Today is the feast of St. Kateri (or Catherine) Tekakwitha, the first Native American Indian saint. It is also the feast of the great theologian St. Bonaventure.
Indeed, there are also numerous other great saints today, from around the world and across many eras, married and ordained, European, African, and Asian. From Camillus de Lellis to Michael Ghebre to Francis Solano, from Vincent Madelgaire to Richard Langhorne, from Aquila to Ioannes Wang Kuixin, the Catholic Church presents a rich array of wonderful Christians today to inspire us to persevere in the faith while living in a strongly anti-Christian world.
For Americans, Kateri is a particularly beloved saint. From her birth in 1656 in what is now the area of Auriesville, New York, to her death at the young age of 24 in 1680 in Canada, the “Lily of the Mohawks” always gave an outstanding example of sanctity, no matter how difficult her life was.
Since her death, Kateri’s story has fired the admiration and imagination of countless people both in America and elsewhere. She illustrates that Christianity is as much a religion for the natives of this continent as for any other people. Christianity is not a European religion, nor an Asian one (though Jesus lived in Asia), but universal for all peoples, because truth itself is universal.
“[CatholicSaints.info, Kateri Tekakwitha] Daughter of a Christian Algonquin woman captured by Iroquois and married to a non-Christian Mohawk chief. Orphaned during a smallpox epidemic, which left her with a scarred face and impaired eyesight. Converted and baptized in 1676 by Father Jacques de Lamberville, a Jesuit missionary. [She was s]hunned and [harshly] abused by relatives for her faith. Escaped through 200 miles of wilderness to the [Catholic] Christian Native American village of Sault-Sainte-Marie [and] Took a vow of chastity in 1679. Known for spirituality and austere lifestyle. Miracle worker. Her grave became a pilgrimage site and place of miracles for Christian Native Americans and French colonists. First Native American proposed for canonization, her cause was started in 1884 under Pope Leo XIII.”
The scars of the smallpox miraculously disappeared from her face after death, leaving it strikingly beautiful, a sign of how the humble young woman had gone straight to Heaven.
There are also multiple other great saints today, too, as noted above. In the old Latin Mass calendar, today is the feast of St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan cleric and teacher whose beautiful theological writings earned him the title of “Seraphic Doctor.” He “entered the Franciscan Order. He lectured with immediate and lasting success at the University of Paris, where he was intimately acquainted with St. Thomas Aquinas. Known as the Seraphic Doctor, he became General of the Franciscan Order and Cardinal of Albano. He died in 1274.”
St. Camillus de Lellis was an Italian who went from being a soldier and gambler to a priest and founder of a religious order to care for the sick. Camillus, who struggled his whole life with serious medical issues, was a loving caretaker of the sick who worked miraculous healings and prophesied. Then there’s St. Francis Solano, a Spanish missionary who survived shipwreck to evangelize across South America, particularly around Peru; he is said to have converted 9,000 of the natives during one remarkable sermon.
St. Aquila the Apostle was a Jewish tentmaker who converted to Christianity and became a friend and spiritual assistant to St. Paul the Apostle in the first century. Bl. Richard Langhorne was an English husband, father, and lawyer who was arrested, imprisoned, and eventually executed under a false charge of plotting to burn London due to his Catholic faith in 1679. St. Vincent Madelgaire was a 7th century nobleman in Belgium whose wife and four children were all saints too; he recruited missionaries, founded abbeys, and later became abbot at one of them. Bl. Michael Ghebre was a native of what is now Ethiopia, a convert who became a priest. He was arrested with four companions and abused to death in 1855. Finally, St. Ioannes (John) Wang Kuixin was a Chinese layman martyred in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.
As different as all these saints were, separated by time, place, vocation, social status, and other factors, they were all faithful Christians—some even to the point of martyrdom. May St. Kateri, St. Bonaventure, and their fellow saints pray for America and the world, which so desperately needs to return to God.
Quote without links are from the Latin Mass missal. This article was originally published last year.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Catherine Salgado
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