilgrimages are continually made to her tomb; and the savages, following her example, have become better Christians than they were. We daily see wonders worked through her intercession. Her name was Katharine Tegaskouita. During her lifetime, she had made an agreement with a friend to make each other suffer, because she was too weak to do so by herself, owing to her continual illness. She had begged her companion to do her the kindness of severely chastising her with blows of a whip. This they did for a year, without any one knowing it, and for that purpose they withdrew, every Sunday, into a cabin in the middle of the cemetery; and there, taking in their hands willow shoots, they mingled prayers with penance. Finally, when one of the two saw her companion had fallen sick at the end of the year, she was forced by scruples to reveal the matter, and to ask whether she had not sinned in what she had done. [Ibid., pp. 175ff.]

In a Mohawk raid on the Algonquins, about 1655· a Christian woman, baptized and brought up at Three Rivers, was captured and taken away to Ossernenon by one of the victorious chieftains. (Document Vlll, IIg)

DOCUMENT III BRIEF LIFE OF KATHARINE TEGASKOUITA, IROQUOIS CHRISTIAN,

written about 1682. From MS at one time in the Archives of the School of Saint Genevieve (Paris), Canada, file 8, now in St. Louis College of the Society of Jesus, Jersey, England. This digest of Katharine's life is but a combination of two different texts, by two missionaries, who had known the Servant of God personally, Father James de Lamberville and Father Cholenec. The first part is an extract from a letter, in which Father de Lamberville, the director of the Mission at Fonda (cf. Doc. I), tells of his first interview with the Servant of God; of her baptism, administered by himself; of her departure to the Mission of Sault Saint Louis, a move which was advised as well as desired by him. The second part treats more fully of the life of Katharine in the Mission of the Sault, of her death, of her renown for holiness and of the cures attributed to her intercession. All this is due Father Cholenec, who, with Father Chauchetiere, was a missionary in this mission, and who also is the author of a biography of the Servant of God (Doc. X.), of which the present MS may be considered the first outline. The anonymous compiler did nothing more than place a few words before the extract of Father de Lamberville, and briefly note the transition from this text to that of Father Cholenec. Perhaps the last lines of the second part, which speak of children buried near the tomb of the Servant of God, belong to the same compiler. Now, for determining the date of the composition of these two texts from which this digest has been made, the text of Father de Lamberville does not offer any chronological key; but the text of Father Cholenec commemorates three cures, to be noticed in the Life he wrote in the year 16g6 (Doc. X) and these take us back to March, 1682. This seems to be the approximate date of its composition; in fact, it would be a little strange should he have failed to mention some of the many and more important later cures, if he had written at a slightly later date. Likewise, the combination of the two texts in this digest has to be fixed, it would appear, at some later date. However, it is certainly anterior to the year 1693· In fact, the anonymity of the transition from the first to the second text clearly indicates that Father Cholenec was still in the Mission at the

78

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Sault, together with Father Chauchetiere, who left that mission in the above-mentioned year, 1693- On the other hand, the witnesses in the Ordinary Process seem to hold (which is not impossible) that the same Father Chauchetiere is the compiler of the digest. The two texts in the digest are very important, whether for what they contain or for the value of the authors' information, namely as eye-witnesses; and finally on account of the date of their composition very soon after the facts recorded. The digest is, so far as we know, unpublished. It is inserted in a file of letters from the Jesuit missionaries in Canada which date from June 24, 1681 to October 21, 1683. These letters are published in Thwaites, The jesuit Relations, Vol. XLII. The digest comes immediately after the letter of Father Chauchetiere, dated October 14, 1682. (Cf. Doc. II.) The file of manuscripts up to the time of Thwaites' edition (1goo) and until a few years ago, were kept in the Archives of Ecole Sainte-Genevieve, Paris. Today, as the Promoters of the Cause inform us, they are preserved in the House of the Jesuit Fathers at Jersey, England. Our edition has been made from the photostat copies of the MS attached to the Process.

Katharine Tegaskouita was born about in the year 1647 [sic] in a village of the Iroquois Indians of the Mohawks, and she was baptized there at the age of nineteen [sic] by Father James de Lamberville. God who had chosen her to show forth the wonders of His grace withdrew her two years later from that barbarous country to send her to the Mission of Saint Francis Xavier. Father de Lamberville himself relates the cause and the circumstances of her departure in a letter written from the Iroquois Mohawks in the following terms:

[From the letter of Father ]ames de Lamberville] Katharine Tegaskouita was of a sweet and peaceable nature, inclined towards good and with an extreme aversion to all sorts of evil. Not only could she not bear the impurities

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of the members of her tribe, but she also detested the other sins which are there ordinarily committed, drunkenness, belief in dreams, and superstitious feasts. Before she became a Christian she had been married twice at the command of her parents, but she had so conducted herself with her two husbands, one after the other, that she lived in perpetual virginity. This will seem so much the more surprising because corruption is greater among the Iroquois, among whom not only men and women, but young people and children give themselves up blindly to the vices of impurity. For several years I did not know her, but one day, having found her in her cabin where she was confined through some foot-trouble, I spoke to her of Christianity and I found her so docile that I urged her to be instructed and to attend chapel, which she did with wonderful assiduity after she had been cured. When I found her so faithful I inquired as to her conduct in the cabi!l; all spoke well of her. In fact, I noticed that she had none of the vices of the girls of her age; this encouraged me to- instruct her regularly. Finally after having taught her her prayers, and seeing that she was resolved to live in a Christian manner, I gave her Baptism on Easter Day itself in the year 1676. Since that time I can say I have found nothing in her in which she would seem to have relaxed in the slightest degree from her first fervor. I regretted only that so pure a soul and one so disposed to receive the impress of the Holy Spirit should remain in a land subject to all sorts of vice, and where the mere effort to resist the attacks of the enemies of Christianity is no mean achievement. I spoke of this to her sometimes, especially when she came to explain to me of the displeasure shown her by those of her cabin, for after trying to console her I told her of the peace enjoyed by the Christians of Sault Saint Francis Xavier-peace

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in which, were she there, she would find more sweetness in a day than she could enjoy in a year by remaining here. All these reflections disturbed her spirit, but God who wished to bring her into a place of security, broke her bonds in the manner which I shall relate. Among some of the Christians of the Mission of Sault Saint Francis Xavier who came to the Iroquois to see their relatives, was one of the most important of the Oneidas called Ogenheratarihiens. He entered my cabin, where forthwith a crowd of people, as is the custom of the country, came to greet this newcomer, and among them Katharine. This man, seeing them assembled, began to talk to them of Christianity and of the happiness of those who had come to live at Sault Saint Francis Xavier. Katharine alone, as if God had addressed to her the words of this preacher, was touched by them. She sought me out and told me she was determined to carry out what I had so often advised her. She begged me earnestly to take proper measures to restrain her relatives who wished to stop her. I put her under the care of Ogenheratarihiens who strongly confirmed her in her resolution. This fervent Christian and another Mohawk Indian who was related to Katharine, conducted her escape very skilfully. Some one had gone to warn one of her uncles, the most important man in the village, who was utterly opposed to any of his compatriots going to the Mission of the Sault. He was then with the Dutch, neighbors of the Iroquois, where she should embark; nevertheless he could not find her in spite of his diligent 'search. This is Father de Lamberville's account of how Katharine betook herself to Sault Saint Francis Xavier. We shall now see what is said of her by Father Cholenec, who had charge of this mission with Father Chauchetiere.

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[From the Narrative of Father Cholenec]

Every morning, winter and summer, she was in our church at four o'clock and often she arrived even before the bell which rings every day at that hour. She remained there several hours in succession in prayer, though her tongue played small part in it. Ordinarily she prayed only with eyes and heart-her eyes suffused with tears, and her heart incessantly giving forth ardent sighs. She was always as if lifted out of herself when she prayed and conversed with Our Lord. Her fervor was no less evident in the confessions which she made every eight days or sometimes oftener. She passed an entire hour in the church weeping and sighing while she prepared herself, and when she began her confession it was always with such loud sobs that she would have given her confessor much difficulty in understanding her, had he not otherwise known her angelical innocence. She thought herself the greatest sinner in the world. It was with such sentiments of humility that she made all her confessions. The same fervor was especially evident every time she received Holy Communion. Those who come from the Iroquois are tried out for a long time before they are granted this grace; but it was not so with our Katharine. She had so well prepared herself and she desired this favor so ardently, that it was granted to her forthwith. She made ready for the great day by extraordinary redoubling of her devotion and afterwards she seemed altogether different, so much was she filled with God and His holy love. One had not to be long in her company to feel it and to be surrounded by it as she was. All her joy was to think upon Our Lord and to converse familiarly with Him. She passed almost the entire day, on Sundays and feast days,

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praying at the foot of the altar, and on working days she often came there to offer up her work. If sometimes asked, "Katharine, do you love Our Lord?" -it was enough to see her immediately quite overcome. "Ah, my Father! Ah, my Father!" she would say, and she could say no more. It was this burning love which made her renounce marriage to consecrate her virginity to Our Lord at the age of twenty; and although she suffered many rough attacks from her kindred because of this conduct, which was unparalleled among the Iroquois, she held firm always with an unshakable constancy-surely a very admirable thing in the midst of savages among whom even the most virtuous women look to marriage for a share in a husband's hunting for their subsistence. Katharine, who had a regard only for the things of heaven, thought herself happy to be able to lack everything and to be abandoned by everyone in order to be entirely consecrated to her Divine Spouse. She once asked one of our longest converted Christian women what great and difficult thing one could suffer to give testimony of one's love for Our Lord. "I know nothing," the woman answered, "more difficult to bear than fire." That was enough for Katharine, who sought only to testify to her love in some heroic manner. She spent a great part of the following night, while everyone else slept, most painfully burning her feet. She then went to the church to offer to her dear Spouse in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar what she had suffered for love. She did not stop at that because she knew well that God has never so loved mankind as in giving Himself to them in the mystery of the Eucharist and on the tree of the Cross. And the saints who have excelled, some in one virtue, others in another, according to the varied attractions of grace, have all merited

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commendation because of the devotion they have shown for this double mystery. It may be said that Katharine imitated them perfectly in these two loves and that after having consecrated her heart to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, she sacrificed her body to the Cross, never to be separated from it. She was so eager for the Cross and for suffering that if she had been allowed to act according to the ardor of her desire she would soon have overwhelmed her body, already infirm and sickly. She sought only to make it suffer in the sight of Jesus crucified. She had for nearly a year and a half with one of her devout companions, several times a week made their shoulders bleed profusely from willow twigs, and they would have continued longer had it not been made a matter of conscience as soon as it was known. There was scarcely any form of mortification that they had not practiced with great fervor. She punished her body with bloody disciplinings of a thousand or twelve hundred blows each time, with spiked girdles which she often wore all day long, with fire, with cold, and with hunger. To give but one example of all that this young and generous girl did: About two months before her death, wishing more and more to unite herself to the cross of her Savior, she had the idea, in imitation of the Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, of whom she had heard, to go and search in the woods for a great bundle of briers and thorns and to scatter them at night all over the mat on which she slept. She spent three whole nights with her naked body on these briers and thorns, suffering incredible pain, and would have continued if the practice of such an astonishing mortification had not been at once forbidden. For it was to her credit that she concealed nothing from her confessor, and that she obeyed him exactly in all things. Since, however, she did not think she was doing any

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wrong, she did not believe it necessary to speak sooner of her austerity. The fine courage she displayed in mortifying herself in so strange a manner made her undertake generously the practice of all the other virtues. It would take too long to explain the extent of her patience, her humility, her obedience, her simplicity, her constancy, and her union with God; how great was her devotion to tl~e Blessed Virgin and her Guardian Angel. She excelled so greatly in all virtues, and she has given us such rare examples of them, that it seems as if each one had been her particular virtue, and that she gave herself up to that one specially. It could not happen that so holy a life should not be crowned with an exceptional death, as in fact it was. What the Book of Wisdom says of the just man may be repeated of Katharine: "Consummatus in brevi explevit tempora multa." (Being made perfect in a short space he fulfilled a long time.) She finished her life in the flower of her youth, being only twenty-three. But she was already ripe for heaven and she had done in four or five years after her Baptism what others have difficulty in achieving during a very long life. It was on the Wednesday of Holy Week, the seventeenth of April, 168o, that she expired at four o'clock in the afternoon, after an illness of two months contracted partly through her great austerities. On Tuesday, when we saw clearly that she was growing much weaker, we gave her Viaticum and Extreme Unction, which she received with angelic devotion. On Wednesday at three o'clock in the afternoon the bell was rung to gather together the savages, who desired passionately to witness the death of this great Servant of God. As if she had only waited this signal she went immediately into her last agony, which was very gentle and which lasted a half hour. She spent the

85 Document III - - -t- -+- -+- -+- -+- -+- +- -1-last moments of her life in fervent acts of love, of faith, of hope, and the like, having on each side of her two missionary Fathers and around her all the savages praying. She lost consciousness a little while before she died, and without a struggle this blessed soul left her virginal body to. go to her beloved Spouse. She left the whole settlement edified by the examples of virtue which she had given, and in universal regret for the loss it suffered. Her death was accompanied by some circumstances which made me believe that it was similar to that of the saints. The first circumstance is the change that occurred in her body after her soul had left it. Her face was badly disfigured during her life on account of her continual illnesses, but it changed suddenly a quarter of an hour after her death and it appeared instantly so beautiful and so smiling that the savages who came running to see this wonder were quite carried away by it, as well as the French, who having come into her cabin without knowing she was dead, thought at first she was resting quietly, so great was the sweetness and beauty in her face. But they were much surprised to learn that she was dead and they threw themselves immediately at her feet, not so much to pray to God for her as to recommend themselves to her prayers. The second circumstance has to do with something which happened to her at the hour of her death. There are persons here who, partly through a motive of penance, partly through transports of the love of God, live a life of extraordinary mortifications and austerities practised upon their bodies. One of these was a woman who had retired on the eve of Katharine's death into a very secret place to carry out a strange penance in order to obtain a happy death for the sick girl. Katharine made this fervent penitent come to her and clasping her arms whispered to her: "Courage, my dear sister; oh, how delighted

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I am with the life you lead. Oh, how pleasing it is to all in heaven!" And because the penitent wished to hide herself or to excuse herself-"! know what I am saying," added Katharine. "Do not make me explain myself further, and know that I not only know your life, but that I know also the place from which you come and what you did there just now. Go, my dear sister; take courage, continue in the same way. I shall not fail to recommend you to Our Lord in heaven." If the other was surprised to hear these things said by the sick girl, she was also much consoled by her at the same time and wondrously encouraged to live always in the same fervor. A third circumstance is that the obsequies of our deceased were conducted as are those of the saints, that is to say, with universal joy and with such tender sentiments of piety that from the very appearance of our savages one might well judge that Katharine was operating in the depths of their souls, both by the sweet memory of her virtues, and by their ardent desires to imitate her. There was no delay in seeing the effect, for the next day, on Good Friday, all hearts were so touched at the sight of the cross which Katharine had so loved and which the priest showed them after his sermon on the Passion, that I think that never was seen so piteous a spectacle, or rather, one so devout and touching, for suddenly everyone began to burst forth with such loud cries and sobs that it was necessary to let them weep for quite a long time. The Father then wishing to intone the V exilla, could only pronounce the two first words, because at once the cries and the sobs began again, stronger than before, throughout the church, so that he was obliged to yield a second time to the violence of their grief. The fruit of all this was that they no longer talked of anything but of being converted and of giving themselves entirely to

87 Document III ---+- ..,._ ~ -+- .....- -+-- =+- =+= God. That same day and the next and for eight days running, such excessive penances were performed in the settlement that it would be difficult for greater to be done by the most austere penitents in the world. I must add a fourth circumstance that happened to a woman of this settlement four days after the death of Katharine. She was one of our oldest and most fervent Christians who had taken the place of Katharine's mother and who had received her in her cabin when she came here from the country of the Iroquois. "One night," says this woman, "after the public prayers, when everyone had gone to bed, I prayed privately for a little while; and then I also went to bed. But scarcely had I fallen asleep when I was awakened by a voice which called me, saying: 'My mother, rise up and look.' I recognized the voice of Katharine. Immediately I sat up and turning toward the side whence she was calling me, I saw her standing beside me, her body so surrounded by light that I beheld only her face, which was of an extraordinary beauty. 'My mother,' she added, 'Look well at this cross which I am carrying. Look, look, how beautiful it is. Oh, how I loved it on earth; oh, how I love it still in Paradise! How much I wish that all of our cabin should love it and rely upon it as I did!' That is what she said to me, and at that instant she disappeared, leaving me so full of joy, and of such sweet consolation that it has lasted until now. Moreover, the cross she held was so beautiful and gave forth such brilliant light that I have never seen anything so lovely and so charming." This is what this woman told us; and she is, furthermore, very wise and of great good sense. We believe that Katharine wished by this loving visit to recompense all the care she had from this woman, on whom she looked as her mother. We

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might add here various wonders, those performed by earth taken from her tomb; by the crucifix she wore on her breast when she died; by novenas which were often made. I shall tell only two of them, one pertaining to the French and one to the savages. An inhabitant of Prairie de la Madeleine named Claude Caron, living about a mile from the Mission of Sault Saint Francis Xavier, had been ill a long time with a congestion of the chest, a continual fever, and a weakness that left him in the last extremity. His illness was the result of several relapses. The surgeon had such a poor opinion of his condition that he had announced several times that his death must be expected. Father Chauchetiere, who besides his care of the mission, assists also in the spiritual needs of the French nearby, after going to see him and finding him so low and so oppressed that he could scarcely speak, heard his last confession. The sick man fully expected to die on the following night if it should be as bad as the last. Nevertheless, before leaving, the Father made him recite a Pater and an Ave and the Gloria three times. He also made him promise to have three Masses said in thanksgiving to God for the graces conferred on Katharine, without however mentioning her name to the sick man. Shortly afterwards, when they were lifting him to rearrange his bed, he fainted, so that they had to lay him down very quickly. But it was only to show more strongly the power of the prayers of the Servant of God, for almost at the same time he fell into a quiet sleep and after two hours of deep slumber his chest was relieved as if some weight had been taken from his stomach. He arose and sat near the fire and spoke as freely and as long as if he had not been ill at all. Some time after, to the astonishment of all, he went to church. It is hardly necessary to relate

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-+- ±=- ....,_ that something much more wonderful happened interiorly both to the man and to the priest. The other example, which has reference to the savages, is no less admirable. A Christian Iroquois of the Sault Mission, was stricken by an illness that everyone believed mortal. He had recourse to Katharine on the advice of the Fathers in charge of the mission, who made him take some earth from her tomb. He had no sooner done so than he regained his health immediately and began to regain flesh. He still suffered, however, from a sharp pain in his side, which only served the better to show forth the power of Katharine's intercession; for they did no more than rub the affected part with some earth from her tomb, moistened with water. The next day he was perfectly cured. So speedy a cure was followed a little later by another, not less surprising. A savage woman, also named Katharine and bound to our Katharine in close friendship while she lived, had been affiicted from her eighth or ninth year by a serious malady, so that she could move neither hand nor foot. When Father Chauchetiere saw the extraordinary graces that God granted to the sick through the intercession of Katharine, he believed her good friend could obtain from her the same favor. He went, therefore, to the woman and told her what God had just done through the merits of her friend for the health of the savage of whom we have just spoken. He urged her to have recourse to Katharine's assistance and to make a novena during which she should say every day one Pater and one Ave and the Gloria three times. At the same time he gave her Katharine's crucifix to wear about her neck. Lol on the very eve of the last day of the novena she was cured. All these cures, which may be considered miraculous, have greatly augmented the devotion toward

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this good maiden, and we now see many people going to pray at her tomb. She does not act in the same way toward the sick children for whom prayers are said to her. Experience shows that the earth from her tomb which cures persons of an advanced age, seems rather to draw these little ones to heaven. Furthermore, her tomb is surrounded by children who have died since she was buried there, as if this first Iroquois virgin whom we believe to be in glory, took pleasure in having her chaste body surrounded by these little innocents as by so many lilies.

At Ossemenon (afterwards Gandaouague) the Mohawk chieftain made the captive Algonquin Christian woman his wife. (Document X, 2p)

DOCUMENT IV "Annual Narrative of the Mission of the Sault from its Foundation to the year I686," written by Father Chauchetiere, 1686. From Thwaites, "The jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. LXIII, Cleveland, 1900. EXTRACTS FROM THE ANNALS INSCRIBED

We have already become acquainted with Father Chauchetiere. (See Doc. 11.) In 1686 he undertook to write the annals of the Mission at Sault

Saint Louis, where he had been stationed for nine years. The annals were begun in 1667, the year the mission was "founded, and were continued up to 1685, when the narrative stopped on account of the loss of some sheets in the original MS. At about this time, that is, in 1685, Father Chauchetiere had written the great Life of Katharine, which was completed afterwards, in 1695. (Doc. VIII.) We may easily surmise that many items of information concerning the Servant of God are repeated here and inserted into the various years of the annals. The original MS is preserved in the Archives of the Municipality of Bordeaux, in France. In 1881 Father Martin, S.J., made a copy of it for the Archives of St. Mary's College of the Jesuit Fathers in Montreal, and in 1895. De Rochemonteix in Les ] esuites et la Nouvelle France au dix·septieme siecle, Vol. III, Paris, 1895; app. 6, p. 641, first published them, making use of the original. Our extracts are taken from Thwaites, who made use of Father Martin's copy, which in turn has been carefully collated with De Rochemonteix.

Preface

The person who has composed these annals has spent more than three years in collecting what he has been able to learn from the mouths of the savages who built the first cabins at Laprairie, • • • He has heard the accounts of the French settlers at Laprairie, who told him most edifying things about certain savage men and women who died very Christian deaths. The

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writer has depended upon all these testimonies as far as the year 1677; but, from that time down, he has had personal knowledge and experience of the wonders which God has, at various times, wrought in this Mission of the Sault. One of the most weighty reasons that have impelled him to write is the direction which God has exercised over the mission since its establishment; for it has grown, like the palm, beneath the weight of persecutions. If there are many other matters which at the same time deserve to be related; if there are mistakes or obscurity in the style; or if, finally, he has kept his readers waiting too long-it is the fault of those whom he chose to allow to precede him. Knowing the circumstances better than he, they should at some time have given the public the consolation which they received from God. But, being finally weary of waiting, I have-after having written an account of the good Katharine Tegakwita's life, through an impulse derived from that good girl herself-set myself to tell the story of the deeds of the illustrious men whom God has taken from us, and with whom he has kindly willed to people heaven.*** This is his last work, in which he notes year by year everything remarkable that has occurred in this mission, with a detailed account of the combats which the savages have waged, and the victories which they have won, against drunkenness. The drawings which are traced therein are to acquaint the savages with the rest of their history, and the favors which they have received from God since they became Christians. [The jesuit Relations} Vol. XLIII, pp. 141£.] The Reverend Father Mercier, whom I saw in France at the end of December [ 167 2] gave me lessons in that language; I quickly learned it, and rendered myself able to recite the

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rosary in Huron-which I said in that language rather than in Latin, because of the spiritual consolation which this manner of praying to God procured for me. As soon as I arrived in Canada, I was actually appointed to the Mission of the Hurons; and after a year I was sent to the Sault, where I have remained until the present year. Moreover, in 168o, God confirmed in me, through the prayers of Katharine, who is sufficiently well known, all that had come to pass in the preceding years. (Marginal Note]-Katharine expired in the odor of sanctity, at the Sault, in the year r68o, I7 April. [Ibid., p. 149.] 1668 The Reverend Father Rafeix introduced them [the first Hurons]; Reverend Father Chomonot instructed them, or rather, finished instructing them, for they had already begun practice of prayer at Laprairie. Thus the band was soon qualified to receive Baptism. Monseigneur [Bishop of Quebec] was the one who conferred this sacrament upon them, and who thus laid the first stone of that spiritual building whose structure is so admirable. The chief of this pious band was called Francis Xavier, from the name of the whole mission; and his wife was named Katharine-a name which has become remarkable in her and is venerable in another Katharine who died in the mission recently, in the odor of sanctity. [Ibid.,

P· 1 55·] 1672 The Oneidas were the first in the Indian Mission, and their virtues being, as it were, mother-virtues, engendered numerous children, giving birth to many Mohawks, who are at present most numerous. In the number of believers, among the people

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of the Mohawk nation, those of the village of Gandawage have taken the first rank, as if this were due to the blood of the martyrs, which was first shed in the death of Father Jogues, who there had his head crushed; and to the blood of the Reverend Father Brebeuf, which was shed by the Mohawks. It was also Gandawage which first received the preachers of the Gospel, in the persons of the Reverend Fathers Fremin, Bruyas, and Pierron, who, after the conclusion of peace, were sent as plenipotentiaries to those countries. It was in that village that the first chapel was built; and that village has given a treasure to our mission, in the person of a savage woman who died six years ago, in the odor of sanctity. [Ibid., p. 16gf.] The Church was divided into two apartments, one for the French, and the other for the savages*** [Ibid., p. 175.] 1676 It is a wonder to see the state of the mission when it was so new that the savages had not yet heard Confirmation mentioned; what will they then be when the Holy Ghost shall have descended upon them, as will be the case this year! Monseigneur the Bishop of Quebec, who in his cathedral church had conferred Baptism on the first six persons of the mission, came to complete his work in the month of May. The account of it is given at length in the Relation of r672. The esteem in which the savages held the person who among all the priests most nearly approaches Our Lord, marked the depth of their feelings. When they knew that Monseigneur was coming to Laprairie, they made a staging at the water's edge, that he might conveniently land. They had lined the way with branches of trees, and the avenue ended at a throne

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constructed of sod and verdure. Monseigneur, having taken his place thereon, received the compliments offered him by the captains. The day after Pentecost, which was then being celebrated, was a favorable time for bestowing Confirmation, which he conferred on more than eighty savages; and in the space of three years he confirmed more than two hundred.*** [Ibid.,

P· I8gf.] Poverty is not a scourge of the mission, but an adjunct which chastens from time to time. It was so great last year, and has continued in such a way this year, that it obliged the mission to leave the land Laprairie for the purpose of seeking one a league and a quarter higher up, named Sault Saint Louis, or that of Saint Xavier, from the appellation of the mission. * * * This is the reason which obliged the mission to change its abode-which occurred nine years ago, in the month of July. This was not accomplished without a great deal of trouble. The missionaries had no other accommodation than a sorry lodge, and for a chapel a cabin of bark, in which the Superior of the mission dwelt in a corner arranged for the purpose. But God rewarded both the Fathers and the children with the abundant favors which He poured upon them both. In the summer they began to build a chapel sixty feet long, which was finished in the following autumn. This chapel was solemnly blessed, and is becoming illustrious through the favors which God has poured upon those who went to pray to God therein. [Ibid., p. tgtf.]

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1678

But I may say that the most celebrated journey was that of la poudre chaude ("Hot Powder"], captain of the Onneiouts [Oneidas] who live at the Sault, and of his two comrades. This captain, recently baptized, wishing to go to Onneiout [among the Oneidas], passed through the Anies [Mohawks]. When he arrived there, all the elders went to greet him. 'fhis new convert told them no other tidings than those of the faith.* * * It has been chiefly since that time that many persons have been seen to come down expressly to remain at the Sault.*** But the greatest effect which this preaching has produced is to have acquired for us a treasure which we keep preciously in our church-the body of a VIrtuous maiden, who died here in the odor of sanctity, as we shall tell. This year, during the summer, three of our savages, whom we have just mentioned, put it on board their canoe. Her life is very fully described.*** [Ibid., PP· 197fi.] There are already several who have carried their virginity to heaven, who were but thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, or twenty years old. ·Several are still living who, having often refused good offers in marriage, pass the marriageable age, and give to God their bodies and their souls in great poverty, and clothe themselves by alms. This spirit has this year united all those persons, who number thirteen; they have for their object the highest state of perfection.*** [Ibid., p. 203f.] 1679 (Here is recorded the voyage to France of Father Fremin, Superior of the Sault Mission.) [Ibid., p. 209.]

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A great loss and a great profit was also incurred this year. The earth lost and heaven gained. The mission gave to Paradise a treasure which had been sent to it two years before, to wit, the blessed soul of Katharine Tegakouita, who died on the seventeenth of April. :_rhe esteem in which she was held during her life, the help which many have had from her since her death, the honors which they have continued to render her, and various other circumstances which adorned her life, have made her very well known throughout this country. She served the mission by her good example; but we can say that she served it more after her death, for her lifeless body serves here as argument to the savages that the faith is worthy of credence, and her prayers continually aid this mission. We may say that she now enters into participation of all the good which is done in it, and which has been done here since her death. At the hour of her decease, the Viaticum was carried to her in her cabin. This was not yet customary; the sick people were carried to church on a litter of bark, when giving them the Viaticum, in order to inspire the savages with the respect which is due to the Blessed Sacrament. The savages do not account themselves worthy that Our Lord should Himself take the trouble of going to seek them, however sick they may be. The demon, who saw the glorious success of this mission, used another kind of battery. Transfiguring himself as an angel of light, he urged on the devotion of some persons who wished to imitate Katharine, or to do severe penance for t4eir sins. He drove them even into excess. In order, no doubt, to render Christianity hateful even at the start; or in order to impose upon the girls and women of this mission, whose discretion

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has never equaled that of Katharine, whom they tried to imitate.*** [Ibid., pp. 215f.] (Father Fremin happily returns from France.) [Ibid., p. 22 I.] 1681

Who could relate the joy which each one felt at seeing the Reverend Father Fremin again in his mission? But an extraordinary prodigy which appeared in the sky once more disturbed people's minds. This was the great comet which appeared in autumn. The rumor of war kept all Canada in suspense. Five days after the apparition of the comet, God blessed the mission; for it was then that a sick man who had been given up, was cured the next day, after he had invoked the name of Katharine of the Sault. This prodigy of the earth did not yet appear sufficient to outweigh that of the sky. The people then commended themselves chiefly to the Saints of the country; and also, at that place of the Sault, addressed themselves to Katharine. [Ibid., p. 223.] J683

At last, all the monsters of hell, being powerless to do more, made a last effort in the month of August; and, joining at midnight with a whirlwind, blew down the chapel-a fall remarkable in all its circumstances. All the articles of sacred furniture were preserved whole, except five crosses, which were broken. The statue of the Blessed Virgin, which was at an elevation of eleven feet, was simply overturned. There were three Jesuit Fathers in the chapel-one below, who was ringing the bell, and two above the chapel. All three were saved by a sort of miracle. The one who was below was saved, and carried

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away from the place where he was, where a great hole was made by the beams, which broke in their fall the joists on which he was kneeling. He found himself in a place of safety, without fear, without wound, praying and kissing the relics which he wore about his neck. Another of the Fathers leaped into the air with the rafters, which formed a sort of cage for him. The last of the three Fathers also fell, but was much hurt. He nevertheless extricated himself from beneath the ruins, and soon recovered. All three, without having communicated their devotions to one another, had gone to pray at Katharine's tomb in the evening, before going to bed; and one had said the Mass of the Holy Trinity, in order to thank God for the favors [graces] that He had granted Katharine during her life. The poor savages were much affiicted at the loss of their chapel, saying that God was driving them from the church because they did not deserve to enter it. But they were inconsolable at seeing their Fathers wounded and sick; and said that these Fathers were suffering from the sins of their children, who were not willing to listen to them and live like good Christians. They immediately proceeded to rebuild the chapel, God having willed that there should then be an architect in the village, who had built five other chapels, very well constructed. But meanwhile the captain of the Anies [Mohawks], whom they name "the great anie" [a Mohawk chieftain called Kryn], who had built a fine cabin a fortnight previously, moved out of it in order to lodge Our Lord, who well recompensed His host. In the first place, He did him the honor to see his cabin converted into a church; but, because God honored this chapel with several wonders which occurred therein, many persons were seen to come to it, by way of devotion, who made novenas to Katharine of the Sault. They performed the same devotions

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there which were performed in the beautiful timber chapelwith all the more fervor in proportion as the inconvenience of the building, the severities of winter, the spring rains, and the summer heat, were the harder to endure for those who often went thither to visit the Blessed Sacrament. [Ibid., pp. 22gf.] 1684

So many persons were seen to commend themselves to the deceased Katharine Tegakouita; so many good savages were seen to offer this devotion and found themselves in such necessity this year to address themselves to her, that we believed it was but paying a just tribute to her virtue to remove her from the cemetery-where a little monument had been erected to her honor a year before-into the new church. All opinions were unanimous upon that. This transfer, however, was accomplished by night, in the presence of the most devout. Some savages have since been seen to go to pray at the place where she lies, who had begun to go to visit her on the very day when she was buried. We began this year to make some brief addresses upon the Passion of Our Lord, every Friday in Lent. [Ibid., p. 241.] The captain of the Anies [Mohawks] has himself made a present to the chapel, worth four beavers-240 livres, in the money of Orange [Fort Orange, or Albany] that is, a candlestick with eight branches, similar to the one which is in the Orange meeting-house. It is of bronze, and was made in Holland. This captain, going to war, wished to leave a monument of his piety, after having given up his cabin, one year previously, to the service of God. The chapel being finished, we placed therein the gifts which the savages made for it, or caused to be made-their

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robes, striped taffeta from China which some have left for it, and an altar-screen. They have decorated a beam, which is above the altar with their collars-which they put about the heads of the warriors, like a crown-with their porcelain bracelets, with shields which the women wear to adorn their hair, and with belts, which are the savages' pearls. Several Masses have been said by way of thanksgiving for the favors which God has vouchsafed to Katharine of the Sault. [Ibid., p. 243.]

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Katharine Tekakwitha

DOCUMENT V Present State of the Church and of the French Colony in New France, by Jean de St. Vallier, Bishop of Quebec, Paris, 1688.

ExTRACT FROM THE WORK

Monseigneur Jean Baptiste de la Croix Chevieres de St. Vallier, was born in 1653; he arrived in Canada in 1685. He was the Vicar-General to His Excellency, Monseigneur de Laval, first Bishop of Quebec, and in 1688 became his successor. He died in 1727. In the beginning of his administration, he wrote about the general conditions of his diocese. In this report he speaks of his visit to the Mission at the Sault, and his most interesting account of the church on this occasion. He mentions as items of great interest the life, the renown for holiness and the miracles, which occurred near the tomb of the Servant of God. The text which we reproduce is taken from the first edition, 1688. The original MS is kept in the Archiepiscopal Archives of Quebec, and the collation, which has been made by the Actors of the Ordinary Process, does not reveal any difference in comparison with the printed text. St. Vallier's information was again printed in Quebec in 1856.

One can judge of all the Missions in Canada by Saint Francis Xavier's, about nine miles from Montreal and 180 from Quebec. It was founded some years ago at Prairie de la Madeleine, where the French have a church and the savages who began there have lived and died in the odor of sanctity. Even today they speak admiringly of a certain Katharine, an Iroquois, who was its principal foundation stone and who from her Baptism maintained her Christian character by the great purity of her life. It seems that she had some presentiment of her death, for while still in perfect health, moved by some special inspiration of God, she went to the church to make an offering of her bracelets and necklaces, and to offer even her

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life, declaring that she was ready to die when it would please His Divine Majesty to call her. Her offering was accepted; she fell ill a few days later, and the eight days of her illness were for her, in a manner, a continual ecstasy which kept her eyes fixed on heaven until she expired. The number of savage converts increasing from day to day, it became necessary to leave Prairie de la Madeleine and settle at the Sault. It is there one beheld in the person of Katharine the first Christian virgin the Iroquois nation has given to the Church of Jesus Christ. She had been led there by the ministry of a famous chief of the Onneiouts [Oneidas] who himself had been won in a surprising manner; and God works many marvels at the tomb of this wonderful maiden.

DOCUMENT VI

ExTRACT FROM A LETTER oF FATHER CHAUCHETIERE to his brother Father John Chauchetiere, S.J., August 7, 1694. From Thwaites, _The jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. LXIV, Cleveland, 1900. In 1693 Father Chauchetiere, as we have said, was called to the Jesuit College at Montreal in Canada to be professor of Mathematics and Physics. In the following year, 1694, he wrote two letters to his brethren in France, in which he mentions his personal veneration and that of his faithful flock for Katharine. The Mission at the Sault, as it is called, was near Montreal; for this reason the venerable missionary"s information must be highly esteemed. The first letter, extracts from which are here reproduced, was addressed to his brother John, also a Jesuit, residing at Limoges. This letter is dated August 7, 1694. We do not know whether the original is preserved, but there is a copy of it, made in the last century by Father Martin, S.J ., who searched out in France, found and diligently copied very many documents relating to the Missions of Canada. For our extracts, we follow Thwaites.

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life, declaring that she was ready to die when it would please His Divine Majesty to call her. Her offering was accepted; she fell ill a few days later, and the eight days of her illness were for her, in a manner, a continual ecstasy which kept her eyes fixed on heaven until she expired. The number of savage converts increasing from day to day, it became necessary to leave Prairie de la Madeleine and settle at the Sault. It is there one beheld in the person of Katharine the first Christian virgin the Iroquois nation has given to the Church of Jesus Christ. She had been led there by the ministry of a famous chief of the Onneiouts [Oneidas] who himself had been won in a surprising manner; and God works many marvels at the tomb of this wonderful maiden.

DOCUMENT VI

ExTRACT FROM A LETTER oF FATHER CHAUCHETIERE to his brother Father John Chauchetiere, S.J., August 7, 1694. From Thwaites, _The jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. LXIV, Cleveland, 1900. In 1693 Father Chauchetiere, as we have said, was called to the Jesuit College at Montreal in Canada to be professor of Mathematics and Physics. In the following year, 1694, he wrote two letters to his brethren in France, in which he mentions his personal veneration and that of his faithful flock for Katharine. The Mission at the Sault, as it is called, was near Montreal; for this reason the venerable missionary"s information must be highly esteemed. The first letter, extracts from which are here reproduced, was addressed to his brother John, also a Jesuit, residing at Limoges. This letter is dated August 7, 1694. We do not know whether the original is preserved, but there is a copy of it, made in the last century by Father Martin, S.J ., who searched out in France, found and diligently copied very many documents relating to the Missions of Canada. For our extracts, we follow Thwaites.

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Katharine Tekakwitha

I have admirable things to tell of the Sault mission. As regards our savages, they have continued this year as fervent as they are accustomed to be. Katharine's ban