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Therese Martin was born on the 2nd January 1873. She was the youngest of nine children, four of whom had died in childhood. Hers was a happy home but her mother died when Therese was only four and a half years old.
" After Mama's death my disposition changed completely"
By her own admission her school days were the unhappiest days of her life and she knew what it was like to be bullied and misunderstood. A very significant day for her was her First Communion Day.
" How sweet the kiss of Jesus on my soul. I felt myself loved and I said: 'I love you. I give myself to you forever' " .
She went on a trip to Rome with her father where she learned much.
" What a journey… It showed me the vanity of things that pass. The pilgrims mostly belonged to high society. These grand titles seemed nothing but smoke. I understood that true greatness was found in the soul, not in a name. In Italy I understood another purpose of the Carmelite mission - to pray for priests. I met many holy priests there, but I came to realise that they have their faults and frailties, like other men."
At the age of 15 she entered the Lisieux Carmelite Convent and through much of her life she experienced difficulties in prayer. Therese often fell asleep during prayer. Towards the end of her life she suffered a long and painful illness, during which she was plagued with temptations against faith. For Therese suffering was not an end in itself - it united her to Jesus Christ and his saving mission in the world.
Therese died at the age of 24 on 30th September 1897. Two months before she died, although very ill with tuberculosis, she agreed to write an account of her religious life at the request of her superior. She wrote the final pages in pencil as she was too weak to dip the pen into the inkwell. She had also written what she remembered of her childhood and had written a letter to one of her sisters with the secret of her 'Little way'. One year after her death, the three manuscripts were published in a book called 'The Story of a Soul' and within 17 years of her death, a million copies had been sold. Therese was canonised in 1925 by Pope Pious X1. Two years later the same Pope proclaimed her Patroness of all Missionaries.
What is the appeal of St. Therese? What is her challenge for us today? The answer has been given by herself:
"What pleases God in me is to see me love my littleness and poverty: the blind hope I have in his mercy. That is my one treasure. What can this treasure not be yours?
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