11 October - Marie-Françoise Thérèse Martin, also known as Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus or little Thérèse was born in Alençon on 2 January 1873. Thérèse's father, Louis Martin, was a watchmaker. Her mother, Zélie-Marie Guérin is a lace-maker.
The Martin couple had nine children, four of whom died in infancy while the other five, all girls, became nuns. Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin was born on 2 January 1873. She was baptised on 4 January 1873 in the church of Notre-Dame d'Alençon. At the age of four and a half, Thérèse was orphaned by her mother. She was deeply affected by this. She chose her sister Pauline, aged almost 16, as her surrogate mother. She grew up in this family of fervent Catholics who attended mass every morning at 5:30 a.m., strictly observing fasting and praying to the rhythm of the liturgical year. At the age of seven, in 1880, Thérèse went to confession for the first time. On May 13, 1880, it was Celine's First Communion. Thérèse was eager to receive communion in turn and decided to take advantage of the three years that separated her from it to prepare for the event. It was at this same time that she also had a vision of what would happen to her father fifteen years later. In the summer of 1882, Thérèse was nine years old. She learned by chance that her sister Pauline wanted to enter Carmel. The prospect of the departure of her "second mother" drove her to despair. It was on Monday, October 2, 1882 that Pauline entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux. Even the half hour that the superior gave Pauline to meet her family in the visiting room every Thursday became a torment for Thérèse. Around December 1882, Thérèse's health deteriorated strangely. In October 1883, the school year began with the long-awaited prospect of First Communion. Communion was fixed for 8 May 1884, the day of Pauline's profession. This was a "cloudless" period for Thérèse.
Thérèse now felt ready to enter the carmel of Lisieux, she even set the date: 25 December 1887. She also knew that she would have to overcome many obstacles. First of all, she had to obtain the consent of her family, especially her father, and on 2 June 1887, the day of Pentecost, after praying all day, she presented her request in the evening. Louis objected to his youth, but he was quickly convinced by his daughter. But a major obstacle arose in October 1887: Uncle Isidore, subrogated guardian of the Martin girls, vetoed his niece's project. She then came up against the categorical refusal of Canon Delatroëtte, the superior of the Carmelite monastery. Only the bishop could make him bow. To console his crying daughter, Louis promised to arrange for her to meet Bishop Hugonin. The latter received Thérèse in Bayeux on 31st October, and listened to her express the wish to consecrate herself to God, which she had felt since she was a child. But he postponed his decision until later, when he had consulted Canon Delatroëtte. Only one hope remains: Pope Leo XIII, whom Louis Martin is due to meet soon during a pilgrimage to Rome. Early in the morning of 20 November 1887, pilgrims attended a mass celebrated by the Pope in the papal chapel. Then it was the long-awaited moment of the audience. Therese knelt down and said in tears: "Most Holy Father, I have a great grace to ask you". The vicar explains that it is a young girl who wants to enter Carmel. "My child, do as the superiors tell you", the Pope replies. Finally, on 1 January 1888, on the eve of her fifteenth birthday, she received a letter from Mother Marie de Gonzaga: the bishop deferred to her decision. Thérèse was therefore expected at the Carmelite convent. The date of her departure was finally set for 9 April 1888, the day of the Annunciation.
Therese entered the Carmelite convent with the desire to become a great saint. However, at the end of 1894, after six years, she had to admit that this goal was practically impossible to achieve. She remains small and far from the unfailing love she would like to practise. She understood then that it was on this very smallness that she could rely for help from God. She who feels so small and incapable can turn to God with confidence. Therese's smallness and her limits thus become reasons for joy rather than discouragement. For it is here that God's merciful love for her will be exercised. In her manuscripts she calls this discovery the "little way". From February 1895, she regularly signed her letters by adding "petite" in front of her name. She died on September 30, 1897 at 7:20 p.m., at the age of twenty-four. "I am not dying, I am coming into life," she wrote in one of her last letters. Thérèse was beatified on 29 April 1923 and canonised on 17 May 1925 by Pius XI, who called her "the star of his pontificate". On 19 October 1997, the centenary of her death, Saint Teresa was proclaimed Doctor of the Church by John Paul II.
