2831 x 4256 px | 24 x 36 cm | 9,4 x 14,2 inches | 300dpi
Ubicazione:
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, United States, America
Altre informazioni:
Kateri Tekakwitha or Catherine Tekakwitha (Mohawk: [ɡaderi deɡaɡwitha]; 1656 – April 17, 1680) was a Mohawk-Algonquian woman from New York and an early convert to Catholicism, who has been beatified in the Roman Catholic Church. Unable to understand her new found religious zeal, members of the tribe often chastised her, which she took as a testament to her faith. Kateri exercised physical mortification as a route to sanctity. She occasionally put thorns upon her sleeping mat and lay on them, while praying for the conversion and forgiveness of her kinsmen. Piercing the body to draw blood was a traditional practice of the Hurons, Iroquois, as well as the Mohawks.[citation needed] Kateri believed that offering her blood was in imitation of Christ's crucifixion. She changed this practice to stepping on burning coals when her close friend, Marie Therese, expressed her disapproval. Because she was persecuted by her Native American kin, which included threats to her life, she fled to an established community of Native American Christians in Kahnawake, Quebec, where she lived a life dedicated to prayer, penance, and care for the sick and aged. In 1679, she took a vow of chastity. A year later, on April 17, 1680, Kateri died at the age of 24. Tradition holds that Kateri's scars vanished at the time of her death, revealing a woman of immense beauty. It has been claimed that at her funeral many of the ill who attended were healed. It is also held that she appeared to two different individuals in the weeks following her death.
