*** *** *** the young and steadfast “Lily of the Mohawks”…

— Born in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon, St. Kateri (1656–1680) was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and an Algonquin woman who had been assimilated into the tribe after she was taken captive. When a smallpox epidemic hit her village, Kateri was orphaned and left with impaired eyesight and facial scars. Sadly, she was often seen wearing a blanket to hide her face.
— In her tribe, young Kateri was a diligent and skilled worker… a biography would later write about Kateri’s “charity, industry, purity, and fortitude.” She sought to learn the Faith, in the midst of opposition and hostility from her tribe. Kateri was baptized in 1676 and soon after would travel to the Jesuit mission of Kahnawake, where she lived her final years growing in faith and virtue.
(portrait of St. Kateri by Fr. Claude Chauchetière, a Jesuit missionary who wrote a biography of her life)