Mgr Carlos Osoro Serra, Archbishop of Valencia, with the little CarmenThe diocesan process to examine whether the healing of a child named Carmen whose parents asked Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin to intercede with God to obtain her cure should be considered as the miracle necessary to canonize them opened in Valencia, Spain on January 7, 2013.  Its final session began in April, and I am happy to announce that the diocesan tribunal is about to complete its work.  The official closing session will take place on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 in Valencia.

The closing of the diocesan tribunal to consider the "presumed miracle" brings to an end many years of work in France to examine the causes of the Martin spouses. You may read a detailed summary of the history of the cause in A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus (tr. Ann Hess, ed. Dr. Frances Renda.  New York: Alba House, 2011).  Louis's cause was opened on March 22, 1957 in Lisieux, and Zelie's on October 10, 1957 in the diocese of Sees, where she died.  Later the two causes were joined, and on March 26, 1994, Pope John Paul II declared that Louis and Zelie Martin had practiced "heroic virtue" and designated them "Venerable." After the examination of the healing of newborn Pietro Schiliro, they were beatified on October 19, 2008.  A second miracle is necessary to open the way for their canonization.

Mgr Jacques Habert, bishop of SeesMgr Carlos Osoro Serra, Archbishop of Valencia, will preside at the closing session.  Mgr Jacques Habert, bishop of Sees, and Mgr Jean-Claude Boulanger, Mgr Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux and Lisieuxbishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, will travel to Valencia for the closing ceremony.  The next day the file will be submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome, where it will be examined first by seven medical specialists, then by theologians, and finally by cardinals before it is given to the Holy Father.  Although evidence is gathered and evaluated first at the diocesan level, the decision to canonize is always made by Rome. 

Please pray that the Church receives the light of the Holy Spirit  to see whether God intends this couple to be canonized. 

"The process concerning the diocesan inquiry into the presumed miracle attributed to the Martin spouses will be officially opened by the Archbishop of Valencia, in Spain, on January 7 at 7:00 p.m.  The Tribunal will be named, and the first session will follow the next day.  If all goes well, the final work could be sent to Rome at the end of April or the beginning of May, which could mean . .  . canonization of Louis and Zelie in 2013!" 

On December 12, 2012 the Shrine at Lisieux posted the above announcement in French on its Facebook page. See more about the lives of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin. Read about "A Call to a Deeper Love," their collected letters.