About the Parents of St. Thérèse

Declared venerable by Pope St. John Paul II in 1994 and beatified in 2008, the Martins are believed to be the first parents of a saint to be canonized. The canonization ceremony for the Martins took place during the world Synod of Bishops on the family in Rome on World Missions Oct. 18, 2015, by Pope Francis. St. Thérèse is the patron saint of missions in the Catholic Church.

Married in 1858, Louis and Marie Zelie Guerin Martin had nine children, four dying in infancy. Their five surviving daughters, including Thérèse, all became nuns in the Discalced Carmelite Order.

First class relics of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, known as “The Little Flower,” were exposed Oct. 18, 2015 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower for public veneration for the first time on the day of the couple’s canonization in Rome by the Catholic Church.

The relics of the Martins are a treasured gift to the Basilica and the Discalced Carmelite Friars of San Antonio from the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Lafayette, LA.

The back of the reliquary depicts the biblical couple Sara and Tobias, recalling the essential role of marriage as a vocation in human history and in the history of salvation. The theme of Sara and Tobias is taken from the medal that Louis Martin chose as a souvenir of his wedding with Zelie Guerin on July 13, 1858 in Notre Dame d’Alenḉon. The original medal was blessed during the exchange of the rings and is at the Archdiocese of Séez, France. The reliquary containing particles of the Martins’ hair is decorated with a wreath representing the decorative motif of the watch that Louis Martin gave his daughter Thérèse.