Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1679), born in what is now upstate New York, is often called “Lily of the Mohawks” in honor of her mixed Mohawk and Algonquin heritage. Her name, Tekakwitha, means “putting things in order.” When she was four, her entire family was wiped out by smallpox and she was left scarred.

Baptized by a Jesuit at the age of 19, she took the name Kateri. Because of the results of smallpox, she was shunned by the Mohawk people. She refused to marry, left her village, and finally escaped to Canada where she assisted the elderly and sick and taught children.

She lived the rest of her life in the Jesuit mission village of Kahnawka, south of Montreal. Here she died only four years later at the age of twenty-three. It was said that her pock marks disappeared after her death. In her short lifetime she endured ridicule from her tribe for her Christian faith but maintained her practices of prayer, penance and care for the sick and aged.