In 1990 Giuliani, who has an undergraduate degree in art from New York's Pratt Institute, began a year-long study of Orthodox iconography with Russian icon master Vladislav Andreyev at the School of Sacred Art in Greenwich Village. Having gleaned a working knowledge of the iconic process, he then struck out on his own artistic path and began painting modern icons with images of Native Americans as subjects.
Father Giuliani notes that "even though I’m not Native American, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the varied indigenous cultures of this land. Their understanding of the world of nature and of God, their emphasis on being caretakers rather than exploiters of the land—all that is wonderfully consonant with the best of Christian thought and tradition. In my work I try to celebrate a union of a common spiritual understanding, to show how a single mystery can be approached through diverse cultures" (Sojourners).
Father Giuliani has also said that "as a Catholic priest and son of Italian immigrants I bear the religious and ethnic burden of ancestral crimes perpetrated on the first inhabitants of the Americas. Many have been converted to Christianity, but in doing so some find it difficult to retain their indigenous culture. My intent, therefore, in depicting Christian saints as Native Americans is to honor them and to acknowledge their original spiritual presence on this land. It is this original Native American spirituality that I attempt to celebrate in rendering the beauty and excellence of their craft as well as the dignity of their persons" (The Amalia & Nicola Giuliani Foundation for Religion and the Arts).
"I met Bishop Charles Chaput of South Dakota whose mother is Potowatomi. He was totally supportive, and put me in touch with the Jesuits who were running a spiritual retreat in South Dakota. Father Hatcher asked me if I would paint a trinity because the Native Americans were having a hard time understanding, intellectually, the concept of the Trinity. They were visual people and if they could see the Trinity depicted, they would understand. I painted the Father as an aged wise man, and Jesus as the victorious warrior in his warrior jacket, and the Holy Spirit as a red-winged hawk, the sacred bird..." (Icon on top of page.)
For many Native Americans, the choice has seemed to be an "either-or": either they can choose to be Catholic and abandon their culture, or they can choose their Native cultures and not be Catholic. Fr. John's icons have affirmed to Native Americans that they can bring their cultures and spiritual values into the Church. In other words, they can see, appreciate, and understand the Face of God portrayed in their own skin.
To seek the Face of God, to seek this transcendent personal encounter with God, is the ultimate goal of every human who seeks a spiritual life. Pope Francis says, "The face of God is our destination and the guiding star that helps us not to lose our way… This quest is fundamental for the life of every believer, for we have come to realize that our ultimate goal in life is the encounter with God.” (From Journey with the Pope, July 10.)
Yet, how often, through the centuries, has a dominant white, colonizing culture visualized God as being white and portrayed God, Jesus, Mary, and the other saints with white skin and features, even as priests and ministers catechized black, brown, and indigenous peoples? We whites have also "whiticized" the saints in our depictions of them. But God calls us to expand our hearts and discover that God's Presence lives as powerfully among and within Indigenous peoples as among and within whites and white culture.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha was a young Algonquin-Mohawk woman, yet some paintings give her white skin and features. A more realistic painting (below, as used by the St. Kateri Conservation Center)) portrays her with Indigenous features as well as the marks of the smallpox which scarred her and weakened her eyesight as a young girl, while taking the lives of her parents and young brother.
Kateri was a young woman who spent her life seeking the Face of God, first in her Mohawk faith, and then as a Catholic Christian. If we can gaze upon her Face and find the Face of God shining there, we can learn so many spiritual truths from her life. The First Nations people have been invisible to white America for too long. In saints like Kateri, we can see what richness they have to offer to us and the world. Understanding Kateri and her life, we can, as the icon painter Fr. Giuliani says, "have a tremendous amount of respect for the varied indigenous cultures of this land. Their understanding of the world of nature and of God, their emphasis on being caretakers rather than exploiters of the land—all that is wonderfully consonant with the best of Christian thought and tradition."
"Kateri’s baptismal name is 'Catherine,' (after Saint Catherine of Siena) which in the Haudenosaunee (“Iroquois”) language is “Kateri.” Kateri’s Haudenosaunee name, 'Tekakwitha,' can be translated as 'One who places things in order' or 'To put all into place.' Other translations include, 'she pushes with her hands' and 'one who walks groping for her way' (because of her faulty eyesight).
"Kateri was born in 1656 at the Kanienkehaka ('Mohawk') village of Ossernenon, which is near the present-day Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, New York.
"Kateri’s father was a Kanienkehaka chief and her mother was an Algonquin Catholic. At the age of four, smallpox attacked Kateri’s village, taking the lives of her parents and baby brother, and leaving Kateri an orphan. Although forever weakened, scarred, and partially blind, Kateri survived. Kateri was adopted by her two aunts and her uncle, also a Kanienkehaka chief.
"The brightness of the sun bothered Kateri’s eyes. She would often cover her head with a blanket, and would feel her way around as she walked.
"After the smallpox outbreak subsided, Kateri and her people abandoned their village and built a new settlement called Caughnawaga, some five miles away, on the north bank of the Mohawk River, in the area of the present-day Saint Kateri National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York.
"The Indigenous worldview involves relationships built on reciprocity, respect, and responsibility that extends to the entire natural world. It is a worldview of giving thanks daily for life and the world around us.
"The Haudenosaunee people have a deep connection with the fields, forests, rivers, and wildlife of their ancestral homeland. In Kateri’s time, and for thousands of years before then, the Haudenosaunee people carefully managed the natural world for food, shelter, and clothing. With the use of controlled fire, they managed the land for the benefit of people and all of nature, for which there was no separation. They hunted, fished, farmed, gathered, harvested, and traded for their material and spiritual needs, keenly aware of the rhythms of nature inscribed by our Creator.
"In many ways, Kateri’s life was the same as other young Indigenous girls. It entailed days filled with chores, spending happy times with other girls, and planning for her future. Kateri grew into a young woman with a gentle, loving personality. She helped her aunts work in the fields where they tended to the corn, beans, and squash, and took care of the traditional longhouse in which they lived. She went to the neighboring forest to pick the roots needed to prepare medicines and dye. She collected firewood in the forest and water from a stream. Despite her poor vision, Kateri became very skilled at beadwork.
"Kateri may have had fond memories of her prayerful Catholic mother and the stories of faith that her mother shared with her in early childhood. These would have remained indelibly impressed upon her mind and heart and were to give shape and direction to her life’s destiny.
"Kateri often went to the woods alone to speak to God and to listen to him in her heart and in the voice of nature.
"When Kateri was eighteen years old, Father de Lamberville, a Jesuit missionary, came to Caughnawaga and established a chapel. Kateri was fascinated by the stories she heard about Jesus Christ. She wanted to learn more about him and to become a Christian. Father de Lamberville asked her uncle to allow Kateri to attend religious instructions. The following Easter of 1676, twenty-year-old Kateri was baptized. Today, Saint Kateri’s Spring, located at the Saint Kateri National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, NY, still flows with the sacred water used to baptize Kateri.
"Not everyone in Kateri’s village accepted her choice to fully embrace Jesus, which for her meant refusing the marriage that had been planned for her. Kateri became a village outcast. Some members of her family refused her food on Sundays because she would not work. She suffered bullying, as some children would taunt her and throw stones. She was threatened by some with torture or death if she did not renounce her religion. Because of increasing hostility from some of her people, and because she wanted to be free to devote her life completely to Jesus, in July of 1677, Kateri left her village and traveled more than 200 miles through woods and rivers to the Catholic mission of St. Francis Xavier at Sault Saint-Louis, near Montreal, Canada. Kateri’s journey through the wilderness took more than two months. At the mission, Kateri lived with other Indigenous Catholics.
"Because of her virtue, determination, and faith, Kateri was allowed to receive her First Holy Communion on Christmas Day in 1677. Although unable to read and write, Kateri led a life of prayer and penitential practices. She taught the young and helped those in the village who were poor or sick. People referred to her as the 'Holy Woman.' Kateri spoke words of kindness to everyone she encountered.
Kateri’s motto became, 'Who can tell me what is most pleasing to God that I may do it?' Kateri spent much of her time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, kneeling in the cold chapel for hours. When the winter hunting season took Kateri and many of the villagers away from the village, she made her own little chapel in the woods by making a wooden cross and spending time there in prayer, kneeling in the snow. Kateri loved the Rosary and carried it with her always.
"Often people would ask, 'Kateri, tell us a story.' Kateri remembered everything she was told about the life of Jesus and his followers. People would listen for a long time. They enjoyed being with her because they felt the presence of God. One time a priest asked the people why they gathered around Kateri in church. They responded that they felt close to God when Kateri prayed. They said that her face changed when she was praying; it became full of beauty and peace, as if she were looking at God’s face.
On March 25, 1679, Kateri made a vow of perpetual virginity, meaning that she would remain unmarried and totally devoted to Jesus for the rest of her life. Kateri hoped to start a convent for Native American sisters in Sault St. Louis, but her spiritual director, Father Pierre Cholonec, discouraged her.
Kateri’s health, which was never good, was deteriorating rapidly, likely due to her childhood illness and the penances she inflicted on herself. Father Cholonec encouraged Kateri to take better care of herself, but she continued with her 'acts of love.'
"Kateri died on April 17, 1680, at the age of 24. Her last words were, 'Jesus, I love You.' ... Moments after dying, her scarred face miraculously cleared and was made beautiful by God. This miracle was witnessed by two Jesuit priests and all the others able to fit into the room. Many miracles were to follow.
Three people had visions of her in the week following her death. A chapel was built near her grave, and soon pilgrims began to visit, coming to thank God for this Holy Woman.
"Kateri is known as the 'Lily of the Mohawks' and the 'Beautiful Flower Among True Men.' She is recognized for her heroic faith, virtue, and love of Jesus, in the face of great adversity and rejection.
"Indigenous Catholics worked tirelessly for many years to have Kateri canonized by the Catholic Church. The Church declared Kateri venerable in 1943. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980, and was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012, thus becoming the first female Native American and First Nations saint.
"Saint Kateri recognized the inherent dignity of all people, and thus offers a bridge of peace between European and other immigrants and the Indigenous Peoples; between people and all of creation, and between people and God.
Saint Kateri’s feast day is celebrated on July 14th in the United States and on April 17th in Canada.
St. Kateri is beloved by Native peoples across the country, Canada, and South America because she makes them visible to the rest of the world, loved, revered, as fellow children of God, and able to bear the Face of God.
“I am no longer my own. I have given myself entirely to Jesus Christ.”+ Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
Protectress of Canada and the first Native American saint, we entrust to you the renewal of the faith in the First Nations and in all of North America! May God bless the First Nations!"
In the paintings of Native American icons by Fr. John Giuliani, and in the indigenous, luminous features of St. Kateri, can we see the Face of God, the One Whom we seek? With Kateri may we ask, "'Who can tell me what is most pleasing to God that I may do it?'