CHAP. XXXI. CATHERINE, THE lEOQUOIS SAINT. 175 



contrived to escape from her native village, and to take 

 refuge with the mission at Saiilt St. Louis, near Montreal. 

 But here, though freed from the ill-usage of her enemies, 

 she was not exempted from the persecution of her friends. 

 Marriage — hateful marriage — was again pressed on this 

 maiden convert. Every means of persuasion was used, 

 but in vain; and at last the Church admitted her into its 

 bosom as a nun. ' She was the first of her nation,' says 

 Charlevoix, ' who entered into vows of perpetual virginity.' 

 Tegahkouita now began to prescribe for herself the 

 most rigid penance. She strewed her bed with thonis, 

 rolled herself among briers and prickles, mixed up earth 

 and ashes with her food, travelled amid ice and snow 

 with her feet naked, and then scorched them in the flames. 

 Under this regimen her health, as might naturally have 

 been expected, rapidly declined, and she died at the early 

 age of twenty-four, to the inexpressible sorrow of the 

 college of Jesuits at Quebec. 



These, however, found some consolation in knowing 

 that the effects of her virtue survived her. ' It was the 

 Mohawk tribe,' says Charlevoix, 'which gave to New 

 France this Genevieve of JSTorth America, the illustrious 

 Catherine Tegahkouita, whom Heaven has continued for 

 almost seventy years to render celebrated by the per- 

 formance of miracles, the authenticity of which will stand 

 the proof of the most rigid enquiry.' 



Among these. Father Cholenec, writing to his Superior, 

 mentions the case of the Abbe de la Colombiere, ' Grand- 

 Archidiacre et Grand- Vicaire de Quebec,' who was 

 cured of a flux on making a vow to visit her tomb. A 

 like vow, after nine days' fasting and devotion, obtained 



