Saint Therese of Lisieux, the "Little Flower"

Marie Francoise Therese Martin was born to Louis and Zelie Martin in Alencon, France, in the province of Normandy, on January 2, 1873. After the death of her mother in 1877, Therese moved, along with her father and four surviving sisters, to Lisieux, where most of the mother's relatives lived.

It was at Lisieux that the family rented a pleasant, red brick, three-story house in the parish of St. Jacques. The home became known as Les Buissonets because of its profusion of gardens and shrubbery.

Various accounts portray Therese as a sensitive child whose early years were plagued by depression and uncertainties. By the time she entered the Carmelite convent at the age of 15, however, a near-miraculous recovery had prepared her for the austere life of a contemplative. Some inner turmoil continued, but at length she found inner peace by complete surrender to the love and power of God.

In the last four years of her life, Therese was mistress of novices, and it was during this time that she composed her "Little Way," which, simply stated, consisted of doing everything -- no matter how trivial or insignificant, out of the motive of love of God.

Therese contracted a fatal tubercular condition eighteen months before her death on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. On her deathbed, she said: "I will let fall a shower of roses - I will spend my heaven doing good upon earth."

Standard procedure in the Carmelite order required that a traditional obituary about a deceased member be circulated among all the convents. In Therese's case, the other sisters felt that it would be hard to put together an account of her life because of her quite and unobtrusive manner. But when her sister Celine, also a Carmelite, began to collect Therese's papers for an autobiography, it became clear that Therese was a candidate for sainthood.

Demands for copies of the autobiography grew, and her cult began to spread in what Pius XI called a "hurricane of glory." Authorities in the Vatican waived the usual fifty-year waiting period and permitted investigation for her beatification immediately. She was beatified in 1923 and on May 17, 1925, was declared to be a saint.

Our own parish of the Little Flower was organized the same year as Ste. Therese's beatification, and was named for her the following year.

Unlike many saints, of whom we have only artists' conceptions, there are many extant photographs of the Little Flower from her childhood on through adulthood.

Her feast day in the new liturgical calendar is October 1.