Thérèse of Lisieux facts for kids

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897) (aka. St Therese of the Child Jesus/ Sainte Thérèse de Lisieux) is Doctor of the Catholic church, which means that her life and writings are considered particularly important for Catholics. She is also called the Little Flower of Jesus. She lived in France as a nun, and died at 24 from tuberculosis. Mother Teresa chose her name in honor of her.

Images for kids

Saint Thérèse at age 15, before entering the Carmelite order.
Rue Saint-Blaise's house at Alençon: The family home and Thérèse's birthplace.
The basilica of Alençon where Saint Therese was baptized.
Zélie Martin, mother of Thérèse. In June 1877 she left for Lourdes hoping to be cured, but the miracle did not happen.."The Mother of God has not healed me because my time is up, and because God wills me to repose elsewhere than on the earth."

Louis Martin, father of Thérèse. "He was a dreamer and brooder, an idealist and romantic ... To his daughters he gave touching and naïve pet names: Marie was his diamond, Pauline his noble pearl, Céline the bold one..But Thérèse was his petite reine, little queen, to whom all treasures belonged."

"I hear the baby calling me Mama! as she goes down the stairs. On every step, she calls out Mama! and if I don't respond every time, she remains there without going either forward or back." Madame Martin to Pauline, 21 November 1875.

Thérèse discovered the community life of school something for which she was unprepared. She wrote later that the five years of school were the saddest of her life and she found consolation only in the presence at the school of her dear Céline, Céline cherie (photo: Thérèse aged 8, 1881).

Thérèse in 1886, age 13. "It would certainly be unfair to call Thérèse of Lisieux limited, narrow. She was very alert and intelligent – But her horizon was limited – she was quite definitely a vertical person, could only grow skywards and into the depths – no breadth." (Ida Görres, Diaries 1955–57).
15th-century manuscript of The Imitation of Christ, Royal Library of Belgium.
Thérèse at age 15. For her journey to Mgr Hugonin, Bishop of Bayeux, to seek permission to enter Carmel at Christmas 1887 Thérèse had put up her hair for the first time, a symbol for being "grown-up". A photograph taken in April 1888 shows a fresh, firm, girlish face..The familiar flowing locks are combed sternly back and up, piled in a hard little chignon on the top of her head...her face, vigorous, tensed, concentrated around an invisible core almost tough in its astonishing poise, with a resolute, straight mouth, stubborn chin; but this impression of toughness is contradicted by eyes full of profound life, clear and filled with a secret humour'.
The monastery Thérèse entered was an old-established house with a great tradition. In 1838 two nuns from the Poitiers Carmel had been sent out to found the house of Lisieux. One of them, Mother Geneviève of St Teresa, was still living when Thérèse entered... the second wing, containing the cells and sickrooms in which she was to live and die, had been standing only ten years... "What she found was a community of very aged nuns, some odd and cranky, some sick and troubled, some lukewarm and complacent. Almost all of the sisters came from the petty bourgeois and artisan class. The Prioress and Novice Mistress were of old Norman nobility. Probably the Martin sisters alone represented the new class of the rising bourgeoisie."

Thérèse of Lisieux, photograph, ca 1888–1896.

In 1896, Father Adolphe Roulland of the Society of Foreign Missions, asked the Carmel of Lisieux for a spiritual sister. Thérèse was assigned the duties – she answered questions, consoled, warned, and instructed the priest in the meaning of her little way. As everywhere in her doctrine it is based on the scriptures. "I rejoice in my littleness, because only little children and those who are like them shall be admitted to the Heavenly Banquet."Letter to Père Roulland, 9 May 1897.
A depiction of the Holy Face of Jesus as Veronica's veil, by Claude Mellan c. 1649. St. Thérèse wore an image of the Holy Face on her heart.
Cover page of The Story of a Soul (l'Histoire d'une Âme) by Thérèse of Lisieux, édition 1940.
The crypt of the Basilica of St. Therese in Lisieux.
Interior of the Basilica of St. Thérèse.
Statue of Saint Therese of Liseux at St Pancras Church, Ipswich.
With more than two million visitors a year, the Basilica of St. Thérèse in Lisieux is the second largest pilgrimage site in France, after Lourdes.
Tomb in the Carmel in Lisieux.