Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
A young Carmelite who never left her convent and became one of the most loved teachers of the spiritual life.
Thérèse Martin was born in Alençon, France, on January 2, 1873, the youngest daughter of Louis and Zélie Martin, who were themselves canonized in 2015. Her mother died when Thérèse was four, and the family moved to Lisieux.
At fifteen she entered the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux, where two of her sisters were already nuns. She lived there for nine years and died of tuberculosis on September 30, 1897, at the age of twenty-four.
The Little Way
Nothing in Thérèse’s outward life was remarkable. She prayed, did the laundry, cared for difficult sisters, and suffered a long illness. What was remarkable was how she understood it. She knew she was too small for the great deeds of the saints she admired, so she looked for another road to holiness: a way of complete trust in God’s merciful love, lived out in small acts done with great love.
A smile for someone irritating, a task done without complaint, a hidden sacrifice no one notices: Thérèse believed that these, offered with love, are worth more than they appear. She called this her “little way.”
Story of a Soul
At the request of her superiors, Thérèse wrote down the memories of her childhood and her life in Carmel. Published after her death as Story of a Soul, the book spread across the world with a speed no one expected.
She was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925 and named co-patroness of the missions in 1927, though she had never left her cloister. In 1997 Saint John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church.
What Thérèse teaches
The Little Way is not a small ambition. It asks for everything, in the only currency most of us have: ordinary days. Thérèse shows that holiness does not wait for unusual circumstances. It is offered in the kitchen, the office, and the sickroom, to anyone willing to trust God like a child.
Prayer to Saint Thérèse
Original prayer by Take Jesus Home.