A gospel jamboree for Canada’s first Aboriginal saint is getting underway today near Duck Lake.
Today and tomorrow, members of the public can take part in a celebration of Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk woman who lived in the 1600s and is the first Aboriginal person in North America to be recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
Co-organizer Waltera Van Gannip says her home ministry in Prince Albert has a special tie to the event:
“We named our ministry in Prince Albert after Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha — and many of the ministries for Aboriginal people across the country are either named ‘Kateri’ or ‘Tekakwitha’.”
The jamboree leads up to the annual celebration at Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine on Wednesday.
The event is being hosted by the Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church and the Sturgeon Lake First Nation.
Tekakwitha will be officially canonized in Rome on October 21st.