Kateri Tekakwitha was born in Ossernon (Auriesville, New York) in 1656, the daughter of a Christian Algonquin mother and a non-Christian Mohawk chief. After losing her parents in a smallpox epidemic at age four, she was raised among the Mohawks in her uncle’s home, where she first encountered Christian missionaries. In 1675, the missionary Jacques de Lamberville instructed her in the faith, and on Easter Sunday, 5 April 1676, he baptized her, when she took the name Kateri (Katherine). Because of her conversion and baptism, her exemplary life, and her desire to remain a virgin, she suffered harassment and persecution. She fled to a Christian village on the Saint Lawrence River, and at Sault Saint Louis she received her first Communion on Christmas Day, 1677. Guided by Father Pierre Cholonec and an older Iroquois woman, Anastasia Tegonhatsihongo, she lived a life of great virtue and charity and made a private vow of virginity on 25 March 1679. She died at age 24 on 17 April 1680 in Caughnawaga, Canada. Known as the Lily of the Mohawks, she became the focus of devotion throughout the United States and Canada, and on 22 June 1980 Pope John Paul II declared her blessed.