Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

I am happy to announce the launch of my new Web site "Léonie Martin: Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux." During her earthly life and for many years after her death, Léonie lived on the margin and in the shadows.  Now Mgr Boulanger, the bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, has granted the imprimatur for the prayer that she might be declared venerable; Father Sangalli, the vice-postulator for the cause of her parents, declared publicly that he hopes her cause for beatification and canonization can be opened soon, as so many letters request.  More than seventy years after her death, Léonie is emerging into the light.  Without destroying the hiddenness that was so much a part of her spirituality, and while still looking at her in the context of her relationships, I want to examine Léonie in her own right.  I believe that, the more we study her, the more she will teach us about her pilgrimage on the way of confidence and love.

This new Web site contains all the information about Léonie that was on "Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway."  You can still access it from the link at left.  It also has two jewels, never in English before, that are unique to it:

• My English translation of the new illustrated booklet "The Life of Léonie Martin," prepared in 2012 by Léonie's sisters at the Monastery of the Visitation of Caen.  Copies of this booklet are offered to the pilgrims who come to pray at Leonie's tomb.  Now this online copy offers English-speaking pilgrims the chance to make a "virtual pilgrimage" to Léonie's monastery and to her tomb.  Please join me in thanking the present-day nuns of Léonie's community, who have been kindness itself to me, for their generous permission to translate and share this doorway to Léonie's world with her English-speaking disciples.  May God bless them for it.

• With the very generous permission of Famille Chretienne, my Engish translation of the contemporary article "The hidden life of Léonie Martin, the rebel sister of St. Thérèse emerges from oblivion," which appeared in the June 8, 2013 issue.  I thank Anne Slater for her help in translating this groundbreaking article, and I recommend it highly to those who want to learn about the rise of devotion to Léonie, the present state of her cause, and her influence on the lives of those who have received graces through her intercession.

To visit "Léonie Martin: Disciple and Sister of St. Thérèse of Lisieux" directly, please visit http://leoniemartin.org  This is the first "daughter site" of  "Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: A Gateway."  Please God, it will not be the last.

Please join me in thanking my friend and benefactor Juan Marrero, a good friend and fervent devotee of Léonie, Thérèse, and Louis and Zélie, whose generous gift made Léonie's Web site possible.  Please remember him gratefully in your prayers.