A Novena to Leonie Martin, Sister Francoise-Therese, for the healing of Kerry O'Riordan McAdam - April 6, 2022

Sister Francoise-Therese (Marie Leonie Martin)

My dear readers, friends, and persons of faith:

This is to ask you to take part in a novena prayer for the healing of my niece, Kerry O’Riordan McAdam. I ask you to pray for Kerry through the intercession of the Servant of God, Leonie Martin, Sister Francoise-Therese of the Visitation at Caen, the sister of St. Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face (also known as St. Therese of Lisieux).

About Sister Francoise-Therese

Please see “The life of Leonie Martin, Sister Francoise-Therese,” an English translation of a booklet created by the Visitation nuns of Leonie’s monastery at Caen in France. It contains a brief story with photos of Leonie, her family, and the monastery.

About Kerry O’Riordan McAdam

Kerry O’Riordan McAdam, left, and jacquie reynolds beck at their fundraising gala for cancer research, february 22, 2022

In early 2020, my niece Kerry, then aged 29, was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. Please read Kerry’s story as published by Penn Medicine. With a close family friend, Jacquie Beck, she has dedicated herself to increasing awareness of metastatic breast cancer and raising funds for research for a cure. In less than two years, they have raised more than $415,000. Kerry is in comfort care now, and she has asked for prayers. I invite each of you to join in praying a novena for the miracle of her cure.

About the Novena

A novena is nine days of prayer to ask God for a special grace. This novena begins on Thursday, April 7, and ends on Friday, April 15, 2022. To participate in the novena, you need only pray at least once each day, asking God to heal Kerry through the intercession of Sister Francoise-Therese. You may, but you need not, use the prayer below:

Lord our God,

through the example of the Servant of God,

Sister Françoise-Thérèse,

Léonie Martin, daughter of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin

and sister of St. Thérèse,

You have given us an understanding of the mercy

and the tenderness of Your love.

You watched over her fragile health from the first hours of her life.

You supported her in the difficult times of her childhood and adolescence.

You called her to the consecrated life,

and You supported her on the delicate path of her response.

You inspired her to lead a hidden life,

humble and offered to Your love,

as a Visitation nun at Caen,

accepting her limitations.

Lord, if such is Your will,

deign to grant us the grace that we ask of You,

the healing of Kerry O’Riordan McAdam,

through the intercession of Sister Françoise-Thérèse.

May she, one day, be counted

among the Venerables of your Church.

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

Imprimatur, feast of St. Francis de Sales, January 20, 2015

+ Jean-Claude Boulanger, Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux

Note: A “Venerable” is a person declared by the Church to have practiced virtue to an heroic degree. The next step on the road to sainthood is to be declared “Blessed.”

Note: This prayer is translated and published with the kind permission of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen. It is part of a novena to Leonie in French created by the Monastery of the Visitation de la Roche-sur-Yon.

Please accept my fervent thanks for joining in this novena for Kerry’s healing.

Your grateful sister,

Maureen O’Riordan

Curator of “Leonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Therese of Lisieux”

An update:

In the early morning of April 7, the nuns of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen, where Leonie lived from 1899 until she died in 1941, swiftly answered my appeal with this letter, translated and published with their permission. They will be making the novena with us. If you want to make a virtual pilgrimage to Leonie’s shrine while you are praying the novena for Kerry, please visit http://leoniemartin.org/virtual-tour

Dear Maureen,

We have received your email.

We are very sorry for this sad news, and it is with all our hearts that we unite ourselves to this novena.

We put a prayer for Kerry and your family near Leonie's tomb.

We entrust Kerry to the intercession of our dear Léonie.

Be assured of the support of our prayers.

The Sisters of the Visitation of Caen