Seekers and Friends · Week 2 · Grades 9–12
Guided Notes: St. Kateri Tekakwitha
- Name
- Date
- Class
Follow along as your teacher presents. Fill in each section when its slide is on the screen.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Born into a century of upheaval
Tekakwitha was born in 1656 at blank 1, a Mohawk village on the Mohawk River in present-day New York. The Mohawk belong to the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy, a long-standing alliance of nations with its own laws and councils.
Her father was a Mohawk chief. Her mother was an Algonquin Christian, captured in a raid and adopted into the village.
European contact was reshaping everything: the fur trade, rivalry between the French, Dutch and English, and above all disease. Around 1660 blank 2 killed her parents and her brother and left Tekakwitha scarred and with damaged eyesight.
In blank 3 a French army burned the Mohawk villages. The peace that followed allowed Jesuit missionaries to live among the Mohawk.
A short life, a long memory
Write what happened at each point.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1656 | Write your answer |
| c. 1660 | Write your answer |
| 1666 | Write your answer |
| 1676 | Write your answer |
| 1677 | Write your answer |
| 1679 | Write your answer |
| 1680 | Write your answer |
| 2012 | Write your answer |
A faith she chose
Before she ever asked for baptism, Tekakwitha refused the blank 4 her relatives arranged. That was a costly decision in a society where marriage tied families together.
After her baptism in 1676 she was mocked, refused food on Sundays when she would not work, and threatened. In 1677 she traveled about 200 miles to blank 5, a mission village of Native Christians on the St. Lawrence River.
There she spent long hours before the Blessed Sacrament, nursed the sick and elderly, and marked places of prayer in the woods with small wooden crosses.
She also took on severe fasting and bodily penances, common in the blank 6 of that era. Her confessor told her to moderate them, and they likely weakened her health.
Read the context
Why did many Mohawk in the 1670s distrust the Jesuit missionaries? Circle one.
- A The Jesuits refused to learn Native languages
- B The Mohawk had no religious beliefs of their own
- C The Jesuits forbade all trade with Europeans
- D The priests came with the French, who had burned their villages
Why is that the right answer?
How we know her, and how she is honored
Write one detail for each card.
| Card | The detail |
|---|---|
| The sources | Write your answer |
| Her death | Write your answer |
| Lily of the Mohawks | Write your answer |
| Patronage | Write your answer |
Apply it
A student wants to imitate Kateri’s spirit today. Which plan fits her witness best? Circle one.
- A Cut off every friend who does not share the faith
- B Post daily about how prayerful you are becoming
- C Guard a daily time of silent prayer away from screens
- D Copy the harshest penances described in her story
Why is that the right answer?
Take a side
Kateri left her home village for a community that shared her faith. When the people around you oppose what you believe, is it better to stay and witness or to go where your faith can grow?
My side: ☐ Stay and witness ☐ Go where faith can grow
- Kateri stayed more than a year after her baptism before she left.
- At Kahnawake she lived among other Mohawk and Native Christians, so she did not abandon her people.
- Jesus sent his disciples into places that would reject them, and also told them to move on when they were not received.
- Apply it: when a group chat or online community constantly mocks your faith, do you stay, speak up or leave?
My strongest reason, with evidence from the slides:
The best argument for the other side, and my response:
Virtues Kateri lived
For each virtue, write how the saint lived it and one way you can practice it.
| Virtue | How the saint lived it | How I can practice it |
|---|---|---|
| Fortitude | Write your answer | Write your answer |
| Contemplation | Write your answer | Write your answer |
| Chastity | Write your answer | Write your answer |
Faith and culture
Pope John Paul II beatified Kateri and Pope Benedict XVI canonized her as a daughter of both her people and the Church. Yet her story sits inside a painful history of colonization. How can the Church honor Kateri truthfully, without ignoring that history?
Think: my idea before we talk
Sentence starters: “Honoring her truthfully would mean ...”“Native Catholics today might want others to know ...”“The hardest part of her story to hold together is ...”
Pair: something my partner said
Let us pray
God of all peoples, you drew Kateri to yourself in silence, in suffering and in the beauty of creation.
Teach us to seek you before every other voice.
Heal the wounds of history and make us one in Christ.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us.
Amen.
My own prayer or intention:
Go and live it
Kateri had no platform, left no writings and died at about 24. Her hidden life of prayer still draws people to God more than three centuries later.
One thing I learned today:
One question I still have:
How could the example of St. Kateri Tekakwitha shape the way I live, online and offline?
Challenge: Fast from one app for 24 hours this week and give that time to silence outdoors. Then learn which Native nation’s homeland your school stands on, and pray for its people.