Kateri Tekakwitha becomes first North American aboriginal saint

Mohawk Kateri Tekakwitha has become the first North American aboriginal to ascend to sainthood.

Pope Benedict XVI conducted the canonization ceremony of Tekakwitha and six other individuals at the Vatican’s St-Peter Basilica Sunday morning.

Born in 1656, Tekakwitha’s parents and brother died when she was four due to the smallpox epidemic that left her badly scarred. She was persecuted by other natives for her faith. She died in Canada in 1680 at the age of 24.

According to CBC news, she is entombed in a shrine at St-Francis-Xavier church in Kahnawake.

Saint-Kateri’s canonization is due to a miracle that occurred to American Jake Finkbonner in 2006.

The then five-year-old suffering from flesh-eating disease was close to death until family members placed a Tekakwitha relic on his leg. Doctors could not explain his sudden recovery, and became the miracle needed by the Vatican to raise Tekakwitha to sainthood.

Jake, with members of his Lummi tribe and around 2000 other aboriginal people from across Canada and the U.S. attended the ceremony.