Pilgrimage to Rome – Canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha
Sister Lucy DuMont, ssa
Volume 27 Issue 1, 2 & 3 | Posted: March 7, 2013
“We have a saint!” Sr. Kateri Mitchell of The Sisters of St. Ann, herself of the Mohawk Nation, proclaimed to hundreds of people at a festive dinner following the canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha on October 21, 2012.
Kateri Tekakwitha was among the nine persons canonized by Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s Square. Over 1,000 North American First Nations people, as well as non-native sisters, priests and friends associated with them, travelled to Rome for this event.
“We have a saint!” Sr. Kateri Mitchell of The Sisters of St. Ann, herself of the Mohawk Nation, proclaimed to hundreds of people at a festive dinner following the canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha on October 21, 2012.
Kateri Tekakwitha was among the nine persons canonized by Pope Benedict XVI at St. Peter’s Square. Over 1,000 North American First Nations people, as well as non-native sisters, priests and friends associated with them, travelled to Rome for this event.
In 2006 Sr. Kateri Mitchell was invited to pray with five-year-old Jake Finkbonner of the Lummi tribe of northwest Washington. Jake was in the Seattle Medical Center dying of a flesh-eating bacterial disease. Sr. Kateri placed a relic of Kateri Tekakwitha on the boy, and with the others gathered there, prayed for his recovery. The boy was subsequently healed and this event was declared a first-class miracle. Sr. Kateri together with Monsignor Paul Lenz, Vice-Postulator of the cause of Kateri Tekakwitha worked unceasingly to have the miracle recognized and thus have Kateri declared a saint.
As two of the many Sisters of St. Ann who have worked with First Nations people, Sr. Sarah Comeau and I were proud to represent our community along with others from Western Canada. Kateri Tekakwitha is enshrined at St. Francis-Xavier Church in Kahnawake near Montreal and, because Sr. Sarah had sung with the Kahnawake choir while working with this Nation, she was invited to sing with the choir at the Canonization Mass.
Sister Sarah also sang at the Masses on Monday and Tuesday when the hymns and Mass parts were sung in the Mohawk language. For all three occasions the First Nations peoples wore their native dress, which varied according to their respective Nation.
Besides the Thanksgiving Mass at St. Peter's Basilica and Mass at Santa Maria degli Angeli, other events of the pilgrimage included a day at Assisi visiting the Basilicas of St. Francis and St. Clare, a tour of the Vatican museums and the Sistine Chapel, lunch at Castel Gandolfo, a reception at the North American College, a walking tour of Renaissance Rome and a farewell dinner in Marino.
Sarah and I felt privileged to celebrate with the numerous First Nations peoples the canonization of the first aboriginal woman of North America. Juan Diego of Mexico (canonized in 2002) was the first indigenous North American saint.
Sister Lucy DuMont, ssa