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Kateri, the Mohawk
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by Ward Kelley
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It was their black frocks that first attracted you
to their strange religion, their robes as dark
as the knot around your heart that entangled
you as a child, back when the smallpox
left its thumbprints on your wondering face.
Those Jesuits claimed not to notice your face, but how
could they not discern the disease's echoes on your skin?
These marks are the visible sounds of your parents' moans,
their death now always borne on your cheeks.
Although your skin is saddened, you understand
you are still a woman . . . yet you could never
quite manage to get your entire soul
to reflect out your own dark eyes.
They said you could marry this person, Jesus,
even though he was their distant ancestor,
and he seemed like a good shield indeed to keep
all the other men away from your skin.
Only later, after your own people chased you off
for learning the rituals of the robes, only in exile,
did you come to understand the subtle balance
between charity and suffering, and it was this knowledge
you at last presented as an offering to your new clan:
the more you suffered, the better you could practice kindness . . .
so in the end you performed their own religion better
than anyone, and in the end your new husband
took you away . . . although you were only twenty-four.
How could your penance be so astute, your kindness
be so forcible, that you could move the conquering
race of infidels by these quiet gestures?
Artist's note:
Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680) was the first Native North American to be
recommended for sainthood. Born near Auriesville, NY, she was the daughter
of a Mohawk chief and Catholic Algonquin. She lost both her parents in the
smallpox epidemic of 1660, enduring impaired eyesight and pockmarks the
remainder of her own life. In 1676 she received formal instruction in
Catholicism and, due to tribal opposition, was forced to move to a village
near Montreal There she took a vow of chastity, and lived in great austerity
and piety. Kateri was designated as Venerable in 1943, and was declared
Blessed in 1980. |
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