Saint Therese
Saints Who Were Great Evangelizers
St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus – Also known as St. Thérèse of Lisieux and the Little Flower, Thérèse was a French Carmelite in the late 1800s. She is best known for pursuing the “little way” to holiness, serving God in every little action of daily life, before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 24 in 1897. She was named the patroness of Catholic missions by Pope Pius XI because of her devotion of praying for missionaries. She was named a Doctor of the Church (the third woman and youngest person ever to receive this honor) by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1997.
Lives of the Saints
by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. edition
[1894]
- TERESA OF THE INFANT JESUS
MARIE-FRANCOISE-THERESE MARTIN, known as “The Little Flower of Jesus,” was born at Alençon. France, on January 2nd, 1873. Reared in a home of comfort and surrounded by refinements that would have spoiled an ordinary child, Teresa’s intelligence had an early dawning which enabled her to comprehend the Divine Goodness far in advance of her tender years. Our Lord visited upon the child a severe trial—a strange malady from which there seemed no recovery. Her implicit confidence in God, however, overcame her infirmity and she progressed rapidly toward sanctity.
Teresa adopted flowers as the symbol of her love for her Divine Savior and offered her practices in virtue, sacrifice, and mortification as flowers at the feet of Jesus.
At fifteen she entered the Carmelite Convent at Lisieux, France, where she distinguished herself by punctual observance of the rule, burning love for God and wonderful trust in Him.
Before she died, this “lily of delicious perfume”—as Pope Pius X. called her—revealed to the superiors her life story in pages of rarest beauty.
She died in the odor of sanctity on September 30th, 1897, at the age of 24. Since her death countless graces have been attributed to her intercession. Pope Benedict XV in 1921 opened the way for the process of her beatification and she was declared Blessed by Pope Pius XI. on April 29, 1923, and was canonized on May 17, 1925.
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church white Memorial Jb 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17/Lk 10:17-24 (460).
https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/saints/therese-of-lisieux-the-little-flower-13769
ST. THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX – THE LITTLE FLOWER
*St. Therese of Lisieux – Chambers.
Saint Therese, the great Carmelite Saint of Modernity, holds a crucifix and roses, in this beautiful artwork by Charles Bosseron Chambers.
**Thérèse died at the age of 24 from tuberculosis. Her feast day in the General Roman Calendar was 3 October from 1927 until it was moved in 1969 to 1 October.
***Thérèse of Lisieux OCD (French: Thérèse de Lisieux [te.ʁɛz də li.zjø]), born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin (2 January 1873 – 30 September 1897), also known as Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face (Thérèse de l’Enfant Jésus et de la Sainte Face), was a French Catholic Discalced Carmelite nun 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 (little Thérèse).
Thérèse 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. Together with Francis of Assisi, she is one of the most popular saints in the history of the church. Pope Pius X called her “the greatest saint of modern times”. (Full article…)
Prayer: “For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy”
Attributes: Discalced Carmelite habit, crucifix, roses
Patronage: Gardens of Vatican City; Missionaries; France; Russia; HIV/AIDS sufferers; radio care-a-thons; florists and gardeners; loss of parents; tuberculosis; aviators; bodily ills; the Russicum; Alaska; Pasay City, Antipolo City, Philippines; Australia; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Fresno, California; Pueblo, Colorado; Kisumu, Kenya; Witbank, South Africa
See also: Nicola da Forca Palena
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Catholic_Church/Patron_Archive/October_1
****Thérèse of Lisieux OCD (French: Thérèse de Lisieux [te.ʁɛz də li.zjø]), born Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin (2 January 1873 – 30 September 1897), also known as Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face (Thérèse de l’Enfant Jésus et de la Sainte Face), was a French Catholic Discalced Carmelite nun 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 (little Thérèse).
Thérèse 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. Together with Francis of Assisi, she is one of the most popular saints in the history of the church. Pope Pius X called her “the greatest saint of modern times”.
Thérèse felt an early call to religious life and, after overcoming various obstacles, in 1888, at the early age of 15, she became a nun and joined two of her older sisters in the cloistered Carmelite community of Lisieux, Normandy (yet another sister, Céline, also later joined the order). After nine years as a Carmelite religious, 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. Thérèse died at the age of 24 from tuberculosis.
Her feast day in the General Roman Calendar was 3 October from 1927 until it was moved in 1969 to 1 October. Thérèse is well known throughout the world, with the Basilica of Lisieux being the second most popular place of pilgrimage in France after Lourdes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_of_Lisieux
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer . . . Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
Rom 12:12, 15