Film footage from the time of St. Therese of Lisieux of the arrival of a train in France

 

 This 52-second film, from the time of St. Therese, shows the actual arrival of a train at La Ciotat, near Marseilles.  Therese passed through it on her return from Rome to Lisieux in November 1887.  You can imagine that she was moving among people dressed in this way.  See more details of the pilgrimage to Rome at the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.

The film "Leonie!" about the sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux is now available on DVD

To purchase, click on the image

 The film "Leonie!," a feature film about the life of Léonie Martin, the sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, is now available for purchase as a DVD.  This 90-minute feature film was produced by Holy Trinity Productionsin Michigan as a labor of love.  It was filmed in the Midwest, and the scenes at the Visitation were shot in the Visitation Monastery of Toledo.  The energy of the young American actresses and actors may appeal particularly to children and young people.  "Leonie!" is not a documentary; it does not explore in depth Léonie's spirituality or her correspondence with Thérèse.  This film depicts with care the events of Léonie's life: her unhappy childhood, her three unsuccessful attempts at religious life, and her life at the Monastery of the Visitation of Caen, where she entered definitively in 1899 and died in 1941; her testimony at the inquiries for her sister's cause, and her reunion with her three Carmelite sisters when she testified at Lisieux for Therese's canonization. It enacts many amusing incidents from her life in the Visitation community at Caen.

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Léonie was one of the first disciples of Thérèse's way of confidence and love.  A nun of the Visitation at Caen told me in 2008 that Léonie's superior, whom she knew, reported that Léonie was always so happy and at peace that it was almost impossible to believe that her early life had been so hard.  Léonie is very much loved by many people; her monastery receives many letters recounting the graces she obtains from God for those who seek her intercession.  She appeals especially to those who have been deeply wounded, to special children and their parents, and to those who, like her, struggle to find their place in the world.  Many pilgrims visit Caen to pray at her tomb.  I hope that the long-awaited distribution of the film Leonie! will stimulate viewers to learn more about Léonie's life and spirituality.  Note of February 8, 2015: the book Leonie Martin: A Difficult Life is now available as an e-book!  Click here to purchase  it). 

 

The anniversary of the death of Blessed Louis Martin on Sunday, July 29, 1894

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Blessed Louis Martin in death

The letter  from Celine Martin, at La Musse, near Evreux, to her Carmelite sisters in Lisieux to tell them about the death of their father:

July 29, 1894

Dear little sisters,

     Papa is in heaven! . . . I received his last breath, I closed his eyes. . . . His handsome face took on immediately an expression of beatitude, of such profound calm !  Tranquility was painted on his features . . . He expired so gently at fifteen minutes after eight.

     My poor heart was broken at the supreme moment; a flood of tears bathed his bed.  But at heart I was joyful because of his happiness, after the terrible martyrdom he endured and which we shared with him . . . .

     Last night, in a sleep filled with anguish, I suddenly awakened; I saw in the firmament a kind of luminous globe . . . . And this globe went deeply into the immensity of heaven.

. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .    Today, St. Martha, the saint of Bethany, the one who obtained the resurrection of Lazarus . . . .

     Today, the gospel of the five wise virgins.  . . .

     Today, Sunday, the Lord's day . . . .

     And Papa will remain with us until August 2, feast of Our Lady of the Angels.  . . .

Your little Celine

(from Letters of Saint Therese of Lisieux, Volume II.   Washington, D.C.: copyright 1988 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, pp. 874-875.  Used with permission).

 Below, courtesy of the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, is a photograph of the small building at La Musse in which Blessed Louis Martin died on that Sunday morning a hundred and eighteen years ago. 

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"Louis and Zelie Martin: A marriage of love," by Guy Gaucher, O.C.D.

For the fourth feast of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin on July 12, I highlight the article "Louis and Zelie Martin: a marriage of love," by Guy Gaucher, O.C.D.  To celebrate the feast, please visit the pages about their lives, their beatification, and their significance today.

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Louis and Zélie Martin: A marriage of love

 by Guy Gaucher, O.C.D., auxiliary bishop emeritus of Bayeux and Lisieux

published in French in Feu et Lumiere no. 230, July/August 2004.  You may now view the French text thanks to the Internet Archive.

translated by Susan Ehlert for thereseoflisieux.org

"I", said Zélie Martin, "love children to madness. I was born to have them." This home, however, might never have existed. Louis Martin, at age 20, was in Switzerland as an apprentice in watchmaking. He discovered the highest monastery in Europe, the Hermitage of the Great St. Bernard of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, helpers to mountain climbers during avalanches. The prior was firm: no knowledge of Latin, no postulancy in the monastery. Disappointed, Louis returned to the plain of Alençon and became a watchmaker.

For her part, Zélie Guérin, who wanted to be admitted to the Sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul of Alençon, met with the superior, who said she had no vocation.  Zélie decided then to go to lacemaking school to be initiated into the formidable art of precision of making Point d' Alençon lace, a "collective masterpiece."

In 1853, at twenty-two years of age, she established herself, with her sister Elise as a "manufacturer of Point d' Alençon," employing women who worked at home, then brought their work to her to assemble.  She had also to find clients, fill their orders, and keep her "office" in their house on the rue Saint-Blaise.

The watchmaker married the lacemaker on July 13, 1858 in the Church of Notre Dame at Alençon.  "They were married and had many children." Thus ended the tales that delighted us in childhood.

An idyllic tale?

One must read the letters of Zélie (there are 218 left) that were spread out from 1863 to 1877, the year of her death. Republished as a book, Correspondance Familiale, they follow the ordinary life of this family according to the rhythm of the births, the mourning periods, throughout the War of 1870, the economic crises, above all the family joys, but they end brutally with a drama: the death of Zélie, of cancer, at age forty-six, leaving Louis in charge of his five minor daughters: Marie, Pauline, Léonie, Céline, and Thérèse.

In fact, the nine children all had “Marie” for their first Christian name; they were distinguished by the name that followed. How could one be surprised that Therese might write of "the maternal preferences of heaven’s Queen for our family" (Ms. A, 2r).

After the death of Zélie, under the friendly urging of his brother-in-law, Isidore Guérin, a pharmacist living in the shadow of the Cathedral of Lisieux, Louis agreed to uproot himself from his friends and his environment for the good of his daughters. He moved to Lisieux, where their education was facilitated by the family friendship of the Guérin household, which itself had two girls, the cousins Jeanne and Marie. This is how there came to be a “Thérèse of Lisieux.”

An ordinary family....hardly ordinary

The Martins in Alençon? A family like others. Merchant craftsmen: a watchmaker who works alone, puts together and repairs watches for twenty-one years at 17 rue du Pont Neuf. He helps his wife with her business, she who unceasingly works her "Point d'Alencon."

The life of their family, which grows regularly, is one of their centers of attention. Their recreations, within the family, are simple.  Zélie and Louis lost four children because of infant mortality: Marie-Hélène, Marie-Joseph, Marie-Jean-Baptiste, Marie-Mélanie-Thérèse, a terrible reality in this 19th century.

What is less ordinary is the place that God holds in their personal and communal life.

Few parishioners of Notre Dame Church go every day to the 5:30 a.m. Mass, the "workers' Mass." In all things, God is first. The family prayer is twice daily, governed by the liturgy and the Angelus.  Christmas; Lent; Easter; May, the month of Mary; the feast of the Assumption on August 15th all have a central place in the family life.  The children are profoundly marked by this rhythm. Masses, Vespers, Compline, missions, often with very long sermons, bring the family together in church.

Louis Martin respects scrupulously not working on Sunday, preferring to lose all his clientele, and he respects the rigorous fasts the Church requires during Advent and Lent.

Zélie’s spirituality is marked by that of the Visitation Order, where her sister, who has become Sister Marie-Dosithée, entered in 1858. Zélie, who is a member of the Third Order of the Poor Clares, also has affinities with Saint Francis of Assisi.

From her childhood, which was not happy (her mother was very harsh), she kept her worry and fear to herself, as many people did during that epoch.  Her deeper life is union with God in the daily life of a mother of a family of five children, with the worry about Léonie, more difficult than the others; elderly parents; and young country maids who bring her worries more often than effective assistance.

Louis Martin had kept his sense of the inner life; of personal prayer; in fact, of contemplation; of his desire to be a monk. He loves pilgrimages and participates in several, including pilgrimages to Chartres, Lourdes, and Our Lady of Victories. 

His favorite pastime is fishing. He is also a good billiard player. He meets his Alençon friends at the Catholic Circle and participates in the nocturnal adoration of the Eucharist.

One might fear that such a household might not be much fun. According to the daughters who lived there, it wasn't like that at all. It had atmosphere, gaiety, games, celebrations, and family outings.

These Christians are not wrapped up in their piety. "If you do not love your sister or brother, whom you have seen, you cannot love God, whom you have not seen.”  (1 John 4:20)

They quietly live a concrete charity in which they engage themselves physically. Thus Zélie, in spite of her fears, will help two little girls terrorized by two women posing as nuns. She was obliged to testify at the police station. Louis welcomes an epileptic he met at the train station and helps to take care of him. They had the same concern for the homeless of their time.  They didn't hesitate to invite to their dinner table the tramps they met in the street. They visit the elderly and teach their children to honor the poor and to treat them as equals. Thérèse would be forever marked by this attitude.

A mother stricken

Louis and Zélie live a Passion, each in her or his own manner.  When, in December 1876, Zélie learns that she has an inoperable cancer that leaves her without hope, Louis is "overwhelmed;” panic takes over his household.

With a heroic courage, Zélie faces death, working until the limit of her strength, going to Mass each morning until the end. A pilgrimage to Lourdes, filled with deplorable incidents, will add still more to her sufferings. Her worry is the future of her five daughters. She worries above all for "poor Léonie," who, as Zélie knows, is more fragile than the other girls.  Zélie will leave her family on August 28, 1877.

A father humiliated

The passion of Louis will be of another kind. From November 1877 onward, he lived as a renter in the house of the Buissonnets, which he leased in Lisieux.  He accepted giving all his daughters in turn to God: Pauline (1882); Marie (1886); Léonie (who would make several tries in religious life and would finally become a Visitation nun in Caen in 1899); next his little Queen, Thérèse (1888). Céline enters the Carmel in 1894.

Louis’s shaky health deteriorated more and more until a serious attack made it necessary for him immediately to enter the Bon Sauveur asylum in Caen. Today we call it a psychiatric hospital, but in 1889 people called it the "insane asylum” instead.

Here is the venerable "Patriarch" in the middle of five hundred sick people of all kinds. He became number 14449. The man so esteemed and so respected sank into the worst kind of decline. He drank “the most bitter and most humiliating of all chalices," wrote Thérèse in Ms. A, 73r. Most of the doctors diagnosed him with cerebral arteriosclerosis and kidney failure. This is how the family broke apart. The lease of Les Buissonnets was terminated. Three of the daughters were Carmelites.

Unhealed, Louis Martin was returned to the Guérin family, who lodged him next door to their house in Lisieux, where Céline aided him night and day. He spends his vacations on the property of La Musse, which the Guérins inherited. He is like a child who perpetually asks for help. He dies on July 29, 1984, and is buried in the Lisieux cemetery.

In 1888, when the priest of St. Pierre’s Cathedral, Louis’s parish church, announced that he was starting a fundraising drive for a main altar, Louis donated the entire sum for the altar.  Thérèse commented, "Papa had just made a donation to God of an altar, and it was he who was chosen as victim to be offered with the Lamb without spot.”  (Ms A, 71v).

Re-reading the life of her family in the light of Merciful Love in 1895, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus wrote, evoking the day of her reception of the habit in Carmel where she was on the arm of her "dear King": "January 10 . . . was my King’s day of triumph.  I compare it to the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the day of the palms.  Like that of our Divine Master, Papa’s glory of a day was followed by a painful passion, and this passion was not his alone.  Just as the sufferings of Jesus pierced His Mother’s heart with a sword of sorrow, so our hearts experienced the sufferings of the one we cherished most tenderly on earth.  I recall that during the month of June 1888, at the moment of our first trials, I said," I am suffering very much, but I feel I can still bear greater trials." I was not thinking then of the ones reserved for me...I didn't know that on February 12, a month after my reception of the Habit, our dear Father would drink the most bitter, the most humiliating of all chalices.

Ah! that day, I didn't say I was able to suffer more!  Words cannot express our anguish, and I’m not going to attempt to describe it. One day, in Heaven, we shall love talking to one another about our glorious trials; don’t we already feel happy for having suffered them?  Yes, Papa's three years of martyrdom appear to me as the most lovable, the most fruitful of my life; I wouldn’t exchange them for all the ecstasies and revelations of the saints.  My heart overflows with gratitude when I think of this inestimable treasure that must cause a holy jealousy to the angels of the heavenly court...." (Ms A, 73r).

On July 26, 1897, very close to her death, Thérèse, herself living a physical and spiritual "passion,” wrote to Fr. Bellière a resume of the history of her family. She began thus: "The good God gave me a father and a mother more worthy of Heaven than of earth" (LT 261).

In 1888, shortly before Louis Martin fell ill, he wrote to his three Carmelite daughters, "I insist on telling you, my dear children, that I am urged to thank and to have you thank God, for I feel that our family, though very lowly, has the honor of being numbered among our Creator’s privileged ones.”  

A miracle for their beatification

A very serious investigation of the Martin parents has been conducted by the Church from 1967 until now. To declare them blessed a miracle was missing.  Here it is:

Little Pietro Schiliro, born at Monza on May 25, 2002 into a family of four children, was healed on June 28th, 2002, of a very serious and fatal pulmonary illness after two novenas to the Martin parents.

A Process was conducted in the diocese of Milan and came to a favorable conclusion.  Cardinal Tettamanzi closed it in Milan on June 10th, 2003. The medical dossier of the healed child numbers 967 pages!  [Editor's note: after this article was written, of course, the miracle was accepted, and Zelie and Louis were beatified on October 19, 2008).

The archives of the Carmelite Monastery of St. Therese of Lisieux online in English: read the authentic manuscripts of "Story of a Soul" on the Web

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The Carmelite monastery where St. Therese of Lisieux lived and died, which has digitized its magnificent archives and placed them on the Web for all to see,

has published its archives in English.

For the first time in history, the complete text of the English translation of the ICS Publications edition of

Story of a Soul,

St. Therese's classic memoir, is on the Web for all to read for free.  Read the

English translation of

Story of a Soul

here

.  This edition is the only published English translation made directly from Therese's original manuscripts.  All the English translations online before now were translations of inauthentic manuscripts, heavily edited and very different from the manuscripts as they left the pen of Therese.  Next to each typewritten page is the image of that page in Therese's handwriting.

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The hard copy of this edition, translated by Fr. John Clarke, O.C.D., contains many features not available online: an introduction and epilogue which put the manuscripts, written for her intimates, in context; a chronology; an index; a bibliography; and readable, informative footnotes.  If you do not own it, it is a most worthwhile purchase. 

Order Story of a Soul.

The resources of the English section of the Archives go far beyond

Story of a Soul.

From your own computer, you can see St. Therese's life and environment in its minutest detail: her handwritten manuscripts;  hundreds of photographs and documents rich in information about her milieu, her family, and her sister Carmelites; and much more. 

Visit the English section of the Lisieux Carmel Archives

.

Please return regularly; more than 30% of the site is now in English, and new English sections appear often.

Please join me in thanking and congratulating the Lisieux Carmel and the Washington Province of Discalced Carmelite Friars, together with their translators and collaborators and all who have contributed to create this extraordinary opportunity. May it create a global conversation about St. Therese which will draw many to Merciful Love.

Preview of the historic Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, January 17, 2011

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 The Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux invite you to the preview of their long-awaited Web site, which was launched today.  This magnificent site, the fruit of years of work, opens to you the doors of the Archives so that you can discover the treasures they contain, to know everything about Thérèse.   To begin to delve into its treasures, please visit

http://www.archives-carmel-lisieux.fr/carmel/

Please note that the opening of the English site, scheduled for March 19, 2012, has been postponed due to the serious illness of the Web designer.  There are 2,000 photos already on the site: photos of Thérèse's family and the places they lived, the Carmelite community, the works of art by the Martin sisters and St. Thérèse, and the works of art she loved.  The site is a marvel of detail and authenticity.   To register for e-mail updates about the English archives, please visit that page.

The site has not yet been migrated to its permanent server, so the connection might be slow, or a page might be unavailable.  The French site will become fully functional at the beginning of next week.  Please return regularly.  As documents are translated into English, more jewels will be added.

We congratulate and thank the Carmel of Lisieux and all the partners who worked with the Archives to accomplish this historic achievement, which makes the treasures of the Archives available to the world.  We thank God that the archives have been digitized, and we ask God's blessing on those who contributed to the accomplishment. Please pray that through this Web site, God may draw souls along the "way of confidence and love" Thérèsewalked in the earthly milieu now visible to all of us.

Update

on 2013-04-18 14:30 by Maureen O'Riordan

The English section of the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux is now open.

"Léonie Martin: A Difficult Life" by Marie Baudoin-Croix. Purchase one of the last new copies available. Shipped from the United States.

Update: February 8, 2014.  "Leonie Martin: A Difficult Life" is now available as an e- book.  Click here to purchase it. 

 

I am delighted to announce that a fortunate group of readers can purchase new copies of the book Léonie Martin: A Difficult Life, by Marie Baudoin-Croix.  This book about St. Thérèse's sister Léonie, published in French in 1989, was translated into English and published by Veritas Press in Dublin in 1993.  Veritas reprinted it in 2004.  Unfortunately, it is now out of print, and Veritas has announced no plans to reprint it.  But, through a special grace, I have received the last eighty new copies, and you can purchase it through this Web site.

After the August 1, 2011 premiere of the film " Léonie!" in Michigan, I told Cecilia Prizer of Angels of Our Lady Religious Gifts and Bookstore in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, my partner in distributing books and articles to make St. Thérèse better known, how much I wanted to make the book available to those interested in Léonie.  Through a distributor she found the last new copies of the book, which were in a warehouse in the British Isles.  Now they're in Pennsylvania waiting to be shipped.  To be fair, we are distributing them to the first comers, so please act now if you want one.  $12.95.

   About  Léonie Martin: A Difficult Life

Léonie Martin was the least gifted of the four sisters of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.  She was an emotionally disturbed child, abused by the family’s maid, expelled from school, who suffered and caused anguish in her family.  She did not fit their expectations of holiness.

Marie Baudoin-Croix, the well-known French poet, has examined the letters of Léonie’s mother, Blessed Zélie Martin, to her daughters, her sister, her brother, and her sister-in-law.  We see the backward child, the despair of many, who was the first to follow Thérèse’s Little Way.  The author examines Léonie ‘s correspondence with Thérèse, who shared the way generously with her sister.  It was only after three valiant but unsuccessful attempts that Léonie, at the age of thirty-five, was finally accepted by the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen.  She succeeded in conquering a “tough” temperament, so that by the time of her death in 1941, at the age of seventy-eight, she was regarded as a saint, and her monastery at Caen was inundated with letters testifying to her posthumous aid. 

In his preface, Fr. Christopher O’Donnell, O. Carm. writes:  “This book by Marie Baudoin-Croix is to be strongly welcomed.  It does not add to what has been available about Léonie to specialist scholars, but it will be a revelation to so many admirers of St. Thérèse in the English-speaking world . . . . It is an ideal companion to the autobiography of St. Thérèse.”

In her introduction the author notes: “Quite simply, it is comforting to everyone to know about one woman’s struggle to conquer a difficult, intractable temperament.  Also, the story of the young rebel who was Léonie can give help and hope to parents who are hurt by their clashes—often violent—with their children.”

Léonie’s story can encourage all people, and it inspires especially the parents of other “special needs” children; persons who have a hard time finding a place in society and in the Church; and persons deeply wounded by past experiences.  Paperback, 128 pages, including six pages of photographs.  [Note; these copies sold out in weeks, but, to purchase a used copy online, click on the image above or click here].

 

A four-minute film of Les Buissonnets, the family home of St. Therese in Lisieux

The Shrine at Lisieux produced a lovely four-minute video and photo show of Les Buissonnets, the little villa at Lisieux where the Martin family lived from their arrival at Lisieux in 1877 until Louis Martin was interned in the Bon Sauveur hospital at Caen in 1889.

les buissonnets, maison familiale de sainte...by sanctuaire_lisieux

An English translation of the life of Léonie Martin written by the nuns of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen

When Léonie Martin, Sister Françoise-Thérèse, the sister of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, died in 1941, her life was written by the nuns of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen and circulated to other monasteries.  Thanks to the great generosity of the nuns of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen, who gave me permission to publish an English translation of this document at "Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway," and to the partnership of Juan Marrero, who translated the document into English for this Web site, I am happy to announce the publication of this "summary of the life"of  Léonie Martin in English as the centerpiece of a new section of this Web site dedicated to Léonie. I am opening this section on August 1, 2011 in honor of the premiere in Michigan on that day of the American feature film "Leonie!" 

Léonie was one of the earliest and most fervent disciples of Thérèse's way of confidence and love.

I hope that many who see the film, and many others, will want to learn more about the real Léonie Martin

 

 

 

Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the family of St. Therese of Lisieux

For the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel I share with you a photograph of the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel which was in St. Jacques Church in Lisieux when the Martin family lived there. 

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St. Jacques was the parish in which their home, Les Buissonets, was located.  Father Delatroette, who was the ecclesiastical superior of the Lisieux Carmel and opposed Therese's entrance, thinking her too young, was a priest of St. Jacques and, for a time, was Leonie's confessor.  

But when Louis Martin and his five daughters moved to Lisieux in 1877, it was impossible to "rent" seats for six at St. Jacques.  So on Sundays the Martins attended the Cathedral of St. Pierre, where Louis's brother-in-law, Isidore Guerin, was one of the churchwardens.  But the family often participated in weekday Mass at St. Jacques.

It was before this statue in St. Jacques Church that Pauline Martin, Therese's sister, then twenty years old, was praying on February 16, 1882 when she suddenly understood that she was called to become a Carmelite.  Before that she had been thinking of the Visitation, where she had been educated.

St. Jacques Church was substantially destroyed when Lisieux was bombed in 1944, but this statue was recovered.  Although the church was restored after the war, it is no longer used as a church, but serves the town of Lisieux as a municipal exhibit hall, where, in the summer, an exhibit about the Martin family is usually held.  This statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel can be seen today at St. Pierre's Cathedral.  I thank the photographer, Corinne May, for permission to display her photograph here.

For the reference, see Therese et Lisieux by Pierre Descouvement and Helmut-Nils Loose. Editions du Cerf, 1991, p. 49.  

Ten ways to promote "A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, 1863-1885"

 Click on the image to order the book

Ten ways to promote A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, 1863-1885

  1. Order the book, which is the letters of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin.
  2. Submit this writeup to the media.
  3. Download this 8 1/2 x 11 flyer and this 8 1/2 x 14 poster.  Circulate them to your network by e-mail.  Print them out and post them or distribute them in your parish and your community.
  4. Insert this brief blurb in your parish bulletin or your group's newsletter.  Add it to your Web site or Facebook page.
  5. Add "www.thereseoflisieux.org" to your e-mail signature.  Link to it online.
  6. Ask your local bookstore to stock the book.
  7. Request your library to purchase it.
  8. Recommend the book to your friends.
  9. Choose it as a gift for someone who will enjoy it.
  10. Donate a copy to your church library.

 

 



The letters of Blessed Zélie and Louis Martin, the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, are now available in English!

$29.95.  Paperback, 464 pages. 

Click on the image to order.

      Welcome to the world of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin of Alençon, the parents of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face.  In these 219 letters, Zélie, writing between the ages of 31 and 45, writes the story of the family that gave birth to Story of a Soul, the memoir of her daughter, the saint.  Here Zélie shares herself unreservedly: happy as a wife and mother, overwhelmed with responsibility as a business owner, saddened by the deaths of her parents and four of her children, sensitive to slights and indifference, concerned for her surviving daughters, longing to become holy.  When she is diagnosed with breast cancer, in the midst of a very human desire to live, she shows us how to abandon ourselves to God in the face of death.

     Only 16 letters from her husband survive, but Zélie introduces us to the younger Louis Martin in the years before he suffered from Alzheimer's disease, was interned in a psychiatric hospital, and died.  We see him here as never before as husband, father, and friend in the years before his martyrdom.

     In beatifying Zélie and Louis in 2008, the Church recognized a fundamental reality: that each one experienced severe traumas, but the effects of these traumas were no obstacle to sanctity.  Louis and Zélie accepted their own powerlessness, that God might be all-powerful in their lives.  The transforming influence of their daughter Thérèse on human history was the fruit of that acceptance.  Reading about their profound love for each other and for their children and the deep faith they lived painfully in the midst of many ordeals is a source of liberation and healing.  Zélie and Louis offer us a personal experience of the motherhood and fatherhood of God.  The book is a mirror of the human face of holiness. 

     A Call to a Deeper Love is a translation of Correspondance familiale, the definitive edition of these letters published in French by Editions du Cerf in 2004.  The preface, the notes, and the presentation are the work of Bishop Guy Gaucher, O.C.D., retired auxiliary bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux and distinguished scholar of St. Therese, and of the Carmelites of Lisieux.  The text is exquisitely translated by Ann Hess.  Dr. Frances Renda added jewels unique to this English edition, including an introduction that reflects her intimate and delicate understanding of the depths of the marital spirituality of Louis and Zélie; background on 19th-century France that helps the reader put these letters in context; a chronology of Thérèse’s family that will be a classic reference; and many new and expanded footnotes. 

     In Story of a Soul Thérèse wrote a new chapter in the history of the human response to divine love.  Before that, Zélie and Louis wrote with their lives a new chapter in the history of marriage: the extraordinary response of two spouses to the call to create a family that was a crucible of sainthood.  A Call to a Deeper Love offers a unique understanding of a couple who became holy in and through their marriage, and it immeasurably deepens our understanding of the influences that surrounded St. Thérèse.  Order your copy now, and may this story of grace and steadfast faith fill you with inspiration, hope, and joy.

$29.95.  Paperback, 464 pages.  

Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin: a Photo Gallery of Their Lives and Beatification

This photo gallery of Louis and Zelie Martin includes many previously unpublished photographs of their environment at Alencon and Lisieux, their family, the ceremony of their beatification, and their reliquary.  These photographs are among those which appear in my photo show "Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin: Their lives and beatification," but I have been asked to display the photos here so that you can examine them at leisure.  I thank the photographers, Susan Ehlert, Ann Hess, and Juan Marrera.  Special thanks to the Pilgrimage Office at Lisieux for permission to display the photographs of their historic 2008 exhibit of objects, photos, and documents associated with the Martin family.  I am happy to offer these photographs in honor of the Feast of All Saints.

125 years ago today, St. Therese of Lisieux . . .

became a member of the Apostleship of Prayer.  The young girl of twelve who joined the Apostleship on October 15, 1885 was declared its patron, together with St. Francis Xavier, in 2004.  For more about Therese's membership and about the Apostleship of Prayer, please see "St. Therese of Lisieux and the Apostleship of Prayer." 

 

 

A photo album of those who knew St. Therese at Lisieux

As a special gift for the feast of St. Therese, I have created this photo album of those who knew her at Lisieux.  These photos of the Guerin family and their relatives; priests who knew Therese; her tutor, Mme. Papinau; and others who knew Therese at Lisieux were displayed at an exposition at St. Jacques Church (now a municipal exhibit hall) in Lisieux in 2009.  I am most grateful to the photographers, Peter and Liane Klostermann, for the gift of these photos, and to the Pilgrimage Office at Lisieux for permitting me to display them here. 

 

 

The obituary notice of St. Therese of Lisieux -- day nine of the "novena of gifts"

On the anniversary of St. Therese's death, see documents about St. Therese's death and funeral:

  • a photograph of the autograph letter her sister Pauline, Mother Agnes of Jesus, wrote to their sister Leonie and their aunt and uncle, Celine and Isidore Guerin, to tell them of Therese's death
  • the obituary announcing the death of Sister Therese that appeared in "Le Normand," a local newspaper to which her uncle contributed
  • the invitation sent by the Carmelite nuns to Sister Therese's funeral
  • the invitation to Sister Therese's funeral sent by the members of her family

I thank photographer Susan Ehlert for permitting me to display her photos.

 

 

Novena of gifts for the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux - day four - contemporary photographs of the countryside around Lisieux

The photographer of the blog "l'instantane normandie" has graciously permitted me to display 72 of his beautiful photographs of the countryside around Lisieux, little changed since the day of St. Therese.  Many of the scenes he has photographed are places the Martin family would have included in their family walks, picnics, and fishing trips.  Please see them here.

Novena of gifts for the feast of Saint Therese of Lisieux - day three - Exhibit of photographs of Lisieux at the time of Therese

As today's gift to prepare for Therese's feast, I invite you to visit an online exhibit of 116 photos of Lisieux "au temps de Therese."  These photos are from the album of Francois Bidet, who was proprietor of a pharmacy near that of Isidore Guerin, Therese's uncle. I thank La Bibliotheque Electronique de Lisieux for mounting this exhibit.  The photos are the property of the Musee d'art et de histoire de Lisieux.  Jean Bergeret wrote the accompanying text.  You can see townspeople shoveling snow before the Cathedral Saint-Pierre on the Place Thiers during the bitterly cold winter of 1895; a man begging who could be one of the people helped by the Martin family; a Eucharistic procession in the town square; market day, and many other photos.  Please visit them at this site.