Kateri Tekakwitha became the first Native American saint in the Catholic Church
Known as the Lily of the Mohawks, Kateri Tekakwitha overcame smallpox and social exile to become the first Native American recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Born in 1656 in what is now New York, Kateri Tekakwitha was a Mohawk-Algonquin woman whose life was defined by resilience and faith. After surviving a smallpox epidemic that left her scarred and partially blind, she converted to Christianity and eventually fled to a Jesuit mission near Montreal to escape persecution from her village.
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