Invited to Rome, Italy, for Kateri Tekakwitha, Mohawk, (1656 - 1680) Canonization

(Espanola, Taos NM) Artist and Author Giovanna Paponetti has recently sold over 1200 of her books of "KATERI, Native American Saint /The Life and Miracles of Kateri Tekakwitha.
Giovanna has been invited to Rome for the canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha "The lily of the Mohawks." Giovanna's paintings are installed on an altar screen at Saint John the Baptist in OHKAY Owingeh Pueblo. Giovanna has also published a second edition of her book.

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha's canonization will take place in Rome on October 21. Thousands of Native Americans are expected to attend this event at the Vatican.

A second edition of KATERI Native American Saint/The Life and Miracles of Kateri Tekakwitha has been recently self-published by Giovanna Paponetti, Captured Moment. This is a Commemorative Canonization Edition, Rome, 2012. This edition includes a letter by Rev. W.C. Paysse, Executive Dr. of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions.

Artist Giovanna Paponetti credits her success to Julianna Barbee's longtime assistance. "Working with Julianna Barbee the Director of the Small Business Development Center at Northern New Mexico College has been a life changing experience," said Paponetti. "She believed in me and brought out the best in me in order to fulfill my destiny. From painting images on drums and having little confidence in myself to authoring and illustrating a book that is now sold and recognized worldwide is amazing! The confidence she instilled in me and her help has taken me in a direction that I would have never imagined. If I have any concerns at all it's keeping up with her marketing ideas for me and the incoming requests and demand of sales of my book and media interviews about me and my art business."

Giovanna has been a long time client of the SBDC and continues to work with Julianna in the area of marketing. The New Mexico SBDC helps small business, grow, create jobs and retain jobs The SBDC provides no cost expert consulting & low cost training in all aspects of business development. SBDCs are located nationwide, 22 centers in New Mexico, an International Business Accelerator program, and a Procurement Technical Assistance program. For more information go to www.nmsbdc.org


KATERI Native American Saint/The life and Miracles of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha includes 21 oil paintings and is authored and illustrated by Giovanna Paponetti. This book contains the life story of the first Native American Saint. In 2005 she was commissioned by St. John the Baptist church at Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, in New Mexico, to produce these paintings. Presently they are installed in an eighteen-foot high altar screen in the church. (Kateri's father was a Mohawk Chief and her mother was an Algonquin kidnapped by the Mohawks from a Catholic Mission in present-day Canada).

Giovanna accepted the commission on the condition that she use models for her paintings from the Kahnawake reservation near Montreal, Canada. Kateri's remains are buried inside the St. Francis Xavier church on the reservation. Giovanna had worked on historical murals in the past and authenticity has always been important to her.

A priest planned a pilgrimage to the Kahnawake reservation as well as a trip to Kateri's birthplace, present day Auriesville, New York.l. Six pueblo Native American women and the priest from New Mexico attended this photoshoot/pilgrimage . Giovanna made arrangements to photograph Mohawk models.

Giovanna had written up a list of scenes for her up-coming paintings from research collected months prior to the group's trip to Canada. In each of the 21 scenes, she described the cast of characters needed for each painting. She needed four Kateri models: one as a baby, a four-year old who portrayed Kateri when she was ill with small pox after losing her family from this dreaded disease, and two older models.

Giovanna's list also included a background scene and the lighting needed. She ended up using a battery-operated lamp underneath the faces of her models to get the effect of fire light inside a small longhouse meant for tourists. She used photographs taken at Sainte Marie Among the Iroquois, a recreated French Mission in Liverpool, NY, for reference in her paintings.

Giovanna's paintings, oil on linen, took five years to complete. She traveled a second time from New Mexico to to Kahnawake for additional photo references.

A blessing of the altar screen at the OHKAY Owingeh Pueblo church in New Mexico, with most of the installed paintings, was done by Archbishop Michael Sheehan in 2008. Five representatives of the Kahnawake reservation were invited to this event, four were models from Giovanna's paintings.
In 2010 a book of these paintings was published. The books made their way to Rome. Giovanna received a letter from the Vatican on behalf of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and personal letters regarding her book from Cardinals who were part of the Congregation of Saints. This is committee of Cardinals who help to make the decisions of who will become a saint. They had obtained copies of Giovanna's book.Kateri became a Catholic in 1676. This was frowned upon by her tribe and she was secretly taken by canoe at night to a Catholic Mission in present-day Canada where she was free to practice her faith. She was an inspiration to all who knew her, feeding and helping the sick and poor. Many miracles occurred after Kateri died at the young age of twenty-four in 1680.

Fifteen minutes after her death, her small pox scars disappeared. This was witnessed by two Jesuit Priests, Blackrobes, who kept daily journals, (The Jesuit Relations). She appeared twice to a priest, Fr. Chauchetiere, after her death. The first appearance came with messages of a church crumbling and a Native American being martyred. These prophecies both came true. The second message instructed Fr. Chauchetiere to paint a portrait of Kateri. He did so a year later and placed them on the forehead of the sick who were then healed.

In order for Kateri to become a Saint a present-day miracle was needed. In 2006 a young boy was healed from a staph infection, a flesh-eating disease he had encountered. Through the intervention of prayers made to Kateri Tekakwitha by family, friends and members of the Tekakwitha National Conference Center in Great Falls, Montana, he was healed. A complete medical investigation was done and decided that there was no way that this child could have survived this horrible fatal disease. Thus, the present-day miracle.


Paintings from the book can be seen on www.giovannapaponetti.com