In decades of studying Saint Thérèse and her family, I have been especially interested in her middle sister, Léonie, and have wanted to make her better known in the English-speaking world. So, when I was in Lisieux in October 2008 for the beatification of their parents, Louis and Zélie Martin (read my story about this pilgrimage in Carmelite Review), I took the train to Caen to visit the Monastery of the Visitation, where Léonie entered in 1899 and lived till her death in 1941. The nuns received me with the utmost kindness and gave me permission to get the death notice, a "life of Léonie" the Monastery had written and circulated at Léonie's death, translated into English and to publish it at my Web site, "Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: A Gateway." Then they allowed me to pray alone for some time by Léonie's tomb in the crypt of the Monastery. I had brought with me the prayer cards and medals I had touched to the reliquary of Léonie's parents; I spread them out on the tomb and then sat down to pray, seeking to be a channel of the love of so many Americans for Léonie. I was far from expecting any personal graces, but suddenly I remembered all the places in my life where I had been deeply hurt, and I felt Léonie, who was treated so badly, assuring me that the wounds these experiences had left were no obstacle to sanctity. This grace strengthened my desire to make Léonie, so different from Thérèse and yet the fervent disciple of her way of confidence and love, known and loved still more.

Juan Marrero, an American most devoted to Thérèse and to Léonie who has translated important documents for this Web site and for the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, translated into English for "Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway" the "life of Léonie" the Visitation had written. I am most grateful to him for making this treasure available in English. Later, he generously contributed his translation to the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, too. I am most grateful to Léonie's religious community, the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen, for magnanimously allowing me to translate this document and for the many archival photos they gave me to illustrate it. I consider the apostolate of making Léonie, who speaks to so many wounded souls, better known as one of the most privileged aspects of the apostolate of exploring and sharing the spirituality of her sister, St. Thérèse.

When I learned that Bishop Boulanger had granted the imprimatur for the prayer to ask that Léonie might be declared venerable, I felt the time was ripe to give Léonie her own Web site so that she might be considered in her own right. I thank Juan Marrero, who has generously sponsored this new Web site. May Léonie touch many souls through it and draw them along the way of confidence and love she followed so powerfully.

Maureen O'Riordan
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA)

Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
July 16, 2013

Léonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Léonie Martin, the sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, became Sister Françoise-Thérèse of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen in northern France. Léonie led a challenging life: ill from childhood; abused by a maidservant; expelled from school; isolated within her family. She tried religious life three times before she succeeded: in 1899, at the age of 35, she entered definitively the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen, where she died in 1941 at the age of 78.

How did the troubled child and unhappy teenager turn into the sister everyone remembered as so kind, so serene, and so happy that they could not believe she had had a difficult childhood? As a laywoman, Léonie lived at the margins of her family and her society. She found Christ there and made him the center and the source of her life. She discovered God within herself, in her woundedness, and she became the first disciple of Thérèse's "way of confidence and love."

After her death, Léonie was almost forgotten for a long time. But, about 1960, the nuns of her monastery began to receive letters from all over the world asking them to pray that Léonie might obtain graces for those who wrote. Many of these letters came from the parents of special children, from families in conflict, and from persons who, like Léonie, struggle to find and to fulfill their vocations. These were followed by letters of thanksgiving. Pilgrims come to pray at her tomb, to ask for graces and to give thanks. Now she is being considered for beatifcation. Mgr Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, the diocese where Léonie lived most of her life and where she died, has granted the imprimatur for a prayer asking that Léonie might be declared "venerable" (that is, declared to have practced heroic virtue).

Léonie's mission is to draw souls, especially the wounded, the broken, and those who have not found a place in the world, to God. Invite her to accompany you and to lead you to surrender yourself, as she did, to God's "consuming and transforming love."

Léonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Léonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

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Léonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Léonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux