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By Claudio Lavanga, NBC News
VATICAN CITY – She was known as Lily of the Mohawks, or the Pocahontas of the Catholic Church. But on Sunday, Kateri Tekakwitha went down in history as the first Native American saint.
Born more than 300 years ago in the Mohawks village of Ossernion – today Ausierville, forty miles from Albany NY – she was one of seven people canonized by Pope Benedict XVI Sunday in an open-air ceremony held in Saint Peter’s Square.
One of the remaining six was also American: Mother Marianne Cope, a 19th century Franciscan nun who cared for leprosy patients in Hawaii.
Kateri had a short life – she died at 24 – and yet, as for most saints, her devotion to Christianity, sacrifices and “heroic virtue” were so inspirational that her legacy survived for generations read more…