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.  No longer online.

"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.

"Lights! Camera! Action!" :Historic Warren schoolhouse picked as movie set for 'Leonie!'; 1875 Romeo House Next Stop," by Norb Franz. The Macomb Daily, July 9, 2009.  No longer online.

Dear friends,

On the morning of July 18 I received a letter from Sister Monique-Marie of the Community of the Beatitudes at Lisieux telling me that Fr. J. Linus Ryan, O. Carm., director of the National Office for St. Therese in Ireland and a dear friend, died on the morning of July 17, a little before eight o'clock Dublin time.  Father Ryan consecrated his life to making St. Therese and her gentle Jesus known and loved, and he was tireless in promoting the cause of her parents, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin.  He contributed much to causing 75% of the population of Ireland to turn out to venerate the major reliquary of St. Therese when it visited Ireland in 2001, to the annual visit of the relics of St. Therese to Ireland every year, and to the Irish National Pilgrimage to Lisieux on the feast of St. Therese every year.  With his devoted co-workers, he maintained a Web site about St. Therese.  Every year his office produced a calendar and a brochure; these were focused recently on the Martin family.

For a bigger photo of Father Ryan wearing the stole commissioned for the beatification of the Martin spouses which was presented to him by the authorities at Lisieux and holding the reliquary containing the relics of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, click the image.  Msgr. Lagoutte, rector of the shrine at Lisieux, traveled to Ireland in May to present the reliquary to Father Ryan in recognition of his lifetime of dedicated service to the apostolate of St. Therese.

 I became acquainted with Father Ryan through his Web site, which contained more information about St. Therese and the Martin family than I found elsewhere in English.  I wrote to him for permission to link to it, and he was generosity itself in sharing all his materials with me.  I knew how hard he worked to promote the cause of Louis and Zelie in Ireland, and I knew that it was largely because of him that, as Mgr. Lagoutte, rector of the shrine at Lisieux, said, "Ireland has led the world" in promoting the cause of Lous and Zelie.  So, in January 2008, when I found online the first news story stating that the Martin spouses were to be beatified in 2008, I wrote at once to congratulate him.  Of course, I thought he knew this news before I did, but he answered asking for documentation and saying that he'd known nothing of it.  I sent the link to the news article, and at about seven p.m. my time (two o'clock in the morning in Dublin), he called me, grateful and jubilant.  After we talked for a while, I said "Father Ryan, it's the middle of the night where you are.  What are you doing up?"  "Oh, it's a big night here," he answered.  "We are letting everyone know."  After that he kindly called me every month or so, always thoughtful and supportive.  He rejoiced in our work to make Therese and Louis and Zelie known in the English-speaking world, and he sent to the United States posters and post cards to help us make the Martin spouses better known.  Sometimes I became discouraged by having only nights and weekends to devote to Therese and Louis and Zelie, but Father Ryan's spirit of faith never failed him.  He encouraged me constantly in the months before the beatification, when we worked long hours to make Louis and Zelie known.  Illness prevented him from attending the beatification he did so much to promote.  When I regretted it, he accepted it with truly Theresian surrender.  His devoted confere, Mr. Pat Sweeney, told me that Father Ryan regained consciousness on the night before his death, and that they had a good talk.  Mr. Sweeney pointed out laughingly that, although Fr. Ryan clung to life till the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was over in Ireland, at the time of his death it was before midnight on Thursday, July 16 in the United States.  So all the Americans who benefited from his commitment to making the spirituality of the Martin family known in English had the joy of offering him to God on the feast of the Lady of his Order. 

     Please visit here for more about Father Ryan.

     Be sure that he says to us what Therese said to her spiritual brother:  "Dear little Brother, there are many things I should like to make you understand now that I am at the door of eternity, but I am not dying; I am entering into life, and all that I cannot say to you here below, I shall make you understand from the heights of heaven."  Join with me, if you please, in thanking God for the apostolic life and happy death of the man who was such a good friend to St. Therese, to me, and to thereseoflisieux.org  Now that St. Therese and Blessed Louis and Zelie have received their faithful son into their family in heaven, let's invoke his intercession confidently, knowing he will help us to share in their mission "to love Jesus and to make Him loved." 

With Sister Monique-Marie's kind permission, I post below her letter announcing his death and giving the information about his funeral ceremonies. 

Dear friends,

 A word to inform you of the entry into life on July 17 of a great Theresian figure in Ireland, Father Linus Ryan. He worked ardently to spread the message of Therese, for the reception of her relics, and for the beatification of the Martin parents. He, among others, was the intermediary through whom the beautiful reliquary—that we now call the “Irish reliquary”—of Louis and Zélie was offered. A debilitating disease which made him suffer terribly prevented him from coming to Lisieux for years, but he remained in constant contact with us by telephone, and he continued to work with his faithful collaborators, who came every year to Lisieux on the Irish National Pilgrimage. Three or four months ago, Msgr. Lagoutte, the rector of the shrine at Lisieux, went to visit Father Ryan and to give him a beautiful reliquary of the Martin parents. It appears in the photograph. It was time for Father Ryan to be set free, for he had lost the sight in one eye and had started to lose it in the other. But never a complaint . . . He retained an exquisite kindness for all his visitors. Thank you for keeping him in your prayers, together with his family, his Carmelite brothers, his friends, and his collaborators, for they will no doubt feel a great emptiness even though, for Father Ryan himself, it is a real delivery. Ria and I will represent the Pilgrimage Office at Lisieux at Fr. Ryan’s burial, which will take place on Monday, July 20. The Mass will be at 11:00 a.m. in Terenure College, Dublin, where he lived with his community of friars of the Ancient Observance of the Carmelite Order. He will be buried in the cemetery of White Abbey, in Kildare, the city from which he came, and of which he was so proud.

Fraternally,

Sister Monique-Marie

For those who knew him or had bonds with him, you can always send an e-mail to sttheres@indigo.ie  His collaborators, especially Mr. Pat Sweeney, will open it.

One of my American readers sent me this letter:

With the information you provided earlier I was able to contact the procurator for Bl. Louis & Zelie Martin's cause in Italy. I received their relics in a single reliquary, a most beautiful reliquary. My family and friends began a novena on Thursday, July 9th, praying for the intercession of Louis and Zelie for the cure of my sister-in-law of terminal breast cancer. Her name is Theresa Martin. May I ask that you remember her in your prayers, especially on this occasion? She has the relics in her possession day and night. We will conclude with a Mass of Healing and Thanksgiving this Friday, July 17th. How blessed we are to have Louis and Zelie in our lives!

Please join in prayer for the healing of Theresa Martin.  May Louis and Zelie intercede for her with the same tenderness they showed their own little Therese.  Please recite below the prayer to obtain this favor and for the canonization of Louis and Zelie.  Thank you.

A happy feast to Blessed Zelie and Louis Martin!  As a feast-day gift to my readers, I have created a photo gallery today of my privileged visit, as a pilgrim to their beatification, to the house and garden at 7 rue Labbey where Louis Martin lived with his daughters Leonie and Celine after he was released from the Bon Sauveur psychiatric hospital at Caen.  For the story of this visit and present-day photos of the house at Rue Labbey and of Isidore Guerin's house on Rue-Paul Banaston, please visit the photo gallery for Blessed Louis Martin's home on Rue Labbey.

Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux: their lives and beatification from Maureen O'Riordan on Vimeo.

The first liturgical feast of Blessed Zelie and Louis Martin, the parents of St. Therese, will be celebrated on Sunday, July 12, the anniversary of their marriage in 1858. The Shrine at Lisieux has announced a two-day celebration of liturgy, prayer, and festivities.Cardinal Tettamanzi, Archbishop of Milan, will preside at a Pontifical Mass in the Basilica of St. Therese, where Louis and Zelie were beatified on October 19, 2009. See the schedule of liturgies and festivities.

In honor of the first feast of the Martin spouses, I am happy to present the photo show "Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux: Their lives and beatification" above. Please celebrate the feast by joining us in this virtual pilgrimage to the places Louis and Zelie made holy by living with such faith, hope, and love. View the historic exhibit "Story of a Family" mounted at Lisieux in honor of the beatification, with furniture, possessions, documents, and photos belonging to the Martin family. See photos of Pietro Schiliro, the Italian child healed at the intercession of Zelie and Louis, and photos of his family. View the images of the beatification ceremony and of the reliquary. Come as a pilgrim of the heart to honor the faithful servants of God, and ask for the grace to imitate them.