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

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.

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.

"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
•  

A happy birthday to Leonie Martin, sister of St. Therese of Lisieux

“Sacred Heart” icon by brother mickey mcgrath, OSFS. Available at trinity stores.

Today is the birthday of Leonie Martin, the sister of St. Therese, who was born at Alencon on June 3, 1863.  Leonie was a special-needs child.  When she was a child, Louise Marais, the Martins' maid at Alencon, abused her.  Leonie had a hard time  finding her place in the world, and entered religious life four times before she finally persevered.  She was an early disciple of the "way of confidence and love" of her little sister. 

In October 2008 I visited the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen and saw the door through which Leonie entered definitively on January 28, 1899, declaring "The next time I leave here, it will be in my coffin!"  Sister Francoise-Therese, the community’s archivist, laughingly pointed out the irony that the body of Leonie, whose religious name was also Sister Francoise-Therese, has never left the Visitation because she was buried in the crypt, where I visited her tomb. 

Praying at Leonie's tomb, I received a unique grace.  Unexpectedly, I remembered the times in my life that I'd been deeply hurt, and I felt Leonie, who was treated so badly and yet grew into a loving, generative person, assuring me that the wounds these experiences had left were no obstacle to sanctity.  I understood why so many parents of special children commend them to her, and why so many people who struggle to find a place in life invoke her prayers. 

To learn more about Leonie's life, please see the “Leonie’s life” section of this Web site.

When Therese lay dying, Leonie, then 34, had failed three attempts at religious life and was living as a laywoman with her uncle and aunt. On July 17, 1897, in her last letter to Leonie, Therese wrote:

The only happiness on earth is to apply oneself in always finding delightful the lot Jesus is giving us. Your lot is so beautiful, dear little sister; if you want to be a saint, this will be easy for you since at the bottom of your heart the world is nothing to you. You can, then, like us [like her four Carmelite sisters] occupy yourself with "the one thing necessary"; that is to say, while you give yourself up devotedly to exterior works, your purpose is simple: to please Jesus, to unite yourself more intimately with Him. 

You want me to pray in heaven to the Sacred Heart for you.  Be sure that I shall not forget to give Him your messages and to ask all that will be necessary for you to become a great saint.

Leonie was born in the month of the Sacred Heart and died in the same month, on June 16, 1941.  In this month of the Sacred Heart, may she help us understand "the abysses of love and mercy of the Heart of Jesus."