150 years ago with Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin: August 22, 1870: the birth of Zelie's niece and Louis's godchild, Marie Guerin

Marie guerin as a young child

On August 22, 1870, six days after Zelie delivered her little Marie-Melanie-Therese, her brother’s wife, Celine Guerin (nee Fournet) gave birth to her second daughter, Marie-Louise-Helene Guerin (1870-1905) in Lisieux. This child, born at the height of the Franco-Prussian war, would be two and a half when her cousin, the future St. Therese, was born in 1873.

Marie’s father was Isidore Guerin, Zelie’s brother, born in 1841, ten years after his saintly sister. After studying in Paris to become a pharmacist, Isidore settled in Lisieux. His skill at his profession brought him respect in Lisieux, and his standing increased when he married Celine Fournet, the daughter of a prominent manufacturing family, on September 15, 1866 in St. Pierre’s Cathedral.

Their first daughter, Jeanne, was born in 1868. Marie was the baby sister. Isidore wrote to Zelie at once with the happy news. Because the mails, which were sent by train, were so fast, Zelie wrote the very next day to the happy new mother:

I just received a letter from my brother announcing the happy birth of your little girl. I would have wanted you to have a boy; you would have been happier. But if you’re like me, you’re not distressed by it, because I never had one moment of sadness over it.*

Read the full text of this letter on the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.

Zelie knew that Celine, who already had one daughter, had been hoping for a boy. But both families rejoiced heartily over this baby girl. Like her cousin Marie-Melanie-Therese, she was baptized privately on the very day she was born. The “complementary rites of baptism,” celebrated in the church, were put off until September. Her uncle, St. Louis Martin, whose birthday she shared, was to serve as her godfather. Because of her dark hair and eyes, he playfully called his little niece “the Greek.”

Although Marie’s paternal grandparents died before her birth, her mother’s father lived till she was about eight, and her mother’s mother until 1900, when Marie was about 30. When little Marie was seven years old, her uncle Louis lost his wife. With his five daughters, ranging in age from four to 17, he moved to Lisieux so that his daughters could have the company of their uncle, aunt, and cousins. Leonie, Celine, and Therese, like their Guerin cousins, attended the school run by the Benedictine nuns of the Abbey of Notre Dame du Pre in Lisieux. Marie Guerin and Therese Martin became intimate friends. On September 24, 1890, when Marie was twenty years old, she witnessed Therese’s reception of the black veil at Carmel and understood that she, too, was called to become a Carmelite. On August 15, 1895, a week before her 25th birthday, Marie joined her cousins Therese, Celine, Pauline, and Marie in Carmel.

Among those who know the Martin family, Marie is known by what Therese writes about her in Story of a Soul. Her letters to her parents from Carmel in the summer of 1897, when Therese was dying, are an important historical record of Therese’s illness. But much about her own life and spirituality has been overlooked. To learn more about the child born 150 years ago who was the last of Therese’s novices to enter Carmel but the first to join her in heaven, please see the Website of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux. its highlights include:

• Marie Guerin’s biography in English

• Marie Guerin’s letters before the death of St. Therese

• The biographical “circular” written after Marie Guerin’s death by her cousin and prioress, Mother Agnes of Jesus

• The letters of Sister Marie of the Eucharist after the death of St. Therese, from 1897-1905

My fervent thanks to the Carmelites of Lisieux and the Association of the Friends of St. Therese and of her Carmel for the information on their Web site, which gives us such insight into Marie Guerin’s history.

*from A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, 1863-1885, tr. Ann Connors Hess, edited Dr. Frances Renda. (Staten Island, New York: Society of St. Paul/Alba House, 2011), p. 69.

150 Years Ago with Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin: the birth of their daughter, Marie-Melanie-Therese, August 16, 1870

Zelie had learned, of course, many months before that she was expecting her eighth child. On February 8, 1870, she wrote to her brother, Isidore, who had just told her that his wife, Celine, was expecting their second:

I wasn’t surprised to learn your news. I’d be very happy to be the godmother, and I’m ready to help you as much as possible. But I think you’ll have the dilemma of having to baptize the baby privately because I probably won’t be able to come to Lisieux then, for I, too, am expecting a baby in August. You won’t be the godfather of this one. I’ll try to find a little boy among our acquaintances who will have this honor, and Pauline will be the godmother.*

Zelie probably refers to the possibility of a “private baptism” because at that time, if a circumstance like the absence of the father or of a godparent made it desirable for the christening ceremony to be postponed, it was customary to baptize the baby privately, using only the essentials of the ceremony, within a day or two of its birth (because so many babies died within a few days of their birth) and then to celebrate the “Complementary Rites of Baptism” later in the church, when the godparents could be present, the child could wear the white christening dress, and the priest could anoint the baby and celebrate all the rites of the sacrament.

Zelie, who had lost her two infant sons in 1867 and 1868, was hoping for a boy. So was her sister-in-law, Celine Guerin, whose only child so far was a daughter, Jeanne. On February 12,1870, Zelie wrote to Celine:

I’m rejoicing, my dear sister, to think that next August we’ll each have a little boy, at least I hope so. But, girl or boy, we must accept with gratitude whatever God gives us because He knows what we need better than we do.**

Zelie’s faith and strength manifest themselves even more powerfully whenever she is faced with the uncertainty of pregnancy and childbirth. Her sister-in-law was unwell, and Zelie promised to write to her own sister (a Visitation nun) and to her two eldest daughters, who were boarding students at the Visitation, to ask them to pray for Celine. She also promised to pray herself that God would cure Celine and give her another child who would be her joy, like the little Jeanne. At this time Zelie had five living children: Marie and Pauline, at the Visitation, and Leonie, Helene, and Celine, at home on the rue Pont-Neuf in Alencon.

15, rue pont-neuf, in alencon, the location of louis martin’s watch-shop and louis and zelie’s first home.

Zelie could not have known that, ten days after this letter, on February 22, 1870, after a short sickness, her little Helene, aged five years and four months, would die suddenly. Her letters show that her grief for this child was even sharper than for her two boys, each of whom died as infants.

The summer of 1870 brought the household on rue Pont-Neuf, and the whole of France, great anxiety. The Franco-Prussian war broke out on July 19, and it was in full force when little Marie-Melanie-Therese was born on Tuesday evening, August 16, at 11:00 p.m. in the house on rue Pont-Neuf. The next day Zelie wrote to her sister-in-law:

My little Marie-Melanie-Therese was born yesterday, Tuesday, at eleven o’clock in the evening. She’s very lively, very good, but not fat. She only weighs four pounds two hundred grams. I hesitate to give her to a wet nurse. . . . . I only had one solid hour of labor. I eagerly await your news. I would want this time to be over for you.***

louis and zelie lived over the watch-shop on rue pont-neuf, and little marie-melanie-therese, like all her older siblings,was born in the rooms above the shop. louis had bought the house for 6,000 francs in 1850, when he returned to alencon as a master watchmaker, and his parents moved in with him at that time. Zelie joined the household on her marriage in 1858.

The little girl, whom the family called Therese, developed such severe stomach trouble on the third day that the doctor told Zelie she had not an hour to lose to find a wet nurse. She had “very good information” about a wet nurse who lived on the rue de la Barre in Alencon, and she gave the baby to her on Saturday night, August 20. ________________________________________________________________________________________________

*A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, 1863-1885. (Staten Island, New York: Society of St. Paul/Alba House, 2011), pp. 55-56.

**Ibid., p. 58.

***Ibid., p. 68.