The archives of the Carmel of Lisieux conserved a document signed by Therese Martin at the age of 12, showing that on October 15, 1885 she enrolled in the Apostleship of Prayer, an association born of the missionary desires of Jesuits at a French seminary in 1844.  St. Therese of Lisieux is now co-patron of the Apostleship of Prayer.  Learn more about the Apostleship of Prayer and Therese's relationship with it.

February 25, 2009 marks fifty years since Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face and Saint Therese, the last surviving sister of St. Therese of Lisieux, died in the Carmel of Lisieux on February 25, 1959.  Born Marie Celine Martin, she lived at home with St. Therese until Therese entered Lisieux Carmel on April 9, 1888.  For more than six years, while Celine lived as a laywoman and looked after their father, who was ill, the sisters were separated.  After the death of Blessed Louis Martin, Celine entered the Carmel on September 14, 1894.  As a novice she learned her sister's "way of confidence and love," of which she was a tireless apostle all her life.  She made the offering of herself to Merciful Love with St. Therese on June 11, 1895, and she was the first person to read the childhood memories Therese wrote in 1895 (later the first part of "Story of a Soul").  She looked after St. Therese during her illness.  She painted a famous image of the Holy Face of Jesus and many other portraits, especially of her sister.  She testified at the processes for Therese's beatification and canonization and at the diocesan processes for the cause of her mother and her father, Blessed Zelie and Louis Martin.

For significant dates in Sister Genevieve's life, please see the Web site of the Shrine of Lisieux.

For the powerful correspondence between Therese and Celine, please see  The Letters of St. Therese of Lisieux (Volume I, 1877-1890; Volume II, 1890-1897) on this page.

For Celine's memoir of her sister, please see "My Sister Saint Therese" at the bottom of this page.

For "Celine: Sister and Witness of St. Therese of the Child Jesus," a biography by Franciscan Father Stephane-Joseph Piat, please see the bottom of this page.

With thanks to Susan Ehlert, I am happy to present her seven-minute photo show of the events of the week of the beatification of Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese in October 2008.  Join us as we tour the places Louis and Zelie knew in Alencon.  Glimpse the historic exhibit of the belongings of the Martin family at St. Jacques Church in Lisieux.  See the renovated Carmelite monastery and the souvenirs of St. Therese.  Watch the events of Beatification Sunday.  Visit the garden of the house in Rue Labbey, Lisieux, where Blessed Louis lived for the last two years of his life.  Scroll down a little on the page to find the photo show.

The friends of St. Therese have been asked to pray for Oleksandra, a Ukrainian woman in Kiev who was badly injured in a serious car accident in Kiev.  She is still in hospital and will need five or six operations and several prostheses.  Please pray for her and for her daughter, Marie.   Thank you.

Little Tessa Sale entered into life on Saturday, February 7th.  Her funeral Mass is at eleven o'clock on Wednesday, February 11.  Please pray for her mother, father, sisters, and all her family.

Although Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin did not obtain Tessa's cure, I count on them to persuade God to work the miracle of consoling her family.  I can't help thinking of the letter Zelie's sister, Sister Marie-Dosithee, wrote her on February 23, 1870, after the death of her five-year-old Helene, the third child to die in three years:

"Sursum corda! Lift up your heart! Our angel is in Heaven, and without having undergone the trials of this world. Clothed in her white baptismal robe she has passed from the arms of her mother into those of our Lord. We would have liked to keep her with us; she was so promising, but who can foretell the future? Does she not possess true blessedness which she might have lost in the future? God is no less lovable when He takes away than when He gives to us.

Abandon them with me, if you please, to "the abysses of love and mercy of the Heart of Jesus."  Receive the gratitude of Tessa's family, and my gratitude, for accompanying them in your prayer.