Pierre Cholenec, S.J. "The Life of Catherine Tekakwitha, First Iroquois Virgin" (1696)

Pierre Cholenec, S.J.
THE LIFE OF CATHERINE TEKAKWITHA, FIRST IROQUOIS VIRGIN

Chapter 1

Catherine Tekakwitha is the name of the sainted young woman, who I am going to write and is today so renowned in New France, because of the extraordinary marvels that God has performed and continues to perform everywhere through her intercession. She was born in Gandaouague among the Iroquois in the year 1656, which was a settlement of the lower Iroquois. Her mother was from the Algonquin Nation, which had been baptized and raised among the French at Three Rivers. It was there that the Iroquois had taken her from the war with the French and brought as a slave to their country. She lived among them and soon after was married to one of the Chiefs of the village. She had two children, who were a boy and girl. The girl was called, Tekakwitha.

It was told of this virtuous woman, which she preserved her Faith and the fear of God that she had always prayed until her last breath, but she had not the time and consolation to inspire these praiseworthy sentiments in her two children. She had the joy of bringing them into the world and the sorrow of leaving it, because without seeing her desire of them being baptized. Smallpox had come among the Iroquois and a great many of them died from it. She was covered with this common misfortune and left her two children, who were still very young and not capable of taking care of themselves.

She had prayed to Him, who was their Creator, so He could also be their Father and take them under His divine protection. We saw in Tekakwitha that God had heard such a prayer. Her brother had died from the same illness a little while after his mother. Tekakwitha caught also this disease, but Our Lord had chosen her to be His bride one day and saved her from death, which in her that the marvels of His grace might shine forth. She had remained very weak for the rest of her life. Her eyes were affected by the smallpox and because of this that she was not able to endure the great light of the day. She was obliged during her entire life to cover her head with a blanket when she left her longhouse, which is like as she is depicted on her images. This was unlike the other Native girls, who would wear blankets on their shoulders. We do not know of the destiny of her father, but we know only that Tekakwitha was an orphan at the age of four years old and lived with her uncle, who was one of the most considered elders of the village. Her aunts had taken all the more care of her, because they had hoped to have benefit from her in the future and succeeded in giving her a good education.

The child had a strong good disposition, which she was gentle as she grew in years and visibly in goodness that all her inclinations led to virtue. God wanted her for Himself. He had early inspired her with the love of work and of solitude. It could be said that these two inclinations were the sources of the innocent life that she led in the country of the Iroquois.

When she was a little older, which she was always at work in her longhouse. She gave her aunt all the services that she was capable of doing. She went out in public only when she had some purpose to accomplish. She was always occupied in her longhouse, where she spent some of the time making little articles from the extraordinary skill she possessed. She grinded the corn, went in search of water and carried wood, because these were the ordinary work of her gender among the Iroquois. She avoided idleness, which is so common among the girls and the source of infinite vices. She would avoid visiting other girls, which was the custom of the young Iroquois girls. And what was still more admirable in her was the natural horror of all that was against purity. This horror had her leave any sort of gathering or assembly and led her to avoid dressing as the other Native girls, because of her sight.

She had allowed herself to be led from her aunts and with the only purpose of obeying and pleasing them. After she would regard this compliance as one of the greatest sins of her life, and she had made of it a motive for shame and repented it with tears. This same horror of impurity and the love that she felt inside of her for chastity, without then knowing its merit, had made her refuse marriage when she was of a marriageable age. This young Iroquois had inclinations very much opposed to the purposes of her aunts. When her aunts had wanted to oblige her to marry, she would excuse herself by affirming above all of her extreme youth and the little inclination to enter into marriage. The aunts had seemed to approve of these reasons, but later that they resolved again to betroth her when she had the least expected. It was not to allow her a choice of the person to whom she was to be united. Accordingly, they cast their eyes upon a young man and whose alliance appeared desirable, and they had made the proposition to him and the members of his family. The matter had been settled on the two sides and in the evening that the young man entered the longhouse, which was destined for him and seated near her. Tekakwitha had appeared disconcerted when she saw the young man seated next to her side. Then rising abruptly, she had left the longhouse without returning until the young man left.

This firmness outraged her relatives and she was to compensate dearly for what she had done, because her aunts had looked upon this as an unbearable stubbornness and inconceivable among the Iroquois. And from this time that she had a great deal to suffer in her longhouse, where she was no longer looked upon as a child of the longhouse, but as a mistreated slave that they had refused and treated with severity at every opportunity. However, she had behaved with such patience and of such gentleness in the midst of these rejections and bad treatments, because she had a respectful regard for her aunts in all other matters and she soon regained their affection. They had spoken no more to her of marriage and let her live in peace within her own manner without further troubling her.

Tekakwitha had always resisted with great determination and from a particular grace of Our Lord, which He without any doubt watched over the purity of His future spouse. God had turned this small persecution to good for His faithful servant and prepared her to receive Holy Baptism. This was the greatest of all graces and the only thing absent to have made her a holy girl, and to give the final perfection for the many natural good qualities that shone forth in her.