Kateri Tekakwitha, 1656-1680

Kateri Tekakwitha, the "Lily of the Mohawks", was born in 1656 in what is now New York State. Her uncle adopted her at age four when smallpox killed her Mohawk father and Christian Algonquian mother. A Jesuit baptised Kateri Tekakwitha at her own request in 1676. This greatly displeased many of the local Indians, especially since she had already refused to marry. As a result she fled to the St. Francis Xavier mission near Montreal, where she lived virtuously until her death in 1680 at the age of twenty-four. She was declared venerable in 1943 and beatified in 1980, thus becoming the first North American Indian to receive either honour These stamps designs are based on statues of the subjects, by sculptor Emile Brunet. Mère Marie's statue stands in the courtyard of the Ursuline Convent in Quebec; whereas that of Kateri Tekakwitha is to be found in the shrine at Caughnawaga. The stamp designer, Laurent Marquart of Montreal, has used high-contrastphotos of work in appropriate colours and combined with identifying graphic elements for the stamp: the turtle, symbol of Kateri's clan.