Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

from the Southern Cross (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1954), Friday 22 June 1923, page 5

BEATIFICATION OF SOEUR THERESE.

GREAT CEREMONY IN ROME.

(Special from Catholic News Service).

ROME, May 5.—More than 25,000 persons are estimated to have been present at the ceremonies in St. Peter's when the Beatification of Sister Teresa of the Holy Child Jesus (known as the Little Flower) was solemnly proclaimed in the presence of the Cardinals. In this vast crowd were numerous French pilgrims, members of the French episcopate and in the tribune the French Ambassador to the Vatican with the members of his suite.

Cardinal Vico, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, presided at the first ceremony, held in the morning. In the canons' stalls in the choir were the members of the Chapter of St. Peter's, with Archpriest Cardinal Merry del Val at their head. It was a ceremony both splendid and brilliant. After the Postulator of the Cause had asked for and received the canonical permission the Canon Archivist of the Vatican Chapter read out the Brief of Pius XI, whereby the Venerable Teresa of Lisieux became Blessed Teresa. As the reading of the document was ended, the relics of the new Beata were uncovered, and the great pictures unrolled. Then the bells clanged out with a mighty peal and the Bishop of Bayeux intoned the Te Deum, during the singing of which he incensed the relics and images of the new Beata.

During the afternoon the second ceremony took place, at which the Holy Father was present in person. Wearing the camail and red stole over his white cassock, and accompanied by the whole of the Pontifical Court, his Holiness entered by way of the Chapel of the Pieta, where he was waited upon by the assembled Cardinals. A flourish on the silver trumpets announced the entry of the Pontiff, who assisted at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and afterwards accepted the special offerings which are customary on such an occasion. The offerings to the Pope were a picture of Blessed Teresa, a handsomely bound life illuminated on parchment, and a very fine gilt reliquary of the 17th century, enclosing a portion of the relics. The acceptance of the offerings ended the Papal ceremony, and the Pope left the basilica, passing on the sedia gestatoria through a double line of the Palatine Guards, who were on duty in gala uniform. As on his entry, the silver trumpets playing Silveri's triumphal march signalised the Pope's departure from St. Peter's, where the crowd lingered on in devotion.

The ceremony was inspiring, though it very naturally lacked the plenitude of a Canonisation—the scenes witnessed at St. Joan of Arc are unforgettable, and all unwillingly invite a comparison. But this Beatification has been a great joy to France, and nothing could have been more moving than the rapt attention and devotion on the faces of the French pilgrims as they assisted whilst Little Teresa of Lisieux was exalted in the Church's hierarchy of the Saints.