ST THÉRÈSE: FIFTEEN, AND BRAVE ENOUGH TO SPEAK TO THE POPE!
Courageous and vulnerable, the girl from Lisieux found her path to heaven in the most ordinary days.
Rome, 20 November 1887. Fifteen-year-old Thérèse Martin stands before Pope Leo XIII with a heartfelt request: she wants to enter Carmel. She has travelled to Italy with her father and sister. On 9 April 1888 she really does enter the Carmel of Lisieux. So much for a shy little saint: the girl associated with roses knew how to step forward!
A child who knows what loss feels like
Thérèse is born in Alençon on 2 January 1873 and loses her mother at just four. Her family moves to Lisieux; later, her father becomes ill. Her writing contains pain, close relationships and enormous changes. If you picture her always smiling, you know only half her story.
A little way, a great trust
At its heart is trust in God’s merciful love. Her “little way” takes shape through everyday duties, care for her sisters and prayer for others. Thérèse also maintains a spiritual relationship with two missionaries.
In her final months she faces serious illness and a painful trial of faith. She writes about the darkness she is experiencing and dies on 30 September 1897, aged twenty-four. Her words leave room for difficulty: she does not ask us to pretend everything is fine.
The story behind Story of a Soul
Published in 1898, the book comes from three manuscripts written at different times for different people: A, B and C, the last unfinished. The Carmel’s archive explains how critical editions restore the original texts beyond the arrangements of the earliest publications. Choose an edition that distinguishes the three: you will understand better whom she is addressing.
Thérèse is canonised in 1925, named patron of the missions in 1927 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997. Her memorial is on 1 October. And here is the surprising part: this patron of the missions never went on a missionary journey. Her mission worked through prayer and her relationships with others.
