Letter of Mother Agnes of Jesus at the death of St. Therese, September 30, 1897

During the last agony of St. Therese, Leonie, together with her aunt and uncle Guerin, was praying in the chapel of the Carmel. Immediately after Therese died, her sister Pauline had this note given to them. She writes:

September 30, 1897

J.M.J.T.

Beloved Relatives and
Dear Leonie,

Our Angel is in heaven. She gave up her last sigh at seven, while pressing her Crucifix to her heart, saying "Oh! I love You!" She had just raised her eyes to heaven, what was she seeing!!!

Your little daughter
who loves you more than ever
Sister Agnes of Jesus
r.c.i.

(translation from Letters of St. Therese of Lisieux, Volume II, tr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1988, p. 1186).

Obituary of Sister Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face in "Le Normand"

Death Notice

It was with a lively feeling of sadness that we learned last Thursday evening of the death at the Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel of a young person who gave to a life of prayer and sacrifice the most beautiful years of her youth. Mademoiselle Marie-Francoise-Therese Martin, renouncing the world at the age of fifteen years and consecrating herself to God, became Sister Therese of the Child Jesus. She disappears after ten years of an angelic life in the shadow of the cloister, and we have the sweetest confidence that the death that came to fetch her in the flower of her youth, in putting an end to her long and cruel sufferings, has already placed on her head the immortal crown that was the object of her continual desires here below.

The funeral will be celebrated Monday morning in the chapel of the Carmel.

Le Normand offers to the family of Sister Therese of the Child Jesus, to the Mother Prioress and the other nuns of Carmel the homage of its respectful condolences.

Invitation from the Carmelite nuns to the funeral of Sister Therese

J. M. J. T.

You are very humbly asked by the Carmelite nuns to remember, in your most fervent prayers, the soul of their dear Sister Therese of the Child Jesus, who fell asleep in the Lord on September 30, 1897 at the age of 24 years, nine of which she spent in religion.

You are also invited to assist at the funeral Mass, which will take place in their chapel on Monday, October 4, at 9:00 a.m.

RESQUIESCAT IN PACE

from our monastery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Immaculate Conception

the Carmelites of Lisieux

Invitation from the family of Sister Therese of the Child Jesus to her funeral

You are invited to assist at the service and burial of
Marie-Francoise-Therese Martin
in religion
Sister Therese of the Child Jesus
who fell piously asleep in the Lord
September 30, 1897
in her 25th year.

It will take place on Monday, October 4, at 9:00 a.m. precisely.
PRAY TO GOD FOR HER!

From:

Mademoiselle Leonie Martin; Monsieur and Madame Isidore Guerin; Monsieur le Docteur La Neele and Madame La Neele; Mademoiselle Alphonsine Mace; Mademoiselle Marie Mace, in religion Sister Marguerite-Marie, Superior General of the Augustine Sisters of the Immaculate Conception at Paris; Monsieur et Madame Alphonse Mace; and the family.

Her sister, uncle, aunt, and cousins

Lisieux, September 30, 1897

1 2 3 4

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

Death and funeral documents for St. Therese

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

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