St. Therese of Lisieux

St. Thérèse of Lisieux, born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin on January 2, 1873, in Alençon, France, is one of the most beloved saints in the Catholic Church. She was the youngest of nine children, five of whom survived to adulthood. Her parents, Louis and Zélie Martin, were devout Catholics and were themselves canonized as saints in 2015. Thérèse’s early life was marked by tragedy, including the death of her mother when she was just four years old. This loss deeply affected her, and she later described her childhood as a time of spiritual searching and longing for God. At the age of 15, Thérèse entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux, France, where her older sisters Pauline and Marie were already nuns. Despite her youth and frail health, she was determined to devote her life to God. She took the religious name Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, reflecting her deep devotion to the childhood of Jesus and His Passion. Her life in the convent was marked by humility, simplicity, and a profound trust in God’s love, which she called her "Little Way"—a path of spiritual childhood and small, everyday acts of love and sacrifice. Thérèse’s life was short; she died of tuberculosis on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. Despite her brief life, her spiritual writings, particularly her autobiography Story of a Soul, have had a profound and lasting impact on the Church and the world.