Saint of the Day: St. Therese of Lisieux, Virgin

Therese Martin, Age 8
Therese Martin, Age 15
Sr. Therese of the Child Jesus, in her 20's

St. Therese of Lisieux
Therese Martin
(1873 – 1897)

St. Therese, who is also known as Therese of the Child Jesus or the Little Flower, was born on January 2, 1873 to a middle-class French family who were deeply devoted to God and to their Catholic faith. Her father, Louis, was a watchmaker and her mother, Zelie, was a lace maker. The Church has declared both of her parents “Venerable”.

Therese’s mother died of cancer when she was only four years old. Therese became emotionally traumatized by the loss. Her personality changed from that of an extroverted, cheerful, and vibrant child to that of a shy, introverted, overly sensitive young lady. When her older sister, Pauline, who had served as her surrogate mother in her mother’s absence, left the home to become a cloistered Carmelite nun, this added to the trauma.

At the age of ten, Therese became ill with a disease that was difficult to diagnose. She was in a continual state of hallucinations, trembling, and her shivering body was ice cold. It began on March 25th, the feast of the Annunciation, and remained with her nearly seven weeks. The family prayed around her bedside day and night. Then, on May 13, a miracle took place. She yelled out, “Mama! Mama!” Her three sisters knelt around her bedside and prayed to the Blessed Mother. Therese tells us what happened next: “ Finding no help on earth, poor little Therese also turned to her Heavenly Mother and prayed with all her heart for her (Mary) to have pity on her at last. All of a sudden the Blessed Virgin appeared to me to be beautiful, more beautiful than I have ever seen. Her face expressed an ineffable goodness and tenderness, but what went right to my soul was the Blessed Virgin’s ravishing smile! Then all of my pain vanished, two large tears welled up on my eyelashes and silently rolled down my cheeks, but they were tears of pure joy. Ah! I thought, the Blessed Virgin has smiled at me, how happy I am – but I will never tell anyone, for then my happiness would disappear.” Therese was completely healed through an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Therese received her First Holy Communion at the age of eleven. She referred to this holy sacrament as her “First sweet kiss from Jesus.”

She entered Carmel at the young age of fifteen. She experienced much physical and emotional suffering when she was in the monastery, but defined her path to holiness as “The Little Way”, offering all that she did – no matter how small – to God, confidently and joyfully trusting in His tender love and mercy. She contracted tuberculosis and suffered greatly before she died on September 30, 1897 in Lisieux, France at the age of twenty-four.

Many miracles have been attributed to St. Therese. Pope XI canonized her on May 17, 1925 – just eighteen years after her death. Pope John Paul II declared St. Therese a Doctor of the Church in 1997.


Messages From St. Therese of Lisieux

“Jesus does not demand great actions from us but simply surrender and gratitude…See, then, all that Jesus lays claim to from us; He has no need of our works but only of our love.”

“Oh! How sweet is the way of Love! How I want to apply myself to doing the will of God always with the greatest self-surrender!”

“I thank You, O my God for all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on my the Last Day, carrying the scepter of Your cross.”

“Time is nothing in Your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years. You can, then, in one instant, prepare me to appear before You."

“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and love, embracing both trial and joy.”

“What beauty? I don’t see beauty at all; I see only graces I’ve received from God. You always misunderstand me; you don’t know, then, that I’m only a little seedling, a little almond.”

“You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love which we do them.”

“O Jesus, Your little bird is happy to be weak and little.”

“Kneeling before the tabernacle, I can only think of one thing to say to our Lord: ‘My God, you know that I love You.’ And I feel that my prayer does not weary Jesus; knowing my weakness, He is satisfied with my good will.”

“Our Lord needs from us neither great deeds nor profound thoughts. Neither intelligence nor talents. He cherishes simplicity.”

“Our Lord does not come down from Heaven every day to lie in a golden ciborium. He comes to find another heaven which is infinitely dearer to Him – the heaven of our souls, created in His image, the living temples of the Adorable Trinity.”

“How happy I am to see myself imperfect and be in need of God’s mercy.”

“We can never have too much confidence in the good God who is so powerful and so merciful. We obtain from Him as much as we hope for.”

“You know that God does not look at the greatness or difficulty of our action, but at the love with which you do it. What, then, have you to fear?”

“Prayer is a cry of gratitude and love in the midst of trial as well as joy.”

“Oh my God, You have surpassed all my expectations.”

~ Excerpted from Gold in the Furnace, Jean M. Heimann copyright 2004