125 years ago with Leonie Martin: Therese's letter of April 28, 1895 urging Leonie to remain at the Visitation of Caen

Chapel of the monastery of the visitation at caen, where leonie made her profession in 1900

Leonie is now in the midst of her second attempt at the Visitation of Caen, which she had entered on June 24, 1893. She had received the habit on April 6, 1894. Now her superiors told her that they had decided to delay her Profession. Discouraged, she considered asking for a transfer to the Visitation of Le Mans, where her aunt, Sister Marie-Dosithee Guerin, had spent her religious life and where her elder sisters Marie and Pauline had been educated. Her letter to her Carmelite sisters telling them this news has been lost, but Leonie kept the autograph of Therese’s response on April 28, 1895, Good Shepherd Sunday.

Therese says “I am interiorly persuaded that you are in your vocation, not only as a Visitation but as a Caen Visitandine.” She identifies Leonie’s thought of transferring to Le Mans as a Visitation. Eager to support her sister, she writes candidly of how disappointed she was at the postponement of her own Profession and of the insight God gave her that “there was a great self-seeking in this desire to pronounce my holy vows.” Therese tells Leonie of how, spiritually, she “prepared her wedding dress” and of her confidence that, when it was ready, Jesus would come to look for her.

Therese ends with the story of how she had often called herself Jesus’ little Toy and of how she wanted to be a poor toy that He would not be afraid to touch. This letter radiates the grace Therese is receiving in 1895; she ends “now that I have given you my spiritual direction, pray that I may put into practice the lights Jesus is giving me.” Please read the full text of this letter on the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux. It appears there courtesy of the Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites. For a richer understanding of the Martin family and of the valuable correspondence between Therese and Leonie, I highly recommend their Letters of St. Therese of Lisieux, Volume II, 1890-1897 (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1988). After Story of a Soul, this is the volume of Therese’s writings through which one learns to know her and her world best.