Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Medal Necklace – Patron Saint of Native Americans & the Environment

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Patron Saint of Native Americans & the Environment

Kateri was born in 1656 near present-day Auriesville, New York, to a Mohawk father and a Christian Algonquin mother. When she was four, a smallpox epidemic swept through her village, killing her parents and baby brother and leaving her partially blind and scarred for the rest of her life. She was baptized at twenty, against the wishes of the community that had raised her, and was mocked, threatened, and harassed for it until she fled two hundred miles on foot to a Jesuit mission near Montreal. There she lived a quiet life of prayer and service to the sick, choosing that path over the marriage her family pressed on her. She died at twenty-four in 1680. Witnesses at her deathbed said the smallpox scars vanished from her face in her final moments. In 2012, she became the first Indigenous person of North America ever declared a saint.

She is known today as the Lily of the Mohawks, and her story has become a bridge between Native and Catholic communities, a reminder that faith and heritage were never meant to compete.

A Gift For...

• Someone of Native American or Indigenous heritage receiving First Communion or confirmation
• A gardener, environmentalist, or anyone drawn to the natural world
• Someone recovering from illness, scarring, or a difficult diagnosis
• A person who has felt isolated or judged for their beliefs
• Anyone who has rebuilt their life after childhood loss
• A Saint Kateri's Day gift on July 14, for anyone honoring their faith or their roots

A Confirmation Gift

Engrave a name and confirmation date, and let a saint who never had an easy path do the rest of the talking. Kateri is a fitting choice for a confirmation candidate who values quiet conviction over public performance.

The Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Medal

This medal depicts her in profile, hair braided in the Mohawk style, holding a lily in one hand and a simple, unadorned cross in the other, a nod to the rough cross she carved herself and prayed before in the forest. Her halo radiates outward in fine, spiked rays. The natural gold or silver of the metal forms the illustration itself. Black ink is applied to the pendant surface and the metal shows through as the image. A shatterproof liquid glass coating seals the surface. The result has a depth and precision that printed medals don't achieve.

Personalization and Engraving

The optional engraving on the reverse is rendered in Tangerine cursive, two lines, up to 20 characters each. Many choose a name and confirmation date, while others engrave her reported final words, "Jesus, I love you," or simply "Lily of the Mohawks."

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha's feast day is July 14 in the United States (April 17 elsewhere), and her canonization rested on a documented miracle: the sudden, medically inexplicable recovery of a five-year-old boy from a flesh-eating bacterial infection after his family prayed for her intercession.