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.