Abstract. – Jesuit mission reports, systematically published by the order in the course of the 17th and 18th century, serve today as important sources for ethnological studies as well. The article is an analysis of two such documents, and specifically two biographies of Kateri Tekakwhita – a Mohawk convert to Christianity who has been recently declared saint by the Catholic Church. The author argues that, besides considering the hagiographical nature of those reports, the mystical tradition of Ignatian spirituality has to be also taken into account. The priority of personal- affective over cognitive moments in this tradition points to a successful communication between the native cosmovision and the Christian faith. Such approach opens spaces for a dialogue between theology and ethnology. [North American Indians, Mohawk, Jesuit missions, Kateri Tekakwitha, intercultural hermeneutics, Ignatian mysticism]