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

Chapter 14

Charity is not only the queen of virtues, but it gives value to all the other virtues and again it is the principle of sanctity. Charity is the shortest and most assured road for arriving at sanctity, which to be soon a saint and perfect, according to Saint Paul, there is need only to love God with one’s entire heart to attain that end. Although one would appear holy and perfect before man, which without this virtue that one is nothing before God. And with this in mind, it is not difficult to believe that Catherine had become perfect in such a short time and considering the ardour of her love for God. She had loved Him as much that her only joy was to think and offer Him all her thoughts, words and actions.

She had particularly liked to be alone and made friends with the two women we have mentioned above, because it was merely that they led her to God. If one would happily hear of a conversion about something one loves, which Catherine would find an extraordinary happiness of hearing about God. She received such pleasure from this that it was sufficient only to begin a pious discourse in her presence, which would have her leave whatever she was doing. Immediately, she would collect her thoughts and listen the discourse with all the attention capable without ever tiring.

In 1680, the last year of her life, she was obliged to stay almost continually in her cabin, because of her illness. Father Chauchetiere had taken care of her, which he would see her everyday to have talked with her of God and to continue explaining to her our mysteries. And for his gratefulness that she gave this Father many graces after her death. She had even appeared to him several times. She had prophesied things to him and guided him interiorly in the highest perfection with as much grace.

Her love of God did not end at simple affection, but she had always sought every possible means to give Him proof of it. It was sufficient for her to hear of some mortification of the Saints, which she would immediately imitate them and without importance of how hard it was to endure for the flesh. She had mortified herself from the use of fire, the wearing of iron belts and from other means that we shall see a little later when we speak of her austerities and the love of the Cross.

The most authentic evidence of her ardent love for God was pressed from a strong desire to please Him. She had consecrated her virginity to Him and renounced marriage, because to have Him as her Spouse. This was unheard among her people and all the more to be admired in Catherine, because those of her gender were supported from what a husband brings home from the hunt. Also, they have a desire for marriage and consider the greatest happiness possible in this life when they have met with a good hunter.

God had never allowed His creatures to surpass Him in love and gave Himself to her with such profusion that it was necessary to see this as to believe it. It has been told of several Saints that at times their hearts were so inflamed with the divine love. The efforts they had taken to hide this sacred fire and that consumed them from within, which they were not able to prevent the escape for some of its sparks and so too with Catherine.

This young Native girl was so filled with the spirit of God and had tasted the gentleness in its possession. Her entire exterior was testimony of this Spirit of God and her eyes, gestures and words were filled with divine love at such moments. If one were with her that it did not take long to be touched from this divine love and have become warmed with this heavenly fire. This charity of Catherine had for her God, which was the source for her great love to the Holy Eucharist and the Cross. These are the two means from that the Saviour of the world proved His love for us the most. And men owe Him that reciprocity, which Catherine had given in a marvellous manner.

It would be difficult to bring further the Faith, the esteem and tenderness that she had felt for the Holy Eucharist. And from the time that she had the knowledge of this great Sacrament, which she remained devoted to and delighted in the Holy Eucharist until her death. We have seen her assiduity in doing her duty to God, the long prayers at the chapel, the fervour in her Communions, the many tears with that she had poured forth her love at the foot of the altar and the entire days spend there even during the coldest weather in New France.

She had so often forgotten the wants of her body, which her entire body was benumbed from the cold. Often having seen her entire body frozen that I was inspired to make her leave the chapel and enjoy the warmth of the fire with us. Then a moment later, she would escape me and saying with a little smile that she was not cold, which was to return to the place where she had left her heart. The fire of her love had triumphed the bite of the cold. What have the French to say regarding this, because they would pass our chapels a hundred times a day without entering even once to greet Our Lord on His altar and are so bored in the chapel, because the Mass they are obliged to hear appears a little long for them.

Catherine had a great love for her beloved Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and would have a devotion to Our Saviour on the Cross. These two mysteries, the Holy Eucharist and the Passion of Our Lord, had ceaselessly occupied her spirit and caused to burn in her heart the purest flames of love. And everyday, she was seen to pass entire hours at the foot of the altar, even though she would not move and as if transported beyond her. Also, to always having endured this thought in mind that she wore around her neck a small copper crucifix, which I had given her and she would frequently kiss it with feelings of gratefulness. She would kiss her crucifix every day and night with great sentiments of recognition of her love to Jesus Christ, for she had so much shown the kindness of our redemption and the tender compassion to the sufferings of Jesus. She not only had the cross hanging from her neck, but she carried her Cross in her body that was after Him, the divine Master, and together with all the Saints.

He had guided Catherine throughout her entire life and inspired her with a holy hatred of herself, which was so much recommended from Jesus Christ and necessary for salvation. She even went further and had wanted to share His pains. After having consecrated her heart to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, which she sacrificed her body to the Cross and was never separated from the Cross.

She had treated her body with such harsh punishment that she was skilful even to invent other means of afflicting and crucifying her flesh at the Sault. This she did through labour, loss of sleep, fasting, cold, fire, irons and pointed belts that she often wore all day during the summer heat, the winter cold and with hunger. She punished her body with bloody stripes of a thousand or twelve hundred stripes over her shoulders several times a week. It would be difficult anywhere else to find such innocence, which was joined with such austere penance. She had so much the desire for mortification.

When in the winter, she went to the forest with her sister and the other women. She had always remained behind to remove her moccasins and walked barefoot in the snow and over the ice. Although she would place her moccasins on again before that she could be seen, because she was very humble that she had preferred not to be seen to mortify herself.

Once Catherine had asked Anastasia, which was the severest penance that she considered to be the most pleasing sacrifice to Him and to prove the love to Our Lord. The other had answered, “My daughter, I know of nothing on earth more terrible than fire.” Catherine replied, “I myself, no more.” Catherine had said no more about it then, but in the evening when everyone went to sleep, which she spent a long time burning her legs with an iron that in the same manner slaves are burned among the Iroquois. In this manner, she had declared herself the slave of her Saviour. Then she had presented herself at the door of the chapel in the darkness of the night and enduring her beautiful marks of the Cross, because to have offered what she had suffered for her dear Spouse in the Holy Sacrament of the altar.

Another time, she and her companion had decided when they were alone to place a burning coal between the toes, because it was supposed to be the most sensitive to the pain of fire. After Catherine admitted to her companion that she had done it and remained a long time with the burning coal between her toes. Mary Theresa was astounded, because she did not think that Catherine could have done without some sort of miracle.

In a last effort of love and gratefulness to Jesus sacrificed on our altars and on the Cross and also, prompted from an intense desire to give all things considered, which she prepared herself with new devotions after Holy Communion that is to say, the Holy Eucharist. These devotions were a perpetual offering of her soul to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and her body to Jesus Crucified. She had taken Him again for her only Spouse and devoting herself completely to Him as His bride. She had chosen again the great Feast of Our Lady for this act, Monday March 25, 1680 that to make her offering to the Son of God through the hands of His divine Mother and to take her once more for Her own. I could say that after she made these two great sacrifices of her soul and body, which her soul had lived only for Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and her body lived only as to die with Him on the Cross that in the midst of sorrow and suffering. I would say die on the Cross, because she had truly died on the Cross and shortened her days from an act worthy of eternal remembrance. This was about two or three months before her death, which this generous girl had desired to attach herself even more to the Cross of her Saviour. Although of her continual infirmities, she was to testify through some heroic act of the strong passion that she had to participate in His sufferings. And as if she had done nothing before then, which she decided in imitation of Saint Benedict and Blessed Aloysius Gonzaga, who I had spoken of them to her.

She had gathered a large bundle of thorny branches, with big thorns that the points were very sharp, and brought with her and hid them in her cabin. When everyone was asleep, she scattered these thorny branches upon her mat and then slept on them and having only her blanket over her body. She had the strength not only to roll herself all night long upon these thorns that pierced so deeply into her flesh, but also to do this for the following three nights. The pain having been unimaginable that she after confessed to me her pain. It had left her so haggard and exhausted, which her face resembled that of a dead person. And having not known the real cause of this that we attributed the change in her to her ordinary infirmities, which had appeared to us of increasing visibly everyday without knowing the true cause. Her companion had suspected that she was hiding something and then she succeeded to have Catherine confessed the truth to her. Catherine further said that she had the thought to continue doing this until her death. Her companion had replied, “Yes, but do you know well it is offending God by doing this sort of excess without having the permission of your Confessor?” The shadow of the sin had made Catherine discover this beautiful action, which without this only apprehension that she would have kept this hidden for all her life.

She had sought me immediately and approached me with these words, “Ah, my Father! I have sinned.” Then she had told me of the entire affair and in my heart I admired her, but I was angry and blamed her for being not prudent. I had ordered her to throw these thorns into the fire to prevent her from renewing it and she did it with great submission. She had possessed this virtue in an eminent degree and always ready to do or leave undone and equally content to be on either side without being attached to her own will. This was an infallible proof of the spirit of God that influenced her. It was with reason that the fear of sin had made Catherine confess an action so much to her merit. In truth, she had an extreme horror for sin and the shadow of the sin and also, above all having a surprising scrupulous of a conscience. This was particularly evident in her Confessions that were always accompanied with sobs and tears, which she did with a complete discussion of her smallest faults.

She had considered herself the greatest sinner of the village and had such a humble opinion of herself. She could not endure anyone to say the least word in her praise. If someone would praise her, she would immediately leave or if she were not able to leave that she would cover herself in her blanket to hide her blushing face. It even distressed her when I said to her, “Great glory is waiting for you in Heaven!” Her sudden reply was that she could from no means understand through what right or title such a miserable creature, which she had believed herself to be and guilty of so many sins, want to promise herself the reward prepared to the Saints. She had regarded herself so worthless, but she thought highly of everyone else that praising and approving those who merited it and excusing the rest with great charity. The Natives were very much disposed to malicious talk about others, but it was seen that never a word against anyone came from her mouth.

Catherine was from nature gentle, honest, affectionate, kind and even joyful in spirit and also, always ready to aid someone. Her patience while in the midst of her continual suffering had appeared heroic to us. She had endured her sufferings with a constant and evenness of spirit that delighted us, which was always joyful and contented without ever manifesting impatience or showing the least sign of annoyance and sadness, except for the time that her sister pressed her with insistency to marry.
The last two months of her life that she had endured extraordinary sufferings. She was obliged to hold herself in the same position the entire day and night, which when she would move that she did with an extreme pain. She had never once in that time ever sigh in complaint, but when these pains were at their worst that she esteemed herself most content. She had said of wanting to live and die on the Cross by uniting her sufferings to those of her Saviour.

She had a high idea of the Faith and all it teaches and a particular respect for those called from God to make the Faith known throughout the world. Her modesty was charming and her entire exterior gave forth a certain air of virtue and of piety that inspired others. Her courage was heroic. Her faithfulness to the service of God was inviolable. Her tears as well as her union with God were constant. Her devotion was tender and even to tears. Her communion with God was intimate and uninterrupted and also, never losing sight of Him. And it was this that raised her in so short a time to so sublime a manner of compassion. Then she was raised in such short a time and a sublime condition of piety. Catherine had an evangelical purity, which she was so zealous and persevered even to her last breath. She possessed a remarkable gift of prayer without having had any other teacher than the Holy Spirit. In a few words, she had possessed all the virtues eminently and this could be seen throughout the course of her life.

The virtue that seemed proper of Catherine and the virtue that raised her merit the most was purity. In its evident meaning, it is to signify an exemption from sin. Although the other more usual signification, that is understood from it an entire freedom from the vice of impurity. And as regards to the first, I do not think that she ever offended God from a mortal sin. I would say more that she had such a real horror of sin, which it had kept her in such a great vigilance to preserve herself from it. I do not know if in the two years and a half that she lived at the Sault, she had committed any grievances and even the smallest and deliberately, although she had taken particular care to avoid the slightest faults.

This is what is said as being truly holy and possessing perfect charity. What concerns the other or second purity, I say and shall always say was a miracle of grace. I cannot understand that how Catherine passed her life in her country and at the Sault, which was virgin in body and soul without ever during all that time felt the least thing contrary to this virtue either in body or soul. This I would say appears unbelievable, but it is true. She had already told me of her own accord, but wanting to be assured still more concerning such marvellous a thing, which I asked her on it the evening before her death. And even though she had difficulty in speaking that she made an effort to reply me in a firm tone of voice, “No! No!” With a gesture that testified the pain she felt in still being asked at her death and concerning a sin, which she so strongly had in horror during her life. It was this love of purity that produced in her heart so tender an affection for the Queen of Virgins.

God had chosen this one of her race to be the first Iroquois virgin and He protected her with His blessings from the womb of her mother. And from this source that had come her tender affection for Our Lady, the Queen of Virgins and the Mother of Purity. And as soon as Catherine learned about Her that she had loved Her ecstatically and spoke of Her with enthusiasm. She had learned from her heart the litanies composed in Her honour and said them every evening in her own manner after the common prayers of the cabin. She never went without her Rosary, which she would recite in all her goings and comings. She had signalized Saturdays and the other days dedicated to the Mother of Mercy with some mortification or supplemented with some act of extraordinary virtue. Catherine had prepared herself with increased fervour when came Her most solemn feast days. Those great days were to her a time of spiritual renewal, which she had taken much pleasure in these feast days and she would receive so many graces. We have seen that on these feast days, which she would offer some great sacrifice to Our Lord. This was like her vow of virginity that she made partly to imitate the Holy Virgin, because to give Her this eminent proof of her esteem and love.

Finally, from when she had taken the resolution at the Sault to have Jesus Christ as her Spouse, which she had taken Mary as her Mother. She had thrown herself into Her arms that abandoning herself entirely to Her guidance with all filial confidence and worthy daughter of such a Mother. Catherine, who we have believed had obtained from a reciprocal love such a marvellous and rare gift of purity from Her divine Son.

Catherine would have well wanted with Saint Paul, which everyone would have done as her. The manner of her actions, reputation and a certain indefinable something was seen from the French and the Natives in this young virgin. She was the most fervent of the entire village and would do some amazing things. She has done the marvel of our forests and had caused several people of wanting to learn from her lips what was most agreeable to God so that they could do it. And whenever she hid herself to do something that she could not refuse instructions to the others.

Virginity, chastity and continence were the subjects of Catherine’s discourses. She had spread them as a balm everywhere and speaking of these virtues so that they might be embraced or to detest vice. Although she had never mentioned anyone of these subjects without giving some praise of Our Lady. It could be judged that at these times her tongue spoke from the depths of her heart, because it was filled with admiration, veneration and tenderness for her incomparable Mother, who was her refuge in everything and she attempted earnestly to imitate Her.