Highly recognized by people, saints are famous around the world by people of all different backgrounds. Many different Christian-based religions have or use saints as a purpose to get people to pray more often than they would usually, or have them to be used as “communion saints”. There are over 10,000 saints, many with different backgrounds, histories, and meanings. Some of them are patron saints, which shield or protect a certain person, place, or thing. Saints can mean a lot of different things to people, with some of the most famous ones being Joan of Arc, Saint Agnes, Saint Peter, Saint Patrick, and more, But one of them, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, is easily overlooked and stands for a greater message even through her hard times.
Growing up, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha had a hard life. When she was just four in the year of 1660, an epidemic of smallpox ran through her native tribe, affecting both of parents and brother, killing all three. Though Saint Kateri survived, the disease left her weakened, partially blinded, and scarred in the face. For this reason, Saint Kateri had ‘Tekakwitha’ added to her name, which means “The One Who Walks Groping For Her Way”. After the tragic death of her immediate family, she moved and shared a house with her uncle, a head Mohawk chief, and her two aunts. In the culture that Saint Kateri Tekakwitha grew up with, it was expected to make marriage arrangements around the age of seven and eight. Instead of willingly agreeing to marry the boy her two aunts arranged for her to marry, she said that she dedicated her life to Christ. Remaining firm in her faith, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha stood with God throughout all the hardships.
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was a strong and loyal believer of Christ. Wh...
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...for her. Each day, no matter the tempurature or even the possible case of severe weather, “she stood before the chapel door until it opened at four and remained there until after the last Mass” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=154, St. Kateri Tekakwitha). After surviving smallpox, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha had bad health for the remainder of her life despite her active lifestyle and died at the age of twenty-four on April 17, 1680. Miraculously, it is said and recorded by two Jesuit saints that the scars from the smallpox that disfigured her face permanently disappeared after her death immediately.
Following her death, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha left behind many events and facts about her life. The devotion to Kateri has left behind the influence and establishment of several Native American based ministries in Catholic churches around North America.
Considering the idea that the Pope is associated to the Christian faith and the discussion of how the native culture has been abused, it is clear that the speaker is expressing on behalf of the effects resulting from the residential schools. There is not only a reference to the Pope but as well as many Christian beliefs and traditions. The speaker goes into more detail of the Christian traditions, where as those of the native culture are only named. The author mentions “fastin” (41) and “drink[ing] his [God’s] blood,” (49) but only briefly names “sweatlodge[s] and sundance[s]” (6) that correspond to the natives. It is stated in the poem that the cultural customs were taken from “nohkom and nimosom” (5), which are grandmother and grandfather in the speaker’s language. Consequently, this can prove how a later generat...
A saint is a virtuous person that is honored by church after death who is considered to a degree of holiness and is blessed. In most Christian denominations think all people are saints in the Catholic Church the term saint is given to a person whom which the church has officially been canonized. Furthermore, the Catholic Church explains that they do not create or make a saint; however, they recognize saints. In fact, Frances Xavier Cabrini or as many people refer to her as Mother Cabrini is the first person to be canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Saint Christina of Markyate’s story provides more than the religious experiences of a hermit, it presents twelfth-century life in, mostly, the Huntington area of England in a very detailed manner. Baptized as Theodora, Christina of Markyate’s path of religious devotion is claimed to have begun in her early teen years with a vow of chastity (35). This vow was only known to one other person, a close friend named Sueno, until her parents attempted to arrange a marriage for her. Being described as attractive and intelligent, as well as coming from a wealthy family, this was not uncommon for women in Christina’s lifetime. Upon declining the first suitor, a bishop, her hardships begin and, at times, seem as though they were both unlikely to end and
Frances Cabrini was born in July 15, 1850 to Agostino Cabrini and Stella Oldini in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Lombardi, Italy. She was one of eleven children born to the Cabrini family and one of the only four children that survived past adolescence. She was born two months premature and was small and weak as a child. These factors, as well as the strong faith of her parents, would have an impact on the rest of her life, mission, and works. Agostino Cabrini, her father, often read Propagation of the Faith to her and the rest of the family. The stories were all about the missions in China and from a young age, Frances desired to become a missionary. By the age of eighteen, Frances knew that she wanted to be a nun, however; her weak health stood in the way. She could not join the Sacred Heart of Jesus. So instead, in 1863, Frances enrolled as a boarding student at the Normal School in Arluno with the intentions of becoming a schoolteacher. The school was directed by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart. Frances lived at the school for five years, residing in the convent with the nuns. Frances was elated to live with the nuns and to share a faith-centered life with them. She graduated from the Normal School in 1868 with a degree in teaching.
In 1785, a Christ Child was said to have appeared. A shepherd boy from the village of Tayankani played with the child, but the child disappeared. The child was believed to have disappeared into a rock that was left with his imprint. This is the story behind the pilgrimage to the rock, but those of our community don’t pay much attention to it. Their purpose in the event is to ‘honor’ their supernatural beings. They pay homage to Rit’i (the snow), Taytakuna (Fathers), and the great Apus (Lord Mountains).
STEGGINK, O., and S. V. RAMGE. "Teresa of Avila, St." New Catholic Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale, 2003. 826-830. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.
In a Catholic society, such as Valle di Sole in Lives of the Saints by Nino Ricci, it is common for people to be named after saints, making Hagiography, a study of the lives of the saints, a study of high importance. Essentially, in Ricci’s novel, the characters draw many parallels from their name saint, such as personality, notable events, and martyrdom, which eventually leads to living a life comparable to their name saint, as if destined by fate.
Also, now left the village Saint Kateri would put thorns on her bed, fast often, and one time she had burned herself; so that she would live like Jesus. Saint Kateri was known to be very devoted to God, and do what she thought God would appreciate. After all of the suffering Saint Kateri put herself through made her become sickly and that's when she had died only five years after she had converted. An interesting fact is that Saint Kateri’s shrine is where Kateri was baptised. Also, she was baptised on an Easter Sunday, on April 6, 1676. Kateri's last words were, “Jesus, I love you.” Saint Kateri Tekakwitha became a Saint because she did what was right by God, and stood up for what she knew was
Blessed Raymond of Capua. The Life of Saint Catherine of Siena . Trans. George Lamb. New York: P.J. Kennedy and Sons, 1960.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha, who is also known as “Lily of the Mohawks”, “Genevieve of New France”, and “Pocahontas of the Catholic Church”, was born approximately in the year 1656 near Auriesville, New York, into the Mohawk tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy. Due to her being born such a long time ago, some details about her early life are uncertain. Her father was a mighty and well-respected Mohawk warrior, and some even suspect that he was chief of the tribe. Tekakwitha’s mother’s background is almost completely unknown. Some speculate that she was a Christian Algonquin, who was captured by an Iroquois, but saved by Tekakwitha’s father.
To use the name of a Saint generally evokes images of holy men and women of the Catholic church, dressed in flowing robes and surrounded by an oil-painted aura. There are patron saints-those with a sort of specialized divinity-of bakers and bellmakers, orphans and pawnbrokers, soldiers and snake bites, soldiers and writers. Each is a Catholic who lived a life deemed particularly holy and was named, postmortem, by the Pope to sainthood. This construct, I find, is something of an empty set of ideas. The process of canonization is one notorious for its pecuniary nature and tendencies toward corruption. What kind of hope, then, can one possibly be offered by a long-dead person so chosen? Perhaps the kind of sainthood I can accept is much more a secular one. This is, I think, the order of sainthood of author Alice Walker's invention.
In early Christianity, the saint was the highest honors that could possibly be bestowed onto a woman. The women who were granted the title of saint were those who not only possessed the qualities of a good christian but the people who took action, that had a profound effect, in the name of their religion. With that being said, those who received sanctity didn’t necessarily fit the same mold. Two very interesting examples of how contrasting actions had the ability to lead an individual to be somewhat immortalized in sainthood are the stories of Saint Balthild as well as Perpetua and Felicity.
She found out about this saint when her sister told her one day: “keep praying to Saint Peregrine”. She was not aware of whom this person was, but nevertheless, she took her sister’s word and continued to pray to him. Then suddenly one day, she received a small book with a picture of Saint Peregrine on the front, from my cousin Jonalyn. Inside was the story of Saint Peregrine’s upbringing and the miraculous tale of how his cancer was cured. Ever since then, my mother continued to learn about the saint and she acquired many pictures, statuettes and other little memorabilia that had any relation to this particular saint. She adored Saint Peregrine and what the stood for. My mom was able to turn to him whenever she was in need of help and eventually, her state became better. She is currently almost completely cancer-free, but until that day, she says she will continue to pray to Saint
There are five steps to sainthood. First, the person’s local bishop investigates their life by gathering information from witnesses of their life and any writings they may have written. If the bishop finds them to be worthy of being a saint, then he submits the
The devotion to Saint Jude, the saint of hopeless causes, is relatively recent. Created in Chicago in 1929, the cult of St. Jude concerned the devotion of immigrant Catholic women who faced difficulty establishing new lives in the United States. Robert Orsi explores the range of ways that women in their devotion to St. Jude helped them survive many difficulties during the era of the Great Depression. Orsi uses interviews and letters to the Shrine of St. Jude's and the Voice of St. Jude, to explore the variety of reasons and ways that women rather than men are the majority of devotees to Jude. This story of takes a compelling look at the ethos and worldview of these women through difficult times. Through the use of Geertz’s definition of religion,