The Story of a Soul by Thérèse of Lisieux

I have a horror of pretence', and she spoke out against some of the Lives of saints written in her day :' We should not say improbable things, or things we do not know. She was victim also to her language, which was that of the late nineteenth century and flowed from the religiosity of her age.' Thérèsè herself said on her death-bed : 'I only love simplicity. According to one of her biographers, Guy Gaucher, after her death, 'Thérèse fell victim to an excess of sentimental devotion which betrayed her.

Thérèse lived a hidden life and 'wanted to be unknown' yet through her writings-as well as her spiritual autobiography she left letters, poems, religious plays, prayers and various notes, and her last conversations were recorded by her sisters-and thanks to the photographs taken inside the Lisieux Carmel by her sister Céline, she became known to, and later seen by, millions of men and women.

Devotion to Thérèse has developed around the world. On 19 October 1997 Pope John Paul II declared her the thirty-third Doctor of the Church, the youngest of all Doctors of the Church, and only the third woman Doctor. Thérèse was declared co-patron of the missions with Francis Xavier in 1927, and named co-patron of France with Joan of Arc in 1944. The speed of this process may be seen by comparison with that applied to a great heroine of Thérèse, Joan of Arc, who died in 1431 but was not canonized until 1920. She was beatified in 1923, and canonized in 1925. Pope Pius XI made her the star of his pontificate. The impact of her posthumous publications, including her memoir The Story of a Soul was great, and she rapidly became one of the most popular saints of the twentieth century. After nine years as a Carmelite religious, having fulfilled various offices, such as sacristan and novice mistress, and having spent the last eighteen months in Carmel in a night of faith, she died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. She felt an early call to religious life, and overcoming various obstacles, in 1888 at the early age of 15, became a nun and joined two of her older sisters in the enclosed Carmelite community of Lisieux, Normandy. She was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church May 17, 1925. She is also known as 'The Little Flower of Jesus'. Saint Thérèse de Lisieux or Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin, was a French Carmelite nun.

The Story of a Soul by Thérèse of Lisieux