Born on January 2, 1873, Marie Françoise-Thérèse Martin was the youngest of nine children. She was well-loved and had an idyllic childhood. However, loss came to her at a tender age of four when her mother died of breast cancer.
Brought up in a deeply religious home, St. Therese’s piousness and piety developed at an early age. Her mother wanted to be a saint and her father had wanted to be a monk before they got married. Four of her elder sisters became nuns. St. Therese herself entered the Carmelite convent at Lisieux when she turned 15.
Life in the Carmelite convent consisted of prayers and rigorous domestic work. Despite her frail health, St. Therese persevered. She said that she came to the Carmel convent “to save souls and pray for priests.” She faced judgment and was the subject of gossip at times while she was in the convent. These did not deter her, instead she responded to these criticisms with the attitude of love. Her doctrine of the Little Way became known. She practiced her philosophy that what is important is not doing what is great but doing little things with the power of love.
St. Therese, also known as the Little Flower of Jesus, died of tuberculosis on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925. She was the youngest and one of only three females to be declared as Doctors of the Catholic Church.
