Catherine Gandeaktena was a young Erie Indian who was captured in war and enslaved by the Iroquois around 1654. Married to a Christian Huron, she began to take a great interest in her husband's faith and eventually traveled to Quebec where she was baptized by Bishop Laval. She quickly became renowned among the Indians and French alike for her great devotion, her hospitality and love for the poor, and her great example in living a Christian life. With her husband Francis Xavier Tonsahoten, she founded the mission of La Prairie, which became a famous refuge for Catholic Indians and the place where St. Kateri Tekakwitha would live out her blessed life. Catherine Gandeaktena died in 1673, held in such high regard that her priests believed she would immediately attain the bliss of heaven.

Catherine's wonderful story is scattered in the accounts of the Canadian Jesuits as well as the biographies of St. Kateri Tekakwitha. For the first time ever, they have been assembled here into a short readable biography of her life, with particular attention to the virtues that marked her passage from her childhood in the Erie and Oneida villages to her marriage, Baptism, and holy death.

November 2021  ~  18 pages  ~  booklet  ~  5.5" x 4"

Also available as a digital download.