Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha

Kateri was born near the town of Auriesville, New York, in the year 1656, the daughter of a Mohawk warrior. She was four years old when her mother died of smallpox.

Kateri was converted to the Catholic Faith as a teenager, was baptized at the age of twenty, and went to live with the new Christiancolony of Indians in Canada. She lived a life dedicated to prayer, penitential practices, and care for the sick and aged. Every morning, even in bitterest winter, she stood before the chapel door until it opened at four and remained there until after the last Mass. She was devoted to the Eucharistand to JesusCrucified.

She died on April 7, 1680, and is known as the "Lily of the Mohawks". She was declared venerable by the Catholic Church in 1943 and was beatified in 1980.

Her feastdayis July 14. She is a patroness of the environment.