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

Episode 2 of "A Sister of St. Therese: Leonie Martin, Bearer of Hope," by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V. October 6, 2020

In this second episode Fr. Gallagher continues to examine Leonie’s childhood through the medium of the family’s letters, touching on the sad death of little Helene, the child closest to Leonie in age, as well as of three other children, and speaking of the family’s attempt to send her to the same Visitation boarding school her two older sisters attended.

"A Sister of St. Therese: Servant of God, Leonie Martin, Bearer of Hope," Episode 1 of a Podcast by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V. September 28, 2020

The “Discerning Hearts” Podcast has introduced the series “A Sister of St. Therese: Servant of God, Leonie Martin, Bearer of Hope,” by Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V. This is an audio series which examines Leonie’s life through her letters and those of her family. It will include about 15 episodes. Episode 1 features an introduction to the series and reads Zelie’s letters during Leonie’s early childhood from the book A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of St. Therese (Staten Island, New York: Society of St. Paul/Alba House, 2011). Listen to it above.

Leonie enters the Visitation for the second time, June 24, 1893

Leonie in 1893, shortly before her second entrance into the Visitation/ She is about 30 years old.

June 24, 1893 is usually listed as the date on which Leonie Martin entered the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen for the second time. But thereby hangs a tale. In fact, Leonie arrived on June 24 with the intention of making a week’s retreat.

Louis Martin was released from the Bon Sauveur asylum on May 10, 1892. He joined his daughters at the home of his brother-in-law, Isidore Guerin, in Lisieux. On July 1, a small house on rue Labbey, just across from the back entrance to the Guerin mansion,was leased for Louis, Leonie, and Celine. There his daughters looked after him happily with the help of two servants, Marie and Desire Le Juif.

The Guerins spent part of each summer at La Musse, an estate near Evreux inherited from Madame Guerin’s family, the Fournets. In 1892 Louis remained in Lisieux, while Leonie took care of him, and Celine joined the Guerins at La Musse for a couple of weeks in August.

In April 1893, Celine and Marie Guerin traveled to Caen to stay with Jeanne Guerin (Celine’s cousin and Marie’s elder sister) and enjoy the big Caen Fair. This year the whole family planned to spend part of the summer at La Musse, bringing Louis with them. About this time Leonie suggested that, instead of joining them immediately, she might make a retreat at the Visitation of Caen,where she had been a postulant for six months in 1887. On April 23, 1893, Leonie received an angry letter from Celine, who was very upset by this plan. Madame Guerin’s letter of that date to her daughter Marie in Caen contains this passage:

Dear Léonie was very upset this morning when she received Céline’s letter. She gave it to me to read and I tried to comfort her, and she agrees with me that if the annoyance she was feeling about going to La Musse was more pleasing to God than the happiness she feels about going to the Visitation, she will readily make the sacrifice of the latter and doesn’t even want to hear anything more about it. The poor girl is no longer crying now, and I find she is really being very good. She wrote to Thérèse about what Céline had said to her.

Read Madame Guerin’s letter on the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.

In the end, Leonie did go to the Visitation for a week’s retreat, arriving on June 24. Three days later Celine left for La Musse with her father and the Guerin family. It seems that Leonie must have realized after only a few days at the Visitation that she wanted to enter again. Before June 30 she asked the superior for permission to enter, and she wrote M. Guerin, her uncle and guardian, for his consent. For the next chapter, stay tuned!

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.”].

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.

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.

"The Unmentioned Martin": Crisis Magazine writes about Leonie, June 22, 2017

The Servant of God, Leonie Martin, Sister Francoise-Therese of the Visitation of Holy Mary, about six months before her death.  

In "The Unmentioned Martin," Elise Erhard writes about Leonie for Crisis Magazine.  I'm delighted that this article, which will introduce new readers to Leonie, contains two links to "Leonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of Saint Therese of Lisieux.":

Bishop Boulanger's homily at the Mass for the transfer of Leonie's body to its new shrine, 2017.

Léonie: Sister Françoise–Thérèse

JEAN-CLAUDE BOULANGER, BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF BAYEUX AND LISIEUX.  Photo credit: Diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux. 

[Homily preached January 21, 2017 in the Chapel of the Monastèry of the Visitation in Caen, France by Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, at the Mass celebrating the transfer of Léonie’s body from the crypt to her new shrine in the chapel]

 “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.”   

(Matthew 11:24)

Brothers and sisters,

The one who draws us together this afternoon is not a nun who founded a religious order the way St. Teresa of Avila did.  No, she is a child in the Gospel sense, a little sister, named Léonie, Sister Françoise-Thérèse, here at the Visitation.  There was, of course, little Thérèse, the youngest; but there was above all poor Léonie.  Being little and being poor go together very well.  Being little, then, is the opposite of being powerful.  A powerful man eventually instills fear.  One may admire him, perhaps . . . but for what he does or for what he possesses, much more than for who he is.  Yet Léonie has nothing else to offer except who she is.  Every human being, therefore, with individual failures and successes, may recognize himself or herself in Léonie.  It is in this capacity that the one who accepts being little, being deprived of a thousand things, becomes rich with a thousand relationships, with a thousand bonds . . .  Without knowing it, such a person weaves an immense tapestry of a thousand faces.  This, then, is what Léonie reveals to us.  Only the one who is little is truly a sister, and we can name her Sister Françoise-Thérèse.

Jesus was little because he was fully the Son of God, and he had learned to receive everything from God his Father. He was little. and he was fully the brother of humanity.  The perfect example of the little brother is really Jesus of Nazareth.  In him all those who search for a little brother have found one.  But at the same time Jesus showed who the Father is.  The humble, the poor . . . in a word, all those who know themselves to be little even if they have some money, some success, some intelligence, these discover what the Father is . . . a God all-powerful in Love . . . but so dependent on his creatures . . .  A God who is capable of suffering before the disfigured face of his creatures… Yes, a God who is a heart marked with a cross.  There it is, what we have learned during this year of Mercy.  In contemplating Léonie, it is the face of Jesus that we discover.

In 1935 she wrote in a letter addressed to her sisters at the Lisieux Carmel:  “I want to be so little that Jesus is forced to keep me in his arms.  This, then, is the Léonie who has implemented in her life the little way of spiritual childhood of her sister Thérèse.  She adds:  “My spirituality is that of my Thérèse, and as a result, that of our holy founder (St. Francis de Sales), his doctrine and hers are all one, she is the soul of whom our great Doctor was dreaming. I am in a state of perfect abandonment…” (Letter of May 3, 1935).

Léonie and the Little Way . . . the way of childhood . . . the little way of confidence.

St. Teresa of Avila wrote in the 16th century:  “The Lord is present even among the pots and pans.”  Léonie, certainly, was not at Carmel, but she could have written what the reformer of Carmel said.  At the heart of the little way that Thérèse described, it is Léonie who understood it best.  Léonie wrote:  “O my God, in my life where you have put little which shines, grant that, like you, I might go towards authentic values, disdaining the human values for estimating worth and wanting only the absolute, the eternal, the Love of God, in the strength of hope.”  It is Léonie who makes herself a disciple of her sister even though ten years separate them.  After Leonie’s death, her influence spread very rapidly: letters arrived from every continent, and they still continue to arrive constantly here at the Monastery of the Visitation.

This little way, the way of spiritual childhood, Thérèse discovered at Christmas 1886, when she finally left childishness behind.  It is the path of trust and of complete abandonment into the hands of the Father.  It is a way where one leaves oneself behind in order to open oneself to others.  “I am only a child, powerless and feeble; however, it is my feebleness which gives me the audacity to offer myself to Jesus, to Your Love, O Jesus.”  She will write again:

I offered myself to the child Jesus to be his little toy.  I told him not to treat me like an expensive toy that children settle for looking at without ever daring to touch it, but like a little ball of no value which he could throw on the ground, kick with his feet, split open, leave in a corner, and even press to his heart if that would give him pleasure.

We find here again Thérèse’s sense of humor.  It is through her feebleness, her littleness that she comprehends the infinite nature of the Father’s Love.

I can, despite my littleness, aspire to sanctity; it is impossible for me to grow up.  I have to put up with myself just the way I am with all my imperfections, but I want to find a means of going to heaven by a little way that is quite straight, quite short, a completely new little way.

This way is made of trust and of love within the banality of everyday life.  “Jesus does not ask of me grand actions but only abandonment and gratitude.  It is abandonment alone which guides me.  I have no other compass at all.”  This little way is a path which everyone can follow, but only while practicing Love, the kind in which “the left hand does not know what the right is doing.”  We are all called to sanctity: for this it is enough to put much love into the most ordinary activities of life.  “Jesus doesn’t look at the grandeur of the actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which they are done.”

Thérèse is the saint of everyday life.  She speaks about the holiness of daily life, about being faithful in small things without making a fuss, about being completely filled with love.  She evokes the divine under the most human of circumstances.  “Picking up a needle out of love can save the world.”  It is also a way within the grasp of little people who express themselves through the ordinariness of life without ever having accomplished exceptional things which would be newsworthy.  It is the sanctity that is within reach of everyone.  She will speak of the elevator which must bring her up to heaven, and this elevator is not reserved for the wealthy.  It is within everyone’s reach; this elevator is the arms of Jesus

It is indeed this little way that Léonie lived.  Little people all across the world are rediscovering it through her.  Many families who have difficulties with one of their children come willingly to her.  Similarly, many young women search for their vocations on a meandering path.  They see themselves in Léonie, who found her path in life after three tries.  And finally, as Bernanos said: “It is much easier to detest oneself than it is to love oneself with humility.”  Léonie was reconciled to herself, and she accepted being different from her sisters.  Never does one find a trace of jealousy in her letters.  One can say that she learned to love herself with humility and in simplicity.

+       Jean Claude Boulanger
Bishop of the Bayeux-Lisieux Diocese

[Note: I thank Bishop Boulanger for permission to translate and publish his homily and for furnishing a photograph; the Webmaster of the Visitation at Caen; and Rod Murphy, who translated the homily.].

Celebrate Leonie Martin's birthday with a new video, "A day at the Monastery," created by her Visitation sisters at Caen. June 3, 2017

Vidéo réalisée au monastère de la Visitation de Caen. Copyright © 2016 Monastère de la Visitation de Caen

For the first time in history, in this lovely video, follow the Visitation nuns through a day in their monastery at Caen: Mass, private prayer, communal prayer, housework, bookbinding, operating a pension for students, study, recreation, conferences, playing volleyball in the garden    . . .  Experience not only the building where Leonie Martin lived for so long the way of her sister, St. Therese of Lisieux, but also the simple, joyful spirit of the Visitation community.  A beautiful way to celebrate Leonie's birthday.  16 minutes long; silent except for music and sung prayer. 

Video of the Mass to celebrate the transfer of Leonie Martin's body to her new tomb in the chapel of the Visitation at Caen, January 21, 2017

Léonie Martin from Monastère de la Visitation on Vimeo.

This short film (3:05) begins with the processional for this historic celebration of the Eucharist, over which Mgr Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, presided.  The present-day nuns of the Monastery of the Visitation, where Leonie lived from 1899-1941, are in the front seats on the left.  The priests in the processional include, among others,

·         Father Jean-Marie Simar, rector of the Shrine of Saints Louis and Zelie Martin at Alencon;

·         Father Olivier Ruffray, rector of the Shrine of St. Therese at Lisieux; 

·         Father Raymond Zambelli, former rector of the Shrine of St. Therese at Lisieux; and,

·         walking immediately in front of the bishop, at left, Father Antonio Sangalli, the postulator of Leonie's cause.  

Our congratulations to all those who have led the cause and to Leonie's Visitation sisters, whom we thank for the privilege of sharing this film.  If you read French, please visit their site, Leonie Martin, Soeur Francoise-Therese.

We give thanks to God for this blessed occasion and pray that the chapel of the Visitation, where pilgrims may now pray at Leonie's tomb, may become a center of grace for the whole world.  

After a special Mass, Leonie Martin's body now lies in her new tomb in the chapel of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen - January 21, 2017

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Bishop Boulanger presiding at the Mass on January 21, 2017 to celebrate the deposit of the body of the Servant of God, Leonie Martin, in  her new tomb at the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen.  Photo credit:  Archives of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen

"Today, the Eucharist presided over by Monseigneur Boulanger for this occasion before the deposit of the casket of the Servant of God, Sister Francoise-Therese, in her new tomb in the chapel, January 21, 2017."

- translated with permission from www.leonie-martin.fr

In the photo above: in the sanctuary, wearing his miter, Bishop Boulanger; at right, Father Sangalli, postulator of Leonie's cause.   Leonie's coffin lies in the center aisle, draped in red.  The Visitation nuns are visible in the front pews on the right.  

Leonie's tomb is now at street level.  The crypt was accessible only to those who could handle stairs.  What a joy to think that anyone who can travel can pray in the presence of her tomb now!  May it be a blessing to the whole world.  

Leonie is the only one of Therese's four sisters not buried underneath Therese's shrine at the Lisieux Carmel.  Her sister Pauline, then prioress, had offered her the honor of being buried there with her sisters, but Leonie declined.  She wanted to remain at the Visitation in death as she had in life. So her tomb, a pilgrimage site, remains in Caen, the city where she found a home and where her father Louis spent his "three years of martyrdom" at the Bon Sauveur hospital. 

On June 6, 1941, ten days before her death, Leonie wrote to Pauline that her superior "told me I will be buried in the crypt beside our other revered Mother Superiors, and that she in turn will join me there. Yes, there’s nothing I’d like more, but may it be as late as possible. This decision of the Council encourages me to embrace my insignificance even more."  [from the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux].  If the honor of being buried in the crypt with her superiors made Leonie feel insignificant, what would she have felt at the celebrations of today?  

The body of the Servant of God, Leonie Martin, is deposited in her new tomb in the chapel of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen, January 21, 2017

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TThe Sisters of the Monastery of the Visitation of Caen have the joy of inviting you to the Eucharist at which Monseigneur Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, will preside on the occasion of the deposit ot the tomb of the Servant of God, Sister Françoise-Thérèse, Léonie Martin, in her new tomb

Saturday, January 21, 2017 at 3:00 p.m.

In the chapel of the Monastery

3, rue de l’abbatiale

14000 CAEN

You are also invited, in honor of this feast, to a spiritual concert that will be given by the ensemble Le Diapason under the direction of Jean-François Chenel

Monday, January 23, 2017 at 8:30 p.m.

In the chapel of the monastery

(admission free)

On January 20, 2017, Pascal Simon reported in Ouest-France that Leonie Martin, the sister of Saint Therese of Lisieux, may be the next native of Normandy to be proclaimed a saint by the Catholic Church.  

Transfer of Leonie's body to the chapel

Leonie's process of beatification opened in 2015.  It reaches a new stage on Saturday, January 21, 2017 at the monastery of the Visitation in Caen, where Leonie lived as Sister Francoise-Therese from 1899 until her death. Her body, which has lain in a tomb in the crypt of the monastery since she died in 1941, will be transferred to a new tomb in the chapel where she professed her vows in 1900.  Her new shrine was designed by architect Hervé Declomesnil. 

Mass to mark the occasion

Monseigneur Jean-Claude Boulanger, the bishop of the diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux, will preside at a Mass to mark the occasion at 3:00 p.m.  He will be assisted by Father Antonio Sangalli, an Italian Carmelite priest who is the postulator of Leonie's cause.  Father Sangalli served as vice-postulator for the cause of Leonie's parents, Saints Louis and Zelie Martin.  

Progress of Leonie's cause

Father Sangalli told Ouest-France that the diocesan inquiry into whether Leonie practiced "heroic virtue" is still going on.  In an interview with TendanceOuest, Father Sangalli said that Leonie's life was full of the spirit of the gospel, of the beatitudes, and that her sanctity was the "heroicity of the everyday."  He hopes that this first stage will be completed before the end of "Leonie's year," which opened on the 75th anniversary of her death (June 16, 2016).  

Possible miracles identified

The file will then be sent to the Vatican, which might proclaim Leonie "Venerable" (a title given to candidates for sainthood who are deemed by the Church to have practiced heroic virtue).  If that were to happen, the next step toward Leonie's beatification would be to identify a miracle attributed to Leonie's intercession, that is, a healing that cannot be explained by science.  Father Sangalli said that three possible cases of unexplained cures have been identified: a little boy in Brazil, a little girl in Switzerland, and a little girl in France.  

We congratulate Monseigneur Boulanger, Father Sangalli, and the nuns of the Visitation on this happy occasion.  How they have labored and prayed to make the holiness of Leonie's life known so that it may inspire us!  Let's continue to support Leonie's cause with our prayers.  

For details in French, see "Leonie Martin, future sainte?  Nouvelle etape a Caen" by Pascal Simon for Ouest-France, January 20, 2017 and "A Caen: les Les travaux avancent pour la beatification de Leonie Martin," by Marc Eynaud for Tendance-Ouest.

Decree for the Opening of the Cause of the Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God, Sister Francoise-Therese (Marie Leonie Martin) - full text in English - July 4, 2015

Jean-Claude Boulanger

By the grace of God and of the Apostolic See

Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux

 DECREE

Having read the Supplex Libellus submitted on January 15, 2015 by the Reverend Father Antonio of the Mother of God (Antonio Sangalli), a Discalced Carmelite friar who is legitimately named Postulator, and by Mother Marie-Christine Cottard, Superior of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen and “Acteur” of the Cause, in which they asked us to introduce the Cause of beatification and canonization of the Servant of God, Sister Françoise-Thérèse, born Marie-Léonie Martin (Alençon 1863-Caen 1941), professed nun of the Order of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, in following Christ, poor, chaste, and obedient, with humility and the evangelical spirit of authentic charity, did not through fear, bury the one talent he had received in a hole in the ground, but instead she was able to make this small inheritance fruitful (cf. Mt. 25, 24-27.  “I am happy to be only a poor little nothingness and that Jesus is my only treasure.” (Father Piat, Léonie, a sister of Saint Thérèse at the Visitation, Office Central de Lisieux, 1966, p. 198).

It is with confidence that I grant this request, and make the necessary and appropriate investigations, convinced of its solid foundation and of the absence of obstacles to the cause and after my brothers in the episcopate of the Ecclesiastical Province of Normandy, assembled in session on January 22, 2015, issued a positive opinion about its desirability, and after having requested the Nihil obstat from the Holy See, today, according to the Normae servandae n. 11/b, and the instruction Sanctorum Mater art. 43 §3, I have the joy of announcing to the priests, to the religious, and to the laity of our diocesan community, by this

DECREE

that we have the intention of setting up an ecclesiastical tribunal for the opening of the

CAUSE OF BEATIFICATION AND CANONIZATION
OF THE SERVANT OF GOD
SR FRANÇOISE-THÉRÈSE. (MARIE-LÉONIE MARTIN)

Taking into account the serious responsibilities which this decision entails,

WE INVITE

formally all those who are aware of some obstacle, which perhaps conflicts with the reputation for sanctity of the Servant of God, to give their opinions to me or to the Postulator.

Anyone who has documents or objects relating to the Servant of God Sister Françoise-Thérèse (letters, unpublished material, notes, photos, objects) is invited to send them to the Postulation (Monastère de la Visitation – 3 rue de l’Abbatiale – 14000 Caen –
Tel. 02.31.86.19.40 – http://www.la-visitation.org/les-monasteres/caen - monasterevisitation.caen@laposte.net), which will make certified and conformed copies.

The present decree shall be read at the end of the celebration of each Holy Mass on Sunday, June 28, 2015 and shall remain affixed to the notice board of our episcopal Curia of Bayeux and Lisieux and of all the parishes, the churches, the monasteries, the convents, and the institutes of consecrated life in the diocese.  It shall also be published in the diocesan journal Église de Bayeux et Lisieux, the Internet site of the diocese (http://www.bayeuxlisieux.catholique.fr/), the local journals, and the daily issues of La Croix. 

We have ordered our chancellor secretary to inform the Postulator of the Cause, the Reverend Father Antonio of the Mother of God (Antonio Sangalli), of our decision and also to announce that

THE SOLEMN OPENING
OF THE CAUSE OF BEATIFICATION AND CANONIZATION
OF SR FRANÇOISE-THÉRÈSE. (MARIE-LÉONIE MARTIN)
WILL TAKE PLACE IN THE CHAPEL OF THE VISITATION AT CAEN
ON JULY 2, 2015 AT 9:30 A.M.

Permission is granted to reproduce this decree in its entirety.
Please include the language: "English translation by Maureen O'Riordan for http://leoniemartin.org"

We thank the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen for furnishing the Decree.

Diocesan process for beatification of Leonie Martin, Sister Francoise-Therese, to be opened on July 2, 2015 at the chapel of the Visitation Monastery in Caen

"On Thursday, July 2, 2015
at 9:30 a.m. 
in the chapel of the Visitation Monastery
3, rue l'Abbatiale in CAEN

Mgr. Jean-Claude Boulanger (bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux) will preside
at the opening of the process for the beatification of
Sister Françoise-Thérèse Martin (Leonie Martin), 
who died in this monastery on June 17, 1941.

Mass will be celebrated after the opening ceremony.

You are cordially invited to come
and unite with us in thanksgiving and to share our prayer."

       - From the nuns of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen

The process will be opened on the 115th anniversary of Leonie's religious profession in the very chapel where she made her vows as a Visitation nun on July 2, 1900   Who could have foreseen the fruits of that day?  We thank God for drawing so many little souls to the divine Heart through Leonie.

The Servant of God, Sister Francoise-Therese (Leonie Martin): Bishop Boulanger approves a new prayer to invoke her intercession

The servant of god, sister francoise-therese (leonie Martin)
credit: Monastery of the visitation at Caen

Lord our God,

Through the example
of “the Servant of God, Sister Françoise-Thérèse,”
Léonie Martin, daughter of Blessed 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 sustained her
on the delicate path of her response.

You inspired her to lead a hidden life,
humble and a gift 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 (…….)
through the intercession of
"the Servant of God, Sister Françoise-Thérèse.”

May she, one day, be counted
among the Venerables of your Church.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Testimonies of graces received should be sent to

 Monastery of the Visitation
3 Rue de l’Abbatiale
14000 Caen, France

+ Imprimatur: Jean-Claude Boulanger, Bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux

　We thank Bishop Boulanger for his gracious permission to translate this prayer into English and to publish it.  Permission is granted to publish this translation of the prayer in its entirety, without alteration.  Please include the phrase "translated for leoniemartin.org."  If you repost the prayer online or circulate it by e-mail, please include a live link to leoniemartin.org.  Thank you.

The body of Leonie Martin exhumed at Caen; crypt closed to visitors; Fr. Antonio Sangalli appointed postulator for Leonie's cause

Toward Beatification: The Body of Léonie Martin is Exhumed at Caen, France

Ever since Saturday, April 25, 2015, the crypt where the body of Léonie Martin (1863-1941), sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, rested is no longer a place of contemplation and prayer for pilgrims.

The tomb in the crypt of the Visitation Monastery at Caen where the body of Leonie Martin, Sister Francoise-Therese, rested from 1941 until her body was exhumed on April 25, 2015 

Long a true place of worship located within the Monastery of the Visitation, behind the City Hall of Caen, the place is now closed to the faithful. The exhumation of her body is the first clear sign of the launch of the process of the beatification of Léonie Martin, which was announced in January by Bishop Boulanger, Bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux.

Seventy-three years after her death, the body of Léonie Martin has been exhumed to make “an official examination of the mortal remains,” said Father Olivier Ruffray, rector of the Shrine at Lisieux. An historical commission will also begin work to collect all the documents and all the testimony about Léonie Martin’s life. Theologians will then have the task of examining “Léonie’s reputation for holiness.”

Father Antonio Sangalli, vice-postulator for Blessed Louis and Zelie, appointed postulator for Leonie's cause

“It can take a very long time,” said Father Ruffray. A postulator has been appointed to monitor the various stages of the beatification process. This is Father Antonio Sangalli, a priest of Italian origin. He is also the vice-postulator of the cause for canonization of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin, parents of Léonie and of Thérèse.

- The above story is translated by Mary Davidson with thanks to TendanceOuest, where it appeared 4/29/2015.  Please see the original story in French:  "Béatification: le corps de Léonie Martin exhumé à Caen."

Father Sangalli, Postulator of Leonie Martin's cause, with Msgr Ennio Apeciti of the historical commission at the exhumation of Leonie's body, April 25, 2015.

Father Antonio Sangalli, Leonie's postulator , with Msgr Ennio Apeciti of the historical commission.

Msgr Ennio Apeciti of the historical commission; Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux; and Fr. Olivier Ruffray, rector of the Shrine at Lisieux, at the exhumation of Leonie's body, April 25, 2015.

Foreground, Fabio Reggazone, Fr. Sangalli' secretary; Msgr. Apeciti; Bishop Boulanger; Father Ruffray.  

The original coffin-plate of Leonie Martin, which was supplied by the funeral director in 1941, photographed after the exhumation, April 25, 2011.  It gives her religious and civil names and the years of her birth and death.

"Sibling-inspired Sanctity: St. Therese and Leonie Show How Brothers and Sisters Cultivate Kindred Holiness." National Catholic Register, April 18, 2015

Leonie Martin as a laywoman

Leonie Martin and her sister, St. Therese, received national publicity in the United States today!  Katie Warner, a correspondent for the National Catholic Register, discovered the Web site "Leonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Therese of Lisieux," and interviewed me for a story about siblings inspiring each other to sanctity. Therese's relationship with Leonie served as a framework for the stories of two contemporary families.  Please read "Sibling-Inspired Sanctity: St. Therese and Leonie Show How Brothers and Sisters Cultivate Kindred Holiness" in the April 18 edition of the National Catholic Register.  

How have your sisters and brothers influenced your journey with God?

Leonie Martin's complete letters to her family (1874-1941) published online in English by the Carmel of Lisieux - April 11, 2015

The last photo of sister francoise-therese (Leonie )martin), taken in 1940

Today the Carmel of Lisieux finished publishing online in English all the surviving letters St. Therese's sister, Leonie Martin, wrote to the members of her family.  The letters are available at the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.  Leonie, then aged 10, wrote the first surviving letter to her mother in 1874, when she was at the boarding school run by the Visitation nuns at Le Mans.  She wrote the last on June 8, 1941, eight days before her death, to Sister Marie of the Trinity, who had been a novice of St. Therese.

Relatively few of the letters Leonie wrote during the lifetime of St. Therese have survived.  But the Carmel has today published a treasure trove of her later years: 315 letters Leonie wrote to her family after she entered the Visitation in 1899.  Most of them are to her three sisters at Lisieux Carmel (Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart; Mother Agnes of Jesus; and Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face).  Several are to her uncle, Isidore Guerin.  There are also letters to his wife, Celine Guerin; to their daughter Marie (Sister Marie of the Eucharist); and to Therese's prioress, Mother Marie de Gonzague.  These hundreds of letters, never before published in English, contain invaluable insight into Leonie's personality; her spirituality, prayer, and retreats; her daily life and the life of her Visitation community; her relationships with her three sisters in the Carmel;  her reaction to Therese's beatification and canonization; and her response to World War I and World War II.

We congratulate the Carmel of Lisieux and the Association des Amis de Thérèse de Lisieux et de son Carmel on this historic achievement, and we thank them for their generosity.  You will not be able to absorb all these riches at one sitting, so begin!  Dive into Leonie's letters now.

"Leonie!", a feature film about Leonie Martin, the sister of St. Therese of Lisieux, to be released in the United States in 2010

I am delighted to announce that "Leonie!," a feature film about Leonie Martin, the sister of St. Therese of Lisieux, is scheduled to be released in the United States in the summer of 2010.  The film is being shot in Michigan and at the Visitation Monastery in Toledo, Ohio in July and August 2009.  Barbara Middleton is the executive producer, and Joe Maher wrote the script and is directing the film.  For news stories and a radio show about the film, please see below.

"Big project hits big screen," by Catherine Minolli. The Tri-City Times, July 22, 2009.

"Made in Michigan,"by Matt December.  The Source, July 19, 2009.  Read it online thanks to Internet Archive.

"Local girls land leads in major film shot in Romeo," by Chris Gray.  The Romeo Observer, July 2009.

"Film producers find perfect 'set' in Romeo," by Chris Gray.  The Romeo Observer, July 2009.

 For the life of Leonie Martin, read 

Leonie Martin

Leonie Martin: A Difficult Life. by Marie Baudouin-Croix.  (Click on the image for information).

For a reflection about Leonie Martin, see

"Leonie Martin," a spiritual newsletter of Clairval Abbey, whom I thank for permission to post it here.

For more online information about Leonie's life, see

• the online biography "Leonie, the forgotten sister of St. Therese," by Visitation Sister Mary Christine Martens at the helpfellowship Web site.
• the online biography "Sister Francoise-Therese (Leonie Martin)" at www.martinsisters.org
•