Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway

The Plays of St. Therese of Lisieux

The feast of Mother Marie de Gonzague: June 21, 1896

The prioress's feast was always a day of special celebration at the Lisieux Carmel, but in 1896  the feast day of Mother Marie de Gonzague was celebrated with particularly elaborate festivities.  Marie de Gonzague's patron was St. Aloysius Gonzaga, known in France as "St. Louis de Gonzague," the young Jesuit who died while caring for victims of a plague in Rome.  Because Mother Marie de Gonzague had been elected prioress in March only after seven ballots, and was deeply hurt that the vote had been so divided, the nuns wanted to celebrate the feast as lavishly as possible. Writing to her parents to ask for a long list of treats: trout, green beans, strawberries, cakes, wine, cherries from Jeanne Guerin, sparkling water from Leonie, Marie  Guerin (Sister Marie of the Eucharst) wrote on June 17:  "For this feast, we must shake things up.  You understand, don't you?  We would rather have less on other feast days and more on this one."1  The bountiful celebration at which all the treats would be consumed took place on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. 

After that the novices presented a short comic play they had written themselves.  Marie of the Eucharist played the gardener, Baptiste, the "innocent"; Sister Marie of the Trinity was the schoolmaster, and Sister Genevieve (Celine) "old Father Jerome."  The manuscript of this sketch was sent to the Guerins; it did not survive.

Context for the writing of "The Triumph of Humility"

The next day, Sunday, June 21, the novitiate presented a much more serious effort: Therese's seventh play, The Triumph of Humility.  Current events, both in the Lisieux Carmel and in the wider world, gave birth in Therese's mind to the idea for this play.  The difficult election in March had divided the community, leaving the nuns unsettled.  At the same time, the Catholic world was convulsed with the tale of Diana Vaughan.  Miss Vaughan, daughter of an American father and a French mother, was an adherent of Palladism, a supposed Satanic cult within Freemasonry.  Many Catholics had developed sympathy with Diana and prayed for her conversion.  In June 1895, Joan of Arc freed Diana from the grip of the devil.  Diana then began to publish against Freemasonry, publishing a Eucharistic novena and her Memoires of an Ex-Palladist.  The novices believed that Diana's conversion could furnish the plot for the feast-day play.  We will hear more of Diana Vaughan when we examine the events of 1897.  Meanwhile, Therese grasped the opportunity to create an entertainment that might restore the community's equilibrium.

Resources: to read the text and understand the play's significance

For a full understanding of these circumstances, please consult the foreword to The Triumph of Humility in The Plays of St. Therese of Lisieux, tr. Susan Conroy and David J. Dwyer, ed. Steven Payne, O.C.D. (Washington, D.C.: Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, 2008), pp. 298-305.  If you cannot buy or borrow the book,then, thanks to the generosity of the Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites and the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, the text of The Triumph of Humility is available online. 

For those without access to the book, further background is available online  The late Fr. John F. Russell, O. Carm., who, with Miss Helen Bailey, was the first to translate this play into English, also furnished an introduction, reflection, and notes which are informative.  Thanks to Carmelnet, they appear online with his  translation of "The Triumph of Humility." 

The performance of "The Triumph of Humility" at recreation

Therese's play is lively but simple and short.  She has not forgotten that in January her sister, Mother Agnes, stopped the performance of The Flight into Egypt, saying that her plays were too long and tired the nuns out.  The play is set in "the heated room" (the actual recreation room in which the nuns sat watching it).   

Sitting room from Carmel de Lisieux on Vimeo.

In this play Therese had intended the novices to play themselves.  The three characters were Sister Therese of the Child Jesus, Sister Marie-Madeleine, and a choir postulant, Sister Marie of the Holy Spirit.  Therese had written in this last role because, when she was writing the play, the community expected to receive a new postulant before the feast.  She decided not to enter, so Sister Martha of Jesus replaced her.2  On a "free day," when they had permission to talk, the three young sisters are seated in the recreation room with their backs to a screen.  I will not attempt to recreate the play here; please read it.   Lucifer and his demons, eager to destroy the Church, struggle with St. Michael, who defends it.  St. Michael makes clear that it is by "the humility of the Virgin Mary" that the demons are vanquished. 

Therese's insight into the temptations faced by the Carmelites

Therese points out a number of ways the Carmelites are distracted from God.  Lucifer says "The virgins are not all our enemies; a number of them serve me without knowing it."  He recommends that the demons "distract them with the noise of the world" and "suggest to them that they absorb themselves in their own affairs."  He tells Michael that "the virgins may obey, all the while keeping their own will in the bottom of their hearts, they may obey and desire to command, what then makes them more than I?"  Therese's plot boldly suggests that the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience are not enough to counterbalance the enemy, but humility defeats him instantly.  In the play Sister Therese rejoices: "now we know how to conquer the demon and, from now on, we'll have but one desire, to practice humility . . . "3 

Footnotes:

1  See the full text of this letter on the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.

2  Sainte Therese de l'Enfant Jesus et de la Sainte Face, Recreations pieuses - Prieres, Nouvelle edition.  Paris: Editions du Cerf et Desclee de Brouwer, 1992, p. 383.

3  The Plays of St. Therese of Lisieux (Washington, D.C.: Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, 2008), p. 314; pp. 318-320.