CANADA
CBC News

A handful of Nova Scotians from the Indian Brook First Nation are preparing to travel to the Vatican this week to witness a ceremony for the first ever First Nations person from North America to ascend to Catholic sainthood.

Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk woman, is set to be canonized at the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday — 300 years after her death.

Tekakwitha’s canonization is being celebrated by the survivors of church-run residential schools — an unusual group given the terrible legacy of residential schools in Canada, where physical and emotional abuse was common.

“It’s part of our healing process as a community and we need to heal to go farther in life,” Catherine Innis told CBC News.