Thérèse de Lisieux (2 January 1873 – 30 September 1897), or Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face , born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin , was a French Carmelite nun who was canonised in 1925 and declared a Doctor of the Church, one of only three women to receive that honour, in 1997. In 1927 she was named co-patron of the missions with St. Francis Xavier, and, in 1944, co-patron of France with St. Joan of Arc. She is also known as " The Little Flower of Jesus ".
Early life
Thérèse Martin was born in Alençon, France, the daughter of Blessed Louis Martin, a watchmaker, and Blessed Marie-Azélie Guérin, a lacemaker. Both her parents were devout Catholics. Louis had tried to become a monk, but was refused because he knew no Latin. Zélie, as she was always called, was rejected as a nun because the superior felt she had no vocation to the religious life; instead, she asked God to give her many children and let them all be consecrated to God. Louis and Zélie met in 1858 and married only three months later. They had nine children, of whom only five daughters--Marie, Pauline, Léonie, Céline and Thérèse—survived to adulthood.
Zélie was so successful in manufacturing lace that Louis sold his watchmaking shop to his nephew and handled the travelling end of her lacemaking business. In the nineteen years of their marriage, Louis and Zelie lost four children, three as infants and one little girl, Helene, at age five. In 1877, when Therese was only four, Zélie died of breast cancer. Louis sold the business and moved to Lisieux in the Calvados Department of Normandy, where Zélie's brother, Isidore Guérin, a pharmacist, lived with his wife and two daughters.
Taught at home till she was eight, Thérèse then studied at the Benedictine Abbey in Lisieux. When she was nine years old, her sister Pauline, who had acted as a "second mother" to her, entered the Carmelite monastery at Lisieux. Thérèse was devastated. She also wanted to enter Carmel, but was told she was too young. In 1886 her oldest sister, Marie, entered the same Carmel. In 1887, when she was fourteen, Thérèse renewed her attempts to join the order, but the priest-superior of the monastery would not allow it on account of her youth. Later, Louis took Céline and Thérèse on a diocesan pilgrimage to Rome for the priestly jubilee of Pope Leo XIII. During a general audience with Leo XIII, she asked him to allow her to enter at 15, but the Pope said: "Well, my child, do what the superiors decide."
Soon after that, the Bishop of Bayeux authorized the prioress to receive Thérèse, and on 9 April 1888 she became a Carmelite postulant. In 1889 her father suffered a stroke and was taken to a private sanatorium, the Bon Sauveur at Caen, where he remained for three years before returning to Lisieux in 1892. He died on 29 July 1894. Upon his death, Céline, who had been caring for him, entered the same Carmel as her three sisters on 14 September 1894; their cousin, Marie Guérin, entered on 15 August 1895. Léonie, after several attempts, became Sister Françoise-Thérèse, a nun in the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary at Caen.
Therese's apostolate of prayer for priests
At fourteen, St. Thérèse understood her vocation to pray for priests, to be "an apostle to apostles." In September 1890, at her canonical examination before she professed her religious vows, she was asked why she had come to Carmel. She answered "I came to save souls, and especially to pray for priests." Throughout her life she prayed fervently for priests, and she corresponded with and prayed for a young priest, Adolphe Roulland, and a young seminarian, Maurice Bellière. She wrote to her sister "Our mission as Carmelites is to form evangelical workers who will save thousands of souls whose mothers we shall be."
Thérèse's Little Way
Thérèse is known for her "way of confidence and love" , commonly known as "The Little Way" . In her quest for sanctity, she realized that it was not necessary to accomplish heroic acts, or "great deeds" , in order to attain holiness and to express her love of God. She wrote,
"Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. 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."
This little way, as Thérèse called it, is the foundation of her spirituality: Long ago the Church described Thérèse's way as "the little way of spiritual childhood," but Therese wrote "little way" only once, and she never wrote the phrase "spiritual childhood." It was her sister Pauline who, after Thérèse's death, adopted the phrase "the little way of spiritual childhood" to interpret Therese's path. Years after Thérèse's death, a Carmelite of Lisieux asked Pauline about this phrase and Pauline answered spontaneously "But you know well that Thérèse never used it! It is mine." In May 1897 Thérèse wrote to Father Adolphe Roulland, "My way is all confidence and love." To Maurice Bellière she wrote "and I, with my way, will do more than you, so I hope that one day Jesus will make you walk by the same way as me."
"Sometimes, when I read spiritual treatises in which perfection is shown with a thousand obstacles, surrounded by a crowd of illusions, my poor little mind quickly tires. I close the learned book which is breaking my head and drying up my heart, and I take up Holy Scripture. Then all seems luminous to me; a single word uncovers for my soul infinite horizons; perfection seems simple; I see that it is enough to recognize one's nothingness and to abandon oneself, like a child, into God's arms. Leaving to great souls, to great minds, the beautiful books I cannot understand, I rejoice to be little because 'only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet'."
Passages like this have left Thérèse open to the charge that hers is an overly sentimental and even a childish spirituality. Her proponents counter that she developed an approach to the spiritual life that everyone can understand and adopt, no matter what their background.
This is evident in her approach to prayer:
"For me, prayer is a movement of the heart; it is a simple glance toward Heaven; it is a cry of gratitude and love in times of trial as well as in times of joy; finally, it is something great, supernatural, which expands my soul and unites me to Jesus. . . . I have not the courage to look through books for beautiful prayers.... I do like a child who does not know how to read; I say very simply to God what I want to say, and He always understands me."
The Child Jesus and the Holy Face
Saint Thérèse entered the Carmelite order on 9 April 1888. On January 10, 1889, after a probationary period somewhat longer than the usual, she was given the habit and received the name: Thérèse of the Child Jesus. On 8 September 1890 Thérèse took her vows; the ceremony of taking the veil followed on the 24th when she added to her name in religion, and of the Holy Face , a title which was to become increasingly important in the development and character of her inner life. In her poem "My Heaven down here" composed in 1895 she expressed the notion that by the divine union of love, the soul takes on the semblance of Christ. By contemplating the sufferings associated with the Holy Face of Jesus, she felt she could become closer to Christ.
The devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus had been started by another Carmelite nun, Sister Marie of St Peter in Tours, France in 1844 and was promoted by Leo Dupont, also known as the Apostle of the Holy Face who formed the "Archconfraternity of the Holy Face" in Tours in 1851. The devotion was approved by Pope Leo XIII in 1855. Saint Thérèse was introduced to the Holy Face devotion through her blood sister Pauline, Sister Agnes of Jesus.
Her parents, Louis and Zelie Martin, had also prayed at the Oratory of the Holy Face, originally established by Leo Dupont in Tours. Saint Thérèse wrote many prayers to express the devotion to the Holy Face. She wrote the words “Make me resemble you, Jesus!” on a small card and attached a stamp of the Holy Face. She pinned the prayer in a small container over her heart. In August 1895, in her “Canticle to the Holy Face” she wrote:
"Jesus, Your ineffable image is the star which guides my steps. Ah, You know, Your sweet Face is for me Heaven on earth. My love discovers the charms of Your Face adorned with tears. I smile through my own tears when I contemplate Your sorrows" .
Saint Thérèse emphasised God's mercy in both the birth and the passion narratives in the Gospel. She wrote:
"He sees it disfigured, covered with blood!... unrecognizable!... And yet the divine Child does not tremble; this is what He chooses to show His love."
She also composed the Holy Face prayer for sinners
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