Thérèse of Lisieux
Thérèse of Lisieux , in religion Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, was a French Discalced Carmelite who is widely venerated in modern times. She is popularly known in English as the Little Flower of Jesus, or simply the Little Flower, and in French as la petite Thérèse.
Therese has been a highly influential model of sanctity for Catholics and for others because of the simplicity and practicality of her approach to the spiritual life. She is one of the most popular saints in the history of the church, although she was obscure during her lifetime. Pope Pius X called her "the greatest saint of modern times".
Therese felt an early call to religious life and, after overcoming various obstacles, in 1888, at age 15, she became a nun and joined two of her elder sisters in the cloistered Carmelite community of Lisieux in Normandy. After nine years as a Carmelite nun, having fulfilled various offices such as sacristan and assistant to the novice mistress, in her last eighteen months in Carmel she fell into a night of faith, in which she is said to have felt Jesus was absent and been tormented by doubts that God existed. Therese died at the age of 24 from tuberculosis.
After her death, Therese became known globally through her spiritual memoir, The Story of a Soul, which explains her theology of the "Little Way". As a result of her immense popularity and reputation for holiness, she was quickly beatified and canonized by Pope Pius XI, who completed the process just 28 years after her death. In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church. Her feast day in the General Roman Calendar was 3 October from 1927 until it was moved in 1969 to 1 October. She is well known throughout the world, with the Basilica of Lisieux being the second most popular place of pilgrimage in France after Lourdes.
Life
Family background
Therese was born on Rue Saint-Blaise, in Alençon, France on 2 January 1873, and was the daughter of Marie-Azélie Guérin, and Louis Martin who was a jeweler and watchmaker. Both her parents were devout Catholics who would eventually become the first married couple canonized together by the Roman Catholic Church.Louis had tried to become a canon regular, wanting to enter the Great St Bernard Hospice, but had been refused because he did not know Latin. Zélie, possessed of a strong, active temperament, wished to serve the sick, and had also considered entering consecrated life, but the prioress of the canonesses regular of the Hôtel-Dieu in Alençon had discouraged her outright. Disappointed, Zélie learned lacemaking instead. She excelled in it and set up her own business on Rue Saint-Blaise at age 22.
Louis and Zélie met in early 1858 and married on July 13 of that same year at the Basilica of Notre-Dame d'Alençon. At first they decided to live as brother and sister in a perpetual continence, but when a confessor discouraged them in this, they changed their lifestyle and had nine children. From 1867 to 1870, they lost 3 infants and five-year-old Hélène. All five of their surviving daughters became nuns. In addition to Therese, they were:
- ,
- Marie-Pauline,
- Léonie, and
- .
Birth and infancy
Soon after her birth in January 1873, the outlook for the survival of Therese Martin was uncertain. Because of her frail condition, she was entrusted to a wet nurse, Rose Taillé, who had already nursed two of the Martin children. Rose had her own children and could not live with the Martins, so Therese was sent to live with her in the bocage forests of Semallé.On 2 April 1874, when she was 15 months old, she returned to Alençon where her family surrounded her with affection. "I hear the baby calling me Mama! as she goes down the stairs. On every step, she calls out Mama! and if I don't respond every time, she remains there without going either forward or back." She was educated in a very Catholic environment, including Mass attendance at 5:30a.m., the strict observance of fasts, and prayer to the rhythm of the liturgical year. The Martins also practiced charity, visiting the sick and elderly and welcoming the occasional vagabond to their table. Even if she was not the model little girl her sisters later portrayed, Therese was very responsive to this education. She played at being a nun. Described as generally a happy child, she also manifested other emotions, and often cried: "Céline is playing with the little one with some bricks I have to correct poor baby who gets into frightful tantrums when she can't have her own way. She rolls in the floor in despair believing all is lost. Sometimes she is so overcome she almost chokes. She's a nervous child, but she is very good, very intelligent, and remembers everything." At 22, Therese, then a Carmelite, admitted: "I was far from being a perfect little girl".
From 1865 Zélie had complained of breast pain and in December 1876 a doctor told her of the seriousness of the tumour. In June 1877 she left for Lourdes hoping to be cured, but the miracle did not happen. On 28 August 1877, Zélie died, aged 45. Her funeral was conducted in the Basilica of Notre-Dame d'Alençon. Therese was barely four and a half years old. She later wrote: "When Mummy died, my happy disposition changed. I had been so lively and open; now I became diffident and oversensitive, crying if anyone looked at me. I was only happy if no one took notice of me… It was only in the intimacy of my own family, where everyone was wonderfully kind, that I could be more myself."
Three months after Zélie died, Louis Martin left Alençon, where he had spent his youth and marriage, and moved to Lisieux in the Calvados Department of Normandy, where Zélie's pharmacist brother, Isidore Guérin, lived with his wife and their two daughters, Jeanne and Marie. In her last months Zélie had given up the lace business. After her death, Louis sold it. Louis leased a pretty, spacious country house, Les Buissonnets, situated in a large garden on the slope of a hill overlooking the town. Looking back, Therese would see the move to Les Buissonnets as the beginning of the "second period of my life, the most painful of the three: it extends from the age of four-and-a-half to fourteen, the time when I rediscovered my childhood character, and entered into the serious side of life". In Lisieux, Pauline took on the role of Therese's "Mama". She took this role seriously, and Therese grew especially close to her, and to Céline, the sister closest to her in age.
Early years
Therese was taught at home until she was eight and a half, and then entered the school kept by the Benedictine nuns of the Abbey of Notre Dame du Pre in Lisieux. Therese, taught well and carefully by Marie and Pauline, found herself at the top of the class, except for writing and arithmetic. However, because of her young age and high grades, she was bullied. Therese suffered as a result of her sensitivity; neither were the boisterous games at recreation to her taste. She preferred to tell stories or look after the little ones in the infants class. "The five years I spent at school were the saddest of my life, and if my dear Céline had not been with me I could not have stayed there for a single month without falling ill." Céline informs us, "She now developed a fondness for hiding, she did not want to be observed, for she sincerely considered herself inferior".file:TdL-1881.JPG|thumb|150px|Therese aged 8, 1881
On her free days she became more and more attached to Marie Guérin, the younger of her two cousins in Lisieux. The two girls would play at being anchorites, as the great Teresa had once played with her brother. And every evening she plunged into the family circle. Yet the tension of the double life and the daily self-conquest placed a strain on Therese. Going to school became more and more difficult.
When she was nine years old, in October 1882, her sister Pauline entered the Carmelite convent at Lisieux. Therese was devastated. She understood that Pauline was cloistered and that she would never come back. "I said in the depths of my heart: Pauline is lost to me!" She also wanted to join the Carmelites, but was told she was too young. Yet, Therese so impressed Mother Marie Gonzague, the prioress, that she wrote to comfort Therese around the turn of the year 1882/83, calling her "my little daughter Therese of the Child Jesus".
Illness
At this time, Therese was often sick. She began to suffer from nervous tremors. The tremors started one night after her uncle took her for a walk and began to talk about Zélie. Assuming that she was cold, the family covered Therese with blankets, but the tremors continued. She clenched her teeth and could not speak. The family called Dr. Notta, who could make no diagnosis. In 1882, Dr. Gayral diagnosed that Therese "reacts to an emotional frustration with a neurotic attack".Alarmed, but cloistered, Pauline began to write letters to Therese and attempted various strategies to intervene. Eventually Therese recovered after she had turned to gaze at the statue of the Virgin Mary placed in Marie's room, where Therese had been moved. She reported on 13 May 1883 that she had seen the Virgin smile at her. She wrote: "Our Blessed Lady has come to me, she has smiled upon me. How happy I am." However, when Therese told the Carmelite nuns about this vision at the request of her eldest sister Marie, she found herself assailed by their questions and she lost confidence. Self-doubt made her begin to question what had happened. "I thought I had lied – I was unable to look upon myself without a feeling of profound horror." "For a long time after my cure, I thought that my sickness was deliberate and this was a real martyrdom for my soul". Her concerns over this continued until November 1887.
In October 1886, her oldest sister, Marie, entered the same Carmelite monastery, adding to Therese's grief. Therese was angry and shed "bitter tears" as Marie did not wait for her.
Therese also suffered from scruples, a condition experienced by other saints such as Alphonsus Liguori, also a Doctor of the Church, and Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. She wrote: "One would have to pass through this martyrdom to understand it well, and for me to express what I experienced for a year and a half would be impossible".