Year of Faith Utah Pilgrimage: Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Mission

Intermountain Catholic

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Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Mission is located in Fort Duchesne in a converted home.

(Editor’s note: For the Year of Faith, which ends Nov. 24, Bishop John C. Wester has designated 12 churches in the Diocese of Salt Lake City as pilgrimage sites. This article is one in a series about the sites. More information can be found at http://www.dioslc.org/images/year-of-faith/pilgrimage/Year%20of%20Faith%20Passport%20Booklet%20Version%20English.pdf.)

FT. DUCHESNE — My pilgrimage to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Mission was an anomaly in my quest to visit all 12 Year of Faith pilgrimage sites in Utah, for I was unable to attend Mass. I also couldn’t find much about the history of the place, got lost trying to find it, and then forgot to pray while I was there.

All in all, I called it a wasted trip, until I tried to write about it. Then, in his usual quiet way, God entered my thoughts, reminding me of the wonderful people I met on my trip.

Their faith in action made me ashamed to realize that, because things were not going the way I wanted, I once again was acting as though it’s all about me.

It’s not, as God (and Father Carl Schlichte) keep telling me. It’s supposed to be – and actually is – all about God and his people.

And one of God’s people was the reason for my trip: Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, whose namesake mission in Ft. Duchesne was founded by Franciscan Sister Margaret Liam Glennane in 1982. (The Diocese of Salt Lake City has served the Native American community in the area since 1943.)

St. Kateri Tekakwitha, whose father was a Mohawk warrior, was canonized last year, the first Native American saint. Patron of the environment and ecology, she was born in 1656 in what is now the state of New York. As a teenager, she converted to Catholicism against her family’s wishes.

Also known as the Lily of the Mohawks, she moved to a Christian community in Montreal, Canada, where she lived a life of extreme prayer and penance, taking a vow of virginity. She died in 1680.

Her road to sainthood was long. By the late 1800s American Indians were appealing to the Church for recognition of her spirituality. In 1932 documentation for her sainthood cause was sent to the Vatican. She was beatified in 1980 and canonized last October. Her intercession is credited with saving the life of Jake Finkbonner, a 12-year-old from Seattle, who almost died from an infection of flesh-eating bacteria. Finkbonner attended the canonization Mass in Rome and received Communion from Pope Benedict XVI.

Also attending that Mass were Clarice, Sue and Zennia Chapoose, members of the White River band of the Ute tribe, who live in Ft. Duchesne. Clarice is the caretaker of the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha community center. She, her daughter and granddaughter were among the group of about 800 Native Americans to go to Rome for the canonization. The highlight of their trip was seeing Pope Benedict XVI in Saint Peter’s Square, they said.

"When I first saw him coming out, when the canonization happened, I just wanted to ‘fangirl’," said Zennia, who was in 8th grade at the time. As a teenage Catholic Native American, she feels more confident in and proud of her faith since the canonization, she said.

For many years before the canonization, the Chapooses and other community members participated in a prayer circle each Wednesday at the community center, for the intention of Kateri Tekakwitha’s sainthood. They would pray the rosary and attend Mass.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha "was a very strong person," Clarice said. "She never caved into the pressures of [her family] not wanting her to join and be a nun. She didn’t bow down to the ridicule that she got. And we have to be that way too; we have to be strong in what we believe."

"She’s not only for Native Americans; she’s there for everybody," Sue said. "She’s there and she’s with us."

Through the years, the Chapooses have attended several sessions of the annual Tekakwitha Conference, which encouraged them to continue praying for the canonization, they said. On one of the trips, they were able to visit the place where St. Kateri was born, and walk where she walked, an experience they treasure.

The Tekakwitha Conference, in its 74th year, is a non-profit Catholic organization for evangelization among the Indigenous of North America, according to the website www.tekconf.org.

IF YOU GO:

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha Mission is located at 915 South 7500 East in Ft. Duchesne. The road is unmarked; take the second left off 7500 East, then the first left. The mission is a gray house on the left; it has a large cross on the roof. Mass is not currently celebrated there.