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Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin.
Feast Day: October 1.
Devotion to Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus has spread impressively throughout the Church. During her short life, Thérèse did not stand out above the other nuns at the Carmelite convent in Lisieux. But immediately after her death, many miracles and favors were granted through her intercession. The saint fulfilled the promise of raining roses after her death, that is, a shower of benefits for all who invoke her. «What drives me to go to Heaven is the thought of being able to ignite with love of God a multitude of souls who will praise Him eternally,» Thérèse said. Her great desire is that those who invoke her love God with an all-encompassing love. Through her letters, the testimonies of those who knew her, and especially her autobiography, «The Story of a Soul,» millions have come to know her great gifts and virtues. Countless pilgrims visit the Carmelite convent at Lisieux, where, on April 9, 1888, Marie Françoise Thérèse Martin, the youngest daughter of the watchmaker Louis Martin, became the youngest novice. She was only fifteen years old. Two of her sisters were already there: Marie, the eldest, had left when Thérèse was nine, and Pauline, who had cared for the family after her mother’s death, entered when Thérèse was fourteen. Eager to follow them, she went to Rome on a pilgrimage with her father, and breaking the rule of silence in the presence of the Pope, asked permission to enter Carmel at the age of fifteen. «You will enter if it is God’s will,» Pope Leo XIII replied, and Thérèse finished the pilgrimage with a spirit full of hope. At the end of the year, the permission that had previously been denied her was granted by the bishop, and Therese entered Carmel.
Therese had been her father’s favorite daughter; she was so cheerful, attractive, and kind that they both suffered intensely when the time came to separate. But she had no doubt that this was her vocation, and from the beginning she was determined to be a saint. Although Therese’s health was very delicate, she did not desire any dispensation from the austere Rule, and none was granted. She suffered intensely from the cold and from the exhaustion of performing some of the physical and external penances customary in the Rule. «I am a very small soul, who can only offer very small things to Our Lord,» she once said, «but I want to find a new path to heaven, very short, very straight, a small path… We are in the age of invention. I would like to find an elevator to ascend to Jesus, for I am too small to climb the steep steps of perfection…»
«What drives me to go to Heaven is the thought of being able to ignite with love of God a multitude of souls who will praise Him eternally.»
Her great desire is that those who call upon her love God with an all-encompassing love.
«The Little Flower,» as many call her, found her elevator, which carried her swiftly through dark periods of spiritual suffering, through long nights of physical pain, upward, always upward, until finally she was safe in the arms of her beloved Jesus. Before she died, she finished her autobiography, L’Histoire d’un Alme (The Story of a Soul), written at the request of her Superior. It has been translated into many different languages ​​and is full of beauty, wisdom, and courage. Through it, we can learn something of Therese’s holiness, for she explains how she made herself a plaything of Christ. Whatever she did, she was certain of His love. Sister Thérèse of Lisieux died on September 30, 1897. In June of that year, she had been taken to the convent infirmary, suffering from severe hemorrhages, and never left. Three of her statements, made around that time, have been read around the world, and no commentary on the Little Flower, however brief, would be complete without them: «I have never given God anything but love, and He will repay me with love. After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses.» «I will spend my Heaven doing good on earth.» «My little path is the path of spiritual childhood, the path of trust and absolute dedication.»
Almost immediately after her death, the miracles obtained through her intercession were so numerous that the Holy See waived the customary fifty years that must normally elapse before the canonization process begins. In 1922, she was solemnly beatified by Pope Pius XI, and two years later, Thérèse of Lisieux was canonized. Since one of the main obligations of Carmelite nuns is to pray for the missions, it is not surprising that, in 1927, Saint Therese was named the heavenly Patroness of all foreign missions, along with Saint Francis Xavier. Therese said: «I would like to be a missionary now and always, and in all the missions.»
The same goes for the Carmelite nuns.
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