With thanks to the Missionary Society of St. Columban, I have the joy of introducing a series of four articles about the school life and First Communion of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, written by one of the Benedictine nuns who taught Thérèse. These articles were commmissioned by "The Fast East" in 1934 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Thérèse's First Communion (May 8, 1884).  We present them in honor of the 130th anniversary of Thérèse's First Communion; the anniversary fell on May 8, 2014.

• Read about how I discovered "The Little Flower at School" articles in 2014
• View an image of the original of the first article, Part I of "The Little Flower at School," exactly as published in The Far East in 1934
• Download a print-friendly, illustrated PDF of Part I of "The Little Flower at School."

 This first article sketches the history of the Benedictine Abbey of Notre Dame du Pré, the religious community of women which operated a boarding school for girls at Lisieux when the Martin family moved ot Lisieux in 1877.  Many students boarded at the Abbey, and Thérèse's sister Léonie was among them.  Her sister Céline entered the school as a day student in 1879, and Thérèse entered as a day student in October 1881.  The article describes the layout of the Abbey and sketches Thérèse during her early days there.

The Little Flower at School

Memories of St. Thérèse Patroness of Missions,
as a Pupil of the Benedictine Nuns in Lisieux . . .

The First in a Series of Articles Written for The Far East
by One of Her Teachers

Thérèse Martin--St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, now known by the whole world, which loves, admires and invokes her with such confidence--entered the boarding school of the Abbey of Notre Dame du Pré as a day-boarder [a day student], when classes were resumed in October, 1881.  She was then eight and a half years old. 

She was not an entire stranger there, her sisters Léonie and Céline having come two years earlier.  When feast days were being celebrated at the school – the feast day of Mother Prioress, for instance, or of Mother Directress, Prize Day, and so on, - little Thérèse would be invited.  And how pleased the two older girls were to bring their beloved young sister, whose charming ways arrested attention immediately.  Thus this little girl found an opportunity to become somewhat acquainted with her future teachers and companions; happily this was to help in simplifying her first steps in school life – naturally rather different from what the dear child, who was quite timid, had known in the bosom of her family at Les Buissonets. 

First Impressions

At that age what a beautiful, winsome child our Thérèse was!  A real little angel, with her long, fair, golden curls, framing such a sweet face; her pure brow, her clear eyes, her indescribable smile . . . With all that, a calmness – one might almost say, gravity – of manner was joined in her to a childlike grace, in perfect harmony. 

This last note is very characteristic of Thérèse.  It struck you at once, so much so that I, who now write these lines, find this first impression still remaining with me, though more than fifty years have since passed.  It has only become stronger with the lapse of time, for, a senior pupil then, I was later on to be her teacher as a Benedictine nun . . . At home, moreover, was she not called “Little Queen”? 

The Abbey School

But let us not anticipate.  Is it not more fitting to give here a very brief account of the monastery of the Benedictines of Notre Dame du Pré and of their school?  We shall then return to our illustrious pupil. 

In the early years of the eleventh century, the Countess Lesceline, widow of Count William of Exmes, has the unfinished tassel of Epinay, begun by her husband, changed into a monastery.  The church was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin in 1011.  Some thirty years later the community, harassed by the people of a neighboring town, had to leave.  The Countess brought them to the estate of St. Désir, which her relative Duke William of Normandy [William the Conqueror of England] rented to her. 

We shall not follow the history of the abbey through the centuries.  Let us say only this:  that it was a shining center of piety, where life was lived in peace and joy of soul; where – as even now – the praise of God, the Opus Dei, was sung with fervor; where heart expanded in charity, under the rule of the great abbesses who followed one upon another up to the Revolution.  When that terrible storm broke, the abbey was being governed by one of the most famous of these, Madame de Créqui.  By her zeal and piety this wonderful woman succeeded in keeping the community together and it is thanks to her devotion and truly maternal care that it still exists.  In 1808 the Sisters succeeded in restoring part of their monastery, in the greatest poverty . . .

Frequenting this hallowed cloister, saturated with age-old memories, was an experience that assuredly did not fail to impress Thérèse as a child.  This mystic, inquisitive little soul, so fond of medieval tales and already dreaming of giving herself to God, must have been affected by the thought that so many holy nuns had lived in the shadow of these walls, to which, for her, some mystery clung.  For there was mystery in this old cloister with its high vaulted roof, worn by time:  in the long history that lost itself in the mist of ages.  Then there was the spell of the great abbesses whose distinguished names she caught occasionally from the lips of her teachers:  Madame de Matignon, Madame de Valanglart, Madame de Créqui . . .

But it is time to pass on and speak of the boarding school.  The pupils did not usually come to the monastic section.  They were allowed there only on certain occasions, all the more notable because they were rare. 

From the very beginning the monastery was concerned with education. 

For the early periods there are no records.  It is only in 1686 that there is mention of a boarding school properly so called.  Many young ladies of high rank were educated in the abbey during the seventeenth and eighteenth century.  Some details of the elaborate accessories that they brought to their boarding-school life would perhaps make us smile.  It was the era of Louis XVI, of the curled and powdered coiffure, and the customs of the time were reflected in the school. 

The Revolution did not keep the nuns from secretly continuing this work of education.  Although dispersed, like so many others, they were able to assemble in little groups on the outskirts of Lisieux . . .

When the storm had passed, the Abbess and the Sisters bought back the monastery buildings, at the cost of immense sacrifice and re-opened the school.

The present building had been begun by Madame de Créqui in 1786.  Thanks to the generosity of Louis XVI, of Queen Marie Antoinette and of Madame Elizabeth, the large structure with its imposing outline had risen pretty rapidly.  Today the work interrupted by the Revolution remains unfinished.

One can see, however, from the photograph what a fine appearance the building has, though it is somewhat austere-looking.  Within, there is nothing sombre, however.  Air and sunlight stream in through the many high windows opening out on the fields surrounding the monastery and on Mount Cassin, the pleasant hill which is its property. 

Inside the School

On the ground floor are the rectory and the recreation room for wintertime, the portress’ office and the cloak rooms, separated by a large carriage entrance.  On the mezzanine floor are the parlors and the oratory of the Children of Mary; the latter, since the beatification of St. Thérèse, has become of oratory of her Souvenirs, which pilgrims are so fond of visiting. 

On the second floor are the large classrooms where the professors had their classes, the office of the Directress and the small classrooms where the teaching Sisters gave special tuition;  the music and drawing room.  An amply proportioned corridor, at the end of which, in a large niche, a statue of the Blessed Virgin stands on a pedestal, gives access to these various rooms.  How often little Thérèse knelt there to pray to her loving Mother! 

On the third floor, running the whole length of the building, are the dormitories where the boarders’ white beds are ranged in line. 

The two playgrounds are extensive.  In the center of one of them stands an immense chestnut-tree, surrounded by two rows of lime-trees, of which we shall have occasion to speak.

Now, you know enough about the setting, so that we can place our Thérèse therein . . . Abbé Domin, our devoted chaplain and spiritual director of our children, said to me once:  “In time to come you will surely be asked to tell about Thérèse.  Remember that nothing will portray her, during her stay in school, better than the violet.  Quite hidden, as is this lowly flower of our woodlands, she breathes a fragrance like its own.”  And we have followed this advice, so full of truth.

Starting the Day

The day-boarders had to come between eight and half-past eight in the morning.  [If they arrived] after that hour, they had to give what were called in the school exemptions [excuses].  Thérèse, as we shall see, took the greatest care to have good marks constantly, everywhere and in everything.  Accordingly, she used to come at the proper time, with her sister Céline and her cousins, Jeanne and Marie Guérin.  Such punctuality was meritorious enough for these pupils of ours, especially in winter, for from Les Buissonets to the Abbey, the Martin girls had to come a distance of nearly a mile (1,500 meters).  True, the route is of the pleasantest in summertime:  main streets, skirting the green meadows of the celebrated Auge valley; the public garden with its fine walks fringed by chestnut-trees; the former residence of the bishops; then the Cathedral of St. Pierre.  Close at hand now is M. Guérin’s pharmacy; here the girls stop to take along their cousins, who are waiting, ready.  Their way goes on through the most central street of the town; after crossing the Touques river by the Barre bridge, the schoolgirls take the long sidewalk which leads directly from the Church of St. Désir to the Abbey. 

Some of the townspeople still pride themselves--for they do glory in it--on having seen little Thérèse passing by, gay and bright, her school satchel under her arm, walking between her father and sister.  Who would have suspected that, within some forty years, the remains of this charming child would pass again through these same streets, in a triumphal car, drawn by white caparisoned horses, in a midst of a magnificent procession, before a crowd gripped by intense fervor.  Has not God, ever wonderful in His saints, surpassed Himself, as it were, in our little Thérèse?   

(I am referring here to the translation of the remains of the saint when she was still only Venerable, on March 26, 1923.  In fact, through a very thoughtful courtesy of the ecclesiastical authorities, the car halted for a minute before the Abbey and thus came to touch the edge of the sidewalk so often trod by Thérèse.  What a joy this was for the nuns who, because of the exceptional nature of the event, had permission to view the relics of their saintly pupil from behind their grilles!) 

After school

But let us come back to our schoolgirls.  The maid of the Guérin family, a trusted person who later on entered the religious life, accompanied the girls nearly always.  Sometimes M Guérin himself came.  Most often, M. Martin.  The same held for their going home at six in the evening.  

Reaching the cloakroom, Thérèse would hasten to ask the portress:  “Is it Papa who is there this evening?”  When the answer was affirmative, the child would quickly change from her uniform, catch up her coat and hat and run to throw herself in the arms of her dear Papa, whom she would embrace even before she had finished getting herself ready.  He, on his part, on glimpsing her through the wicket, would say:  “Let’s start.  Come quickly, little queen!”  Such was the exquisite affection uniting father and child. 

We have already described the exterior charms of little Thérèse.  Now that she is one of our charges, we must acquaint ourselves more fully with this child of benediction, showing her inner personality, her character, her lovable qualities, the real virtues that she already possessed, and the first impression of the teaching Sisters and the pupils. 

“Did You Guess . . ?”
 

Thérèse Martin at eight and a half was true to her years; she was simple, naïve, frank.  There was nothing studied about her;  nothing extraordinary met the eye;  above all, nothing that might make one guess that this lovable little youngster would be raised to the altars.  Moreover, is it not very rare for the Church to canonize someone before fifty years have elapsed from his death?

This question is constantly repeated by pilgrims who seek interviews with us:  “Did you suspect,” they say “that she would be canonized?”

And the reply is always the same.  “Certainly not.  That never entered our heads.”  Neither her companions, nor her teachers, not even the worthy and very pious chaplain of the monastery, Abbé Domin, who had honor of preparing her for her First Communion and of being her spiritual director, guessed at the time to what a degree of heroic sanctity this “Little Spring Flower,” as winsome as she was retiring, was to rise. 

We had her when she was a budding flower, and that in itself was a singular grace and a supreme honor.  The complete unfolding was only to take place in the Carmel.  Undoubtedly Providence permitted this obscuring of her greatness in order to shelter this young soul, admirably endowed with gifts of nature and grace, from the dangers of vanity and pride.  If the future had been unveiled, everyone would assuredly have surrounded her with a due but perhaps dangerous veneration.  How many times since then have we not said:  “Ah, if we had known . . .” The Lord was watching over this treasure of His, and He kept her hidden in the secret of His Face. 

Thérèse was perfectly obedient, meticulously faithful to the smallest details of the rules, taking alarm at even the appearance of a fault, going so far as to give the impression of scrupulosity. 

St Thérèse, Schoolgirl

black-and-white photo of study hall at Benedictine monastery where St. Therese studied, long benches and desks, statue of the Blessed Virgin

“I have never found her diverging from the line of duty; and even that is saying too little, for I could see in this child of scarcely nine years a watchfulness so strict and unrelenting that at first sight it appeared excessive.”  So Mother Prioress deposed at the Process of Beatification.  (Mother Prioress had entered the boarding school as a substitute teacher in January 1882.  Thérèse had come only three months earlier).  “I admired,” she stated again, “her faithful, prompt obedience to the signal of the bell and how strictly she kept silence, at a time when other less conscientious companions were inciting her, by their example, to disregard the rule.” 

Let us hasten to add that Thérèse was not scrupulous at the time.  This faithfulness to duty at such an early age had its origin in the high motives which were continually influencing this little soul, already so great in the eyes of God. 

She was habitually calm, peaceful, and recollected--too much so for her years, it was thought.  Sometimes a little shade of sadness would show itself on her features;  she seemed preoccupied.  This will surprise no one who has read The Story of a Soul.  There we have seen that little Thérèse became acquainted with interior suffering very early. 

We shall have occasion often to speak of the piety of our dear child.  Her recollection in the chapel was admirable, but it had not the least trace of affectation. 

The later parts of our account will complete this portrayal of the spiritual life of Thérèse, and we shall see the steady growth of her virtues.  But we shall observe at the same time that this dear child came and went among us without noise and without creating any stir, quite hidden, just as the Child Jesus, Whose Name she was to bear, came and went in Nazareth. 

The Home Background

A few words about the home surroundings in which the Lord had placed Thérèse Martin will bring this first article of ours to a conclusion, and will show that this environment was in every way helpful to the workings of grace.  Let us hear what a nun of the Abbey, one who as a young girl was welcomed in the family circle, has written on the subject. 

“I beheld there was an unusual union of good qualities;  piety that was both solid and tender;  deep respect for parents and older members of the family;  simplicity, openness, tactful charity without any pushing forward of self; and all this, united with gaiety and even playfulness, made life more pleasant than words can express.  Prayers were said together, each one leading in turn.  Then they stayed up to read from selected works, devotional or entertaining, and all retired in a spirit of recollection after wishing an affectionate good night to everybody.”

Passing from this nest of happiness to school life, Thérèse must, one fancies, experienced a sense of change.  The training given by the Sisters, permeated by the Benedictine spirit, was very motherly, and it softened the initial hardships for the newcomer.  Céline, moreover, was unremitting in her affectionate attention to her young sister. 

“So Thérèse had no defects?” you may say to yourself after reading these pages.  To that we will reply later. 

(Editor’s Note:  The second article in this series will appear next month.)

Note: this article originally appeared in the March 1934 issue of The Far East (U.S.A. edition).  It is reprinted by “Saint Therese of Lisieux: A Gateway” at www.thereseoflisieux.org with permission from the Missionary Society of St. Columban at www.columban.org  You may read it online at www.thereseoflisieux.org/abbey1  Permission is granted to duplicate this article in whole; please include this notice of acknowledgement. 

To learn more about the Columban Missions, or to send a thank-offering, please visit

• in the United States, www.columban.org
• in Ireland, www.columban.com; and
• in the United Kingdom, www.columbans.co.uk

Special thanks to Linda Smith, who typed this article for publication; to her husband, Scott Smith, who formatted the print-friendly version you may download; and to Patricia Taussig, who prepared the illustrations and the images of the original 1934 article for publication.

Look for Part II (of four) in a couple of weeks!  I found these articles just by searching the Internet and following the clue there, and I am confident that many other such treasures await discovery.  If you want to help find them, please e-mail me.  Thank you.

Once in a great while, in researching St. Thérèse, I find and am permitted to share online a real treasure.  Today is such an occasion.  In my next blog entry, I will publish the first of a series of four jewels containing eyewitness testimony about St. Therese's First Communion and school life, but first please let me tell you joyfully how I discovered it.

Because I feel that my mission is to communicate St. Thérèse’s spirituality, and because, since I have a “day job,” my time for the mission is limited,  I have focused on understanding the events that happened between the birth of the baby Thérèse Martin in 1873 and the death of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face in 1897 and what those events mean for us today.  So I've had comparatively little time to study the rise of her cult and influence from 1897 until today.  The digitizing and publishing online of newspapers and magazines from the 20^th century is making available a wealth of material about the public interest in St. Therese, but for me to discover fresh eyewitness testimony about her in English is extraordinary. 

Several weeks ago, for the 70^th anniversary of D-day, I was searching for articles about the bombing of Lisieux in 1944 and about how the Carmelites of Lisieux and other townspeople had lived in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Therese from shortly after D-day until Lisieux was liberated at the end of August 1944.  On Facebook alone these stories were viewed by more than a thousand people.  During that research, I found the article below, which appeared in the Catholic Freeman’s Journal in Sydney in 1934.

"Little Flower's First Communion Recalled." (1934, July 12).
Catholic Freeman's Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1932 - 1942), p. 31.
Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page17319356

For a moment my heart stopped.  Then I began to consider how to find these articles, if, indeed, they still existed 80 years later.  I knew that Mother Saint-Lèon Loutrel of the Benedictine Abbey of Notre Dame du Pré in Lisieux had written La petite Thérèse à l’Abbaye, a little book about Thérèse’s five years as a day student at the Abbey.  In 1929 it appeared in English as The Little Flower at the Benedictine Convent.  Years ago I visited a university library to read this little work, which has been out of print for aeons.  Now I was amazed to learn that an unnamed Benedictine, who’d been a senior student when Thérèse had started school,  later become a Benedictine nun, and then taught Thérèse in class, had published four articles about Thérèse’s school days.  Imagine my joy at discovering through the Internet that The Far East is still being published by the Missionary Society of St. Columban!  I wrote them at once to ask whether they still had the articles, and, if so, whether I might republish them online in honor of the 130^th annniversary in 2014 of Thérèse ‘s First Communion in 1884.  They answered at once, promising to search their archives.  After only a few days of suspense, I received on Friday, July 4 the kindest answer saying that their archivists in Ireland had unearthed the very issues I needed, and sending them to me with permission to publish them!  All four articles appeared in the United States in 1934. Three appeared in Ireland, but, for some unknown reason, article 3, which gives a moment-by-moment description of the day of St. Thérèse’s First Communion, was never published in Ireland.  So I’m especially happy to be able to transmit it to the people of Ireland, many of whom love Thérèse and her parents, Louis and Zélie, deeply.  The United States has received much from the many diligent missionaries, Carmelites and others, born in Ireland who have preached St. Thérèse in our country.  The late Fr. J. Linus Ryan, director of the National Office for St. Thérèse  in Ireland, was one of the most generous supporters of my work.  And Mgr Bernard Lagoutte, rector of the Shrine at Lisieux in 2008, when Louis and Zélie Martin were beatified, said “Ireland has led the world in the promotion of the Cause of the Parents of Saint Thérèse  of Lisieux.”  I remember, at the Mass of Beatification in Lisieux, the Irish contingent in places of honor, each delegate waving a small Irish flag. I am happy to be part of this international collaboration between Ireland, Australia, and the United States to give this testimony about St. Thérèse's childhood back to the world.

The next step was to type the text of the articles so that they’d be easy to read and searchable online.  The very day before I received them, Thérèse’s great friend, Bishop Guy Gaucher, O.C.D., had died in France.  I had learned of his death the same day and immediately began to pray that he might obtain for us the grace to continue his mission.  (Clearly he lost no time in answering!).  Arranging the translation into English of the announcement of his death and funeral and the various tributes to him, as well as preparing to celebrate online the feast of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin on July 12, prevented my typing these articles, but God went before me.  Two days after the permission came, I spoke on “The Eucharist as Source and Summit of the Martin Family” at the monthly day of prayer in the presence of the reliquary of the Martin family at the Carmelite Monastery in Philadelphia.  Linda Smith, who was present, volunteered to work with me in evangelizing about St. Therese, and offered to type the articles.  Her husband, Scott, decided to join her in the apostolate, and he formatted the first article expertly.  Patricia Taussig of North Carolina prepared for publication the original images of the pages that appeared in The Far East and  the photographs contributed by the Benedictine nuns.  Please see the fruits of their work: "The Little Flower at School," Part I.  I know you join me in thanking them.  

Please join me also in thanking the Missionary Society of St. Columban (often colloquially known as the "Columban Fathers" and "Columban Sisters," together with their lay missioners), who elicited and published these historic articles in 1934, granted me permission to share them with you, and continue to work in solidarity with God's beloved poor in Asia, the Pacific, and Latin America.  To learn more about their work, or to send a thank-offering, please visit:

• in the United States, www.columban.org
• in Ireland, www.columban.com; and
• in the United Kingdom, www.columbans.co.uk

The Carmel of Lisieux today announces the long-awaited "virtual visit" to the last cell of St. Therese. Therese occupied this cell from shortly before Celine's entrance on September 8, 1894 until she was brought down to the infirmary on July 8, 1897. I can't describe this five-minute video in words; you have to see it.

Pope Paul VI

 The Vatican announced today that Pope Francis has approved the promulgation of the decree for the beatification of Pope Paul VI, formerly Giovanni Cardinal Montini.  The ceremony of beatification is scheduled for October 19, 2014, Mission Sunday.  It will happen at the concusion of the Third Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, according to Vatican Radio.  That date is the 17th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's proclamation of St. Therese of Lisieux as a Doctor of the Church and the sixth anniversary of the beatification of her parents, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin.  Both these ceremonies also fell on Mission Sunday.

 Healing of a child in California in 2001 certified as beatification miracle

Last Tuesday, May 6, Vatican Insider  reported that the cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints had voted unanimously to approve the miracle attributed to the intercession of Pope Paul VI. In 2001 a woman in California was expecting a baby, and her doctors predicted that the unborn child had such serious problems that it would either die in the womb or be born with severe kidney trouble.  The mother refused an abortion.  A nun who was a friend of the family urged her to pray to the late Pope, and the child was born safely in his 39th week.  The child, who has not been named, is now 13 and in good health. Read the details of the healing in Vatican Insider.

The bond between Pope Paul VI and St. Therese of Lisieux

 "I was born to the Church the day Saint Therese was born to heaven"

Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini was born on September 26, 1897 in Lombardy.  He was baptized on September 30, 1897, the day St. Therese died.  Later, when he became Pope, he received the ad limina visit of the bishop of Seez, the diocese where Therese was born, and said:

I was born to the Church on the day on which the Saint was born to heaven. That tells you just how special the links tying me to her are. My mother acquainted me with Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus whom she loved. I’ve read the Histoire d’une âme several times, the first time in my youth."1

When he received the distinguished French author Jean Guitton, Pope Paul VI said to him:

"You know that I was baptized in 1897, on the day when Thérèse Martin, later Thérèse of the Child Jesus, passed away in France. On one of the secret notes she made before her death (cf. Last Conversations), Thérèse said: `When I am dead, I shall visit the cradles of baptized infants'. On pilgrimage in Rome, she had encountered some mediocre priests; instead of criticizing them and retreating to the periphery, she resolved to place herself at the very heart of things, in love alone. I shall read you what she said about this in the `Story of a Soul"'. Taking the book, the Pope read out the famous passage: "I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places. I cried out: I have found my place in the Church. My vocation is love."
(Reported by Jean Guitton, who adds: "Paul VI did not read me the French text, but the Latin translation in the breviary.")2

In his speech at a concert marking the centenary of the birth of Pope Paul VI, Pope John Paul II recalled this coincidence of dates:

In mentioning Concesio, the birthplace of Giovanni Battista Montini, I naturally think of his family home and the baptismal font where he received the sacrament of new birth on the very day that — how can we fail to remember it? — the soul of St Thérèse of Lisieux departed this world. We can certainly link the spirituality of this Carmelite saint with the religious desire of Pope Paul VI, who expressed his great love for Christ through his long, wise service to the Church.3

1938: Pope Paul VI writes to the Lisieux Carmel about his lifelong devotion to St. Therese

As early as 1938, when he was "Substitute for Ordinary Affairs" under Cardinal Pacelli, who was then Vatican Secretary of State but later Pope Pius XII, the future Cardinal Montini wrote to the Carmel of Lisieux that he "had been following 'for a long time and with the liveliest interest the development of the Carmel convent of Lisieux.' And added that he had 'great devotion to Saint Teresa, a little relic of whom I keep on my work table.'"4

 1970: Pope Paul VI opened the way for St. Therese to be Declared a Doctor of the Church

 As we know, it was Pope John Paul II who, on October 19, 1997, declared St. Therese a Doctor of the Church.  But this could never have happened had not Pope Paul VI named the first two women, Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila, Doctors of the Church on September 27, 1970.  In fact, the demand among the people and the bishops for Therese to be named a doctor began at her canonization in 1925, but, because she was a woman, the Vatican ordered the gathering of the signatures of the world's bishops stopped in the 1930s.  In "Therese: A Doctor of the Third Millennium," their circular letter to the Carmelite family when Therese's doctorate was announced, the general superiors of the two branches of the Carmelite Order, Father Camillo Maccise, O.C.D., and Father Joseph Chalmers, O. Carm. give the history:

I. A LONG ROAD TOWARDS THE DOCTORATE

First Steps

4. Already from the time of her canonization, there was no lack of bishops, preachers, theologians, and faithful from different countries who sought to have our sister Thérèse of Lisieux declared a Doctor of the Church. This flow of petitions in favor of the doctorate became official in 1932 on the occasion of the inauguration of the crypt of the Basilica at Lisieux, which was accompanied by a congress at which five cardinals, fifty bishops, and a great number of faithful participated. On June 30, Fr. Gustave Desbuquois, SJ, with clear and precise theological argument, spoke of Thérèse of Lisieux as Doctor of the Church. Surprisingly, his proposal had the support of many of the participants, bishops, and theologians. This positive reaction to the suggestion of Fr. Desbuquois spread universally. Mons. Clouthier, Bishop of Trois Rivières, Canada, wrote to all the bishops of the world in order to prepare a petition to the Holy See. By 1933 he had already received 342 positive replies from bishops who supported the proposal to have Thérèse of Lisieux declared a Doctor of the Church.

The Obstacle of Being a Woman

5 The petition of Fr. Desbuquois was presented to Pope Pius XI, along with a letter of Mother Agnes of Jesus, sister of Therese and prioress of the Lisieux Carmel. She informed the Pope about the great success of the Theresian Congress. On 31 August 1932, Cardinal Pacelli, Secretary of State, replied to Mother Agnes' letter on behalf of the Pope. He was very pleased about the positive results of the congress, but added that it would be better not to speak of Thérèse's doctorate yet, even though, "Her doctrine never ceased to be for him a sure light for souls searching to know the spirit of the Gospel."

However, the time was not yet ripe for a woman to be declared a Doctor of the Church. In fact, Pope Pius XI had already replied negatively to the Carmelites' petition to have St. Teresa of Jesus, "Mother of Spiritual People" declared doctor. The petition was turned down because she was a woman. "Obstat sexus" ("Her sex stands in the way"), the Pope replied, adding that he would leave the decision to his successor. After the Vatican's negative response, and by its order, the gathering of signatures in favor of Thérèse of Lisieux's doctorate was interrupted.

Circumstances Change

6. Teresa of Jesus and Catherine of Siena's declaration as Doctors of the Church in 1970 eliminated completely any obstacle to naming a woman doctor. As a result, the proposal for the doctorate of Thérèse of Lisieux was taken up again.

In 1973, the centenary of her birth, Mgr. Garrone stated the question anew: "Could St. Thérèse of Lisieux become some day a Doctor of the Church? I respond affirmatively, without hesitation, encouraged by what has happened to the great St. Teresa and St. Catherine of Siena."

 It was Pope Paul VI who not only gave the Church Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Avila as Doctor of the Church but also removed the "obstacle" of St. Therese's gender, which had stalled her movement to the Doctorate for nearly forty years.  How much we owe him.

1971: Thoughts pf Pope Paul VI about St. Therese's Spirituality

In a general audience on December 29, 1971, Pope Paul called Therese

she who taught in our day the spirit of childhood.  Spiritual childhood is one of the liveliest religious currents of our time.  It has nothing immature or affected about it.  Expressed in simple and innocent language, it is certainly derived from the paradoxical but always divine saying of Jesus: "Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the reign of God."  (Mt 18:3).  . . . The basis of this evangelical spirituality could not be more authoritative.  It unfolds according to a humility not only moral but also theological and metaphysical, if I may say so: the humility of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:38, 48), the humility of the wise, who have a sense of the transcendence of God and of the absolute dependence of the creature on the Creator; a humility all the more justified when the creature is something, because all depends on God, and the confrontation between our every limitation and the Infinite obliges us to bow our heads.  And humility, in this spiritual school, unites with confidence, because of how many signs God has given us of His goodness and His love.  If He wants to be called Father, our spirits must be filled with the filial spirit, and with a filial spirit, a childlike spirit full of faith and abandonment. This is the spiritual childhoood, which, at the school of the tradition of the Church, St. Therese of the Child Jesus sums up:  "It's the way of confidence, of complete abandonment."5 

June 9, 1964:  Paul VI and the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the writings of the Servants of God, Louis and Zelie Martin.

1971: Paul VI unites the two causes for sainthood of Louis and Zelie Martin

The cause for Louis Martin was opened in the diocese of Bayeux on March 22, 1957.  The cause for Zelie Guerin Martin was opened in the diocese of Sees on October 10, 1957.  Their last surviving daughter, Celine (Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face) had the joy of testifying about them before she died in 1959.  In 1971, for the first time in the history of the Church, Paul VI, finding that they became holy as spouses, ordered that the two causes be united into one single cause.  He laid the foundation for their being beatified together in 2008.6  (An Italian couple, Blessed Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi and Blessed Maria Corsini, were beatified in 2001.  Their cause, however, was introduced only in 1994, long after Paul VI united the causes of Louis and Zelie).

1973: Paul VI offers St. Therese of Lisieux as a teacher of prayer and hope

In 1973, on the occasion of the centenary of Therese's birth, Pope Paul VI wrote a letter to Jean-Marie-Clement-Badre, then bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, and "offered her as a teacher of prayer and theological virtue of hope, and a model of communion with the Church, calling the attention of teachers, educators, pastors and theologians themselves to the study of her doctrine."7  

 Pope Paul VI opened the way for St. Therese to be recognized as a Doctor of the Church and for Louis and Zelie Martin to be declared a blessed couple.  How fitting that he will be declared blessed on the same date, October 19, and the same liturgical feast, Mission Sunday, on which Therese was named a Doctor of the Church and on which Louis and Zelie were declared blessed.

Copyright Maureen O'Riordan 2014.  All rights reserved.  If you want to make use of this story, please apply to me for written permission.

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1"The Popes and Little Teresa of the Child Jesus," by Giovanni Ricciardi, in the May 2003 issue of 30 Days in the Church and in the World. 

2"Popes" at "St. Therese of Lisieux, The Little Flower"

3"Address of His Holiness Pope John Paul II at a Concert Marking the Anniversary of the Birth of Pope Paul VI."

4"The Popes and Little Teresa of the Child Jesus,", Ricciardi, op. cit.

5 General Audience of Pope Paul VI, December 29, 1971

6Biographical Profile of the Venerable Servants of God Louis Martin and Zelie Martin.

7Quoted in the "Saint Therese Calendar 2014" published by the St. Therese National Office in Dublin, Ireland.

10/18/14: Note that this story is copyrighted. I'm sorry to say that everal readers have copied it onto their own sites and Facebook pages without crediting the source.  Kindly do not do that, but please feel free to excerpt no more than four lines, acknowledging the source, and link to the story to encourage your readers to read it here.  Thank you.  

 Seotember 8, 1890, the feast of the Nativity of Mary, was the date set for St. Therese's religious profession.  At that time nuns did not make temporary vows, so one's novitiate ended with the one set of permanent vows.  According to the custom of Carmel, professions were usually made on a feast day of Mary, the patron of the Carmelite Order.  Therese wrote "Mary's nativity!  What a beautiful feast on which to become the spouse of Jesus!"1

On every September 8, the Carmelites of Lisieux exposed on the altar of the choir a small wax statuette representing the newborn Mary so that the nuns could venerate it there.  The statue was called "La Bambina." Please click here to see the statue and here to see a close-up of the face of the statue. Have you ever seen another statue representing the infant Mary? 

We may imagine Therese and her sisters venerating this statue on Therese's Profession day, the feast of the Nativity of Mary every year.

For Therese's dispositions in the days leading up to her Profession, please see the letters St. Therese wrote during her retreat for Profession, starting here.

On the morning of September 8, 1890, after Mass, the community escorted Therese, in procession, to the chapter room on the second floor, where the ceremony of professing vows was always held. This ceremony was a private one for Therese's Carmelite family. Click here to see a photograph of the chapter room decorated for a Profession.  The young nun prostrated herself on the carpet for part of the ceremony.  Over her heart Therese wore her "profession note," a little letter to Jesus expressing her desires.  Please see both  the English typescript and the handwritten note in French.  During the ceremony the prioress placed on her head this crown of white roses:

This particular crown of roses had been worn by Mother Genevieve, a foundress of the Lisieux Carmel, for her jubilee, and Therese's sisters Pauline, Mother Agnes of Jesus, and Marie, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, also wore it for their professions.  A few days before Therese's profession it was entrusted to Celine, who brought it to her father at the Bon Saveur mental hospital in Caen so that he might bless it. 

During the ceremony Therese received her Profession crucifix from the prioress:

From Therese's own writings we know that she was "obliged" to ask for her father's cure that day, but would only pray "My God, I beg You, let it be Your will that Papa be cured."  Much bolder was her prayer for Leonie:  "Let Leonie become a Visitation nun, and, if she has no vocation, I beseech You to give her one; You cannot refuse me that." For how Therese remembered her profession later, see both the English typescript and the French handwritten manuscript of Therese's description of her Profession in her memoir, Story of a Soul.

For the two photos displayed here, I thank Adele Giambrone.  For the linked photos, I thank the Web site of the archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.  For the text, I thank the Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, which owns the English text, and the Web site of the archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, which dislayed it online.  Special thanks to the Internet Archive.

[Note that the new Web site of the Archives of the Carmel no longer displays  the above-referenced translation].

1.  Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux, tr. John Clarke,  O.C.D., Third Edition.  Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1996, p. 167.