Saint Thérèse of Lisieux – Feast Day – 1st of October
- RevShirleyMurphy
- Oct 3
- 7 min read
Famous for her autobiography, Story of a Soul, St. Therese of Lisieux was a 19th century French saint and a Doctor of the Church. She became a Carmelite nun in 1887 at the age of fifteen, though her life was cut short by tuberculosis at the age of 24. She embodied the power of prayer and, as a result, became a patron saint of missionaries, despite her status as a cloistered nun. Seeing herself as the “little flower of Jesus”, she famously quipped: "I will spend my heaven doing good on earth. I will let fall a shower of roses." Those with a devotion to St. Therese often report that roses appear when they ask for her intercession or guidance. St. Therese’s parents, Louis and Zelie Martin, are also saints.
“I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul.”
These are the words of Thérèse of Lisieux, a Carmelite nun called the “Little Flower,” who lived a cloistered life of obscurity in the convent of Lisieux, France. And her preference for hidden sacrifice did indeed convert souls. Few saints of God are more popular than this young nun. Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, is read and loved throughout the world. Thérèse Martin entered the convent at the age of 15 and died in 1897 at the age of 24.
St. Therese had a simple yet powerful message that still resonates in the hearts of millions today.
She died at the age of 24, believing that her life was really just beginning for God, promising to spend her heaven doing good on earth. Her promised “Shower of Roses” began and has become a torrent in the Church ever since.
Life in a Carmelite convent is indeed uneventful and consists mainly of prayer and hard domestic work. But Thérèse possessed that holy insight that redeems the time, however dull that time may be. She saw in quiet suffering a redemptive suffering, suffering that was indeed her apostolate. Thérèse said she came to the Carmel convent “to save souls and pray for priests.” And shortly before she died, she wrote: “I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth.”
Thérèse of Lisieux was canonized in 1925. On October 19, 1997, Pope John Paul II proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church, the third woman to be so recognized in light of her holiness and the influence of her teaching on spirituality in the Church.
Her parents, Louis and Zélie, were beatified in 2008 and canonized in 2015.
For more than a century, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, also known as “The Little Flower,” has captivated countless minds and hearts. Her simple and pure heart burned with a deep love for our Lord, and that love overflowed into the lives of many. She daily inspired those who knew her, and she continues to inspire those who read her story.
Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin was born on January 2, 1873, in Rue Saint-Blaise, Alençon, France, to Marie-Azélie Guérin (Zélie), and Louis Martin, a jeweler and watchmaker. Her mother, who often called Thérèse her “little angel,” died from breast cancer only a few months before Thérèse’s fifth birthday. But those early years with her mother had such an impact upon Thérèse that, in many ways, her mother remained with her, in her heart and mind, throughout her life. The love that mother and daughter shared was eternal.
Her father, Louis Martin, who called Thérèse his “little queen,” daily manifested his profound love for her, and she looked up to him as her “king.” As a child, Thérèse would spend hours with her father as he worked in the garden, desiring to be near him as often as she could. She would regularly accompany him on daily walks that always included a visit to the Blessed Sacrament at the nearby convent in Lisieux. She loved being in his presence and found the satisfaction of the love of God in his fatherly embrace. At age sixty-six, Louis suffered from two strokes, resulting in paralysis. He spent the next three years in a hospital and the final two years of his life at home in the care of his family. His daughters Céline and Léonie were his primary caregivers at home until June 24, 1893, when Léonie entered the Visitation Convent in Caen in a second attempt at religious life. Céline faithfully cared for their father during the last year of his life with the help of their uncle, a maid, and a male assistant until his death on July 29, 1894.
Thérèse had four living sisters and four siblings who died at an early age (three as infants and Hélène at age five). Her living sisters all entered religious life, three of them entering the same Carmelite convent in Lisieux as Thérèse. Marie became a Carmelite in Lisieux, taking the name Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart. Pauline became Mother Agnes of Jesus in the Lisieux Carmel. Léonie became Sister Françoise-Thérèse, Visitandine at Caen. Her life of saintly virtue is currently under study for possible canonization. Céline also became a Carmelite in Lisieux, taking the name Sister Geneviève of the Holy Face.
The relationship that Thérèse had with her sisters was both typical and unique. The girls played together and sometimes fought with one another. Yet, the depth of their love and affection for one another transfigured what was otherwise a normal sibling relationship. Thérèse adored her sisters and loved being with them, and her love was reciprocated.
Thérèse’s entire family shared tender, affectionate, and unwavering love for one another. Their home was a true “school of love,” and the lessons of love were learned and lived in their home each and every day. In many ways, Thérèse learned about the love of God first and foremost through the love she experienced within her family.
Just before her fifteenth birthday, after overcoming many obstacles, Thérèse received permission from the Bishop of Bayeux to be received into the Carmelite convent. She formally entered as a postulant on April 9, 1888, at the age of fifteen. She embraced religious life and lived it with fervor and devotion, making her temporary vows on January 10, 1889, and her final vows on September 24, 1890. For the next seven years, Sister Thérèse lived the hidden and holy life of a Carmelite nun.
Just three years before she was to die, Sister Thérèse began to write her autobiography when she was twenty-one years old, under obedience to her sister Pauline who had recently been elected as Mother Superior, Mother Agnes of Jesus. This autobiography, The Story of a Soul, captures the beauty and profundity of her family life, offers beautiful insights into her vocation as a Carmelite nun, and reveals how devoted she was to Jesus, longing to be with Him forever in Heaven, even from the earliest moments of her childhood.
The first manuscript in The Story of a Soul includes Sister Thérèse’s childhood memories, as well as those from her first years as a religious sister. At age twenty-three, Sister Thérèse contracted tuberculosis and spent more than a year suffering greatly. It was during this time that Sister Thérèse added two more manuscripts to her autobiography. One was written for her sister Marie, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, who desired to hear more about Sister Thérèse’s spirituality. The final manuscript detailed her life as a religious sister and was written at the request of Mother Agnes of Jesus. Sister Thérèse wrote the final manuscript during the last year of her life after she contracted tuberculosis. She never finished this manuscript due to her diminishing health, but her sister, Sister Agnes of Jesus, kept a detailed notebook of Sister Thérèse’s last months, which was printed in a separate book called, Her Last Conversations. Also available in print is Letters of Sister Thérèse of Lisieux, much of which was first published under the title, General Correspondence. Lastly, Sister Thérèse was an avid writer of poetry, prayers, and plays, many of which are published in various formats.
Sister Thérèse died on September 30, 1897, surrounded by three of the Martin sisters as well as all of her religious sisters in the Carmelite convent of Lisieux. Her final words were, “Oh!… I love Him!… My God, I…love…Thee!”
Thérèse has much to teach our age of the image, the appearance, the “self.” We have become a dangerously self-conscious people, painfully aware of the need to be fulfilled, yet knowing we are not. Thérèse, like so many saints, sought to serve others, to do something outside herself, to forget herself in quiet acts of love. She is one of the great examples of the gospel paradox that we gain our life by losing it, and that the seed that falls to the ground must die in order to live.
Preoccupation with self, separates modern men and women from God, from their fellow human beings, and ultimately from themselves. We must re-learn to forget ourselves, to contemplate a God who draws us out of ourselves, and to serve others as the ultimate expression of selfhood. These are the insights of Saint Thérèse, and they are more valid today than ever.
Saint Thérèse is the Patron Saint of: Florists, Missionaries, Pilots and Priests.
Her sense of commitment led her to a profound experience of the love of God and of neighbour. She never had an easy life, but she did live with a great sense of peace and joy.
In 1997, St. Therese was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II, making her the second Carmelite nun to receive that distinction after St. Teresa of Avila.
Pope John Paul II stated:
Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face is the youngest of all the “Doctors of the Church”, but her ardent spiritual journey shows such maturity, and the insights of faith expressed in her writings are so vast and profound that they deserve a place among the great spiritual masters.
Sources
2. https://www.catholicapostolatecenterfeastdays.org/feast-days-and-solemnities/st-therese-of-lisieux
Comments