St. Kateri Tekakwitha: A Holy Friend for Businesswomen
“I am not my own; I have given myself to Jesus” (St. Kateri Tekakwitha).
A common lament we hear of working life in America is “workism”—the idea that our career should offer us all the meaning and purpose we need. In an article for “The Atlantic,” Derek Thompson makes the case that work in today’s culture is becoming a religion for some, leading them to conflate their career with their sense of purpose and identity.
The idea that work has become the ultimate goal or end for so many is problematic, because it corrodes our understanding of vocation and callings and destroys a sense of our need for community and friendships that establish a healthy and vibrant society.
When we start pondering how to overcome such a problem, we can look to history and the lives of the saints. An unlikely friend in Heaven for helping us work through these questions and problems is St. Kateri Tekakwitha. I say “unlikely,” because St. Kateri is most known as the patron saint of ecology, care for creation, and Indigenous peoples. But, I think it is through an understanding of her patronage that we can learn to work in a way that orients us toward the good life—the life of virtue and holiness.
What might her life tell us about how to work well? What can her strong devotion to Jesus teach us about a life with rightly ordered ends, a life in which we embrace and live our identity as a daughter of God? In a global society, St. Kateri’s rootedness in community teaches us the importance of nurturing the relationships and traditions that have developed throughout history on the land where we build and make our own home today. Her heroic virtue and love of Jesus show us how to prioritize love of God and neighbor and reject the idea that workism will somehow offer us the sense of meaning and purpose we desire.
Who Is St. Kateri Tekakwitha?
St. Kateri was born in 1656 in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon in upstate New York. When she was baptized in 1676, she took the name Kateri, or Catherine in the Iroquois language. Her mother was a Christian Algonquin, and her father was a Mohawk chief. Her family died due to an outbreak of smallpox when she was about four years old. While she survived the disease, it left her with impaired eyesight and scars on her face.
According to the St. Kateri Conservation Center, “Tekakwitha” can be translated in a couple ways: “She who places things in order” or “She walks groping for her way” (which was due to her poor eyesight). On April 17, 1680, she died at the age of 24, and her scars miraculously disappeared after her death. On October 21, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI canonized her.
Finding Virtue in Caring for Creation
St. Kateri’s daily work was filled with chores like taking care of her family longhouse and helping her aunts tend corn, beans, and squash. A life of hunting, fishing, gathering, and harvesting helped her to see God’s handiwork permeating creation. She didn’t need to learn how to steward creation, because she had such a closeness to the land, which provided for all her needs. Whether she was finding plants for medicine or retrieving water, she had a reverence for the gifts of creation. She also became a skilled maker through the art of beading, even though her eyesight was not strong.
Inspired by the idea of human ecology as discussed by St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis forwarded the idea of “integral ecology.” Through this idea, he connects environmental concerns to how we treat other human beings. Greed, exploitation, and the “throwaway culture” emerge from being unable to see and respect the inherent dignity of others. When we become better stewards of creation, we begin to see how these acts involve protecting all human life, acting in solidarity with the poor, and understanding the impacts of food deserts and how many are excluded from contact with the beauty of nature.
A Holy Friend for Businesswomen
When we think of business, we often think in terms of time, money, goals—things that serve our “self.” Through a life of heroic virtue, closeness to Christ, and care for creation, St. Kateri shows us that another work life is possible—one in which community, generosity, gratitude, and care are elevated as the pillars by which we make choices and act.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha’s feast day is today, July 14. Our family is attending a special event to celebrate her feast day at the Catholic Ecology Center. My hope is that through her life and example, St. Kateri will help us see the gift of God’s creation—and that, in seeing this gift, we will be resolute in our vocation and our dignity as image-bearers of Christ.
Jody C. Benson is a freelance writer and editor. She is the author of “Behold: A Reflection Journal Where Wonder, Creation, and Stewardship Meet.” She also writes a newsletter that ponders the creative life. Learn more about her at jodycbenson.com.