This quote is taken from
Kateri Tekakwitha: The Iroquois Saint, a biography of the Saint Kateri written by Fr. Pierre Cholonec in 1696. Fr. Cholonec knew Kateri personally and his biography would go on to become one of the primary documents which helped advance her canonization.
Here is the quote in context:
It was then the end of Autumn, when the Indians are accustomed to form their parties to go out to hunt during the winter in the forests. The sojourn which Catherine had already made there, and the pain she had suffered at being deprived of the religious privileges she possessed in the village, had induced her to form the resolution, as I have already mentioned, that she would never during her life return there.
I thought however that the change of air, and the diet, which is so much better in the forest, would be able to restore her health, which was now very much impaired. It was for this reason that I advised her to follow the family and others who went to the hunting grounds. She answered me in that deeply devotional manner which was so natural to her, “It is true, my Father, that my body is served most luxuriously in the forest, but the soul languishes there, and is not able to satisfy its hunger. On the contrary, in the village the body suffers; I am contented that it should be so, but the soul finds its delight in being near to Jesus Christ. Well then, I will willingly abandon this miserable body to hunger and suffering, provided that my soul may have its ordinary nourishment.”
The photo in the image above is one that I took of a statue of Saint Kateri in Auriesville, NY.
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