OCTOBER 21 2012 Canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha – event at Martyrs’ Shrine

Canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha – Sunday October 21, 2012

Martyrs’ Shrine, on Hwy 12 west of Port McNicoll, Tay Township, Simcoe County, central Ontario, Canada.

event details:

• perhaps some 5,000 pilgrims are expected, Martyrs’ Shrine has immense parking facilities to accomodate pilgrims
• 11 am Procession with the relics and image of Kateri Tekawitha
• 12 noon Eucharist and blessing with the relics at the Papal Altar
• following the Eucharist and Blessing  at the Filion Centre (basement of the Shrine Church)  refreshments and a media presentation of the Mass of Canonization in the Vatican.

Kateri Tekakwitha

(1656 – April 17, 1680), Kateri Tekakwitha (pronounced [ˈgaderi degaˈgwita] in Mohawk),was baptised as Catherine Tekakwitha^[2][3] and informally known as Lily of the Mohawks was an Algonquin–MohawkCatholic virgin and religious laywoman. Born in present-day New York, she survived smallpox and was orphaned as a child, then baptized as a Roman Catholic.  She settled at the Jesuit mission village of Kahnawake, south of Montreal in New France.

Various miracles and supernatural events are attributed to her name after her death. She is known for her  chastity and corporal mortification of the flesh, as well as being shunned by her tribe for her religious conversion to Catholicism,

She is the first Native American woman to be venerated in the Roman Catholic Church.

She was beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1980. On February 18, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI announced at Saint Peter’s Basilica that Tekakwitha is scheduled to be formally canonized on October 21, 2012

Martyrs’ Shrine remains open this year until October 28, 2012, a longer season than normal.