Anniversary of Leonie's death on June 17, 1941

LEONIE MARTIN, SISTER FRANCOISE-THERESE, IN DEATH, JUNE 1941

The death of Leonie Martin, Sister Francoise-Therese
June 17, 1941

On June 11, 1941, Leonie, already very weak, celebrated the anniversary of her baptism. She read to her Visitation community Therese’s Offering to Merciful Love. The next morning, on arising, she collapsed. The chaplain gave her the last sacraments. In the afternoon two “turn-sisters” from the Carmel of Lisieux arrived to represent her surviving sisters, Pauline and Celine. Leonie had the happiness of recognizing them, and they stayed with her until her death five days later.

THE STATUE OF THE VIRGIN OF THE SMILE

The community surrounded her with prayers. As Leonie lay waiting for God, she fingered her late sister Marie’s rosary and Therese’s Profession crucifix. Near her bed in the infirmary was a reproduction of the statue of the “Virgin of the Smile” so cherished by her parents, the statue before which she and her sisters had been praying when, during a vision of Mary, Therese, at age ten, was cured. Leonie smiled at the statue and stretched her arms toward it while the nuns repeated Therese’s words:

 “You who came to smile at me in the morning of my life;

Come and smile once more, Mother, at its close!”

therese’s profession crucifix

She scattered over Therese’s crucifix petals from flowers her Carmelite sisters had cut in the monastery garden at Lisieux. On the evening of June 16, Leonie visibly weakened. The nuns prayed intensely to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of the Visitation, St. Therese, and Louis and Zelie, begging them to help her in the last hour. God seemed very near when Leonie suddenly came out of a coma-like state that she had been in for several hours. She smiled radiantly at her superior, Mother Marie-Agnes Debon, and at the two extern sisters from Carmel. Mother Marie-Agnes blessed her and embraced her once for Pauline and once for Celine. Leonie closed her eyes, and, without distress, gave a few sighs and seemed to fall asleep. It was June 17, the anniversary of the day the Sacred Heart appeared to St. Margaret Mary. Mother Marie-Agnes was inspired to recite the Magnificat. The nuns reported that “below white roses, our dear Sister Françoise-Thérèse appeared to reflect the peace and happiness of the eternal.  She had a beautiful smile that we did not tire of contemplating.”

[These details are based on the “life of Leonie” written by her Visitation sisters in 1941. The Visitations of Caen graciously gave us permission to translate it into English and to publish it. We thank them from our hearts. To see the English document, click on the words “life of Leonie.”].