October 1

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus

Memorial

Taught a “little way” of loving God through small, ordinary acts

Thérèse Martin was born in Alençon, France, in 1873, the youngest of five surviving daughters. Her mother died when she was four, and the family moved to Lisieux. At fourteen, on a pilgrimage to Rome, she boldly asked Pope Leo XIII to let her become a nun early. At fifteen she entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux, where two of her sisters already lived.

Outwardly her life looked plain: chores, prayer and the small irritations of community life. She made these her road to God, her “little way”: doing small things with great love and trusting God as a child trusts a parent. In her last eighteen months she suffered from tuberculosis and a deep darkness of faith. She died in 1897, aged twenty-four.

Her memoir, Story of a Soul, was published after her death and read worldwide. She was canonised in 1925 and named a Doctor of the Church in 1997. Many find in her the hope that holiness doesn’t require great deeds.

For this is what the LORD says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flowing stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm, and bounced upon her knees. As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you, and you will be consoled over Jerusalem.”

Isaiah 66:12–13 · BSB

A prayer

Loving Father, you led Thérèse to find you in small and hidden things, and to trust you like a child even in darkness and pain. Teach us to do ordinary tasks with great love, to rely on your mercy rather than our own strength, and to rest in your care. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.