Catholic Missions In Canada
Lesson 5: Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the “Lily of the Mohawks”:
North America’s First Roman Catholic Aboriginal Saint
*This lesson on Kateri Tekakwitha was written and developed by Dr. Christine Mader, a
Canadian theologian, educator, and consultant, with a doctorate in theology from the University
of St. Michael’s College, Toronto.
Lesson Goal:
Students will learn the story of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha’s life, the role of missionaries in her becoming
Christian and living a Christian life, and what it means to be recognized publicly as a saint in the Roman
Catholic Church (canonization date: October 21, 2012).
Lesson Objectives:
Students will discover
 the story of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha’s life, both before and after baptism
 the names of the Jesuit missionaries Kateri encountered in her life and the part they played in her
journey to Christian life and her life as a Christian
 what a saint is
 how a person becomes a saint in the Roman Catholic Church
Teacher Background:
Read or tell the story of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, from her birth and childhood to her death in the
Christian community of Kahnawake, Canada.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha’s Story: Version 1 (for more mature students) – some of the following may
be used for student note-taking purposes; some details may be omitted
Tekakwitha (her name before baptism) was born in about 1656 in Gandaouagué (Ossernenon), a small
Iroquois village on the Mohawk River at the far-eastern end of Iroquois territory in what is now
Auriesville (near Albany) in New York State. The village was both a commercial and military outpost.
Tekakwitha was most likely born into the Turtle Clan, which predominated at Gandaouagué. Her mother
was a devout, baptized Catholic, missionized by the Jesuits, who must have shared something of her
own faith with her daughter. An Algonquin, Kateri’s mother had been dragged to Gandaouagué by a
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Established in 1908 under papal mandate as The Catholic Church Extension Society of Canada
address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
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Mohawk war party who captured her and others near Trois-Rivières, between Montreal and Quebec City
on the St. Lawrence River.
Those who survived the forced march and subsequent tortures were eventually integrated into the
Mohawk family (one of the Five Iroquois Nations) and treated with great kindness. The Mohawk
believed these captives would re-populate the nation and replenish its spiritual strength. Kateri’s mother
was one such survivor. At some point, she married a Mohawk man who did not share her faith.
When Tekakwitha was a toddler, her entire village moved to a new site just a few kilometres away,
where soil fertility was improved and the wood supply was plentiful and close at hand. This was a
customary practice for the Iroquois. Later in her life, when she was about ten years old, her Mohawk
village, formerly used to mounting its own attacks on others, was suddenly attacked by an AlgonquinMontagnais-French alliance, and burned to the ground. The village had been forewarned of the attack,
however, and Tekakwitha would have been among those who watched the destruction of the village’s
homes from the cover of the surrounding forest.
Earlier in her life, at around the age of four or five, Tekakwitha’s immediate family (her mother, brother
and likely her father) was felled by a smallpox epidemic. She herself had smallpox, which disfigured her
with scars, made her eyes extremely sensitive to light, and left her in poor health. She sometimes wore a
blanket over her head, to protect her eyes and perhaps to hide her face. It is possible that the name
“Tekakwitha,” perhaps meaning something like “she who advances while fumbling,” was attached to
Kateri at this time. (Another suggested translation of her name is “putting things in order.”) Later, the
ascetical practices she adopted as penances in her twenties contributed to her decline.
Tekakwitha was raised by her aunts and an uncle who was a powerful person in the village and who
opposed Christianity. As a girl, Tekakwitha would have helped with the common tasks which were
women’s responsibilities in the village: collecting firewood, fetching water, planting beans, squash and
corn, working in the cornfields, and doing handiwork with porcupine quills, moose hair, eel skin, bark
and beads (decorating moccasins and deerskin shirts, making baskets and boxes, preparing mats to be
used in the longhouse). She also ground corn into meal, made soup and bread, and fed those in her
longhouse. In the course of carrying out the first of these tasks (collecting firewood), Tekakwitha was
once knocked unconscious by a falling tree limb.
For a time, Tekakwitha was interested in her personal appearance, arraying herself in the typical dress of
the Iroquois women of the day and wearing strings of glass beads in her hair. She later thought of this as
vanity and a great sin deserving a severe penance.
Once Tekakwitha reached marriageable age (which could have been as young as twelve, although the
arranged marriage may not have really taken place until a much later date), her relatives began
broaching the subject of marriage with her. At one point, they invited a potential spouse to sit beside her
in the longhouse, signifying their future relationship, but Kateri was not at all interested and escaped,
hiding in the cornfields.
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address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
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Tekakwitha first encountered Jesuit missionaries when they stayed at her uncle’s lodge, planning
missions among the Iroquois. She would have been about eleven or twelve years old at this time, when
she first heard the “Black Robes” (Fathers Jacques Frémin, Jean Pierron, and Jacques Bruyas) speak
about Jesus.
Several years later, when she was eighteen, she received her first real instruction in the Christian faith.
Confined to her longhouse because of a foot injury, Tekakwitha was visited by the Jesuit missionary to
the Mohawk, Father Jacques de Lamberville, who followed an impulse to go into what appeared to be an
empty longhouse (all the others were in the fields). He invited her to come to pray at the village chapel,
which she did, when her foot was better. She expressed to Fr. Lamberville her worry that her uncle
would oppose her becoming a Christian because she might leave her village and go to Kahnawake
instead, which other women from her longhouse had already done.
Tekakwitha became a catechumen, instructed in the faith by Fr. Lamberville, who likely possessed a
working knowledge of the Mohawk language. She wanted to be baptized but delayed it for a time
because she did not want to upset her uncle.
Tekakwitha was eventually baptized at the age of nineteen with two other Mohawks in the chapel of StPierre de Gandaouagué mission on Easter Sunday, 1676. She took the Christian baptismal name of
Catherine.
“Catherine” was a popular name among the Mohawk, perhaps because it was easier for them to
pronounce in their language than other saints’ names. The idea of receiving a new name and a new
identity was already familiar to her from Mohawk cultural practices which sought to renew and preserve
in the living the social personalities associated with the names of their deceased members. “Kateri” was
named for Saint Catherine of Siena and she would have listened attentively to the story of Catherine of
Siena’s life, having the intent of emulating her to the best of her ability, and of renewing in herself the
spirit of the saint.
About eighteen months after her baptism, Kateri left her native land and went north to Kahnawake (also
called Fort Saint-Louis or Sault St. Louis), a Jesuit-sponsored mission settlement, to rid herself of
harassment she experienced from the non-Christian majority in her village. She joined other Christian
Iroquois women who had renounced marriage to embrace virginity instead.
Largely made up of Huron or Algonquin war captives, who had left their adoptive Iroquois families to
form Christian communities, Kahnawake (meaning “at the ‘sault’” or “falls” in Mohawk) was near
Montreal and was one of the largest and most successful of these kinds of Christianized towns. In
Kahnawake, alcohol was strictly forbidden.
When Kateri arrived at Kahnawake, she became part of the longhouse of Anastasia Tegonhatsiongo,
who was herself a devout Christian and who had been a close friend of Kateri’s mother. In Kahnawake,
Kateri was able to pursue the practice of her faith more intensely, under Anastasia’s watchful eye.
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Established in 1908 under papal mandate as The Catholic Church Extension Society of Canada
address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
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In this period of her Christian life, Kateri was guided mostly by the other young and zealous Iroquois
women converts at the Fort Saint-Louis “prayer village.” She learned about how to behave as a
Christian, what to do and what to avoid, and how to be vigilant and exacting in her examination of her
own behaviour.
Jesuit Father Pierre Cholenec, a missionary at Kahnawake, was too busy to provide constant oversight to
the growing Christian community there. He served, when he could, as Kateri’s confessor and spiritual
director. He prepared her for her First Communion which she received sooner than usual, at Christmas
in 1677.
She went on the winter hunt that year, but found it so difficult to be deprived of the Mass, the Eucharist,
and daily prayer that she refused to go in the second year, knowing this would mean she would have no
meat to eat over the winter. Kateri had a devotion to the Eucharist and attended Mass and prayers as
often as she could during her days. She desired nothing more than to learn what pleased God most.
Even at Kahnawake, Kateri was pressured to marry since this would have been the normal thing for a
woman of her age and culture to do. Marriage would bring a man who could hunt or trap for furs,
providing both food and hides that could be made into clothing for the longhouse family. Kateri,
however, had no interest in this, believing herself married already to Jesus (Saint Catherine of Siena had
believed the same about herself). She took a private vow of virginity, wanting to dedicate herself
entirely to God.
Kateri, along with two of her friends, planned to make an association in which women would live lives
modelled on those of the nuns they had heard about in Quebec and Montreal. They remained dedicated
virgins and helped each other in self-mortifications. They were not the only ones – there was a
penitential fervour in the late 1670s and early 1680s at Kahnawake, in which even the Jesuits noted
some excesses, especially after the death of Kateri.
Kateri did not initiate the penances she undertook. She learned them from watching Iroquois tortures
carried out on war captives and from others at Kahnawake who sought to imitate the sufferings of Jesus,
to make up for the sins they believed they and their nations had committed prior to accepting
Christianity, and to rid themselves of bodily concerns to pursue freedom of spirit instead.
In her pursuit of penances we would think of now as quite harsh, Kateri was often inspired by stories she
heard about the saints. She walked barefoot in ice and snow and put coals and burning cinders between
her toes, branded her feet the way Iroquois marked their war captives as slaves, beat her own shoulders
and sought the assistance of her friends in this task as well. She also fasted, mixed ashes in her food, and
slept on a bed of thorns.
Fr. Cholenec, knowing these habits had made Kateri sick, insisted on regulating them, but Kateri, who
was apparently surrounded by a great light when she was engaged in self-flagellation (which Fr.
Cholenec and another Jesuit, Father Claude Chauchetière, took as a sign of divine favour), was
determined to continue her ascetical and penitential practices.
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address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
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Eventually, Kateri’s penances made her so sick that she could not recover. She lay on a floormat in her
longhouse while most of the men and women of the village were out at their hunting camps. Fr.
Chauchetière, the junior missionary at Sault St. Louis, visited her daily during her final illness,
convinced there was something very special about her, and that she might indeed be a saint. Fr.
Cholenec gave her the “last rites” in her lodge.
She died at Kahnawake, Canada, on April 17, 1680 (in the season of Lent that year) at the age of twentyfour. Her final words were: “Jesos Konoronkwa” (“Jesus, I love you”). It is said a sweet fragrance filled
the room upon her passing and that the scars on her face disappeared, revealing a most beautiful
countenance.
In 1683, it is reported that several Jesuits were saved from death through her intervention when the
mission church at Kahnawake collapsed around them in a windstorm. Other healings were attributed to
her as well. She is affectionately called the “Lily of the Mohawks.”
French Jesuit Father Claude Chauchetière was her biographer and he led the movement to recognize the
Iroquois woman as a saint. In 1943, the Roman Catholic Church declared her “venerable” and she was
beatified in 1980. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012. She is the only
Native American to have been declared a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha’s Story: Version 2 (for younger students)
More than three hundred years ago, a little girl was born in a small Iroquois village on the Mohawk
River in New York State in the United States. Her mother was a very devout and baptized Catholic
Algonquin woman and her father was a Mohawk man who followed the traditional ways of his people.
They lived all-year round in a longhouse, which kept them cool in the summer and warm in the winter,
and most likely, they were members of the Turtle Clan or family, judging from the turtle carving
mounted above the door of their longhouse. The little girl’s Mohawk name was a long one:
“Tekakwitha,” and it meant either “she who goes forward while fumbling” or “she who puts things in
order.”
When Tekakwitha was just a toddler, her entire village moved a few kilometres away, where the soil
was better for growing vegetables and there was more wood to heat their longhouse. The Iroquois often
had to do this to survive. Shortly after, when Tekakwitha was four or five years old, the dreadful
smallpox disease came to her village, spread by some of their European visitors, and her parents and
baby brother all died. Tekakwitha herself also had smallpox but she did not die. She had scars on her
face, however, and the disease made her eyes very sensitive to light, and her general health quite poor.
She sometimes wore a blanket over her head, to protect her eyes and perhaps to hide her face.
After her parents died, Tekakwitha was raised by her aunts and an uncle who was a powerful person in
the village and who didn’t want anyone in the village to become Christian. Tekakwitha helped with all
the chores which were women’s responsibilities in the village: she collected firewood, fetched water,
and planted beans, squash and corn (called the “Three Sisters” because they grew so well together). She
worked in the cornfields, too, and did handiwork with porcupine quills, moose hair, and glass beads the
Catholic Missions In Canada
Established in 1908 under papal mandate as The Catholic Church Extension Society of Canada
address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
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village got through trading with the Europeans. With these, she decorated moccasins and deerskin shirts.
She also made baskets and boxes, and prepared mats for sleeping and sitting in the longhouse. She
ground corn into meal, made soup and bread, and fed those in her longhouse, too. One time, when
Tekakwitha was collecting firewood, she was hit by a falling tree branch and knocked unconscious.
The Mohawk were known for their fierce warriors and attacks, but when Kateri was about ten years old,
an alliance of the French and Algonquin Nations suddenly attacked her Mohawk village and burned it to
the ground. The villagers (Tekakwitha among them), were forewarned of the attack, however, and
watched the destruction of their village from the forest where they were hiding. After this, the Mohawk
made peace with the French and rebuilt their village.
When Tekakwitha was a young girl, she thought more about her personal appearance and making herself
look really good, but when she was an older teenager, she wanted to show her humility before God by
dressing much more simply and without jewelry, even though this went against the custom in her clan.
She thought it was vain and not right to think more about her appearance than about God, and she
wanted to focus on serving God alone.
When Tekakwitha reached the age of twelve, the women of her longhouse began to think about finding a
man for her to marry. They even brought a young Iroquois warrior to her one day, thinking he might be
the right one, but Tekakwitha did not want to marry and she left the longhouse and hid in the cornfields.
Around the same age, Tekakwitha met Catholic missionaries for the first time (Fathers Jacques Frémin,
Jean Pierron, and Jacques Bruyas), when they stayed at her uncle’s lodge one time. She remembered
almost nothing of what her mother had tried to teach her about Jesus in the first years of her life, but
now, she listened with interest to what the “Black Robes” (the Jesuit missionary priests) were saying
about Jesus. It was six years later, though, when she was eighteen, that Jesuit priest called Father
Jacques de Lamberville taught her much more about Jesus and the Catholic Christian faith and invited
her to come to pray at the village chapel. She wanted to be baptized but waited for a while because she
did not want to upset her uncle.
Tekakwitha was eventually baptized when she was nineteen, on Easter Sunday in 1676. She was given a
new Christian name: Catherine, pronounced “Kateri” (Kah-terʹ-ee) in Mohawk. “Kateri” was named for
Saint Catherine of Siena so she tried to be as much like her as she could be.
In her longhouse village, Kateri’s Christian ways were not accepted very well and Kateri found life
difficult. She was teased and given extra chores, and sometimes, not enough to eat. About a year-and-ahalf after her baptism, she left her longhouse village and went north to a Christian Iroquois village near
Montreal, called “Kahnawake,” where she could be a Christian without people criticizing or making fun
of her. In the new Christian village, she met other Christian Iroquois women who wanted to give their
lives to Jesus and she learned even more about how to live a Christian life.
Father Pierre Cholenec, one of the missionaries at this new village, prepared Kateri for her First
Communion which she received at Christmastime. She went on the winter hunt that year, but missed
participating in the celebration of the Mass and receiving Communion so much that she refused to go on
Catholic Missions In Canada
Established in 1908 under papal mandate as The Catholic Church Extension Society of Canada
address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
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the hunt again in the second year, knowing this would mean she would have no meat to eat over the
winter. She desired nothing more than to learn what pleased God the most.
Even at Kahnawake, people thought Kateri should marry someone because that was the normal thing for
a woman of her age and culture to do, but Kateri believed she was really married to Jesus already and
she could not marry anyone else. She and some of her friends formed a small community together and
they helped each other to love Jesus more each day. Whenever she gave up things her body wanted, like
food, she did it for the sake of Jesus, to share in his sufferings and to express her sorrow for any wrong
things she thought she had done, but she sometimes pushed herself with this so much that she became
weak. She wanted her spirit to be as free as it could be to love Jesus.
Eventually, when Kateri was only twenty-four years old, she got so sick, she could not recover. She lay
on a floormat in her longhouse while most of the men and women of the village were out at their hunting
camps. Fr. Claude Chauchetière, another priest at Kahnawake, visited her daily during her final illness,
convinced there was something very special about her, and that she might be a saint. Fr. Pierre also
visited her and gave her the sacraments for the last time.
Kateri died on April 17, 1680. Her final words were: “Jesos Konoronkwa” (“Jesus, I love you”). It is
said a sweet fragrance filled the room after she died and that the scars on her face disappeared, revealing
a very beautiful face. Because of her innocence, purity, faithfulness and love, she is affectionately called
the “Lily of the Mohawks.”
What Are Saints? (optional material in square brackets below)
“Saints” are people who love God and try with everything they have to live like Jesus did, showing the
goodness and love of God to others. When we see a saint, we see how God’s Holy Spirit still lives
among us, and how God is making us all as good and holy as Jesus, if we want this, too. We can ask the
saints to pray to God on our behalf because we are all a part of the same very big Christian family. The
unity we have as believers is shown and brought about primarily when we celebrate the Eucharist
together. By the saints’ example of love, they can help us be more faithful to Christ. Each one of us is
called to be as much like Jesus as we can be in our lives.
[By canonizing saints, the Church tells Catholic Christians that some of the faithful practised great and
heroic virtues and lived their lives in fidelity to the grace of God, and recognizes the power of the Spirit
of holiness at work within her (CCC, 828).]
How Does a Person Become a Saint in the Roman Catholic Church?
When a person lives a life of great virtue, or they are put to death by others because of their faith in
Christ, the Church considers whether they should be declared a saint or not. Usually, fifty years have to
pass after the death of such a holy person before the Church starts the process. After checking carefully
how such a person lived, the Church also looks for signs of their holiness through miracles that may
have occurred when someone prayed to them, asking for their help in praying to God about a particular
need. Today, the Pope is the only one who can make a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
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address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
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[Beatification is the first level of the process and this permits a worthy person to receive limited cultus
(veneration within perhaps a specific religious order, or in a particular diocese or country). Canonization
authorizes liturgical cultus for the whole church (the universal church).]
A Miracle Attributed to the Intercession of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
In 2006, a young boy in the United States developed a high fever and his face swelled after he cut his
lip. When doctors assessed the boy, they told his parents Jake Finkbonner had a flesh-eating bacterium
called Strep A. Over the next few weeks, the bacterium destroyed his lips, cheeks and forehead and Jake
was near death.
The family’s priest asked for his congregation’s prayers and suggested all should ask for the intercession
of Blessed Kateri because her facial scars and Native American heritage brought her to his mind. Jake’s
own heritage was half Native American (Lummi).
Prayers from around the world surrounded the boy and a pendant of Kateri was placed on his pillow at
the hospital. The infection stopped progressing and the boy recovered.
Vatican investigators examined the incident over the course of three years and on December 19, 2011,
Pope Benedict XVI approved the miracle, attributing it to Blessed Kateri’s intervention.
How can we be holy today?
We can be holy today by trying to show the love of Jesus Christ for everyone, and by allowing Christ to
strengthen us, especially through His many ways of being present to us in the celebration of the
Eucharist.
Suggested Student Activities and Follow-Up Questions
1. Draw a picture or a series of pictures depicting scenes from Saint Kateri’s life story and display it
(them) for the class or school to see. For example, you might draw a picture of Kateri in the fields
with the other women of her longhouse.
When the women of a longhouse went out to the fields to begin planting, they took with
them seeds for corn, beans and squash. These vegetables made such a perfect growing
combination that they were called the “Three Sisters.” Because the corn grew tall, it
could support the climbing vines which produced beans. The low-growing squash, with
its broad leaves, shaded the soil from the sun, preventing weeds from sprouting.
2. Can you think of anyone you know or someone you have heard of who loves Jesus and tries to live
like Him (it could be you!)? Draw a picture of that person doing something good or holy.
3. Using an original melody, or a familiar tune (e.g., Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; Jesus Loves Me;
This Little Light of Mine), compose a song about Kateri and sing it with, or for, the class.
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address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
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4. Write a poem of any kind (e.g., rhyming, free verse, haiku) about Kateri and share it with the class.
Haiku is a traditional Japanese form of short poem, often with a theme from nature,
which tries to describe something about a real experience or a memory and show the
feeling that lies behind the description. In Japanese, haiku has three lines and a total of
seventeen syllables (five in the first line, seven in the second line, and five in the last line),
or about the number of words you could speak easily in one breath. In English, you can
still write haiku in the Japanese style, but it is more important that your haiku be only as
long as one breath than that you have exactly seventeen syllables. Make the second line
of your haiku a little longer than the other two lines, and use strong images.
5. (Teacher) – Find images of smallpox scars on Google Images to show how disfigured Kateri’s face
may have been. (Students) – If you wish, use face paint to draw scars on each other’s faces to wear
for the day, in solidarity with Saint Kateri.
6. Write a conversation between Tekakwitha (before she was baptized) or Kateri (after she was
baptized) and one of the “Black Robes” (Jesuit missionary priests) she met during her life (Fathers
Jacques Frémin, Jean Pierron, and Jacques Bruyas, when they stayed at her longhouse; Father
Jacques de Lamberville, when he visited her when she had a foot injury, and invited her to come to
the chapel to pray, or at her baptism; Father Pierre Cholenec, when he prepared her for First
Communion, or gave her the sacraments for the last time; Father Claude Chauchetière, when he
visited her daily as she was dying).
7. Using popsicle sticks, playdough, cardboard or other materials, design and construct a longhouse in
Mohawk (Iroquois) style. Once you have constructed your longhouse, place Kateri at work inside
(perhaps cooking, doing decorative work with porcupine quills, or keeping the fire going) or outside
(perhaps collecting firewood, fetching water, grinding corn, or planting vegetables).
The Iroquois called themselves the Haudenosaunee (pronounced ho-dee-no-show-nee),
which means “people of the longhouse.” A longhouse might be six to ten metres in width,
and twenty-five to seventy metres in length, in order to accommodate between fifteen and
twenty families in a clan. A longhouse is as tall as it is wide. The frame was built with
wooden poles made from both mature and young tree trunks lashed together. At the top,
these were bent towards the centre and held together with strips of bark. Then, the frame
was covered with pieces of bark from elm trees to make a barrier against rain and snow.
Supple young tree branches were used to keep the bark in place and pine sap was used to
seal any cracks. There was a row of smoke holes in the curved roof, with movable bark
sheets, and one or two low doorways (no windows), one at either end, protected by
deerskin flaps. A longhouse village was built close to a river or stream so there was
plenty of fresh water for drinking and bathing, and easy access to travel routes by water.
Inside a longhouse were platforms along the walls, divided by sheets of bark to separate
one family’s space from another’s. There was a three-metre-wide corridor running the
Catholic Missions In Canada
Established in 1908 under papal mandate as The Catholic Church Extension Society of Canada
address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
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Page 10 of 13
length of the longhouse between the platforms on either side. On the floor in this open
space were fire pits for preparing food and for keeping warm. Two families shared a fire
pit. The people slept on mats made of corn husks and they used bearskins for blankets.
They had space under and above the platform to store their belongings including tools,
clothing, cooking utensils, weapons, and baskets. Their cooking pots were made of clay
and their water and serving bowls were made of wood. The Iroquois used the crossbeams
in the longhouse and its rafters for storing dried vegetables, smoked meat, snowshoes
and cradleboards (which mothers used to carry babies on their backs).
Templates for a longhouse designed by Susan K. Nelson are currently available for free download at
http://www.susankae.com/Iroquois%20longhouse.pdf. A very detailed plan for building an actual or
scaled-down version of a longhouse is currently available at
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/buildingmodel.html (the New York State Museum
website).
8. Make a necklace or bracelet from dried seeds and/or beads. Wear it to remind you to tell Jesus you
love Him.
Soak dried beans, corn kernels, watermelon, sunflower or pumpkin seeds in water to
make them soft (some may need to be soaked overnight). Using a needle and a thimble,
poke a hole in every seed and let each dry overnight. (You may also paint the seeds
before threading them, making sure not to hide the holes you have made in each one, but
this will take extra drying time). Then, using a needle and thread or dental floss, design
and craft a necklace or wrist or ankle bracelet by stringing the dried seeds onto the
thread. Be sure to leave enough extra thread to tie the ends. You will need at least 60 cm
for a necklace, 25 cm for a wrist bracelet, and 35 cm for an ankle bracelet. Tying a
double knot at one end of the thread will make it easier to keep the seeds on the thread as
you string them. Once all the dried seeds are on the thread, remove the needle, and tie
the ends of the thread for a finished product. (Purchased beads or small shells may also
be used with the seeds for this craft, adding more colour and variety to the design.)
9. Listen to the Huron Carol, a song by Jesuit Father Jean de Brebeuf in Wendat (Huron) and English,
currently at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6IG6F6E5Ac – a song Kateri Tekakwitha may
have sung herself in her own Mohawk language at the Kahnawake mission. Learn the song and sing
it in English or another language.
10. Complete the worksheet, using the clues listed.
11. Decorate a cross with “porcupine quills” (painted round toothpicks).
With a black marker, “paint” the lower one-third of at least 70 round toothpicks black.
Let dry. Now paint the upper two-thirds of the round toothpicks with whiteout, and let
stand until dry. Using cardboard or poster board, a ruler and pencil, draw a small cross
design (perhaps 11 cm x 15 cm). With scissors, cut out the cross and set aside. In the
Catholic Missions In Canada
Established in 1908 under papal mandate as The Catholic Church Extension Society of Canada
address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
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Page 11 of 13
centre of the cross, glue four toothpicks, with points meeting and each perpendicular to
its neighbour (+). One quarter of the cross at a time, put down a good base of glue and
decorate with the remaining “porcupine quills.” Toothpicks may be place diagonally, as
well as horizontally and vertically, to make an attractive design. Let the cross lay flat to
dry overnight. The next day, if you wish, apply a second coat of glue and add sparkles, or
a single glass bead at the centre point of the cross if you wish.
12. Prepare a skit about one part of Kateri’s life and present it to the class, or plan a tableau and ask the
class to guess what part of Kateri’s life you are trying to communicate. In a tableau, actors strike a
pose, then stay as still as possible and do not speak.
13. Using the clues from the worksheet, or preparing additional questions of your own, organize a
Jeopardy-style class competition to answer questions about Saint Kateri’s life or miracle(s) and
about sainthood in general.
14. Play the Bowl Game
The Iroquois played a game using six peach stones or large dried beans, painted black on
one side and white on the other. The object of the game was to have five of the six peach
stones or dried beans showing the white side after the bowl was banged on the ground.
Bibliography
Bial, Raymond. The Iroquois. Lifeways. New York: Marshall Cavendish (Benchmark Books), 1999.
________. Longhouses. American Community. Toronto: Children’s Press (Scholastic, Inc.), 2004.
Catechism of the Catholic Church. Concacan Inc.: Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1999.
Cunningham, Lawrence. “Saints,” In The New Dictionary of Theology. Edited by Joseph A. Komonchak, Mary Collins and
Dermot A. Lane. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press [Michael Glazier (1987) and the Order of St. Benedict (1990)],
925-29.
Dunn, Mary R. The Mohawk. Indigenous Peoples of North America. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Thomson Learning, Inc.
(Lucent Books), 2003.
Gaines, Richard M. The Iroquois. Native Americans. Edina, Minn.” ABDO Publishing Company, 2000.
Greer, Allan. Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits. Oxford: University Press, 2005.
Kalman, Bobbie. Life in a Longhouse Village. Native Nations of North America. St. Catharines, ON: Crabtree Publishing,
2001.
Lomberg, Michelle. The Iroquois. Canadian Aboriginal Art and Culture. Calgary: Weigl Educational Publishers Ltd., 2008.
Madigan, Shawn. “Saints, Communion of Saints.” In The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality. Edited by Michael
Downey. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press (Michael Glazier and the Order of St. Benedict), 1993, 846-50.
Catholic Missions In Canada
Established in 1908 under papal mandate as The Catholic Church Extension Society of Canada
address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
web:www.cmic.info  Charitable Registration (BN) # 119220531RR0001
Page 12 of 13
Shoemaker, Nancy. “Kateri Tekakwitha’s Tortuous Path to Sainthood.” In Negotiators of Change: Historical Perspectives on
Native American Women. Edited by Nancy Shoemaker. New York: Routledge, 1995, 49-71.
Saint Kateri – “Lily of the Mohawks” Student Worksheet: Fill in the blanks below.
1. ________________ Means "Catherine" in Mohawk
2. ________________ The clan into which Tekakwitha was born
3. ________________ The disease which killed Tekakwitha's family
4. ________________ What Tekakwitha sometimes wore over her head
5. ________________ Tekakwitha's face was marked with these
6. ________________ The Iroquois building in which Tekakwitha lived
7. ________________ Tekawitha's very first teacher in her faith
8. ________________ The name of one of the first missionary priests Tekakwitha met
9. ________________ First name of the priest who prepared Tekakwitha for baptism
10. _______________ Age at which Tekakwitha was baptized
11. _______________ Sunday on which Tekakwitha was baptized
12. _______________ The “Three Sisters” Tekakwitha helped to plant
13. _______________ Something Tekakwitha collected for fuel
14. _______________ Something Tekakwitha decorated with beadwork
15. _______________ Tekakwitha delayed baptism because of him
16. _______________ The day Kateri received her First Communion
17. _______________ Kateri loved, and dedicated herself to, Him
18. _______________ Sacrifices Kateri made because she was sorry for her sins
19. _______________ The Christian village where Kateri went to live after she was baptized
20. _______________ The priest who baptized Kateri
21. _______________ A Christmas carol Kateri may have sung
22. _______________ The priest who prepared Kateri for her First Communion
23. _______________ What Kateri missed so much, she refused to go on another winter hunt
24. _______________ What Kateri's family pressured her to do when she reached the right age
25. _______________ The saint for whom Kateri was named
Catholic Missions In Canada
Established in 1908 under papal mandate as The Catholic Church Extension Society of Canada
address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
web:www.cmic.info  Charitable Registration (BN) # 119220531RR0001
Page 13 of 13
26. _______________ The priest who gave Kateri the sacraments for the last time
27. _______________ Kateri's final words before she died at age twenty-four
28. _______________ The priest who visited Kateri daily when she was dying
29. _______________ Why Kateri is being declared a saint
30. _______________ The boy whose face was healed with Blessed Kateri’s prayerful help
Answers Below:
1. Kateri
2. Turtle
3. Smallpox
4. Blanket
5. Scars
6. Longhouse
7. Mother
8. Fathers Jacques Frémin, Jean Pierron, and Jacques Bruyas
9. Jacques
10. Nineteen
11. Easter
12. Corn, beans, or squash
13. Wood
14. Moccasins and deerskin shirts
15. Uncle
16. Christmas
17. Jesus
18. Penances
19. Kahnawake
20. Fr. Jacques de Lamberville
21. Huron Carol
22. Fr. Pierre Cholenec
23. The Mass, the Eucharist, and daily prayer
24. Marry
25. Saint Catherine of Siena
26. Fr. Pierre Cholenec
27. Jesus, I love you.
28. Fr. Claude Chauchetière
29. Because, above all, she wanted to please God in her life
30. Jake Finkbonner
Catholic Missions In Canada
Established in 1908 under papal mandate as The Catholic Church Extension Society of Canada
address: 201-1155 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario M4T 1W2
phone: 416-934-3424  toll-free: 1-866-YES-CMIC (937-2642)  fax: 416-934-3425
web:www.cmic.info  Charitable Registration (BN) # 119220531RR0001