Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
Kateri Tekakwith was born in Gandahouhague, a territory later becoming part of New York, in 1656. After surviving a smallpox epidemic as a small child, Kateri lived with disfiguration and partial blindness. Kateri was baptized in 1676 causing her alienation from her village. Kateri left her village in 1677 to a mission near Montreal called the Praying castle. She took a vow of chastity and devoted her life to Christ through penintenital practices and caring for the elderly and ill. Kateri died in 1680 at the age of twenty-four after a life devoted to Christianity. After being declared Venerable in 1943, Kateri was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980. She is revered as the "patroness of the environment and ecology."
