Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits

Gratien Allaire is a professor of history at Laurentian University in
Sudbury, Ontario.

In Allan Greer’s words, Mohawk Saint “tells the story of two
intersecting lives: a woman and a man coming from distant quarters of
the globe who met in a bark-covered longhouse on the St. Lawrence.”
Catherine Tekakwitha (1656–1680) was Mohawk, Claude Chauchetiиre
(1645–1709) was French; she was a new convert, he was a Jesuit; she
was raised in the “primitive” nature, while he was well educated and
trained in the “civilized” world. The point of intersection was
religious: the mysticism of Counter-Reformation France met the
spirituality of “primitive” Iroquois country in the larger context
of colonization.

Greer, a history professor at the University of Toronto, analyzed the
societies from which his two subjects emerged and found that the Jesuit
and the Mohawk had similar views regarding mortification and ascetic
practices.

Over the years, Tekakwitha “served as a symbol, rich in exotic
overtones” for Catholics in Europe and North America. But over time
her image changed: “child of the woods,” “noble savage,”
assertion of autonomy, etc. Her function as the embodiment of Indian
essence has been used (particularly in the United States) by the
Tekakwitha Conference, formed in 1939 and controlled by Native
Americans, to promote a Pan-Indian movement and Native Catholic unity.
Greer’s well-researched and fascinating dual biography gives First
Nations a significant role in the process of colonization.