Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face (Thérèse Martin), born in Alençon (Normandy), personally asked Pope Leo XIII for permission to enter Carmel when she was only fifteen years old.
The nine years she spent in religious life (she died of pulmonary tuberculosis on September 30, 1897, at the age of twenty-four) were filled with extraordinary spiritual intensity. Out of obedience, Thérèse wrote down— in different manuscripts—her inner experiences. These writings, completed with her letters and some poems, became the material that one of her sisters, who was also her superior, arranged and published under the title Story of a Soul. The success of this book spread Thérèse’s fame; this, together with the “shower of roses” she had promised to let fall from heaven—meaning the graces obtained through her intercession—led to her canonization in 1925. Some years later (1956), her writings were published in facsimile, which made it possible to form a more accurate judgment of the saint.
It is not exact to sum up all her spirituality simply with the expression “spiritual childhood.” The theology of the saint of Lisieux (for it truly is theology) is more complex than it may seem at first sight. The overflowing theocentrism of her thought (deeply rooted in the Carmelite tradition, but surprising for her time), her understanding of God’s love in the heart of the Church, and the personal mysticism that came from it—together with her discovery of the Eucharist’s apostolic mission—have made this deeply contemplative soul, who lived entirely hidden, be declared (in 1927) the principal patroness of all missions. Since 1944 she has also been invoked as the secondary patroness of France. Until the reform of the current calendar, her memorial was celebrated on October 3.
On October 19, 1997, Pope John Paul II declared Saint Thérèse of Lisieux a Doctor of the Church. She is the third woman to receive this honor, after her namesake Teresa of Ávila and Catherine of Siena.
