Biography of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus
Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin Guérin was born in Alençon, Normandy, on Saint Blaise Street, on January 2, 1873. Her parents were Louis Martin and Marie Celia Guérin. Both parents were canonized on October 18, 2015. Nine children were born to her marriage, four of whom died very young. Only her five daughters survived: Marie, Pauline, Leonia, Celina, and Therese, the youngest. The most remarkable thing about them all is that they all led religious lives.
Teresa was baptized two days after she was born, on January 4, in the Church of Our Lady of Alenzón. Two months later she fell ill and was entrusted to the nurse Rosa Taillé, who had previously cared for two of the Martins' children, she got better and was raised on the Semallé farm, in the Norman countryside. She returned in the year 1874 on April XNUMX, to continue by her family's side.
For her mother she was very intelligent, even more than Celina her sister, but she lacks that sweet tenderness of girls, and seems to be very stubborn, when she said no to something she never changed her mind, but if she was mischievous and played like a normal girl, she is very emotional and cries for almost everything. Her home with her parents was an example of virtue and holiness. Her love for her daughters was evident, but that is why they did not accept bad behavior, inappropriate behavior was corrected immediately.
But what stood out most about the home was the Christian faith they possessed. When they couldn't go to church together, they held their celebrations at home and prayed the rosary as a family. Teresa also went with them to church at 5:XNUMX in the morning, they did a strict fast and prayed according to what was established in the liturgical year.
They were very charitable people and always brought the poor to eat at their table. They visited the sick and the elderly in the village. Their daughters grew up in this environment, seeing their parents as examples of holiness. But their mother had been experiencing a series of pains long before she was born, so in 1876 she went to the doctor, who diagnosed her with a very serious fibrous tumor that could no longer be removed.
In 1877 her aunt Maria Luisa died, who was a nun at the Visitation Convent in Le Mans, and her health worsened due to sadness, but she did not say anything to her husband or her older daughters. In July of that same year she makes a family pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Virgin of Lourdes, and fervently asks her for her recovery, but her illness is very advanced.
Her mother Celia died on August 28, 1877, with breast cancer, Teresa lost her mother at the age of 4, in November of that same year Father Luis Martin decided to go to Lisieux, where Teresa's family lived. his wife, who had promised Celia to take care of all her daughters in case she died.
His early years
His wife's family helps them to live in a house surrounded by bushes, it was called Les Buissonnets, in which she would live until she entered the Convent. She immediately felt her changes, she missed her mother to the point that she wrote that due to her death, her life had changed so much that she was already shy, very sweet and too sensitive to everything. . Her father showed her a lot of love, as did her sister Paulina, who became her sister's second mother. They had an austere life and it was a very painful part of her life.
In 1880, at the age of 7, he made his first confession, in a bold way he manages to leave his fears, and he feels more and more happy to attend the festivities since he made his first confession. On May 13, her sister Celina makes her first communion, and since it was a very beautiful moment, she hoped that her time would come to receive her, so she was going to take advantage of the three years that were missing to have a good preparation for that occasion.
On October 3, 1881 Teresa enters the Lisieux Benedictines school, at almost nine years of age, her sisters Pauline and Maria had already taught her many things at home, so she was quickly up to date with her lessons. But being in a group with other people her age was not something she was used to, her classmates persecuted her since she was jealous of her for being very intelligent and selfless in her studies.
She cried silently and did not complain about anything they did to her, she did not like to be at recess since the noise bothered her. But in the eyes of the teacher she was an obedient student, with a calm and peaceful character, whom they always saw pensive and with a sad face, For her those five years of school were sad, and she grew closer to her sister Celina.
During that time, she developed a taste for reading, which calmed her, especially stories about knights and swords. She read the story of Joan of Arc, whom she greatly admired, and began to believe that God had chosen her to understand that if his glory was not for mortals, then she could become a saint.
When she was 9 years old in 1882, her sister Paulina decided to become a Carmelite nun, she began to feel a deep regret since she considered her her second mother, to the point that her behavior is desperate. Her sister comforts her and tells her how her life will be inside the convent, so she feels that it is her destiny to be there too.
She compared Carmel to the desert, where she thought God wanted to keep her hidden. In her heart, there was no doubt that this would be her destiny, this was her divine calling, not because her sister was there, but because Jesus was calling her. One Sunday, when she went to visit Carmel, she spoke with Mother Superior Maria de Gonzaga, and she told her that one day she would go to live there and would be called Therese of the Child Jesus. She took these words as a new calling, but she was not yet 16, the minimum age to enter.
In October 1882, Pauline entered the Carmel of Lisieux and was given the name Sister Agnes of Jesus. Thérèse was sad, as she had to attend another year of school; she couldn't skip a grade, and she still had that year to go until her First Communion. Religion was one of her most important subjects, and she earned the best grades in it, just waiting for her Communion.
Strange as it may seem in December 1882, Teresa's health is weakening, she has headaches, body aches, no appetite and can't sleep. Her character also changes, she argues and fights with Maria and Celina. Paulina already in the convent is worried about her, and for that reason she advises her and severely reprimands her. Dr. Alfonso Notta diagnoses Teresa with an emotional and neurotic reaction, because Paulina had gone to the convent.
Already in 1883, at Easter, her father made a trip to Paris with María and Leonía, leaving Celina and Teresa at an uncle's house. But on March 25, Teresa bursts into a sea of tears, they take her to her room and she does not sleep well, the next day they call the doctor who says that she has a disease that only attacks children, being already serious her uncle sends a telegram to his father to return to Lisieux.
During the day, Teresa experiences strong tremors, hallucinates, and has panic attacks and terror, her body weakens, and although she is lucid, they cannot leave her alone. She insists to the sister that she wants to be present when Paulina takes her vows as a nun, which was on April 6th. That morning, after having endured a severe crisis, she got out of bed and was apparently cured, so she goes with her family to Carmel. She seems cheerful and full of energy. But the next day she relapses, delirious and seems to be insane. The doctor who visits her does not know that he can cure her strange illness, so her father fears that his daughter will die or that he will have to admit her to a sanatorium.
For several months he has a headache and constantly hallucinates, his family is desperate as they think he could die quickly. Her father orders masses to be held in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Victories in Paris, so that he can be cured. On May 13, 1883, his father and his sisters are at his bedside and can no longer give him relief, so they ask an image of the Virgin to cure his illness.
At the time, Teresa herself said she couldn't find any help on earth, so she also turned to the Virgin Mary, her Heavenly Mother, for mercy and compassion. She saw that the Virgin Mary was very beautiful and that her smile was beautiful. She thought the Virgin Mary was smiling with her, and she felt happy. After a long period of illness, she began to stabilize, and the symptoms of her illness began to disappear, but her health remained fragile.
Beginnings in the Catholic faith
Once she is healthy, she returns to school, resumes her catechism classes and continues to prepare at home. Paulina writes to her from Carmel and gives her a lot of advice, that they should pray and sacrifice in offering to Jesus, something that Teresa takes into account. seriously and follows exactly what is indicated. On May 8, 1884, she finally made her First Communion in the Church of her school.
At her communion mass she cries with joy, since she thought it was a perfect moment to be able to find a moment of mysticism, she felt that this was the first kiss of Jesus to her soul, the kiss of love, the one that made her feel loved. and for which she also told him that she loved him and that she gave herself to him body and soul. For some time, Teresa felt that she had had an understanding with Jesus where she no longer had to fight or sacrifice herself. At that moment when she receives communion from her, she has a feeling of great depth in her spirit so she celebrates with her family and also she receives many gifts.
On June 14 of that same year he made his confirmation, which is administered by the Bishop of Lisieux, Abel Antoine Flavien Hugonin. Leonia, her sister was her godmother and when she received the Holy Spirit she felt a great wonder since she saw in this a sacrament of love with which she had the strength to continue suffering. By that time his torments about mortal sins and the final judgment had disappeared, but in 1885 they reappeared again and in a very abrupt way.
The young woman falls back into the illness of scruples; she thinks she has committed a sin and is developing a strong sense of guilt about everything. Every moment that passes is a source of distress; she doesn't talk about this with Paulina, who feels distant in the convent. At her side is Maria, whom she takes as her new mother, with whom she always talks and shares her strangest feelings. Maria prepares her to make her confessions and overcome the fear that invades her. Teresa always obeys her in everything, but she doesn't tell her confessor about her illness, and he cannot advise her on this matter.
By October of that year, she must return to school, but she must continue facing her classmates alone, as Celina would soon be leaving. It was 1886, and Maria decided to enter the Convent of the Carmelite Sisters of Lisieux, where she was given the name Maria of the Sacred Heart. Her other sister, Leonie, decided to go to the Convent of the Benedictine Nuns of Lisieux, but she didn't stay there long.
Her father, Luis Martin, is shocked and saddened, but remains with his two youngest daughters at the Buissonnet farm. When Maria leaves, Teresa feels like her third mother is leaving her and falls back into depression, crying constantly. She begins to suffer from attacks again, but now she doesn't know who to talk to since Maria is gone. So Teresa begins to pray to her deceased siblings, humbly asking them to intercede to bring peace to her soul. Very quickly, she calms down, realizing that if she was loved on earth, she would also be loved in heaven.
Decision to be religious
At the Christmas Eve mass of Christmas 1886, being with her father and her sister Celina, she ran out to check the shoes she left so that the baby Jesus would leave her toys. Her father ordered him to change for dinner and wearily he told Celina that this would be the last year that would happen. Teresa wrote that that night she saw that her father had weakened and suffered for her love, which made her fill with courage and strength, she learns to forget herself and that a feeling of charity invaded her heart. her.
A great need to please others arose in her and she began to feel happy. She saw herself free of the defects and imperfections she had had as a child because she had been very sensitive to everything. She thought that the Child Jesus who arrived that night was filling her with the energy she had lost when her mother died.
From that night many things changed and her new stage in life begins, which she herself called the most beautiful, the night she became and described as the most blessed, since she was not defeated in any fight and from there on ahead he would only have victories in a race of giants.
The fight for his new vocation
After that Christmas, the story of a man named Enrique Pranzini, who had murdered three women in Paris, was heard in Lisieux. Pranzini decided to adopt him as a spiritual son, for whom he should begin to pray and say Masses. He asked his sister Celina for help in obtaining God's conversion or at least a repentance for his crimes. The man was imprisoned, tried, and sentenced to death, with his execution scheduled for August 31, 188.
The newspapers and the press of that time said that the man, although he had not confessed, before he died he asked for a crucifix and kissed it several times before they put him on the guillotine, for which she felt that the man had repented thanks to their prayers and sacrifices.
This fact marked her life in a significant way and reinforced her vocation to be a nun, establishing a basis for the doctrine of divine mercy that has characterized her ever since, and she wanted to enter the Convent of Carmel and continue praying for sinners. Teresa was already 14 years old and she knows perfectly well that she must make many efforts like Joan of Arc did in order to conquer her desire to enter Carmel.
First, she must have the consent of her father and other relatives, so with great fear she tells her father, since a few weeks earlier he had suffered an attack that had left him paralyzed for several hours. On June 2, 1887, the day of Pentecost, she prayed all day and made her request for her decision at night, being at the Buissonnets farm. Her father made his decision with great joy and was grateful that his daughter had a heavenly expression on her face and with great peace, and believed at that moment that God had honored him with all his daughters having accepted his calling.
The only one who opposes is her uncle Isidoro Guerin, he does not object to the religious vocation of his niece Teresa, but asks her to wait until she is 17 years old. Teresa believes that Paulina can help change her uncle's opinion of her, and in October of that same year she ends up accepting the young woman's decision. But the inconveniences do not end there, but the convent also raises many objections, especially that of Father Delatroëtte, the superior of the Carmel of Lisieux, since they would not allow more applicants to enter the convent who were under 21 years of age. The only one who could authorize their entry was the bishop.
Teresa cries inconsolably and her father promises to speak with the bishop and with Monsignor Hugonin, who receives her on October 31. He listens to the father's desire to enter Carmel, which she has wanted since she was a child, but he says that he will make a decision later when he speaks with Father Delatroëtte. The only hope left for them is to speak with the Pope. So Luis Martin begins to prepare a trip to Roja for the jubilee of Pope Leo XIII, organized by the dioceses of Coutances and Bayeux. Teresa and Celina will go with him, and the date is set for November 4, 1887.
Pilgrimage to Rome
More than 200 people went on this pilgrimage, among whom there were 75 priests. They left Paris, and at a mass in the minor basilica of Our Lady of Victories, there Teresa removed any doubt as to whether the virgin had really smiled at her while she was sick in 1883, for years she suffered from this issue but now she was faced with an absolute truth, and trusts in this journey and in his vocation. They leave on a special train and arrive in Italy, first passing through Switzerland. Teresa admires the landscapes.
The pilgrims stay in large hotels and Teresa is overwhelmed by so much luxury, she sees how society only longs to have goods, of all the pilgrims she is the youngest, she is happy, she looks pretty, and she has a dress that does not let her pass unnoticed. She had never been in contact with many priests, but she realizes that they were full of imperfections, weak and flawed. But what she saw only filled her with more strength to enter the convent, so she began to pray all day for the priests of the whole world, understanding that her vocation was to pray and make sacrifices so that the priests reach the sanctification.
They pass through the city of Milan, Venice and Bologna, through the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Loreto, until they reach Rome, see the Colosseum up close. Teresa and Celina do not follow the rules of the prohibitions and go to the arena of the Colosseum and kiss it, the place where hundreds of Christian martyrs died and ask that they suffer the martyrdom of Jesus since their soul felt that their prayers had a answer.
But Teresa knows the reason for her trip, she was encouraged by the letter that her sister Paulina sent her in which she was motivated to see the Pope and make her request, on the morning of November 20, 1887 they arrived at the Pope's Chapel and they attend the mass of Leo XIII, but they are forbidden to speak to him since he is 77 years old and cannot waste time. When it is Teresa's turn to approach her, encouraged by her sister Celina, she kneels in front of the Pope, and crying tells him that she wants to ask him for a very big favor.
The vicar explains to the Pope that the young woman wants to enter the Carmelite Convent of Lisieux. The Pope told her that she must obey what her superiors told her, but insists that if he approves the decision, everyone else will also approve it. The Vicar replies that she can enter only if God wants, but she wants a conclusive answer and waits, crossing her hands on the Pope's knees until two of the guards lift her up and take her to the exit of the hall.
At night he writes to Paulina about his failure and tells her that his heart is sad, and that he knows that God cannot give him a test that is beyond his own physical weaknesses, but that they have the courage to put up with anything, and at all times. pilgrims know the news of Teresa's secret. The trip continues to Pompeii, Naples and Assisi, and on the way back through Pisa and Genoa. When they are in Nice, the vicar tells her that he is going to help her in her request, then they are in Paris, and on December 2 they return to her city.
Entrance to religious life
Once back in her city, she went directly to the Carmel visiting center, trying a new way to enter, but Father Delatroëtte still held his word and didn't believe she should enter. He scolded the Superior, Mother Genevieve, who founded the Carmel of Lisieux, and Mother Marie de Gonzaga, who defended Thérèse's desire to enter. By December 14th, all she could do was wait and continue praying for her wish to be granted. On Christmas Eve, she went to midnight Mass and only cried, but she knew this was a test of faith, and she left everything in God's hands.
On January 1, 1888, before his 15th birthday, he received a letter from Mother María de Gonzaga informing him that the Bishop changed his decision and that he would allow him to enter the convent. Worse, on the advice of his own sister Paulina, he left the date of admission for the month of April, after the Holy Week passed. Teresa sees in this a new test, but she takes it to better prepare herself for her admission.
The date is set for April 9, 1888, the day of the Annunciation. Teresa is 15 years and three months old. This was a time when young people entered as novices and postulants, and Teresa's case is not exceptional. She is received by the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Lisieux, and within her convent were Pauline and Maria, her older sisters, and thus she begins her life as a postulant.
Her first months in the convent are quite hard, they had to do many jobs, which she had never done and of course they were never perfect, she herself denies her sisters the possibility of helping her or making the jobs easier for her. assigned to him, since they were not on the farm, and little by little he adapts to the place, a short time later he writes in his notes that God has been good and granted him the grace of not having illusions about entering the convent, and that now he had found a religious life just as he imagined it, no sacrifice he made amazed him.
Mother María de Gonzaga, her Superior, who at first saw her as gentle and kind, now had a cold and distant treatment towards her, demanded a lot of her, humiliated her, but all with the intention of forming a character within the religious life, and in this way prove if it was his vocation and put aside what was pride and vanity. Teresa was grateful to her and for that she admired her. Her superior even commented on her that she had never imagined the advanced judgment that this 15-year-old girl had, and that in general she was perfect.
In Teresa's postulate she also suffers from bullying by other sisters as she is not good at crafts. And just like the other sisters, she begins to discover that life in a religious community is challenging, and she must share with different characters, temperaments, and also with many susceptibilities to problems or disabilities of the sisters.
By the end of 1888, it was approved that he take the habit, news that reached him with joy, but that passed quickly because his father fell ill again and had been found months before in another city, lost and out of reason, causing much concern in his family that was outside the monastery and her daughters who were inside. On January 10, 1889, she was able to take the habits in the monastery chapel, with her father, her sisters, and her entire family present. Right there, they placed the novice's veil on her and gave her the name of Teresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. or the Sacred Face.
Her vocation continues to be strengthened, she has a life that goes unnoticed in the monastery, she prays frequently and offers all her sufferings for the priests, she has already left her pride behind, and does many more acts of charity, she wants to be a saint but without illusions very much with the subject, he writes in his notes that he emphasized the small virtues, since it is not easy for him to learn or practice the great ones.
By 1890 he had already read the works of Saint John of the Cross, whom he takes as his spiritual teacher, contemplating the sacred face fills his soul. He begins to deepen and meditate on the love of Christ, especially in his humiliation reading the Book of Isaiah about the suffering servant (Isaiah 53:1:2), thus he understands the humiliation of his father's situation since he has an illness of arteriosclerosis in the brain, she thought that her father was a spiritual father and now she can see him as the humbled and unrecognizable Christ.
When she was a little over 17 years old, on September 8, 1890, she made her profession as a nun, and answered that she had acquired that vocation to save souls and to pray for priests. Her official ceremony is held on September 24, it is public and the black veil of profession is placed. Her father, due to his illness, does not attend, which causes her sadness, but the Superior Mother María de Gonzaga states that even though she is a 17-year-old girl, she reasons as if she were thirty, that she was the perfect novice, that she is consumed in soul and in her own body, being the perfect religious.
In May 1892 he saw his father for the last time and in June of the same year his sister Leonia entered the Visitation Monastery in Caen for the second time. Luis Martin dies on July 29, 1894, after a long time being cared for by Celina, who has been thinking of entering Carmel as well. In many of the letters that Teresa sends her, she motivates her to give herself to God and not marry, even so she has doubts between leading a Carmelite life or having an active life to go with Father Pichon to Canada for a mission.
Taking into account the advice of her sisters, she decides to enter Carmel on September 14, 1894, for the following year the four Martin sisters are in the same monastery, later their cousin Maria Guerin joins them.
life behind christ
In the years that followed, she experienced a growth in her vocation. Teresa continued to pray, now without the strong emotions of before, but she did so very faithfully. She did not interfere in the meetings and discussions within her group; she performed more acts of charity and felt concern for others, performing small services without making them obvious. She accepted the criticism she received in silence, whether it was fair or unfair, whether it favored her sisters or was unpleasant for her. She performed all her tasks, even the simplest, with great love and continued to pray for the priests.
Between 1891 and 1892 a strong epidemic fell in France, the flu attacked many people and the nuns of Carmel did not escape it, four sisters fell ill and died, then all fell ill except three of them, including Teresa. She does everything to take care of her sisters in bed, she attends to them, organizes everything in Carmel, shows a lot of strength and courage in the face of this problem, especially when she has to make arrangements to bury the sisters who are dying, now her community that Before, I thought that she did not have much value and they treated her with indifference, they see in her a different person.
Her soul is fed by the Gospels, which she always carries with her, something that was not in common use at that time and less in the religious, before they preferred to read comments on the Bible than to read it directly, that is why Teresa prefers to read from directly the words of Jesus, make prayers to get enlightenment and lead their lives day by day, in addition to consolidating their doctrine in a better way.
Paulina, who is now Sister Inés de Jesús, was appointed Prioress of the Lisieux Monastery on February 20, 1893, and she commissioned Teresa to be the vice-mistress of the novices, teaching the Carmelite rules to her novices, telling them many stories and even parables, they were the ones who knew his doctrine called El Caminito, of which his first disciple was Sister María de la Trinidad. In 1894 Teresa already has several writings of pious recreations of her, such as plays, which are usually performed by the nuns themselves when there is a celebration.
The first of them is made in honor of Joan of Arc, a character that she always admired and whose beatification was introduced in the Vatican. She had a lot of talent for writing, so she is assigned to write other writings, such as a Second on John of Arc that was made in 1895 and spiritual poems that her religious sisters ask her. That same year she began to feel a sore throat and chest pains, but Mother Inés did not call a doctor other than the community official.
For the centenary of the martyrdom of the Carmelite nuns of Compiegne, which is celebrated throughout France, the sisters of Lisieux are asked to decorate the chapel. Teresa of the Child Jesus and Teresa of Saint Augustine are selected to embroider the flags that will be given as gifts to their other Carmelite sisters. Teresa of Saint Augustine emphasized during the beatification process for Teresa that she did this work with great zeal and dedication, and said that she would be very happy if she had the same good fortune to be martyred, that this would be the greatest of graces.
How did you discover the Caminito?
Eager to achieve sainthood, Teresa discovers after six years in Carmel that this fact is impossible to achieve, she believes that they still have many imperfect things and that she does not have the necessary charisma like Teresa of Jesus or Paul of Tarsus, she believes that they still it is very tiny and that it is very far from the great love that he wants to put into practice. But she also knows that being so small she can ask God for more help, she continues reading the Bible and in the book of Proverbs she gets it with 9: "Whoever is naive should come to me", and here she gets the answer that both he searches, he believes that in his smallness he is still incapable of giving himself to God with full confidence.
Later in the book of Isaiah, he gets a passage that gives him another answer that he yearns for so much “you will be like nursing babies carried in your arms and receiving caresses on your knees. As a son to his mother who comforts him, in the same way I will comfort you »(Is 66, 12:13). Now she understands that it will be Jesus who will help her reach the summit of holiness, and that is why she wrote in her notes that he would be the one who would take her like an elevator to heaven carried in his arms, she understood that with Jesus she did not need to grow, but rather remain small, much smaller.
Being small, with limitations, she is now happier and is not discouraged, since that is where God's love resides and his mercy towards her, in her writings she writes about this discovery of the Little Way. By February 1895, he began to write and sign his letters, putting the word "small" before putting his name, and he began to use simple and small language to remind himself that he should lead a hidden life with great discretion, and he also began to use to maintain hope, since the smaller you feel before God, the more times you can count on him and his help.
Sacrifice of merciful love
On the feast of the Holy Trinity on June 9, 1895, she had a new inspiration to be the sacrificial offering to merciful love, she wanted to suffer, as Christ did and to be united with him, in order to correct all the offenses that they had done against God and do all the penances that sinners did not do. On the 11th of the same month she makes her offering to the merciful love of God to receive from him the love she needs to accomplish all the work she wants to do.
He writes in his notes “Oh my God, Holy Trinity, I want to love you and make you be loved, work so that the Holy Church is Holy and save souls, I want to fulfill your will in a perfect way and be able to achieve the glory that you have for me. prepared in the kingdom of heaven.” She wanted to be a saint, that was her wish, but she knew perfectly well that she was an impotent and weak person and that is why she asks God to be her holiness himself.
A few days later, she prayed the Stations of the Cross, and she felt filled with a great love for God. She herself expressed that she felt on fire with love and that for a moment, or even a minute longer, she could no longer bear that feeling without dying. She saw in this experience that she later underwent a great spiritual drought, something that confirmed to her that her act of offering sacrifice was accepted by God.
In October 1895, Father Maurice Belliere asked the Carmels of Lisieux to help him with a nun for prayer and sacrifice and with a missionary vocation. Mother Inés (Paulina) asks Teresa to do this task, since she had always wanted to have a priest brother, which she receives with great joy. Thus her small sacrifices are multiplied in this mission of the priest and in her letters she encourages him to continue, in February of the following year they give her another joy, when her sister Celina takes the religious profession with the name of Sister Genevieve.
The night of faith and disease
During Lent in 1896, Teresa fasted and practiced spiritual exercises, and on the night of Thursday to Good Friday, she suffered a bout of hemoptysis. Mother Marie de Gonzaga was informed, but she herself told her it was nothing to worry about. However, that same night, she suffered another attack. Mother Marie became concerned and called Dr. LaNeele to examine her. They suspected the bleeding might be from a broken blood vessel in her throat.
But Teresa isn't complacent about her health, but she isn't afraid either. She knows that with death she can reach heaven and achieve what she had hoped for when she entered Carmel: to have the joy of his glorification. So she decides to continue participating in the religious community's activities. This period of her life is difficult, and she feels abandoned, but she calls it the night of her faith. That Holy Week, she felt a great inner darkness. The faith she had held for many years and that had given her courage, that faith that made her want to die of love for Jesus, was fading from her soul.
In that darkness, an inner voice mocked herself and her joy in dying, when she began to question whether her struggles were for the existence of God, for the belief in eternal life, and if she truly deserved that eternal life. She felt that she was going to die young for nothing, that she would no longer live the life of a Carmelite. She continued to compose songs and poems because her sisters asked her to and motivated her to keep fighting, but deep down, she thought that her Heaven was to continue smiling at God and worshiping Him even when He tried to hide from her faith. The darkness was all around her and there it would remain until she died next year.
But she, on that night, saw that her last battle was her way of showing that she fully trusted in God, she refuses to fall into fear and makes more acts of sacrifice, since she continues to believe, although doubts jump in her mind. . And even though her struggle was more painful, she wants to continue sharing with her sisters, she wants to be active and continue doing good even after her death.
In May 1896, Mother Maria de Gonzaga asked her to help another priest, Father Adolph Roulland, with his prayers. Correspondence with her soul brethren was an opportunity that helped her develop what she considered her concept of holiness. She wrote to one of them that the goodness and mercy of Jesus were unknown, that while it was true that one could enjoy many blessings, one had to humble oneself, recognize that one was nothing, and that many souls desired this. By September, Teresa felt a greater desire to embrace many things in the Church: apostle, priest, missionary, martyr, and doctor. For this reason, she read the Letters of Saint Paul.
In the 13th chapter of First Epistle to the Corinthians, she achieves profound enlightenment, feeling a lightning bolt strike her, as she grasps the meaning of her vocation, which means nothing but love. All other things are immersed in it. Therefore, she finds greater strength to continue living in love and sharing it with her sisters in the community, especially those with difficult personalities.
At that time, Father Roulland introduces him to Teofano Vénard, and in his works he discovers a model, they establish a correspondence where she tells him that her thoughts and her soul are like his. She subsequently takes some of her passages and includes them in her will.
Death
In January 1897, Teresa is 24 years old and she herself writes that she believes that her life will not last long, her illness makes her health worse in the winter, but she deceives her sisters and continues her activities in her community. Already in the spring she has a lot of vomiting, her chest hurts and she is coughing up blood, which is slowly consuming her life. Mother María asks him to continue writing her memoirs, which she had been doing since 1894 at the request of her sister Paulina, who was the Prioress, these writings would be included in the book "History of a soul".
She continues writing in a wheelchair, they take her to the garden, that chair was the one that her father had used in the last years of her life, by July 8 her health worsens, and she must be taken to the infirmary where she would spend the last twelve weeks of his life. She knew that she was in her last stage but she still kept her faith alive, and she is certain that after she dies she will continue to live and she clings to that hope.
On July 17, she said she would soon begin her mission to love God, the way she did, and to continue teaching others the spiritual path of being humble and spiritual children. She had expressed her desire to God to go to heaven doing good on earth until it ended. On August 17, Dr. LeNeele confirmed to Teresa that she had advanced pulmonary tuberculosis. One of her lungs was no longer functioning and only part of the other was functioning. The disease had spread to her intestines.
She suffered greatly, to the point of losing her mind at times. Shortly before her death, she regained strength and was in good spirits in bed. Her sisters wrote down everything she said, and they asked her how she would like to be invoked when they prayed. She told them to call her Therese. On September 29, 1897, she was dying. The night was difficult, and her sisters cared for her with love. In the morning, she told them that her agony was inconsolable, and she wanted to prepare herself spiritually for death.
Mother Mary tells her to calm down, that she had always practiced humility and that she was ready. Teresa remained thoughtful and then answered that yes, that she had always sought the truth and understood the humility of her heart. She finds it harder and harder to breathe, she spends two days in agony and her pain has exhausted her.
She says that she never thought her suffering would be so much, that the only explanation she has to put up with it is that she wants to save souls, on September 30 at 7:20 p.m. Teresa says her last words “Oh, I love him… God My… I love you.” She breathed out softly and opened her eyes for the last time, her sisters said that she was in a state of rapture that lasted as long as it takes to say a creed, until she stopped breathing.
Her eyes were directed toward the image of the Virgin Mary, the one who had smiled at her as a child, and suddenly her face took on a natural color, not that of death, but as if she were merely asleep. In one of her last letters, she wrote that she was not dying but would enter a new life. Her sister, Sister Agnes, received the news of her death and informed her other sister, Leonia, who for the third time entered the order to persevere in her religious vocation at the Convent of the Visitation in Caen. She also informed her other relatives who were concerned about her health.
The body was taken to the monastery choir stall for a four-day wake. Many people attended her funeral and asked the sisters to rub their rosaries and other objects on Teresa's coffin. She was buried on October 4, 1897, and on that day those present said her body looked pink and supple, as if she had died that very day. She was the first body to be buried in the new Lisieux cemetery, and, following a vow of enclosure, her Carmelite sisters did not accompany her in the funeral procession to the cemetery; they merely followed the carriage.
Beatification and Canonization
His writings were published in 1898 causing a new hurricane of glory, a wave of pilgrimages to Lisieux, who came from all over France and from other countries, just to pray at the tomb of little Therese. Her devotion grows rapidly and testimonies of physical healings and people being converted begin to appear.
For the First World War, many soldiers took the image of Teresita and medals with her image in their pockets, and even short versions of one of her poems Una Rosa Deshojada. At the end of the war many soldiers go to Lisieux to thank him for his help and his salvation and for having returned home alive, they leave their decorations and medals obtained to thank him. Between 1914 and 1918 they already had more than 500 pages of testimonies of her miracles and the Lisieux Carmel Convent received more than 500 letters every day.
They had to put bars on the tomb to protect it from the number of people who brought flowers and others who took the earth from the tomb. Pope Pius X, responding to the cry of the faithful, opens the process of beatification and canonization of Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus, on June 14, 1914. The process, at the request of the Holy See, began in Bayeux in 1915, but due to the War all activities are suspended until it ends in 1917.
At that time, the period required for a candidate to opt for canonization was 50 years from death, but Pope Benedict XV waived this requirement for Teresa; on August 14, 1921, his decree on the nun's heroic virtues was promulgated. Two miracles were required for her beatification; the first was determined to be a miracle for a seminarian named Charles Anne in 1906. This young man, like Teresa, suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis, but the prognosis was poor.
Two novenas were prayed to Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus for the young man's health. In 1921, an x-ray study showed that the young man was healthy and that the hole in his lung was gone. The second miracle occurred with Sister Luisa de San Germán, who was suffering from a stomach ailment and could not undergo surgery. Two novenas were prayed to Sister Teresa for the nun's recovery. After the second novena, her health began to improve. The doctors certified that she was miraculously healed. After presenting evidence of the miracles, Teresa was beatified on April 29, 1923, by Pope Pius XI.
After being beatified, testimonies of prodigies and miracles continued to arrive, of which two more were chosen to take them to the Holy See and achieve canonization. The first of the cases is of a Belgian woman named Maria Perllemans, with terminal pulmonary and intestinal tuberculosis and is miraculously healed when she visits Teresa's grave. And the second, an Italian woman Gabrielle Trimusi with knee arthritis and spinal tuberculosis that forced her to wear a corset continuously, was cured of her illnesses after making a Triduum in honor of Blessed Teresa, the decree approving these miracles. comes out in March 1925.
In the Vatican, Pope Pius XI wants to make a very big celebration for the canonization of Teresa and asks that the Basilica of Saint Peter be decorated with candles so that at night it would be very illuminated, this fact had not happened for 55 years before. The New York Times newspaper publishes on its front page that all of Rome looks with admiration at St. Peter's Basilica, with the arrival of a new Saint. More than 60 faithful and devotees from Lisieux were expected to attend the ceremony, something that had not been seen since Pope Pius X was crowned.
Saint Therese of the Child Jesus is canonized on May 17, 1925 by the Pope, attended by more than half a million people, among whom were Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, who supposedly had a bilocation, that is, he was in his city but he was also seen in Rome. The Pope names her as the star of his pontificate, and that it was the spirit of truth that led her to know all the truths, which only the wise and most intelligent know, and that these revelations are only manifested in the smallest people , as she was outstanding in the sciences of all things supernatural and taught others the way to salvation.
By 1927 she was called the patron saint of the missions, and despite the fact that she never left her convent, she always prayed for all the missionaries and her greatest desire was to be a missionary in the last corners of the earth, in 1944 she was named the Co-patron of France next to Saint Joan of Arc. Pope Pius XI always expressed her devotion to Saint Therese and even inaugurated a statue of her in the Vatican gardens in May 1927.
In his honor a basilica is built in Lisieux, a very large building and which is currently the second most visited place, after the Sanctuary of Lourdes, this construction began in 1929, it was blessed on July 11, 1937 by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli , who would later become Pope Pius XII and was consecrated in 1954.
Holiness
Teresa's holiness was manifested to her own father in a letter when he was a postulant in Carmel, there he told him that she would work her glory by becoming a Saint. But she shows weakness and impotence when she begins to compare herself with other saints, she sees in them a great mountain, and thinks that she is just a grain of sand, but she never showed discouragement, because if God gave her those desires to be holy, there must be a way to get there, a ladder of perfection.
Reading the word of God finds out what the path is, if someone wants to reach it they must be as small as a child, and then they understand that to reach that ladder it was only with the help of Jesus. She begins to become smaller and lighter so that Jesus carries her in his arms and leads her to the path of holiness, this is only possible through the mercy and love of God, there she found that through the divine perfections, that include justice begin through mercy.
Boldly she said that she was going to be a saint, but she also felt helpless and that is why she asked God who was himself her own holiness. Letting God do it was not an easy way to be a girl, she had to follow the path every day and minute of her life to reach God and her sisters in a free way that was only possible with love. Her rule for the acts and actions of her life was that if God asked her for something and she felt that she could not do it, she knew that he would do it for her, when she applies charity it is Jesus himself who is acting through her, the more she unites herself with God and Jesus, the more she unites herself with all her religious sisters.
This path is holiness open to all people, the little ones, the poor, those who are suffering, those who can accept the reality of their weaknesses and offer themselves to God as they are so that he can intervene and dispose of us. He said that Jesus was pleased to teach her the only path that would take her to the divine stake, which was the abandonment of that sleeping child in the arms of his father without being afraid, and this father is God.
Given her intuitions that were not learned from another person, she was the one who promoted the great truths, the primacy in all devotions, the Paschal Mystery of Jesus, the path to holiness for everyone who has been baptized, the Mariology that she taught when saw in Mary more than a Queen, a Mother, who was able to live by faith, the ecclesiology of communion that is founded on the presence of love and the Holy Spirit in the heart of the church, and who was able to encourage vocations to reach the communion of the Saints of Heaven and Earth.
Doctor of the Catholic Church
In 1997, the celebrations of the hundred years of her death are held and Pope John Paul II proclaims her as a Doctor of the Universal Church, she is the third woman to receive this honor, she was preceded by Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint Catherine de Siena, and later in 2012 they also give this title to Santa Hidelgarda de Bingen. she called her Dr. Amoris or Doctor of Love. According to the words of the Pope, the teachings that she had not only came from the Holy Scriptures and the Catholic faith, but she had also obtained them with great wisdom and depth through her achievements without ever having studied. nothing about them in a university.
With his doctrine, he not only makes a profession of the faith of the church, but also an experience of what the Christian mysteries are and the path to holiness. She was able to express in a very simple way that it was Christian spirituality that not only unites theology and spiritual life, but that at the same time expresses with energy and power its persuasion and its communication, so that its message would be accepted and the spreading it to the people of God.
For these reasons, the necessary charisma was found in her to name her a doctor of the Church, since she had the gift of the Holy Spirit, which she had received to have a life and express what she lived through faith and how she understood the mystery. of Christ. In her were the gifts that were established by the new laws, the grace of the Holy Spirit and the faith that acts through charity.
By giving him this title, the Pope recognizes that his doctrine is a starting point to refer to all Christians in the world since it is consistent with the truth and sheds new light on the mysteries of faith. In his canonization homily, John Paul II gave the explanation of how a young Carmelite, 24 years old, already deceased, who had never had theological studies, could be part of such a great recognition, and who was at the height of Saint Thomas Aquinas or Saint John of the Cross, she was the youngest, but with her ardent spiritual path, she had the maturity and intuition of faith which she expressed in her writings, and that is why she should be among the greatest of spirituality.
Teresa's message to the world is that a rational culture, driven today by materialism and practicality, must learn from her, who knew how to make it simple that this small path leads to the secret of life and existence itself, which is none other than divine love, which can envelop us and enter us, enabling us to experience a truly human adventure. John Paul II also named her the Patron Saint of Youth.
Literary work
Shortly after his death, his writings were published under the name Historia de un Alma, it came out in 1898, the year of his death, and today it is considered one of the most famous spiritual works of this century. To date, it has been translated into more than 50 languages. People who have read it say they are moved and led to a life of conversion. The book not only makes you know the life of Teresa but also the intensity of her spiritual life and her doctrines, in each manuscript it is seen that she perfectly knew the Holy Scriptures, more than a thousand biblical citations, 400 of them from the Old Testament and over 600 of the New Testament.
It is composed of three manuscripts that were written by herself by order of her Superior, who at that time was her sister Sor Inés de Jesús (Paulina) and by her companions from the monastery. Upon Teresa's death, they began to be edited to publish them in a single work, with which she inspired many people to rise up in her faith. The manuscripts are composed as follows:
- The first manuscript was catalogued with the letter A and was dedicated to Mother Agnes in 1895. In 1894, the Prioress of Carmel told her to write down everything she remembered from her childhood. She bought a small notebook and, in the evenings after Compline, she would start writing. She doesn't describe her life but rather her soul. She called this work The Spring Story of a Little White Flower. Reading it helps us understand everything she had experienced. This section consists of six notebooks and she gave them to the Prioress on January 20, 1896.
- The second manuscript with the letter B is made up of a series of letters that she sent to her godmother who was her sister María, who was also a nun with the name of María del Sagrado Corazón. This part of the book is the heart of her autobiography, as it is part of her spiritual doctrine. In the year 1986 Teresa already knew of her serious illness, in the moments of more silence she meditated and wrote letters that were addressed to Jesus, there she details the graces that she had received and how she found her vocation of love .
- The third manuscript is written by the orders of the Superior Mother María de Gonzaga, to give it to Sister Inés, her sister who already knew that her sister was going to die, so she wanted her to continue telling her life, they give her a small black notebook and she writes there all the graces she received in her life, how she discovered her spirit, how she arrived at the Caminito, it was the month of June 1897, already more ill and with a fever she can no longer write with a pen and so she writes with a pencil, now At the end of August, exhausted by the illness, she stopped writing.
Other works
She also wrote letters, more than 250, some of them to different relatives, friends and people she knew, but most of them are when she is in religious life and where she explains many things about her spirituality. There are her letters to her sister Celina and the spiritual help that she wrote to her brothers, Fathers Roulland and Belliere. The last letters she writes are after July 16, 1897, she is already sick and dying, where she says goodbye to everyone.
He wrote 62 poems, among which are El Rocío Divino or la leche virginal, which he dedicated to Sor Teresa de San Agustín in February 1893, later he wrote Vivir de amor, Mi canto de hoy, Throwing flowers, My weapons, My wishes. next to Jesus hidden and many more where he has expressions that came from the depths of his heart.
Divine Dew or Virgin Milk
Wrapped in a light of love, in the warm lap of your Mother, O my sweet Jesus, you appear before my eyes filled with love. Love is the mysterious reason that led you away from your heavenly home and into exile.
Allow me to hide under your veil, which in human eyes disguises you. Alone by your side, O morning star, my heart tastes the sky a little.
When the morning is born each day, the golden rays of the sun come out, and the little flower begins to open its calyx, waiting for your precious morning pearl balm, full of mystery and freshness, to come from above. the one that produces the rich sap, so that the flower opens slowly.
Jesus you are that flower that opens for me to look at when I wake up, Jesus you are the enchanted rose, the bud full of freshness, grace and incarnation. The arms full of purity of your beloved Mother, are your cradle and your king's throne. Mary's breast is your sweet sun, and the dew is your virginal milk.
Beloved and divine brother, I see the future in your face: you will soon leave your Mother for me, since love leads you to suffer! But on the cross, O blooming flower! I can recognize your morning fragrance, like the pearls of Mary: your blood is virginal milk!
It is that dew hidden in the sanctuary, from which even the angel wants to drink, and offer a humble prayer to God, just as he said to Saint John, "Here he is." Oh yes! See here, the Word in the Host, the eternal priest, the Lamb. The Son of God is from Mary; the virginal milk has become the bread of angels.
The seraph must be filled with glory, pure love and joy, and I, being a poor and weak girl, can only see the sacred cup, with the milk and the figure. But milk is the welfare of children.
Within the writings there are also prayers, in total there are 21, where she confirms her Consecration to God through the intercession of the Virgin Mary and by the saints, where she was full of ardor for wanting to save the greatest number of souls. Her most famous prayer is The Holocaust Offering to Merciful Love, which has been shared among millions of people, and the Prayer for Humility. One of them considered the most beautiful is the following:
Prayers to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus
Santa Teresita del Niño Jesús was named the patron saint of florists, gardeners, aviators and she is the Universal patron saint of missions, they also call her the Doctor of Love and she is invoked to ask for the cure of diseases such as AIDS, but doing the Masses require a person to have a lot of faith. She herself wrote that the power of prayer was very great if you had faith, that through it you could be like the queen who can access the King at any moment and get everything she wants.
Prayer for Priests
This prayer is to ask Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, to expose her prayer to all priests so that they do not suffer from temptations, she saw firsthand on her pilgrimage trip to Rome with her father how the priests were deviating of God's way, and for this reason I dedicate his life in prayer to all the priests, especially those who were in the missions.
Oh Jesus! Today I ask you for all your faithful priests and followers, those who are lukewarm and unfaithful, those who are working near or far away in great missions. Those who suffer from many temptations.
I ask you for the priests who feel lonely and desolate, for those who are very young or who are very old, for those who are sick or dying due to illness and for those who are in purgatory.
First of all, I entrust to you those priests whom I love most, the one who baptized me, those who absolved me of my sins, those who were present at their masses, those who gave me the body and blood of Christ in the Holy and Sacred communion, to those who assisted me in some instruction or teaching, those who advised me and told me to go ahead, to all those priests to whom I am united and with whom I owe a debt of Grace.
I ask you O Jesus! May you keep them all in your heart and may you grant them abundant blessings throughout time in their mission on this Earth and in eternity. Amen.
Prayer to the Virgin Mary
This prayer is for the Virgin Mary in her role as mother of all, Santa Teresita was able to understand many before others that the Virgin was the universal Mother, the one who was with us at all times, times and places.
For a daughter to be able to love her mother, it must be necessary for her to be able to cry by her side, to be able to share her sorrows and pains.
Oh my sweet Queen Mia! For how many bitter tears did you have to cry in exile so that you could win my heart.
O my Queen! At this moment in which I meditate on your life, in the way that you are described in the Gospel, today I dare to look at you and to be close to you, it is not difficult for me to know that I am your daughter, and I see that when you lose life, you are suffering as I do.
Prayer to Request Favors
This Prayer is to ask Santa Teresita for any kind of favor, it is done at any time and occasion, the reason for it is to ask her with faith for what you need.
Holy Teresita! Today I come to your plants, with the confidence to ask you for a favor. This cross that life has given me is weighing me down too much and I find nothing but thorns in its arms.
Flowers of Jesus Christ! Send to my soul a downpour of flowers full of blessings and virtues, so that I can climb to Calvary in this life just for the scent of your perfume.
Send me from heaven a smile on your lips and from your eyes a beautiful look, which can be worth more than the caresses of all the happiness that are locked up in the world.
OMG! Through the intercession of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, may she give me the necessary energy to continue fulfilling my tasks and grant me the blessing of the favor that I ask of you in this prayer. Amen.
Prayer to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus
A prayer is a plea that is made to a particular saint to obtain a favor from him, this is done through humility and love, when you do it you must be in a simple place where you can concentrate, and pray to saint Teresita to help you and listen to you.
Oh, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, how blessed you are! Since you promised that a shower of roses would fall from heaven, today I ask you to turn your gaze upon me, see me with your eyes full of mercy and listen.