Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

September 7, 1895 was the 34th birthday  of Therese's sister Pauline, Mother Agnes of Jesus. As a gift for her sister's birthday, Therese wrote "To my dear Mother, the Fair Angel of my Childhood." 

Detail from Jacopo di Cione, "Six Angels," Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City Detail from Jacopo di Cione, "Six Angels," Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Mother Agnes had been serving as prioress for two and a half years, years of grace for Therese, who wrote that on the day of her election "Pauline became my living Jesus."  The tenderness and gratitude that overflow in this poem were undoubtedly evoked by the fact that since January 1895 Therese had been writing her childhood memoir, a long letter to Pauline, which brought vividly before her Pauline's delicate and vital role in her life. 

Therese depicts herself as a child and Pauline as the angel "who guides my steps," assigning to her sister the role of guardian angel.  This angel sang of "the charms of Jesus," "the joy of a pure heart," the "beautiful blue Heaven," "the God of childhood" (a phrase that appears only here in Therese's writing), "the Virgin Mary."  Tactfully Therese alludes only with the word "alas!" to the acute distress Pauline's departure for Carmel caused her, and dwells instead on her present happiness: