Small pox epidemic of 1661-1663
From 1616 to 1663 a small pox epidemic broke out in Kateri's village ossernenon. Many people died including her parent's and baby brother but Kateri (4 years old) survived with severe scars on her face and impaired eyesight. She was later adopted by her uncle and aunt.
|
The Mohawks were forced into a peace treaty that required them to accept Jesuit missionaries in their villages after defeat from the french. The Jesuits established a mission that later developed as Auriesville, New York. In the spring of 1674 at age eighteen, saint Kateri met the Jesuit Father Jacques de Lamberville who she studied the catechism with and who baptized her. Saint Kateri faced a lot of persecution from her tribe for converting to catholism and so she went away to kahnawake for the last years of her life.
|