Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

The Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux has created an illustrated "timeline" (in fact, a photo essay) of the last year of St. Therese.  From October 8-15, 1896 Fr. Godefroy Madelaine, a Norbertine of the Abbey of Mondaye, preached the community retreat.  

(Fr. Madelaine was the first editor of the manuscripts that became Story of a Soul, and, with some difficulty, he obtained from Bishop Hugonin the imprimatur for its publication.  He wrote a preface to the first edition.  The Carmel of Lisieux called him the "godfather of Story of a Soul."  He testified at both inquiries into the sanctity of Therese.  See Fr. Godefroid Madelaine's testimony about St. Therese at the diocesan process in 1910).

Therese confided to him the temptations against faith she had been suffering since Easter.  He advised her to write out the Creed and to carry it with her always.  She was prepared to write it in her own blood.  For the first time, the Carmel has published a beautifully detailed photograph of this document (scroll down to October 1896).  

Together with a narrative, see also photos of Therese during this period, of her writings, her companions, her correspondents, her doctor, the chaplains who visited her, the Saigon Carmel where she had hoped to go, the little music-box sent to entertain her, and a photograph of another sister, several years later, occupying the infirmary where Therese died.  

Below are several books which, together with Story of a Soul, will be useful to you if you are especially interested in Therese's life in 1896 and 1897. the years in which she tried especially to articulate her spirituality:

The Passion of Therese of Lisieux, by Guy Gaucher, O.C.D.

 Light of the Night: The Last 18 Months of Therese of Lisieux, by Jean-Francois Six

 St. Therese of Lisieux: Her Last Conversations, tr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Therese's last words as recorded, and perhaps rewritten, by those around her, with letters of others who were by her sickbed.

Letters of St. Therese of Lisieux, Volume II: 1890-1897. Therese's rich writings and much information from the last period of her life.