About the Little Flower
Photograph of Thérèse.
Born in Alençon, France in 1873, Thérèse Martin was four years old when her mother died and her family moved to Lisieux. At age 15, after making a trip to Rome to make a personal request of Pope Leo XIII for special permission, Thérèse entered the Carmelite monastery of Lisieux.
There she lived humbly and simply, placing her confidence in God. By her words and example she taught the novices those same virtues. Discovering that her vocation was to be love in the heart of the Church, St. Thérèse offered her life for the salvation of souls and the spread of the Church. She passed away from tuberculosis on Sept. 30, 1897.
In 1895, at the instruction of her superiors Thérèse had begun writing the story of her life from childhood. Her poems, prayers, letters, religious plays, and her last conversations, noted by her sisters, were collected with her autobiographical manuscripts and published the year after her death, becoming one of the most popular spiritual autobiographies ever written. The book now known as The Story of a Soul has inspired millions of faithful around the world.
St. Thérèse was beatified in 1923, and canonized by Pope Pius XI on May 17, 1925, just 52 years after her birth. Thérèse rapidly became one of the most popular saints of the twentieth century. In 1927, Thérèse was declared co-patron of missions with Francis Xavier and in 1944 named co-patron of France with Joan of Arc.
Pope John Paul II declared St. Thérèse the 33rd Doctor of the Church on Oct. 19, 1997, in the centenary year of her death. She is the youngest and was, at the time, only the third woman to be so honored. She was declared by Pope Pius XI to be the “star of his pontificate.”
St. Thérèse’s perspective on spirituality, which she articulated with warmth and conviction, has drawn people of all faiths. Her “little way” is “all confidence and love.” In the face of her littleness, she trusted in God. “I wanted to find an elevator that would raise me to Jesus,” she wrote, the arms of Jesus themselves lifting her where she could not raise herself.
Her doctrine urges us to cherish and build a relationship with God, who is loving, merciful, and truly present and active in our daily lives. It teaches us not to ask what else might be obtained in life, but to be thankful for all the graces one has received.
“St. Thérèse’s teaching, a veritable science of love, is the luminous expression of her understanding of the mystery of Christ, and her personal response to that grace,” wrote Pope John Paul II. “She inspires men and women of today and those of tomorrow to better perceive God’s gifts and spread the Good News of His infinite Love.”
Quotes by St. Thérèse
