Saint Therese of the Child Jesus
of the Holy Face
The anniversary of the death of Blessed Louis Martin on Sunday, July 29, 1894
Louis Martn in death. La Musse, 1894. Photo credit: Carmel of Lisieux
The letter from Celine Martin, at La Musse, near Evreux, to her Carmelite sisters in Lisieux to tell them about the death of their father:
July 29, 1894
Dear little sisters,
Papa is in heaven! . . . I received his last breath, I closed his eyes. . . . His handsome face took on immediately an expression of beatitude, of such profound calm ! Tranquility was painted on his features . . . He expired so gently at fifteen minutes after eight.
My poor heart was broken at the supreme moment; a flood of tears bathed his bed. But at heart I was joyful because of his happiness, after the terrible martyrdom he endured and which we shared with him . . . .
Last night, in a sleep filled with anguish, I suddenly awakened; I saw in the firmament a kind of luminous globe . . . . And this globe went deeply into the immensity of heaven.
. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . Today, St. Martha, the saint of Bethany, the one who obtained the resurrection of Lazarus . . . .
Today, the gospel of the five wise virgins. . . .
Today, Sunday, the Lord's day . . . .
And Papa will remain with us until August 2, feast of Our Lady of the Angels. . . .
Your little Celine
(from Letters of Saint Therese of Lisieux, Volume II. Washington, D.C.: copyright 1988 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, pp. 874-875. Used with permission).
See also Marie Guerin's meditation, in 1895, on the first anniversary of Louis Martin's death
Below, courtesy of the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, is a photograph of the small building at La Musse in which Blessed Louis Martin died on that Sunday morning a hundred and eighteen years ago.
Maureen O'Riordan
in Celine Martin, July 29 1894, La Musse, Louis Martin, Marie Guerin, death of st. Louis Martin
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Relics of St. Therese draw 3,000 people to a church in rural County Limerick in Ireland, the largest crowd ever seen in the church
photo courtesy of the Limerick Leader
On Sunday, July 8, 2012, the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux (relics that are displayed permanently in Dublin) visited the church in Dromin, together with the relics of her parents, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin. Three thousand people greeted them, a larger crowd than had ever assembled in the rural church. Excerpts from the story reported by Aine Fitzgerald for the Limerick Leader:
“There was a throng of people out the road trying to park their cars. They were walking for a couple of miles to get to the church. We had never seen anything like it in Dromin,” said local woman Anne Mockler, a native of Ashford, Killeedy who has been living in Dromin for over 30 years.
“The people who were waiting didn’t mind waiting. They kept the rosaries going and the prayers. There was no talk – it was just a volume of prayers,” she explained.
“They came from far and near. They came on crutches, they came in wheelchairs, people helped them in. It was the most moving experience,” continued Anne whose own son, Fr John Mockler, arranged his visit home from Rome to coincide with the event.
Read the complete story in the Limerick Leader.
What some Carmelites who lived with St. Therese of Lisieux really thought about her
After St. Therese's memoir, Story of a Soul, appeared in 1898, people began to report graces received at her intercession, and pilgrims came to Lisieux to pray at her grave. The question of her canonization arose. On October 15, 1907, Bishop Lemonnier, newly appointed bishop of Bayeux, called for information from those who had known Sister Therese of the Child Jesus; he was investigating her reputation for sanctity within the diocese. On November 9, 1907, Sister Therese of Jesus, who had lived in the Lisieux Carmel since before Therese entered, but who later left the Carmel at her own request in 1909, answered him with this letter (excerpts):
Sister Therese of Jesus Monseigneur,
I loved little sister Therese of the Child Jesus very much because of her youth. She was a good child, never making trouble, loving to give services. A good little character; she had her imperfections: everyone does.
I have never seen anything that suggests she could be raised to the altar. Getting up in the morning, filling her little day, never overloaded.
I lived 9 years and 6 months with her. I saw a child feted, cherished, adored, always placed on a pedestal. The Mother Prioress (then Marie de Gonzague) doted on her.
The blood sisters of little Thérèse considered her a paragon, always giving her compliments, telling her that she was a saint, and the rest. Ah! I thought: they are imprudent. Here is a child who is praised to the skies. When her hair was cut, they kept the hair as a relic. It is easy to be amiable when you are fawned upon."
(Translation copyright 2012 by Maureen O'Riordan from the French text, copyright Archives of the Lisieux Carmel).
Sister Therese of Jesus was not the only Carmelite of Lisieux who held that opinion. On March 16, 1911, Sister Marie-Madeleine, Therese's novice, testified at the diocesan process:
"Generally speaking, the Servant of God was unknown and even misunderstood in the convent. Apart from some novices who were close to her, no one noticed the heroism of her life. . . . As for the rest of the sisters, about half of them said she was a good little nun, a gentle person, but that she had never had to suffer and that her life had been rather insignificant. The other half were affected by the party animosity I mentioned, so their view was more unfavorable. These said she had been spoiled by her sisters, but they were unable, nevertheless, to make any more explicit criticism." (St. Therese of Lisieux by those who knew her, tr. Christopher O'Mahony, O.C.D. Veritas: Dublin, 1975, p. 264).
Clearly Sister Therese of Jesus, early orphaned, who had no real family life in her childhood, belonged to that "other half" who disliked the "Martin clan." Her letter shows that, when St. Therese said she wanted to be unknown to those with whom she lived, she meant business. She succeeded in hiding her holiness from many of them. May it encourage us to allow God to make us holy in the midst of human misunderstanding.
2013 Carmelite Summer Seminar Scheduled for June, 2013
The next annual Carmelite Summer Seminar, sponsored by the Center for Spirituality at St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana, has been scheduled for June 9-15, 2013 at St. Mary's College.
See details of the most recent seminar, held in June 2012.
Save the dates and look for details in December.
Relics of St. Therese of Lisieux to return to the Philippines in 2013
Pilgrims reach to touch the reliquary of St. Therese of Lisieux during its second visit to the Philippines in 2008. Photo by Japa Gavino, courtesy of the Shrine of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus in Pasay City.
The Shrine at Lisieux has announced that the Centenary Reliquary of St. Therese (the "Brazilian Reliquary") will make its third visit to the Philippines from December 15, 2012 through April 15, 2013.