St Therese of Lisieux

Carmelite nun. Patron of the missions. Therese was born in 1873 in Alencon in France. When she was 15 she told her father she was so devoted to God she wanted to become a nun. The Carmelites and her bishop thought she was too young, but she persisted and eventually got her way.

Therese loved life. She had many dreams and wanted to go to the Far East as a missionary. But it wasn't to be. In 1896 she began to cough up blood. She had contracted a very virulent form of TB and suffered a very painful illness, without complaining, before she died at the age of just 24, in 1897. Her last words were: "My God I love you."

St Therese might have been forgotten. But her superiors asked her to write her autobiography, called the Story of a Soul. They published it after she died (with some of their own sentimental additions) and the appeal of the book was astonishing. The book was translated into many languages and became an instant best-seller.

Therese's attraction lies in her simplicity. No scholar, or great student of the Bible, she simply longed to be a saint as she thought any ordinary person could be one.

"In my little way are only very ordinary things. Little souls can do everything I do."

Her influence helped to lead many to a rediscovery of first principles, and the primacy of ordinary duties of the religious life over personal initiatives, which so often cloak self-will.

St Therese was full of fun. She devised a coat of arms for herself and Jesus with the initials MFT and IHS and enjoyed making up jokes and funny stories.

In art she is represented in a Carmelite habit holding a bunch of roses, in memory of her promise to "let fall a shower of roses" of miracles and other favours.

She was canonised in 1925. She was named a Doctor of the Church by St Pope John Paul II in 1997.

In Divini Amoris Scientia declaring her a Doctor of the Church, Pope St John Paul II wrote: "The primary source of her spiritual experience and her teaching is the Word of God in the Old and New Testaments. She herself admits it, particularly stressing her passionate love for the Gospel (cf. Ms A, 83v). Her writings contain over 1,000 biblical quotations: more than 400 from the Old Testament and over 600 from the New."

St Therese is one of only four women Doctors of the Church - the others being: St Teresa of Avila, St Catherine of Sienna and St Hildegaard of Bingen)

For more information, visit: The Society of the Little Flower website dedicated to St Therese: www.littleflower.org/

The parents of St Therese, Louis and Marie Zelie Guerin, were canonized by Pope Francis on 18 October 2015 at the Vatican, during the Synod of Bishops on the family.

See a short film: St Thérèse of Lisieux's Little Way of Love and several other films made by the Carmelite Sisters, on www.carmel-dolgellau.uk/gallery

And a book: Thérèse of Lisieux: Transformation Into Love by Jennifer Moorcroft.
www.ctsbooks.org/product/st-therese-of-lisieux/