Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint

orig. Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin

born Jan. 2, 1873, Alençon, France

died Sept. 30, 1897, Lisieux; canonized May 17, 1925; feast day October 1

French Carmelite nun and Doctor of the Church.

Born into a devout Roman Catholic family, she entered the convent at Lisieux at age 15, where she was plagued by depression and guilt but was known for her sweetness of temper. At the insistence of the prioress, she wrote an account of her spiritual development, in which she called for an absolute and childlike surrender to God, which she called the Little Way. After her death from tuberculosis at age 24, the book was published as Story of a Soul (1898) and became widely popular, and her burial site at Lisieux became a place of pilgrimage.

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▪ Roman Catholic nun

also called  Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus , or  the Little Flower , original name  Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin 

born January 2, 1873, Alençon, France

died September 30, 1897, Lisieux; canonized May 17, 1925; feast day October 1

      Carmelite nun whose service to her Roman Catholic order, although outwardly unremarkable, was later recognized for its exemplary spiritual accomplishments. She was named a doctor of the church by Pope John Paul II in 1997.

      Thérèse moved with her family to Lisieux in 1877 and was raised by older sisters and an aunt. In the deeply religious atmosphere of her home, her piety developed early and intensively. At the age of 15 she entered the Carmelite convent at Lisieux, having been refused admission a year earlier. Although she suffered from depression, scruples—a causeless feeling of guilt—and, at the end, religious doubts, she kept the rule to perfection and maintained a smiling, pleasant, and unselfish manner. Before her death from tuberculosis she acknowledged that because of her difficult nature not one day had ever passed without a struggle. Her burial site at Lisieux became a place of pilgrimage, and a basilica bearing her name was built there (1929–54).

      The story of Thérèse's spiritual development was related in a collection of her epistolary essays, written by order of the prioress and published in 1898 under the title Histoire d'une âme (“Story of a Soul”). Her popularity is largely a result of this work. St. Thérèse defined her doctrine of the Little Way as “the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute surrender.”

Additional Reading

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, General Correspondence, centenary ed., trans. by John Clarke, 2 vol. (1982–88; originally published in French, 1972–74); Guy Gaucher, The Story of a Life (1987, reissued 1993; also published as The Spiritual Journey of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, 1987; originally published in French, 1982); Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, 3rd ed. (1996); Jean-François Six, Light of the Night: The Last Eighteen Months in the Life of Thérèse of Lisieux (1996, reissued 1998; originally published in French, 1995).

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