Little Saint, Thérèse of Lisieux's Little Way, The Greatest Saint of Modern Times

Little Saint, Thérèse of Lisieux's Little Way, The Greatest Saint of Modern Times, All in the Saintly Family,  A Child Doctor of the Church, all describe St. Thérèse of Lisieux. St. Thérèse has been a highly influential model of sanctity for Catholics because of the simplicity and practicality of her approach to the spiritual life. She is one of the most popular saints in the history of the church,although she was obscure during her lifetime. Pope Pius X called her "the greatest saint of modern times." Patron saint of missionaries, florists, pilots, and priests, she died at the age of 24 from tuberculosis.

St. Thérèse was beatified and canonized by Pope Pius XI. In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church - the four great women of the Church: Saint Hildegard of Bingen, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

Her feast day in the General Roman Calendar is 1 October.   In 2015 St. Thérèse’s parents, Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin, were canonized by Pope Francis; they were the first spouses to be canonized as a couple.

The long journey to personal holiness starts but with The Little Way -the simplicity in God’s service - As Francis Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster on the Feast of the Presentation of Our Blessed Lady, 1912, writes in the preface to the electronic version of the Story of a Soul” – by Saint Thérèse of Lisieux - of the perfect accomplishment of small recurring duties, of trustful confidence in Him who made and has redeemed and sanctified us. Humility, self-effacement, obedience, hiddenness, unfaltering charity, with all the self-control and constant effort that they imply,

In the deeply religious atmosphere of her home, Therese felt an early call to religious life, her piety developed early and intensively. All four of her elder sisters became nuns, and at the age of 15 she entered the cloistered Carmelite community of Lisieux, Normand, another sister, Céline, also later joined the order.  After nine years as a Carmelite nun, having fulfilled various offices such as sacristan and assistant to the novice mistress, in her last eighteen months in Carmel she fell into a night of faith, in which she is said to have felt Jesus was absent and been tormented by doubts that God existed. 

The story of Thérèse’s spiritual development was related in a collection of her epistolary essays, written by order of the prioresses, who happened to be her sister,

and published in 1898 under the title Histoire d’une âme (Story of a Soul, trans. from French 1996). Her popularity is largely a result of this work, which conveys her loving pursuit of holiness in ordinary life. Thérèse defined her doctrine of the Little Way as “the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute surrender.”

The Story of a Soul, is the autobiography of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux,  a spiritual classic and one of the most beautiful autobiographies ever written. Sister Thérèse wrote this autobiography out of obedience to Mother Agnes of Jesus, her religious superior who was also her sister, Pauline. Her autobiography reveals her deep love of God and draws the reader into the beautiful workings of grace within her soul.
The free version of the Story of a Soul is in the public domain and may be used and copied without restriction thanks to the Gutenberg Project

Prayers to St. Therese

Even in prayer, Therese teaches simplicity – talking to God and Jesus in direct, personal and heartfelt ways. She prayed from her heart as a child speaks honestly and trustingly to a parent they love.