Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

 A tableau of Our Lady nursing Jesus painted by Celine Martin at Therese's request. Displayed at Lisieux in the exposition of 2009. Fervent thanks to Peter and Liane Klostermann for the gift of the photograph and to the Pilgrimage Office at Lisieux for permitting me to display it.

The idea for this painting originated with Sister Therese of St. Augustine, the sister whom Therese wrote "has the faculty for displeasing me in everything."  (Paradoxically, Therese accepted Sister Therese of St. Augustine as a special friend in the community).  The two women shared a devotion to what Sister Therese of St. Augustine called "our favorite subject, the Holy Infancy of Jesus," and the older nun persisted in asking the younger to write a canticle about it.  So Therese wrote "The Divine Dew, or the Virginal Milk of Mary,"ACL her first poem, and gave it to Therese of St. Augustine on February 2, 1893, for the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.  

Sister Therese of St. Augustine then suggested a painting along the same lines, and in the following months (1893-1894), Celine executed the painting.  It was inspired by Raphael’s “Madonna del Granduca.” According to the caption when it was displayed at Lisieux in 2009, it was offered to Leonie nn February 3, 1895, during her second sojourn at the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen.  This was undoubtedly for the Feast of the Presentation, a feast especially dear to the daughters of the Visitation.  We know that Celine often retouched her portraits.  Perhaps she asked to have this one back to improve it, for in Photos 16 and 17ACL of Visage de Therese de Lisieux, the photos of the community at recreation in  the chestnut walk, Celine can be seen retouching this painting. 

Therese used a photograph of this painting to create a holy cardACL with the same image for her personal use.

References:   see the introduction to this poem in The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux, tr. Donald Kinney, O.C.D. (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1996), pp. 35-37.  See also Sainte Therese de Lisieux: sa vie en images,Pierre Descouvemont and Helmut-Nils Loose (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1995), pp. 300-301.

"ACL" above means that the link leads to the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.