St. Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)

Therese Martin was born to Louis and Zelie Martin at Alençon, France on 2 January 1873. At age four she lost her mother, and the family moved to Lisieux. Taught by the Benedictine Nuns, she wished to embrace the Carmelite contemplative life as had her older sisters Pauline and Marie. In April 1888, at age fifteen, she entered the Carmel. In 1890, she made her religious profession. Thérèse grew in sanctity, inspired by the Gospel to place love at the centre of everything. She discovered the “little way” of spiritual childhood and taught it to the novices entrusted to her care. For the last eighteen months of her life she battled tuberculosis. She wrote an autobiography, and her sisters collected her sayings. She accepted her suffering with patience up to the moment of her death. “I am not dying, I am entering life”, she wrote to her missionary spiritual brother, Father Bellier. Her final words were “My God, I love you!” In 1925 Pope Pius XI canonized her. Two years later, he named her Universal Patron of the Missions, alongside Saint Francis Xavier. In 1997 Pope John Paul II named her a Doctor of the Church. Along with St. Catherine of Siena and St. Teresa of Avila, she is one of three women to be so honored.

(From the Vatican Website)