Saint Therese of Lisieux:

A Pilgrimage Grace

On the last day of my pilgrimage to Lisieux for the beatification of Louis and Zelie Martin, through the kindness of the authorities at Lisieux I was admitted to the house at 19 Rue Paul Banaston where the family of Zelie's brother, Isidore Guerin, lived from 1889 on. Across from its back garden is 7 rue Labbey, the house rented for Celine, Leonie, and Louis Martin when Louis returned from the Bon Sauveur hospital in Caen in 1892. 

Susan Ehlert, an American friend of Therese who has contributed many photo shows to the site, accompanied me.  A friend had told me that the occupants of 7 rue Labbey had received her most kindly on an earlier visit.  My courage almost failed me at the thought of knocking at the door of an occupied private home, but I breathed a prayer to Therese and tapped timidly at the door.  I explained that I was an American pilgrim, and asked whether this was the house where Blessed Louis Martin had once lived. Mme. Anne-Marie Hervieu, who has lived there for forty years with her husband, M. Jacques Hervieu, opened the door to the greatest grace of the pilgrimage.  Anne-Marie and Jacques had been gardening on this sunny October day, but they insisted that we come in. They showed us the ground floor of the house. Louis lived on that floor, since he was in a wheelchair, and he could be wheeled out the front door and across to the Guerins.

Next they showed us into a very long garden that runs down from the back of their house to a stream far below, and told us that Louis liked to sit by the stream because, though he could no longer fish, he loved to hear the water running. After we had admired their lovely garden, I felt we should go, and offered to leave. But with true hospitality the Hervieus cleared off their garden table and invited us to stay for some cider and sweets. We had a long, lovely talk with them (in which Susan helped out my French!), hearing of other pilgrims whom they had also welcomed.  Jacques and Anne-Marie were so sweet and gracious that I believe Louis Martin's loving spirit has passed into them.  One part of me was engaged in the joy of being with them. The other kept trying to grasp that I was seated in Louis Martin's garden, where he and Leonie and Celine lived for two years after God accepted the oblation he made of himself at Notre-Dame Church at Alencon, and that I was looking at the trees and the stream he often enjoyed.  I could hardly breathe for happiness.  The Hervieus generously permitted photographs, and I thank Susan Ehlert for allowing me to display them here. I wish also to thank Jacques and Anne-Marie Hervieu, the only people in the world who could have given us this ineffable joy.

At 11:00 a.m. on July 11, 2009, the vigil of the first feast of Louis and Zelie Martin, as a part of the official celebration of the feast at Lisieux, a plaque was installed at 7 rue Labbey to commemorate the years that Blessed Louis Martin lived there.