DETROIT — When the Dearborn parishes of St. Joseph and St. Martha merge this summer, the new parish that will emerge will be under the patronage of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the 17th-century Indian maiden canonized last year by Pope Benedict XVI.

The new parish will be the first in the Archdiocese of Detroit to bear the newly recognized saint’s name, though several others were established in other parts of the country while she was still Blessed Kateri.

St. Kateri (1656-80), the “Lilly of the Mohawks,” was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980. In recent decades her fame has grown, and along with it devotion to her, well beyond the Native Americans who especially cherish her memory.

Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron signed a decree declaring the new name Dec. 14, 2012, and informed Fr. Terrence Kerner, who will be pastor of the new parish when it officially merges July 1.

The story of how the two Dearborn parishes have gone about planning their merger, and how they came to adopt St. Kateri as patroness, will be told in a forthcoming issue of The Michigan Catholic.