Memorial of St. Kateri Tekakwitha

Memorial St. Kateri Tekakwitha  

Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in what is now Auriesville, New York near the Canadian border.  She was orphaned at four when her parents, a Catholic Algonquin mother and a Mohawk chief father, died of smallpox.  Her brother also died.  She survived the infection but was left with severe facial scars and partial blindness.  Taken in by an aunt and uncle she received her first knowledge of the Catholic faith from the Blackrobes, the name by which Jesuit missionaries were known.  She was baptized at eighteen.  Her uncle, who replaced his brother as chief, allowed her baptism under the condition that she remain in the village.  He was not sympathetic to Catholicism.  Indeed, he detested the Blackrobes, but had to tolerate their presence under a treaty laid down by the French.  Two years after her baptism she fled her village for St. Francis Xavier Mission two hundred miles away.  She traveled on foot. 

She was by all accounts devout, attending Mass twice daily, fasting, ministering, to the sick, praying, teaching the faith to children. She pronounced a vow of perpetual virginity on the Feast of the Annunciation in 1679.  Shortly afterwards her health began to deteriorate. She died of tuberculosis in 1680 just before turning twenty-four.  She was beatified in 1980 and canonized in 2013.

Many of the saints whose memorials we celebrate throughout the liturgical year were well-known during their lives.  Some wielded considerable power. Consider Benedict of Nursia and Ignatius of Loyola, both of whom are celebrated in July.  Today, by way of contrast, we celebrate the memorial of a saint who was insignificant during her lifetime.  It was three hundred years before she was beatified.  She was poor, scarred, partially blind, and uneducated.  It is unlikely she could have understood the writings of Benedict, or Ignatius, or Bonaventure--whose memorial would be tomorrow were it not a Sunday--even if she could read.  

Yet, her life is a greater example for us than the lives of the heavy hitters.  Her life is an example because of, its simplicity and ordinariness, not despite that simplicity. Like Théreèse of Lisieux she lived her own "Little Way."  A quote attributed to her illustrates the depth of her faith, her fearlessness, and her embrace of a life in imitation of Jesus, poor, chaste, and obedient. 

“I am not my own; I have given myself to Jesus. 

He must be my only love. 

The state of helpless poverty 

that may befall me if I do not marry does not frighten me. 

All I need is a little food and a few pieces of clothing. 

With the work of my hands I shall always earn what is necessary

and what is left over I’ll give to my relatives and to the poor. 

If I should become sick and unable to work, 

then I shall be like the Lord on the cross. 

He will have mercy on me and help me, 

I am sure."

If only we could all hold Saint Kateri's certainty and live with her attitude of simplicity.

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The photos here were taken in Gloucester, MA at the Jesuit retreat house in late November 2011, a few years before the rebuilding.  My favorite kind of photography captures and transmits a mood, a sense of place, rather than being simply a snapshot to record the details of something.  I never, ever, ever take "selfies" (a truly ugly word) and rarely photograph people unless they are incidental to the scene.  This excludes, of course, requests to photograph an event.  No, I will never ever ever do a wedding.

This was an old falling down, or at least tremendously unkempt, shed.  The moment I saw this scene the name Andrew Wyeth came screaming into my brain.  Fortunately I took a number of shots.  A year later the shed had been cleaned, repaired, screening (ugh) put on the window.  It was now a meditation chapel for the retreat house.  More useful but less photogenic. 

Another shot of the interior of the shed.  

This photo was driven by the contrast in shape, color, and texture of the various components.  I love black and white photography. While the first two here would work just as well in black and white this one must be in color. 

Am heading to Slovenia on Monday evening.  Will spend one week in LJ and another at Mt. Lussari (Sveti Višarje in Slovenian) at a summer camp for those who are trying to learn English.  The campers, mostly teenage, will come from three countries. They will have no common language except English.  I will be the only native English speaker. 

+Fr. Jack, SJ, MD