What drew me to St. Kateri was something about this superficial: the day we celebrate her in the Catholic Church is the same day as my birthday. But there a lot of other reasons to honor her.

She is the first Native American to be canonized by the Catholic Church, which gives her a special place in the United States. Her mother was an Algonquin and her father was a Mohawk chief. She had smallpox as a child, which scarred her face – though tradition has it that her scars miraculously disappeared after she died. She was persecuted by her own tribe because of her faith and ran away to a Christian community for natives.

She has been declared the patron saint of ecology and environmentalists which, considering where we are at now with the planet, makes her a very relevant saint to pray to.

I tried to capture a hint of both her Christian heritage and Mohawk heritage in the images below. I’m sure she carried both with her.

I think this was my favorite:

These were good, too, though. Honorable mention #1:

Honorable mention #2:

All images on this site are made with and on the Midjourney platform.