Blessed Zelie and Louis Martin: Their Lives

 

See below the film "Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin of Alencon" by the Diocese of Seez WebTV; I thank them for permission to post it here.  The interviews are in French. Two weeks before the beatification in October 2008, the Church acquired Louis Martin's Pavilion, a watchtower within a walled garden on the outskirts of Alencon, where Louis fished, read, and meditated in his bachelor days.  This garden was the first home of the statue later called "The Virgin of the Smile," before which Therese was cured as a child.  After his marriage Louis often brought Zelie and his daughters to the Pavilion on outings.  For decades the Pavilion was closed to visitors, and this is the first film footage of the watchtower and garden.

 


Louis et Zélie Martin d'Alençon
Uploaded by web-tv-diocesedeseez

 

See below the film "Inauguration of the Martin Family House at Alencon."  At the end of April 2009 the Martins' second marital home on Rue Saint-Blaise, where the family lived from 1871-1877 and where Therese was born, which had been closed for restoration for several years, reopened to pilgrims.  I thank the Diocese of Seez for permission to post this film of the event at which the restored house was opened to the press.  Most of the film is interviews in French with Mgr. Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Seez, and with artists who worked on the house.  It also includes the first footage of the restored house.

 

See below the film "A tourist train in the steps of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin at Alencon."  The film shows priests from the diocese of Seez taking a "tourist train" to visit the places Louis and Zelie knew.  The audio is in French, but the film is easy to follow.  It shows first St. Leonard's Bridge over the Sarthe, where Zelie and Louis met in 1858.  Next a rare visit to St. Pierre de Montsort, the Martin family's parish church from 1858 through 1871, showing the baptismal font where all their children but Therese were baptized.  Then a visit to the Pavilion, the walled garden Louis bought in 1857.  The film shows the ground floor of the watchtower, where Louis kept his fishing rods; the second floor, where he meditated and prayed; and finally the third floor, where he slept on his visits to Alencon after he moved to Lisieux in 1877, and where it is believed he sometimes allowed homeless persons to sleep.  Finally, the film shows the outside of Louis's watch-and-jewelry shop on Rue Pont Neuf.  I thank the Diocese of Seez for permission to display the film here.
 

 

    
See below a four-minute film, "A Pilgrimage Visit to the Alencon birthplace of St. Therese," the home of  Louis and Zelie Martin, where their daughter Therese was born on January 2, 1873.  Includes their worktables, the room where Therese was born, the chapel, and the garden; English captions.  With thanks to Susan Ehlert.