Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

This is so interesting! We can just imagine Therese jostled among the other well-dressed passengers on the train. We can imagine Zelie Martin going to Lisieux to visit her brother or, later, her difficult pilgrimage to Lourdes when she was so ill. Thank you for posting this video of a scene that surely the Martins experienced often.

Dear Mary,

You're most welcome. Yes, the train played a big part in the lives of the Martin family: from Alencon the train to Le Mans, where the older girls were in school and where Zelie's sister lived, and the train to Lisieux to visit her brother. You will remember that when Therese was a little girl Zelie wrote that the family was out for a walk in the direction of the train station, and Therese thought they were going to Le Mans to see Pauline, "but when she saw that we had to return without getting on the train to go to see Pauline, she cried all the way home." Zelie's pilgrimage to Lourdes was, as she wrote, "misfortunes and miseries." Celine and Therese also took the train to Caen to visit Leonie during her stays at the Visitation of Caen, and of course traveled by train during the pigrimage, and later Leonie and Celine went often to Caen by train to visit Louis at Bon Sauveur. Celine and Leonie and the Guerin family also traveled by train to visit Jeanne and Francis La Neele in Caen.