Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: Biography, Life, and Vocation to the Carmel

The Origins of Saint Thérèse

Thérèse Martin was born in Alençon (Orne), a small village in French Normandy, on January 2, 1873, into a wealthy bourgeois family of deep Christian faith. She was the last of eight children, three of whom died in infancy, as child mortality had not yet been overcome at that time.

However, despite the tragedies, a solid faith reigned in the Martin family, enabling them to perceive God's presence in every event.

The Martin Family and Origins

Louis Martin: a father of deep faith

The father, Louis Martin, born on August 22 in Bordeaux, was a watchmaker who had learned his trade in Switzerland. As a child, he had followed his father through various garrisons (Avignon, Strasbourg) and came to know the life of military camps until his father's discharge; they subsequently retired to Alençon in 1830.

At twenty-two, Louis dreamed of a religious life and applied as a postulant to the Great St. Bernard monastery, but was not accepted because he did not know Latin. Nevertheless, for eight years he led a nearly monastic life, entirely devoted to work, prayer, and reading.

Zélie Guérin: a virtuous mother

The mother, Zélie Guérin, born on December 23, 1831, into a family of peasant origin, had been raised by an authoritarian father and a very strict mother. She too considered religious life, but her application to be accepted by the Sisters of the Hôtel-Dieu of Alençon was rejected.

She then turned to the making of the famous "Point d'Alençon" lace, opened a shop, became a skilled worker, and achieved great success.

From Childhood to Vocation

The first sufferings and the loss of her mother

From the moment of her birth, Thérèse knew suffering: at only fifteen days old, she nearly died of acute enteritis. At two months, Thérèse overcame a crisis, but her mother was nonetheless forced, on medical advice, to leave her daughter and entrust her to a friendly wet nurse.

At the age of four, Thérèse lost her mother, who was stricken with breast cancer. Nevertheless, her sisters did their best to raise little Thérèse; during the same period, they moved to Lisieux (Calvados).

She was nine years old when her sister Pauline, her "little mother," entered the Carmel of the city. Thérèse fell seriously ill, and no one could diagnose her illness. Thérèse, her family, and her friends prayed fervently.

The miraculous healing and First Communion

On May 13, 1883, when death seemed inevitable, Thérèse saw the smiling Virgin and was immediately healed. The sudden healing and that maternal smile of Mary made her even more determined to fulfill the dream she had always cherished: to consecrate herself entirely to Love.

At her First Communion (May 8, 1884), Thérèse experienced being loved: "It was a kiss of love, I felt loved, and I also said: I love You, I give myself to You forever."

Entry into the Carmel at 15

Later, her eldest sister Marie also entered the Carmel. At 14, Thérèse told her father of her intention to enter the Carmel. At 15 (on April 9, 1888) she crossed the enclosure gate, after obtaining—given her young age—special permission from Pope Leo XIII, whom she had met on November 20, 1887, in Rome.

In the Carmel she was perfectly calm and found peace, which never left her even during her trials. Mother Gonzaga, despite Thérèse's young age, treated her severely, yet she never complained.

Life in the Carmel and Trials

Her father's illness

Meanwhile, her father's condition worsened. Arteriosclerosis devastated Thérèse's father, who was placed under legal guardianship and hospitalized for three years in a nursing home. This caused her terrible pain.

The "night of the spirit"

But her greatest trial was not of health, rather the "night" of the spirit that enveloped her for eighteen months. She experienced this not through the company of atheists, but in the looming silence of God, understanding the atheist's condition:

"God allowed my soul to be invaded by the thickest darkness, and the thought of Heaven, once so sweet to me, became nothing but struggle and torment."

Death and Glory

The final days and death at 24

Her fragile health would not long withstand the rigor of the Carmelite rule, and on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24, she died of tuberculosis, living out her sufferings day by day in perfect union with Jesus Christ crucified, for the salvation of mankind.

This nine-year period spent in religious life, apparently without distinction, would have a wondrous spiritual impact, all the more powerful considering that since then many simple people, through her example, have felt able to imitate and reach the same level as this soul—unassuming and uncomplicated, yet so terribly demanding of herself.

Thérèse's is the "way of childhood", or "Little Way", which recognizes one's own smallness and abandons itself with trust to God's goodness like a child in its mother's arms.

Canonization and Doctor of the Church

In Thérèse's life everything is in contrast: her language is poor and often childlike, yet her thought is brilliant; her life apparently without drama is in fact a tragedy of faith; her existence unfolded within the four walls of the Carmel, yet her message is universal.

Thérèse was unknown when she died in 1897, but when she was canonized twenty-eight years later, in 1925, the fame of her holiness had spread rapidly throughout the world: Lisieux would become one of the most sought-after destinations for great masses of the faithful from every corner of the earth.

In the same year, again by Pope Pius XI, Thérèse was proclaimed Universal Patroness of the Missions—for which she had prayed unceasingly—and is patroness of France, together with Joan of Arc.

In 1997, the centenary of her death, Thérèse was declared a "Doctor of the Church", the third woman to rise to the highest theological distinction in two thousand years of Christianity, after Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Teresa of Ávila.

The Writings and Spiritual Heritage

Story of a Soul: the three manuscripts

Thérèse wrote extensively. She composed three manuscripts:

• Manuscript A (1895): "Story of a Soul," the autobiography written at the request of her sister Pauline (Mother Agnes).
• Manuscript B (1897): written in obedience to her prioress.
• Manuscript C: a collection by her sisters of the "last conversations" from May 1897 until the day of her death.

One is also amazed by the great number of letters sent to her family and by the many poems she composed. Thérèse suffered greatly: the spiritual trials she went through during this hidden life (night of faith, spiritual emptiness, temptation to disbelief) make her very close to those who doubt and do not believe.

A universal and modern message

A saint is seen as a prototype that focuses energy and shows how to live out the Gospel in a given era. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux is profoundly modern because she helps the mind and heart to unite the things of earth with those of heaven and to understand the things of God, of His Love, in the most concrete behaviors.

In today's language we often speak of tension to express the difficulty man has in living consciously at the spiritual level. Saint Thérèse offers us a harmonious balance: for this reason she can easily be taken as a model of spiritual life.