Teresa of Lisieux

(1873–97)

   Saint, Mystic and Devotional Writer.

   Teresa was born Marie Françoise Thérèse Martin into an intensely religious family. She was determined to join the Carmelite Order and, after a personal appeal to the Pope, she was allowed to enter at the age of fifteen. She died of tuberculosis nine years later. She achieved fame through her autobiography L’Histoire d’une Ame. This was described by Pope Benedict XV as ‘containing the secret of sanctity for the entire world’. Lisieux became a place of pilgrimage; miracles occurred and Teresa herself was beatified in 1923 and canonised in 1925. Known in the English-speaking world as ‘the Little Flower of Jesus’ from the subtitle of her book, she has a huge popular following. Despite her somewhat saccharine image, she has endeared herself even to feminists by her avowed desire to be a priest. In 1947 she was named patron saint of France, together with another inspiring French virgin, Joan of Arc.

   H. von Balthasar, Thérèse of Lisieux: the Story of a Mission (1953).