Saint Thérèse

The Greatest Saint of Modern Times

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus was born in Alencon in France on 2 January 1873. She was the last of nine children, four of whom had already died. Her father was a watchmaker and her mother ran a small lace-making business. When Thérèse was four, her mother died and the family moved to Lisieux. Here she spent the next ten years of her life, brought up in an atmosphere of love and affection.

From an early age she wanted to give herself to God. She struggled with her own stubbornness of will and suffered a lot from her very sensitive and scrupulous nature. When she was ten years old, she was cured of a serious illness through the 'smile of the Queen of Heaven'.

At the age of fifteen, she entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux and was given the name 'Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face'. She spent the next nine years of her life here, faithfully and heroically living the life of a Carmelite nun with great simplicity and humility. She discovered what she called her 'Little Way' - a way of confidence and trust and of total surrender to God's Merciful Love. At the end of her life she realized her mission was about to begin, and she would spend her heaven doing good on earth.

Before she died, Thérèse, under obedience, began to write down the recollections and memories of her childhood together with her reflections on the religious life. St. Thérèse died on 30 September 1897 at the age of 24 after eighteen months of great physical suffering and desolation of spirit. She was canonized in 1925. She has been proclaimed a Patroness of France and of the Missions and in 1997 was declared a Doctor of the Church.

Her autobiography Story of a Soul was published one year after her death. Millions of copies have been sold and it has been translated into over fifty languages. Her feastday is celebrated each year on 1st October.

Prayer to St.Thérèse

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus teach us to follow your way of confidence and trust. Help us to realise that a Father's love watches over us each day of our lives. Obtain for us the light to see, in sorrow as in joy, in trials as in peace, the loving hand of our Father. Give us your own faith and trust, so that we may walk in darkness, as in the light, holding fast to the way of love, knowing as you did, that everyting is a grace.