MARY AND THE SAINTS 89
MOVING AGAINST HERITAGE
AHEALINGFACE
Across miles and hundreds of years, a 17th-century Mohawk
woman is credited with rescuing a boy from deathI
t is fitting that Kateri Tekakwitha (pronounced
gah-dah-LEE degh-agh-WEE-dtha) was made
a saint after healing a Native American boy af-
flicted with a fatal flesh-eating bacteria. She
herself was a Native American who as a child
had suffered from another deadly disease that affects the
skin: smallpox.
The daughter of a Mohawk chief, she was born in 1656 in
what is now upstate New York. When she was four, tragedy
struck in the form of the fearsome virus, which killed her
parents and little brother. The little girl survived, but the
disease attacked her face and eyes, leaving her with scars
and poor vision. Her tribe gave her the name Tekakwitha,
which means “she who bumps into things,” and she went
to live with an uncle.
At the time, missionaries were already at work in the
New World trying to convert Native Americans to Chris-
tianity. Tekakwitha’s late mother had been a Catholic,
and the orphan was intrigued by the religion. Privately,
Tekakwitha took a vow of chastity and, though her uncle
forbade it, at age 18 began to study
Catholicism in secret. Eventually she
was baptized, taking the name Kateri
in honor of Saint Catherine of Si-
ena. Harassed and threatened by her
family and peers, Tekakwitha left her
tribe to join a settlement of Catholic
Native Americans in Canada, whereshe helped care for the ill and the elderly.
Tekakwitha’s pious life ended far too soon; she died of
an illness just before her 24th birthday. But witnesses at
her death reported a miracle: Her face, scarred for 20 years
from smallpox, became smooth, glowing, and beautiful.
On a Saturday in February 2006, in Ferndale, Washing-
ton, a five-year-old boy named Jake Finkbonner cut his lip
while playing basketball. The cut seemed minor at first,
but within a day Jake was in the hospital, infected by le-
thal bacteria that had entered through the cut and spread
rapidly. After four days, a priest administered last rites and
a doctor told Jake’s family there was little they could do
besides pray.
So they did. Jake’s father, Donny, was a member of the
Lummi Nation, a tribe native to Washington State. A local
priest suggested that the family pray to Kateri, who shared
a similar story and heritage. As days passed and Jake con-
tinued to battle the infection, he was visited by a local nun
named after Kateri, who prayed with the family and laid
a relic on Jake’s body. Almost immediately afterward, the
infection retreated. Jake’s parents be-
lieve that his life was saved that day.
In October 2012, Jake, by then a
healthy and athletic 12-year-old, trav-
eled with his family to Rome to witness
something his miracle had made pos-
sible: the canonization of Kateri Tekak-
witha, his very own patron saint. ▪THE HEALING OF HUNDREDS
A statue of Kateri Tekakwitha at
the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis
of Assisi in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
appears tender and unassuming.
The saint’s influence, however, was
and still is vast, credited with hun-
dreds of spontaneous healings.