Pope to canonize first Native American saint this weekend
Posted October 20, 2012 4:05 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ROME, ITALY (NEWS1130) – Aboriginals from North Vancouver are in Rome to witness the first Native American to become a saint.
The pilgrimage is being led by a priest who has spent a good deal of his ministry with First Nations. Father John Brioux is parish priest at St. Paul’s Indian Catholic Church in North Vancouver.
He says as soon as the Pope made the decision to canonize Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk who died in 1680, he knew he had to be there “because most of my ministry, at least a fair portion of my ministry, has been among native people, particularly in the Interior, among the Shuswaps and Chilcotins. She’s always been a part of our lives there.”
Brioux tells us people have been waiting a long time for her canonization. “It’ll be a colassal day. I’m sure that it will be marvelous. I’m happy… honour [will be given] to Kateri, who suffered so much in her life and continues to pray for all of us, and especially the First Nations people,” he tells us.
Known as Lily of the Mohawks, Tekakwitha, was born in 1656 to a Mohawk father and Christian Algonquin mother in present-day New York State. She moved to a Christian Mohawk village in present-day Kahnawake, Quebec, following her baptism when she was 20. Four years later, she died there.
Since her death, many miracles, including the healing of a five-year-old boy with flesh-eating disease, have been credited to her.
Her tomb is located at the St. Francis Xavier Mission in Kahnawake.
Fifteen of Brioux’s parishioners are among the 1,500 Canadians in Rome for this weekend’s celebrations.
