Kateri was born to an Algonquin mother and a Mohawk chief in the Mohawk village of Gandaouaga or Ossernenon, located in today's area of Auriesville, NY.

After surviving a smallpox epidemic that wiped out her family, she was adopted by her uncle and aunt and moved to a fortified village on the south side of the Mohawk River, where she was baptized on Easter Sunday 1676.

However, she had to leave the village because of her faith, and moved to Kanawake (near Montreal) where she died in 1680 at age 24.