St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face

St. Thérèse of Lisieux took as her religious name Sr. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. Today she is known as “The Little Flower.”

She lived humbly and simply, placing her confidence in God. 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. She was 24.

In 1895, at the direction of her superiors, Thérèse had begun writing the story of her life from childhood. When 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, it became 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 in 1925, just 52 years after her birth. Thérèse rapidly became one of the most popular saints of the twentieth century. In 1927, she was declared co-patron of missions with Francis Xavier and in 1944 named co-patron of France with Joan of Arc.

Pope St. 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 the third woman to be so honored.

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 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 present and active in our daily lives.

“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 St. 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.”