Kateri Tekakwitha: Mystic of the Wilderness

by Margaret Bunson

Blessed Kateri was born an average Mohawk maiden, but young Kateri grew up to become the first mystic in America.

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[C. Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is easy to read and I certainly agree with its positive assessment of St. Kateri Tekakwitha (who had not yet been canonized when this was written). Unfortunately, there are absolutely no sources given, no footnotes or even a bibliographical note at the end, and much of the text is obviously guesswork. In several places, it comments on what characters were thinking or what their internal attitudes were when there's no way to no such things short of first-hand narratives, and even those would need to be evaluated critically. Some factual errors have clearly made their way into the text (for example, a group of hunters is said to be "heading to the Adirondack territory" where they "would search for beaver, ocelot and other animals...," but ocelots do not live anywhere near the Adirondacks), so it's hard to tell in many cases what is simply made up and what is based on evidence.

[Rosanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The explanation of how Christianity was taught to Native Americans was fascinating. I had not read about mystics before and I found the explanation of their relationship with God to be interesting. I will need to read about other mystics.

The beginning of this book was slow. The comments about Hawaii at the end were barely related to the story. The author should have included an afterward about where to find more information instead of choosing to finish the work with a list of addresses.

The story of Kateri Tekakwitha's life was wonderful, but the ending could have been done better.