St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers
Feast day: October 1 (Memorial of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church)
Patron of: Missions and missionaries, France, and florists.
About St. Thérèse of Lisieux
St. Thérèse Martin was born in Alençon, France, in 1873, the youngest of nine children of Sts. Louis and Zélie Martin, five of whom lived to adulthood and all of whom became nuns. After her mother's death when she was four, the family moved to Lisieux. Thérèse longed to follow two of her sisters into the Carmel there, and at fourteen she even asked Pope Leo XIII in person for permission to enter early. She entered at fifteen, taking the name Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.
Her life in the convent was hidden and ordinary, but she discovered what she called her "little way": trusting God like a small child and doing small things with great love. At her superiors' request she wrote the memoirs published after her death as Story of a Soul. She died of tuberculosis in 1897, at twenty-four, promising to spend her heaven doing good on earth. The book spread around the world, and she was canonized in 1925, named patroness of the missions with St. Francis Xavier in 1927, and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997.
Prayers to St. Thérèse of Lisieux on Daily Catholic Prayers
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