Prayer:Prayer to St. Kateri Tekakwitha
Stored: Prayer to St. Kateri Tekakwitha
| Prayer to St. Kateri Tekakwitha | |
|---|---|
| Author | Unknown |
| Purpose | |
| Recipient | |
| Liturgical Context | |
| Prayer Type | |
| Origin | |
| Length | |
| Season | |
| Language | English |
| Approval | None |
| Tags | |
| Added on | 2026-08-13 |
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (c. 1656–1680), known as the "Lily of the Mohawks," was the first Native American to be canonized by the Catholic Church. Born of an Algonquin mother and a Mohawk chief father in present-day New York State, she was orphaned by a smallpox epidemic that also left her partially blind and scarred. Despite fierce opposition from her tribe, she embraced Christianity, received Baptism in 1676, and dedicated her life to prayer, penance, and care for the sick and elderly. She died at the age of approximately twenty-four, and witnesses reported that her scars miraculously disappeared at the moment of her death. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012.
The devotion to Saint Kateri grew steadily through the twentieth century, championed especially by the Tekakwitha Conference, an organization of Native American Catholics founded in 1939. Prayers invoking her intercession circulated widely among both Native and non-Native Catholics, and her cause for beatification and canonization attracted pilgrims to her shrines in Fonda, New York, and Kahnawake, Quebec. The prayer presented here reflects that longstanding intercessory tradition and was widely used during the decades leading up to her beatification in 1980 and her canonization in 2012.
Pope Francis has commended devotion to Saint Kateri as a model of the inculturation of the Gospel, noting that she shows how faith in Christ can take root and flourish within any culture while remaining faithful to the universal teaching of the Church. Her feast day is celebrated on July 14 in the United States and Canada, and on July 17 in the broader Roman Calendar.
The Prayer
O God, who, among the many marvels of Your Grace in the New World, did cause to blossom on the banks of the Mohawk and of the St. Lawrence, the pure and tender Lily, Kateri Tekakwitha, grant we beseech You, the favor we beg through her intercession; that this Young Lover of Jesus and of His Cross may soon be counted among her nation's Saints and that our hearts may be enkindled with a stronger desire to imitate her innocence and faith. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.
History and Background
The prayer to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha developed organically within the Catholic missionary and devotional tradition of North America, particularly among the Jesuit communities and Native American Catholic congregations who had long venerated her memory. As early as the late nineteenth century, Jesuits working among the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) peoples were promoting her cause and distributing prayer cards with petitions addressed to her.
The Tekakwitha Conference, established in 1939 under Jesuit leadership and later opened to all Catholics, became the principal institutional voice advocating for her canonization and disseminating devotional materials in her honor. The prayer reproduced here was one of the most widely circulated texts associated with the Conference, and it reflects the theological framework typical of intercessory prayers composed during a cause for canonization: it addresses God directly, invokes the saint as an intercessor, petitions for a specific grace (her formal recognition among the saints), and closes with a Christological doxology.
Pope John Paul II beatified Kateri on June 22, 1980, in Rome, the first time a Native North American had received that honor. Her canonization on October 21, 2012, fulfilled the petition embedded in this prayer, making it still relevant as a prayer of thanksgiving and ongoing intercession. Shrines dedicated to her continue to draw pilgrims from across the United States, Canada, and beyond, and she is invoked especially by those seeking healing from illness, strength to live a chaste life, and solidarity with indigenous peoples.
Saint Kateri is the patron saint of ecology, the environment, people in exile, and Native Americans. Her witness is particularly meaningful in the ongoing dialogue between the Catholic Church and indigenous communities, and her life stands as a testament to the universality of Christian holiness.
How to Pray / Devotional Use
This prayer is appropriate for both private and communal recitation. The following devotional practices are associated with Saint Kateri and complement the use of this prayer:
- Personal devotion: The prayer may be recited daily, particularly by those seeking healing, purity of heart, or strength in the face of social opposition to their faith. It is fitting to accompany it with a brief meditation on Saint Kateri's life.
- Feast day observance: The prayer is especially recommended for recitation on July 14, Saint Kateri's feast day in the United States. Many parishes with Native American communities hold special Masses and devotional services on this day, incorporating this prayer into the liturgy of the hours or as a closing prayer after Mass.
- Novena: The prayer may be used as the concluding petition in a nine-day novena to Saint Kateri, preceded each day by a reading from her life and a decade of the Rosary offered for her intention.
- Pilgrimage: Pilgrims visiting the National Shrine of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha in Fonda, New York, or the Saint Kateri Tekakwitha shrine at Kahnawake, Quebec, are encouraged to pray this prayer at the site of her baptism or her tomb.
- Liturgical context: While not a part of the official Roman Rite liturgy, this prayer is commonly used at the conclusion of prayer services, healing services, and cultural celebrations organized by the Tekakwitha Conference and affiliated Native American Catholic communities.
Those who pray through Saint Kateri's intercession are encouraged to reflect on her virtues of purity, perseverance in faith despite suffering, and deep contemplative love for Jesus Christ and the Eucharist.