Therese De Lisieux

In 1895, at the Carmel of Lisieux, sister Therese of the Child Jesus, following the order of her Prioress, her own sister Pauline, undertakes to write her life story. At first, The Little Flower was Therese Martin, a hypersensitive child, following her mother’s premature death. When she joins the Carmel order of her sister Pauline, who in many aspects replaced her mother, a strange illness takes over her and interferes with her abilities. But the miraculous smile of a Virgin Mary statue sparks off her swift recovery. But that is not all – Therese receives a second blessing on Christmas Eve, and overcomes her hypersensitivity. From then on, and in her own words, she starts “to run like a giant”, and obtains a derogation to enter the Carmel of Lisieux at the premature age of 15. She dies of tuberculosis on September 30th, 1897, leaving her burning, passionate autobiography, The Story of a Soul.

At dawn on the day she was born, Therese Martin receives from a child the promise to become a rose one day. Twenty-four years later, at the Carmel of Lisieux, she promises “to let fall a shower of roses” upon her death. Mysteriously followed by this mystical leitmotiv, Therese lets herself be consumed by love until her very last breath. According to her, to love is to give all. In a century still marked by jansenism, she rediscovers Divine Mercy and invents a spiritual childhood path, which will later make her a Doctor of the Church. After Joan of Arc, whom she deeply admired, she is the Second Patron of France.