Léonie Martin, sister and disciple of St. Thérèse of Lisieux:
pray for her to be declared "venerable"

January 24, 2015. Joyful news: the French press reports that today Bishop Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, will celebrate Mass at the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen and will announce the opening of the diocesan process for Leonie's sainthood. Leonie now has the title "The Servant of God."

Joyful news flash: The Shrine at Lisieux has announced that the beatification of Léonie Martin, sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, is under consideration. On March 25, 2012, Mgr Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of the diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux, granted the imprimatur for a prayer that Léonie might be declared "venerable." A person named "venerable" by the Church is considered to have practiced "heroic virtue." St. Thérèse was declared venerable on August 14, 1921 by Pope Benedict XV, after her life had been examined by a diocesan tribunal (the "bishop's process") and by a tribunal appointed by Rome (the "Apostolic Process"). To be declared "venerable" is a big step in the cause for sainthood; the next two steps are to be named "blessed" and to be canonized. Léonie Martin, born on June 3, 1863, became a Visitation nun, Sister Françoise-Thérèse, at Caen, where she died on June 17, 1941.

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Dear Léonie our Sister,

You have already intervened with God on our behalf,

and we would like to be able to pray to you officially,

so that many more might know you.

Come to the aid of parents who risk losing a child,

as you nearly died at a very young age.

Continue to uphold the families

where different generations have problems living together in peace.

Enlighten youth who question their future and hesitate to commit.

Show to all the way of prayer

which permits you to bear your limitations and your difficulties with confidence,

and to give yourself to others.

Lord, if such is your will,

deign to accord us the grace that we ask of you

through the intercession of your servant Léonie,

and inscribe her among the number of the venerable of your Church.

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Imprimatur: March 25, 2012

† Jean-Claude Boulanger

Bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux

Persons who receive favors by the intercession of Léonie Martin,

in religion Sister Françoise-Thérèse,

are asked to make them known to the Monastery of the Visitation:

Monastery of the Visitation

3 rue de l’Abbatiale

14000 CAEN

FRANCE

Permission is granted to reproduce this translation of the prayer without alteration. Please include the language "translated by Maureen O'Riordan for leoniemartin.org." If you repost the prayer online, please include a live link to leoniemartin.org.

Léonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Léonie Martin, the sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, became Sister Françoise-Thérèse of the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen in northern France. Léonie led a challenging life: ill from childhood; abused by a maidservant; expelled from school; isolated within her family. She tried religious life three times before she succeeded: in 1899, at the age of 35, she entered definitively the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen, where she died in 1941 at the age of 78.

How did the troubled child and unhappy teenager turn into the sister everyone remembered as so kind, so serene, and so happy that they could not believe she had had a difficult childhood? As a laywoman, Léonie lived at the margins of her family and her society. She found Christ there and made him the center and the source of her life. She discovered God within herself, in her woundedness, and she became the first disciple of Thérèse's "way of confidence and love."

After her death, Léonie was almost forgotten for a long time. But, about 1960, the nuns of her monastery began to receive letters from all over the world asking them to pray that Léonie might obtain graces for those who wrote. Many of these letters came from the parents of special children, from families in conflict, and from persons who, like Léonie, struggle to find and to fulfill their vocations. These were followed by letters of thanksgiving. Pilgrims come to pray at her tomb, to ask for graces and to give thanks. Now she is being considered for beatifcation. Mgr Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, the diocese where Léonie lived most of her life and where she died, has granted the imprimatur for a prayer asking that Léonie might be declared "venerable" (that is, declared to have practced heroic virtue).

Léonie's mission is to draw souls, especially the wounded, the broken, and those who have not found a place in the world, to God. Invite her to accompany you and to lead you to surrender yourself, as she did, to God's "consuming and transforming love."

Léonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Léonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Toward sainthood

Léonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Léonie Martin, sister and disciple of St. Thérèse of Lisieux:pray for her to be declared "venerable"

Léonie Martin, Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Léonie Martin, sister and disciple of St. Thérèse of Lisieux:
pray for her to be declared "venerable"