Photo credit: Madame F. Besnier

On Sunday, January 5, 2014, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., the Carmelite Monastery in Philadelphia will receive pilgrims who want to pray in the presence of the reliquary of St. Therese of Lisieux and her parents, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin. At 1:00 p.m. Maureen O'Riordan will present a conference on "The challenge of Christian motherhood: Blessed Zelie Martin and the spiritual formation of children."  The conference will be of special interest to mothers, but will appeal to anyone who wants to get to know Blessed Zelie Martin.  Come for part or all of the day.  Attend the conference, browse in the bookstore (open 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.), pray in the presence of the reliquary, and conclude the day by participating in Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament at 3:30 p.m.  Consecrate your new year to God through the intercession of the Martin family. 

•  For details of the event, download a flyer in PDF, or as a jpeg.

• See an announcement suitable for your parish bulletin.

The new "family reliquary," containing relics of St. Therese of Lisieux and of her parents, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, in its permanent home at the Carmelite Monastery in Philadelphia.  The reliquary has been placed in the shrine of St. Therese in the chapel, in the exact place where the "traveling reliquary" of St. Therese was venerated by an estimated ten thousand people in 1999.  Fittingly, this is also the place where, until 1997, crowds prayed before the portrait of St. Therese painted by her sister, Celine, and given to the Philadelphia Carmel in 1907 by Miss Pauline Wilcox.  In the background is the statue of St. Therese as a Doctor of the Church. November 16, 2013.

Please begin your Advent by spending some time at the Carmelite Monastery in Philadelphia on the first Sunday of Advent.  I will give a conference about Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin at 1:00 p.m.  Pray in the presence of the reliquary of the Martin family; do some Christmas shopping in the monastery's newly replenished bookstore; and participate in Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament at 3:30 p.m.  See the details below, and get directions to the monastery.

Download a printable copy of this flyer

Get directions to the monastery

Site sanctuaire Alençon en anglais by web-tv-diocesedeseez

I am delighted to announce that on November 21, 2013 the Shrine at Alençon launched its new Web site in English at http://www.louiszeliemartin-alencon.com/eng/  Find out how you can go on pilgrimage to Alençon, where Louis and Zélie spent their whole married life and where Thérèse was born and lived till she was four and a half.  Learn more about the lives, message, and prayer of the Martin family and about their cause for canonization.  Above, hear Mgr Jacques Habert, bishop of Seez, the diocese in which Alençon is located, welcome visitors to the English Web site.  He speaks first in French and then in English.  I congratulate the Shrine about this new initiative.  Please spread the word.

At the Magnificat Day of Faith, November 9, 2013, in Philadelphia, Doug Keck and Johnette Benkovic interview Fleur Habert, the sculptor who created the reliquary of St. Therese of Lisieux and of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin.  View the interview beginning at 1:57:64 and ending at 2:05:40.  Fleur tells how the reliquary came about and explains its symbolism.