When our family relocated to central New York last year, it was only a coincidence that moving day was July 14, the feast of Kateri Tekakwitha.

We quickly realized that this Mohawk woman, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980, lived most of her life in the same region.

One year later, her feast day seemed to be a good time for our first visit to the National Shrine of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, about two hours from our home, to say a prayer of thanksgiving for a good year in our new location.

Checking the shrine’s website, I learned that 2006 marks the 350th anniversary of Kateri’s birth. That did it. Now a feast-day visit was a must.

The shrine is located just outside the small town of Fonda, near the site of the village where Kateri spent much of her life. She was born and lived her early years in Ossernenon, a village along the Mohawk River. When she was 4, her parents and her brother all died of smallpox.

Kateri survived the disease, but it left her face scarred and her eyesight impaired. Adopted by an aunt and uncle, she was given the name “Tekakwitha,” which means “She Who Bumps Into Things.”

Catholics, of course, know her better as the “Lily of the Mohawks.” (The cause for her canonization is underway. For more on that, visit kateritekakwitha.org.)

When Kateri was 10, Ossernenon was destroyed by attacking French troops joined by hostile Indians of other tribes. Today the town of Auriesville (and another important place of pilgrimage, the Shrine of the North American Martyrs) is located on that site.

Kateri was one of only a few survivors of the attack and joined the others in setting up Caughnawaga, a new fortified village four miles down the river. She lived there for the next 10 years, and it was there that she was baptized on Easter Sunday, 1676.

The persecution she faced after her baptism compelled her to leave the village. She walked 200 miles to a community of Christian Indians in Canada, where she spent the remaining four years of her life.

Friendly Spirit

As we discovered last month, the National Kateri Shrine is a plain and simple place. It was obviously constructed and maintained without the benefit of massive financial support.

But that’s part of its charm: It offers an ideal setting for prayer and contemplation of the surprising ways in which God sometimes works — as well as for honoring and learning about Kateri and the other American Indians who once called this place home.

We arrived as the feast day Mass was finishing in an outdoor pavilion chapel. We walked along a hillside path marked by wooden Stations of the Cross. Beautiful statues of the crucified Christ, along with Mary and John standing by, mark the 11th Station. More statues of the Sacred Heart of Christ, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony of Padua, and Kateri overlook the Stations walk and the entire shrine.

Our next stop was St. Peter’s Chapel, the shrine’s primary place of prayer. With visual cues recalling the site’s American Indian roots, the sanctuary offers a quiet place for pilgrims to pause before Jesus in the tabernacle.

The lower level of the same building contains a small museum that features exhibits on Kateri’s life, along with displays showing the history and culture of her people.

One interesting collection of artifacts caught our children’s attention, while a large model of a typical Mohawk village prepared us all for a visit to an actual village a little later.

Next door to this building is a small gift shop. Posters, statuettes, holy cards, T-shirts and various Indian mementos are available.

On the lawn outside, a lovely rosary circle, made of painted white rocks and a statue of Our Lady, provides another spot to stop for prayer.

  For me, the most worthwhile part of the visit was still ahead. Just up the hill, half a mile’s walk through the woods (or a quick drive around and up), pilgrims can visit an important historical site that provides a close connection to Kateri.

Here the remains of Kateri’s village, Caughnawaga, were discovered in 1950. Excavations took place over the next several years; it is now the only fully excavated Mohawk village in the United States.

Little remains, and today the spot is not much more than a clearing in the woods. But metal stakes mark out the periphery of the village, which was protected by a wall of tall logs lined up vertically, and the outlines of a dozen longhouses that stood inside.

Here is where Kateri actually lived with her aunt and uncle — where she walked and cooked and prayed. Here is where she learned the Catholic faith and was baptized by Father Jacques de Lamberville, a Jesuit missionary.

And here she endured the persecution for her faith that eventually led to her departure for Canada.

There is also a dirt trail that leads deeper into the woods. Here we saw the natural spring that would have served as the source of water for the tribe — including the baptismal water that became the instrument of such extraordinary grace for Kateri and, through her, for the whole Church.

It was grace for my family and me that day, as we reflected on the short but powerful life of this simple woman. She died before her 24th birthday. She never founded an order or preached a sermon.

Yet she lived out her faith with such fortitude and love that she’s still turning hearts toward Christ today, 326 years after she departed this world.

 

Barry Michaels writes from
North Syracuse, New York.

Planning Your Visit

The annual Tridentine Pilgrimage for Renewal and Restoration will take place Sept. 29-30. It will include Tridentine Mass and a pilgrimage to the Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, N.Y., about four miles away from the Kateri Tekakwitha shrine. For more information on Kateri, the shrine and other events, visit katerishrine.com. The shrine closes for the season on Oct. 31.

Getting There

Fonda, N.Y., is located just off Exit 28 on the New York State Thruway. Turn left after exiting, then right over the bridge. Turn left onto Rte. 5 and drive about two miles, through the town of Fonda to the shrine, which is easy to spot.