17th-century Mohawk-Algonquin woman will be canonized as a Catholic saint, the first Native American from North America so proclaimed.

A miracle recovery for a young man after praying to Kateri..

It takes proof of two miracles to certify that a Catholic is clearly in heaven asking God to help people who pray in their name. Now, a second critical miracle has been credited to prayers in the name of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, who died in 1680 at age 24.

Sister Kateri Mitchell of the Tekakwitha Conference, a Mohawk herself, was among 400 Native Americans who attended the beatification ceremony in 1980, when Kateri's history of miracles was first recognized by the church.

On Monday, Mitchell said, "I think thousands of us will try to go to Rome for the canonization. We have waited so long for this."

Native American Catholics were once doubly ostracized for their culture and their faith, says church historian Matthew Bunson, co-author of a biography of Tekakwitha, Mystic in the Wilderness. It will be reissued in 2012 under a new name, Saint Tekakwitha: Glory of Many Nations.

Known as the Lily of the Mohawks, Tekakwitha was born in what is now Upstate New York, the daughter of a Mohawk chief and Algonquin Christian mother.

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