The story
Kateri Tekakwitha was an Algonquin-Mohawk woman who became Catholic in the seventeenth century amid disease, colonial conflict, cultural pressure, and complex encounters between Indigenous communities and European missionaries. Her sanctity is remembered through prayer, courage, and care for others.
The mapped places preserve different parts of that history. Fonda is associated with baptism and the Caughnawaga village landscape; Auriesville preserves a broader early-life and mission context; Kahnawake preserves her principal resting place.
How to read this pilgrimage
A responsible pilgrimage honors both Kateri’s Catholic witness and the Indigenous history of the land, avoiding a simplified story of colonial encounter.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us.