Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

To celebrate the 90th anniversary today of the canonization of St. Therese, which took place on May 17, 1925, the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux has posted photographs from 1925 of the canonization celebrations at Rome and at Lisieux.  Please click  to see the interior of the Lisieux Carmel decorated for the canonization of the young woman who, only 28 years before, had walked these halls as a hidden member of this little community.  See also the exterior of St. Peter's Basilica, illuminated with lamps for the first time since 1870, and photos of the canonization ceremony taking place in the interior. 

To recreate the events of May 17, 1925 still more vividly:

Read a description of the canonization of St. Therese in John Beevers' book Storm of Glory.  (Thanks to Hathitrust for digitizing it).

Read the Bull of Canonization and the homily of Pope Pius XI

St. Therese always longed to visit the Holy Land, and she corresponded with the Carmel in Jerusalem.  How fitting that her Carmelite sister, Mary of Jesus Crucified (Mariam Baouardy), together with three other 19th-century nuns, is being canonized in Rome today.  Read Pope Francis's homily in which he speaks of Sister Mariam as "a means of encounter with the Muslim world."  May these two women join with all the saints in interceding for peace in Palestine and throughout the whole world.