[76] Shea's History of the Missions, p. 339.
[77] To this period belong the curious details concerning the traditional story of the Iroquois mission bell, and its connection with the raid on Deerfield in the winter of 1703-4, which have been collected by Judge N. B. Sylvester, in his "History of the Connecticut Valley."
CONCLUSION.
It is for the people of the United States, where many nationalities and many creeds are brought into daily contact, that this book has been written; and therefore certain occurrences which took place after the death of Kateri Tekakwitha, and which have been given at length in some memoirs and sketches of her life otherwise comparatively meagre, are here purposely omitted. Thus we pass by much that might be said of the devotion of people in various parts of Canada and elsewhere to her memory; as also the accounts of visits made from long distances to her grave, and to her early home in the Mohawk Valley. Steps have been taken towards public honors in the church, and even to her canonization as a saint.[78] Into these matters it has not been thought necessary to enter. One exception, however, should be made. Some things occurred soon after her death which are so closely connected with the personality of Kateri herself, and with those who were nearest to her on earth, that they seem properly to belong to a complete record of her life and times. These are given in an account of certain remarkable visions in which Kateri Tekakwitha appeared to Father Chauchetière and two of her friends in 1680, and twice afterwards to the same reverend father. The account of these apparitions is to be found in "Book Third" of the manuscript entitled, "La Vie de Catherine Tegakouita, Première Vièrge Irokoise," written by Father Cholenec. It forms a part of the materials in Carton O,[79] at the Jesuit College Library, in Montreal. A translation of it is here given. Nothing is added, and nothing taken from the good father's account; nor is there any call to make an apology for the simple faith which glows in his language. It was his faith and that of many others who knew Tekakwitha, and thus makes a part, of her history.
Cholenec's words are as follows:
"The sixth day after the death of Catherine, this was Easter Monday, a virtuous person worthy of belief,[80] being in prayer at four o'clock in the morning, she appeared to him surrounded with glory, bearing a pot full of maize, her radiant face lifted towards heaven as if in ecstasy. This vision of joy so marvellous was accompanied by three circumstances which rendered it still more admirable. For in the first place it lasted two whole hours, during which this person had leisure to contemplate her at his ease. He did so with a joy and a pleasure that cannot be expressed, Catherine having wished by so signal a favor to acknowledge the great services she had received from him during her life. Furthermore, this same apparition was accompanied with several prophecies by as many symbols which were to be seen on each side of Catherine in her ecstasy; of which prophecies some have been already verified, others have not as yet. For example, at the right appeared a church overturned, and opposite at the left an Indian attached to a stake and burned alive. This happened in the month of April of the year 1680; and in 1683, the night of the 20th of August, a storm, so terrible and with so much thunder and lightning that it could only have been caused by the evil spirit, took up the church of the Sault,—60 feet long, of stone masonry,—took it up, I say, at one corner with such violence that, contrary to all likelihood, it turned it over on to the opposite angle and dashed it to pieces. Two of our fathers who were at the church were carried off into the air. A third, who had run to the house to ring the bell, felt the cord suddenly wrenched from his hands, and was carried off like the other two. All three next found themselves on the ground under the débris, from which they were drawn forth with much difficulty; and instead of having their bodies all mangled by so violent a concussion, they came out of it with some slight hurts; this they attributed to the prayers of Catherine, when they all three came together again. As for me, said one, I said mass to-day in honor of Catherine. And for me, replied the other, I was this morning at her tomb, to recommend myself to her in a special manner. And as for me, added the third, having for a year past a strong idea that some misfortune was to befall the mission, I have been every day since then, and to-day again, to pray to Catherine at her tomb to deliver us, and I have not ceased during all that time to importune the superior of the mission to have Catherine's bones transported into our church, without knowing why I did it. Behold what has reference to the overturned church. As for the Indian seen in this apparition, attached to the stake and burned alive, that was sufficiently verified some years after, when an Indian of this mission was burned at Onondaga, and two women the two following years; and as we do not doubt at all that Catherine, who had made it known so long beforehand, obtained for these Indians the invincible constancy that they showed in their torments, we will speak of it at the end of this third book as a marvellous effect of the power she has in heaven.[81]
"Finally, the third circumstance of this apparition, so remarkable, is that in the following year, 1681, on September 1st, and in the year 1682, on April 21st, the same person had the same vision and under the same circumstances; with this only difference, that in the first apparition Catherine was shown to him as a rising sun, with these words which were audible to him: 'Adhuc visio in dies;' instead of which, in the two following ones, she was shown to him as a sun at mid-day, with these other words: 'Inspice et fac secundum exemplar,' God giving him to understand by this, that he wished pictures of Catherine to be painted, which have been worked upon for a long time, and which having been painted, have contributed wonderfully towards making her known; because, having been put on the heads of the sick, they have worked miraculous cures.
"Two days after the first of these three apparitions, and eight days after the death of Catherine, she showed herself to her good mother Anastasia in this way. This fervent christian, after everybody had gone to bed in her cabin, remained alone in prayer on that evening; and feeling herself finally overcome by sleep she laid down on her mat to rest. But scarcely had she closed her eyes when she was awakened by a voice calling her with these words: 'Mother, arise.' She recognized the voice of Catherine, and at once without the least fear, she raised herself to a sitting posture and turning towards the side from which this voice came, she saw Catherine standing near her all brilliant with light. She had half of her body hidden to the waist in this brightness, and the other half, said this woman, was shining like a sun. She carried in her hand a cross, more brilliant yet than all the rest. So much light came from it that I do not believe one could see anything in the world more beautiful. I saw her, she continued, distinctly in this posture, awake as I was, and she spoke these words to me quite as distinctly: 'Mother, look at this cross; oh! how beautiful it is! It has been my whole happiness during my life, and I advise you also to make it yours.' After these few words she disappeared, leaving her mother full of joy, and her spirit so filled with this vision that after many years she had still the memory of it as fresh as on the first day. It seems that Catherine, in gratitude for the assistance she had received from Anastasia, wished by the sight of that cross so beautiful and so ravishing, and by the words she added, to dispose her to bear generously the one that God was preparing for her; because she has lost since then three of her children killed in war, the eldest of whom was one of the captains of the village; a disaster which she bore with heroic constancy, so much had she been fortified within by this apparition of her dear daughter.