St. Therese of Lisieux from ages twenty to twenty-one:
from the election of Mother Agnes as prioress to Louis Martin's death

February 20, 1893 - July 29, 1894

 

      On February 20, 1893, Therese's sister Pauline, Sister Agnes of Jesus, was elected prioress.  She appointed Mother Marie de Gonzague as novice mistress, but asked Therese to help her.  Therese was named assistant to the portress.  Therese's letters to her sister Celine in the summer of 1893 give insight into her life of prayer.  On September 8, 1893, Therese should have left the novitiate, but, in order to keep on working with the novices, she asked to remain a "professed novice" permanently.  January 2, 1894 was Therese's twenty-first birthday.  On January 21, 1894, the feast of St. Agnes and thus of the prioress, the first "pious recreation" Therese wrote, about St. Joan of Arc, was performed.  On June 16 Marie-Louise Castel, Sister Marie of the Trinity, entered the community.  The only sister younger than Therese, she was one of Therese's most ardent disciples.  On July 29, at the Chateau La Musse, Therese's father, Louis Martin, died.  Read Celine's letter to her sisters describing Louis Martin's death.  Also read meditations on the first anniversary of Louis Martin's death from his niece, Marie Guerin.

Read about Celine's joining the Carmel on September 14, 1894 and about Therese's discovery of her way of confidence and love.