The Catholic Church's says its first Aboriginal saint is due to be canonized later this year.
But a nagging question continues to loom over Kateri Takakwitha's hard-won sainthood: Where did she come from?
Both Canada and the United States are staking claim to the Mohawk icon who died in 1680, well before the Fathers of Confederation met or the Declaration of Independence was inked.
Though Tekakwitha was born 355 years ago in what's now New York, she did much of her religious work after moving to now-Quebec in her late teens.
As one McGill University history professor explains, those details alone make it difficult for a single nation to claim holy bragging rights.
"Because she lived in a time long before Canada or the United States as we know it existed, there's ways that different groups can kind of identify with her," Allan Greer told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday.
While one priest called her "the protectress of Canada," shrines to Tekakwitha abound on both sides of the border.
References to her are plentiful in pop culture as well. For instance, Canadian literary icon Leonard Cohen once referred to Tekakwitha as a symbol of salvation in his novel "Beautiful Losers."
So which nation can soon boast that the pious woman known as "Lily of the Mohawks" is its very own saint?
If you ask Greer, the most likely answer is neither the United States nor Canada.
"I think probably the most plausible claim is that of First Nations," he said in an interview from Montreal. "They were here long before there were these nation states that we identify with."
He noted that Tekakwitha, who he described as a "Mohawk through and through," is a collective symbol to First Nations people across North America.
"But the fact is that anyone is free to, I suppose, claim her memory as being something connected to them," he said.
Pope John Paul II beatified her in 1980 in a move that the Catholic News Service said made her "the first Native American to be beatified."
She edged towards sainthood in late December when the Congregation for the Causes of Saints credited her with a second miracle performed after death.