By Roy Gutman

McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

VATICAN CITY

--Tens of thousands of pilgrims, including Native Americans in tribal regalia, packed St. Peter's Square on Sunday as Pope Benedict XVI canonized seven saints, one a Mohawk who has long been an icon for Indians throughout the United States and Canada.

The elevation of Kateri Tekakwitha to sainthood was a breakthrough not only for Native Americans, but also for the Roman Catholic Church. The pope went out of his way to emphasize the church's respect for Indian culture and tribal traditions, which wasn't always the case.

Born in 1656 in what is today upstate New York, St. Kateri died in what is now Canada just 24 years later, having spent the last four years of her life as a Christian. Benedict praised her for staying "faithful to the traditions of her people," except for their religious beliefs.

"Her greatest wish was to know and to do what pleased God. She lived a life radiant with faith and purity," he said.

Unlike most of the others canonized Sunday, Kateri was neither a martyr nor a member of a religious order, but Benedict gave her a bigger challenge than anyone else.

"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," he said in his homily.

A second American canonized Sunday, Mother Marianne Cope, born in Germany in 1838, was a Franciscan nun who tended a leper's colony in Hawaii in the 19th century. Pedro Calungsod was a martyr at age 18 in 17th-century Philippines. Jacques Berthieu, a French priest born in the mid-19th century, spent much of his life in Madagascar, and Giovanni Battista Piamarta, born in 1841, served as a parish priest in Brescia, Italy.

Maria Carmelo Salles y Barangueras, born in 1848, founded a Spanish religious order, and Anna Schaefer, born in Germany in 1882, intended to join a religious order but was prevented by ill health.

The journey for Kateri was a long one. She was first proposed for sainthood more than a century ago. Even after so long a wait, her elevation could mark the beginning of a new relationship between Native Americans in the United States and Canada, and the Roman Catholic Church.