St. Therese of Lisieux, OCD, Virgin, Doctor of the Church Mission Day for Religious Sisters

Some Notes on St. Therese of Lisieux

1. Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin was born in Alençon, France, on 2 January 1873, and died at Lisieux on 30 September 1897. She was the ninth child of saintly parents, Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guerin (or simply, Zélie). All their five children, who survived childhood, became religious, one in the Visitation Order and four in the Carmelite Convent in Lisieux.

2. In her own words, she was “far from being a perfect little girl.” After Zélie died when Therese was four years old, she became diffident and over-sensitive, given to crying and frequent tantrums. She suffered from nervous tremors. Eventually, Therese recovered from her tremors after, as she said, a statue of the Virgin Mary smiled at her.

3. Christmas Eve of 1886 was the turning point in her life. She called it her “complete conversion.” While unwrapping her gifts, she reported: “I felt charity enter into my soul and the need to forget myself and to please others; since then I’ve been happy.” In 1887, she told her father that she wanted to celebrate the anniversary of “her conversion” by entering Carmel.

4. She applied to the Carmelite Convent but was refused because of her age. In 1887, Louis took Celine and Therese to Rome on a pilgrimage. During the papal general audience, Therese knelt before Pope Leo XIII and asked him to allow her to enter Carmel. The Pope told her to wait for the Superior’s decision.

5. On 9 April 1888, at the unusual age of 15, Thérèse Martin entered the convent of Lisieux, where two of her sisters had preceded her. She was given the name Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. She felt deep peace in her soul, which remained with her during her life, “even amid the greatest trials.” She described her first steps in the convent as meeting “more thorns than roses.”

But the greatest suffering came from outside Carmel. Louis Martin’s mind and health began to decline, and he was eventually cared for in an asylum.

6. In the novitiate, Therese applied herself to practice “little virtues, not having the facility to perform great ones.” This theme of littleness recurs often in her letters.

7. Given her Carmelite names, she contemplated the Holy Face of Jesus, the staggering humiliation of the Son of God, who assumed extreme weakness and helplessness. She kept in mind the words of Is. 53: 2-3 — “No stateliness here, no majesty, no beauty,... one despised, left out of all human reckoning.” Such contemplation nourished her spiritual life.

8. After eight months of suspension because of her young age, she finally made her religious commitment on 8 September 1890. She was 17 and a half. Her retreat to prepare for her profession was in “absolute aridity. She panicked on the eve of her profession, thinking that her “vocation was a sham.” But at her profession, she herself said, “An outpouring of peace flooded my soul.”

9. In her letter of profession, she wrote: “May You, Jesus, be everything! Let nobody be occupied with me, let me be looked upon as one to be trampled underfoot... may your will be done in me perfectly.... Jesus allow me to save very many souls.”

10. After her profession, she followed her “little way,” endured criticism in silence, and prayed for priests. Her spiritual life drew more on the Gospels and St. Paul’s Letters, which Celine had bound as one volume for her.

11. Her autobiography, “The Story of a Soul,” was suggested by Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart (her sister, Celine) and written in obedience to her Prioress, Mother Agnes of Jesus (her sister, Pauline). Published two years after her death, it records 11 years of her religious life, marked by signal graces and constant growth in holiness.

12. The book explains her theology of the “Little Way.” “Love proves itself in deeds. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.” Many of her poems would end, “I live for love.”

13. In her last 18 months in Carmel she fell into a “night of faith.” She felt that Jesus was absent. She was even tormented by doubts that God existed. In her last years, she suffered from tuberculosis. On 30 September 1890, she passed away. She was 24 years old. Her last words were: “ Oh, I love him. My God, I love you!”

14. With the fame of her sanctity and the many miracles performed through her intercession, her cause for sanctity took little time. She was beatified in 1923 and canonized in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, just 28 years after her death.

In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church. In 2015, Pope Francis canonized both her parents, the first married couple to be canonized. Her body is in a chapel in the Basilica of Lisieux, the second most popular place of pilgrimage in France after Lourdes. She and St. Francis Xavier are the Patrons of Missions. With St. Joan of Arc, she is also the Patroness of France.

“I am a very little soul, who can offer only very little things to the Lord. I will spend my Heaven doing good on earth.”

15. Prayer: O Lord, when I find no occasions, at least I want to keep telling You that I love You. It is not difficult and it keeps the fire of love going, even if that fire seems to be wholly out. I should throw little bits of straw on the ashes, little acts of virtue and of charity. I am sure that, with Your help, the fire would be enkindled again. (A Prayer of the Little Flower of Jesus)

Prayers, best wishes, God bless!