1. Read her story
Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in a Mohawk village by the Mohawk River, in what is now New York State. Her father was a Mohawk chief, and her mother was an Algonquin woman who was a Christian. When Tekakwitha was about four, smallpox took her parents, and left her with scars on her face and eyes that bright light hurt. She grew up with her aunt and uncle. When she was about eighteen she met a Jesuit priest, Father Jacques de Lamberville, and asked to learn about Jesus. On Easter Sunday 1676 he baptized her Kateri, the Mohawk form of Catherine.
Being a Christian in her village was hard, and with a priest's help she made a long journey north to a village of Christian Mohawk families near Montreal, now called Kahnawake. There she prayed, cared for the sick and the old, and taught children to pray. She died there in 1680, when she was twenty-four, and Pope Benedict XVI declared her a saint in 2012.
Our picture book tells her story gently for reading aloud, and ends with a simple prayer and three small ways to follow her this week. See the book.
2. Go on a thank-you walk
Kateri loved to pray out in the woods, among the trees and by the rivers, and to thank God for everything he had made. Go for a walk together, in a park, a garden, or even along your street, and look for God's gifts: a tall tree, a singing bird, a puddle shining in the sun. At each one, say together, “Thank you, God!” It's the first challenge at the end of the book:
- Go outside and thank God for three beautiful things you can see, just like Kateri did.
Back home, let your children draw what they saw. Our free Saint Kateri thank-you walk (PDF, opens in a new tab) has a page with three boxes to draw three beautiful things God made, how to make a little cross of two sticks, a prayer card, and a leader's guide for a class walk.
3. Make a little cross of two sticks
The people who knew Kateri remembered that she would make a little cross out of two sticks and kneel to pray before it in the woods. Gather two fallen sticks, one longer than the other. Lay the short one across the long one, a little below the top, and wrap string or yarn around the middle, crossing it over the join from corner to corner until it holds firm, then knot it. Stand the cross in a plant pot or in the garden, or keep it by your child's bed for bedtime prayers.
4. Care for God's creation
Saint Kateri is a patron saint of ecology and the environment, together with Saint Francis of Assisi. Do something together to care for God's world: pick up litter in a park (with gloves and a grown-up), plant some seeds, put out water for the birds, or switch off lights you aren't using. Talk about how caring for creation is a way of saying thank you to God.
5. Answer gently
After her baptism, Kateri would not work on Sundays, God's day, and because of that she was given nothing to eat on Sundays. Some children threw stones at her and shouted “Christian!” Kateri did not shout back or throw stones. She stayed gentle and patient, and she kept on praying.
Talk with your children about what to do if someone teases them. Answering gently is brave, and so is asking for help. Try the second challenge from the book:
- If someone teases you, answer gently like Kateri did. If it keeps happening, or if it hurts, tell a grown-up you trust.
6. Be the first to be kind
Kateri knew what it was like to be treated as different. Help your children think of someone who is new, or who seems different from them, at school, at church or in the neighborhood, and how they could be kind to that person. It's the book's third challenge:
- Be the first to be kind to someone who is new, or different from you.
7. Say her last words
Kateri's last words are remembered as “Jesus, I love you.” It's a prayer even the youngest child can say. Teach your children to say it when they wake up, at bedtime, or whenever they see something beautiful.
8. Pray together
End the day with the prayer from the book:
Dear God, thank you for the trees and the rivers, the birds and the bright blue sky. Help me to see how beautiful your world is, and to love you with my whole heart the way Saint Kateri did. Amen.
For a printable page with this prayer and the three challenges, with tick boxes for the week, download Saint Kateri’s Be a Little Saint page (PDF, 1 page, opens in a new tab), or all seven saints together.
In the classroom or parish
- A read-aloud lesson: our free one-page teaching guide has questions for before, during and after reading the book, words to explain, and a note for the leader.
- A class thank-you walk: walk around the school or church grounds, stopping to thank God for what the children spot, then draw it on the thank-you walk page. The leader's guide has a 40-minute plan and a rainy-day version.
- Any time of year: her feast falls in the summer holidays, so read her story in September during the Season of Creation, alongside Saint Francis, or in November, Native American Heritage Month in the United States.
- A welcome lesson: read the Sunday page, then talk about how to welcome a new child to the class, and practice what to say.
Dressing up as Saint Kateri
Kateri was Mohawk, one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), and the Mohawk people live on today, including at Kahnawake, where she is buried. If a child chooses her for All Saints Day, a simple long dress or tunic, a braid and a little cross of two sticks are enough. Leave out feathered headdresses and “Indian” costumes: they weren't part of her dress.
More ideas for catechists and teachers are on our parishes and schools page.
