Announcement of the closing on February 22, 2020 of the diocesan inquiry into the holiness of the Servant of God, Leonie Martin, Sister Francoise-Therese, the sister of St. Therese of Lisieux.
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Leonie Martin, Sister Francoise-Therese, six months before her death
The Monastery of the Visitation at Caen announces joyful news of the progress of Leonie’s cause for beatification:
On Saturday, January 4, 2020 at 4:00 p.m., in the chapel of the monastery of the Visitation of Caen, Mgr Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of the diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux, will preside at the closing celebration of the diocesan investigation of the process for the beatification of the Servant of God, Léonie Martin, Sister Françoise-Thérèse.
The work of the commission of inquiry and of the historical commission will be officially transferred to Rome, more precisely to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Only after a long process of verification of the procedures will the Roman inquiry, the second stage of the process of beatification, begin.
A long path on which to live in the trust and perseverance that were so dear to Léonie!
[Update: on January 10, 2020, the Visitation announced that the time and date of the ceremony has been changed to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 22, 2020]. This is an important milestone in the legal procedures by which the Church is investigating Leonie’s holiness. It means that the diocesan tribunal that has been examining her life, virtues, writings, and reputation for holiness since 2015 is satisfied that she is a candidate worth considering for beatification. Immediately after the diocesan process closes on January 4, 2020, the anniversary of Therese’s baptism, the diocese will transfer to Rome its findings, including thousands of pages of documentation, and to ask the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to open a second inquiry. At the time of Therese this second inquiry was called the “Apostolic Process” because, unlike the first inquiry, which was opened by the diocese in which the candidate died, the Apostolic Process derives its authority directly from the Vatican.
The original announcement appeared in French on the Web site of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen. We thank the Visitation nuns for generously allowing us to translate it into English and to publish it here.