the Parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
The life and spirituality of Saints Louis and Zelie Martin and the history of their cause for sainthood
"STS. LOUIS AND ZELIE MARTIN, ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX, AND SIBLINGS" - ICON By PAOLO ORLANDO
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This presentation, offered by Katie Cavadini, Assistant Chair, Department of Theology, Notre Dame University, in October 2014 as part of the "Saturdays with the Saints" program, examines the family of Louis and Zelie Martin and St. Therese through the lens of Dorothy Day's 1960 book Therese. I was delighted to see that it includes one of my photographs of Louis Martn's watchmaking tools.
View the film of the opening Mass of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family. To see Pope Francis, at the beginning of the Mass, incensing the relics of Blessed Louis and Zelie and of St. Therese, see 10:18 to 12:10.
Cardinal Baldisseri preaching for the feast of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, July 12, 2014, in the basilica of Notre Dame at Alencon, where the Martins were married. Photo credit: the Shrine at Alencon.
translated by Patricia Taussig of Raleigh, North Carolina
and Maureen O'Riordan of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Excellency,
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
It is, for me, an immense joy and a great honor to be here among you today to honor our Blessed Zélie and Louis Martin. Indeed, to participate in such a solemn manner in the liturgy of the holy spouses in the very place of their everyday sanctification, even as the Church prepares to celebrate a Synod dedicated precisely to the family and its contemporary challenges, undoubtedly constitutes a formidable spiritual preparation. I am grateful to you, Excellency , who have been kind enough to invite me to share these intense moments of faith with your diocesan community.
Today's gospel presents us with the wedding at Cana as part of the liturgy of the Word for the Feast of the Blessed Martin spouses. It is a much-talked-about episode which found many echoes in art in general, but especially in painting, literature, and even music. It concludes with three short but essential sentences:
This was the beginning of the signs that Jesus performed.
It was at Cana in Galilee.
He manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
So here we have the first sign performed by Christ during his public life. St. John, alternately a catechist and a theologian, but always a teacher, offers us a list of seven “signs” chosen as foreshadowing the “Sign” par excellence, the Resurrection of Christ Crucified. We find: the wedding at Cana, the healing of the son of the royal officer, the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, the walking on water, the healing of the man born blind, and, finally, the raising of Lazarus. These signs are a crescendo which gradually grows in intensity to lead us to the raising of Lazarus, which announces that of Christ. They also remind us of the words of Christ: “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Contemporary humans would profit by meditating more often on these words, we who have a tendency to believe that we are “masters of the world” and “masters of humanity” and who are living all the cynicism of the Prometheus complex.
Before the completion of the “sign” by Christ, we witness a brief dialogue between the Mother and her Son. More than one person has been surprised by the apparent harshness of the response of the Son to His Mother: “Woman, what do you want from me?” But here we come to the eternal problem of translation, and never is the expression “traduttore, traditore” (“to translate is to betray”) more true than here. Indeed, literally, the Semitic phrase translates to “Has there ever been opposition [or: a conflict] between me and you?” Most obviously, the answer is “No!” Another motive for astonishment comes from the fact of seeing the Son call his Mother “Gynai,” “Woman.” Yet, far from being an expression of disdain or of self-importnace, this expression translates awkwardly the noble word “Domina,” which, instead, could be rendered as “Lady” or “Matron” in the Roman meaning of the term. All this brings us immediately to the episode at the Crucifixion, when the Son on the Cross entrusted his Mother to the beloved Disciple:” “Woman, behold your son” (John 19:26). Jesus reveals to us that his Mother is the Woman, the Mother of the King. This King reigns from this Throne of Glory which is the Cross, his head encircled with the crown of thorns. The function of the Queen Mother is to do everything so that the Messiah King can fulfill his Messianic function.
But what, then, is Mary to do to facilitate the beginning of the public life of her Son? She did what every woman and every mother does: fixes a gaze of love at events and on people. Indeed, “the dignity of woman is measured in the order of love, which is essentially an order of justice and charity” (Mulieris dignitatem, 29). Only the person can love, and only the person can be loved. This is primarily an affirmation of the nature of her being, which then leads to an affirmation of an ethical nature. Love is an ontological and ethical requirement for a person. The person must be loved, because only love corresponds to what the person is. Thus is explained the commandment of love, already known in the Old Testament (cf. Mt. 22: 36-40; Mk 12: 28-34) and placed by Christ at the very centre of the gospel “ethos” (cf. Mt 22, 36-40; Mk 12, 28-34). This also explains the primacy of love expressed in the words of Paul in the Letter to the Corinthians: “The greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13). Without resorting to this order and this primacy, it is impossible to give a complete and adequate response to the question of the dignity of woman and her vocation (Dt 6:5; Lv 19:18). The dignity of woman is intimately linked to the love she receives by the very reason of her femininity, and, secondly, the love she gives in her turn. It is precisely the attention to others, a prominent sign of the love that is charity--in the case of the wedding of Cana, love toward the young bride and bridegroom--that moves the Blessed Virgin and spurs her on to intervene. So here she is again, the foresighted Mother, providing for the needs of her adopted children. Already, the Second Vatican Council reminds us of this by affirming that 'humans cannot fully find themselves except through the generous gift of themselves” (Gaudium et Spes, 24). The truth about the person and about love is thus confirmed. The affirmation of an ontological nature included here also suggests the ethical dimension of the vocation of the person. Woman can find herself only by giving her love to others.
It is already understood that Zélie Martin, this woman of the nineteenth century who led almost the life of a woman of today, divided her time between her family life and her professional life. A family life well fulfilled, since she had the grace and the joy, with her gentle husband, Louis, of welcoming nine children. Her love, she then generously distributed by turns to her beloved children and to her husband, the man who encouraged her to give the best of herself and to keep on moving toward Heaven. Undoubtedly Zélie is the inspiration for this beautiful Theresian maxim: ”To love is to give everything and to give oneself,” since she lived it intensely.
Her professional life, too, I say, which sees Zélie at the head of a small business of manufacturing the famous “point d’Alençon” lace. In her community, she is known for her professional competence and her integrity. But, even more, here, too, it is her sense of justice and her attention to others, the immediate fruits of her supernatural love of neighbor, which strikes us. The “spiritual gaze” she somehow brings to everything around her. Indeed, her ability to love is not limited, as is too often the case, only to the sphere of the family. It spreads like an oil stain, first to her workers and then to the needy whom Providence put in her path. Her acute sense of the duties of her state in life constantly reminds her of her own responsibility to her employees and their families. This “spiritual love” she feels for them strengthens her concern for work well done in order to keep the demanding Parisian clientele and also to ensure the subsistence and the financial autonomy of her daily workers, thus strengthening their human dignity. Even before the great social encyclicals of the Magisterium, Zélie foresaw this truth of our faith, “Labor is primarily 'for humans' and not humans 'for the job” (John Paul II, Laborem Exercens 6). That is, any work of a human being must be esteemed above all in the measure of the dignity of the subject of the work, namely the person, the human being who carries it out.
But let’s return for a moment in the dialogue between Jesus and his Mother which ends with this commanding sentence of Mary to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” One can “read” the intervention of the Virgin Mary at Cana and the act of Christ in response to her request only in connection with the last words of Jesus on the Cross. We can do “what He tells you” only in the light of this “Behold your Mother” (John 19:27)! Here again we find the intimate relationship that exists between the first and the last “sign,” between the episode at Cana and the Passion-Death-Resurrection of Christ. The Mother is present at both events to remind us of the centrality of Christ the Savior, who “is the same yesterday and today, and will be forever.” (Heb 13:8).
The Blessed Martin spouses are a reminder also to those of you who are married, and those who are preparing to marry, that marriage is a way of faith; they encourage you to rediscover for your married life the centrality of Jesus Christ and of growing in the Church. Mary teaches us that the good of each one depends on listening docilely to the Word of her Son. For the one who trusts Him, the water of daily life is transformed into the wine of a love that makes life good, beautiful, and fruitful. In fact, Cana is the announcement and the anticipation of the gift of the new wine of the Eucharist, the sacrifice and the banquet during which the Lord meets us, renews us, and transforms us.
Do not lose the vital importance of this encounter: that in the liturgical assembly of Sunday Mass you will be fully active and present. From the Eucharist, in fact, flows the Christian meaning of life and a new way of life (cf. Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 72-73). And you will, then, not be afraid to assume the serious responsibility of the marital choice; you shall not fear to enter into this “great mystery,” by which two people become one flesh (cf. Ep 5:31 -32) (Benedict XVI, “Meeting with engaged couples,” 11 September 2011), in order to journey together, to reach the House of our common Father, and, as the family of God, to sing His praise together eternally. Amen.
†Cardinal Lorenzo BALDISSERI
[Cardinal Baldisseri presided at the celebrations of the feast of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin at Alençon on July 12, 2014. I am particularly grateful to the Shrine at Alencon, which published this text in French, for their generous permission to translate it into English and post it on "Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, The Parents of St. Therese of Lisieux." Please visit the rich English Web site of the Shrine at Alencon].
Cardinal Baldisseri, right, and Mgr Habert, bishop of Seez, left, with children in the chapel of the birthplace of St. Therese at Alencon, July 12, 2014. Photo credit: the Shrine at Alencon.
The relics of St. Therese of Lisieux, of her blessed parents Zelie and Louis Martin, and of the blessed Quattrocchi spouses will be at Rome during the synod of the family (October 5-19, 2014)..
Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary-general of the synod of bishops, announced this at a press conference this morning, Friday, October 3, 2014, at the Vatican. As Pope Francis recently emphasized, the works of the synod fathers is to be accompanied by the prayer of all the baptized, the Cardinal declared.
So, during the whole time of the synod, daily Eucharistic adoration is offered in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin, “Protectress of the Roman People” (Salus Populi Romani) of the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
Times of prayer here will also be organized by the diocese of Rome. Each evening at 6:00 p.m., a bishop or a cardinal will celebrate Mass for the family, the secretary general explained.
Further, he announced the presence of the relics of the blessed Martin spouses, of their daughter St. Therese of the Child Jesus, and of the blessed Italian spouses Luigi et Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi.
All over the world, he added, prayers will be held in the shrines, especially those dedicated to the Holy Family, in the communities of consecrated life, in the dioceses, and in the parishes.
In a statement released on September 6, the cardinal invited “particular churches, parish communities, institutes of consecrated life, associations, and movements to pray at Masses and other celebrations in the days before the Synod and during its work.”
( October 3, 2014) © Innovative Media Inc.
Translated by Gordon Henry, Famille Chretienne, No. 1911, August 30-September 5, 2014. We thank Famille Chretienne for its unique and in-depth coverage of the Martin family and of the Synod of Bishops on the Family.
“In this exclusive interview, Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, discusses the context and the objectives of the assembly of bishops that will be held in Rome, from the 5th to the 19th of October.”
The family, the central element of society, is suffering in our day from a major crisis, before which the Church feels the responsibility to intervene. We must confront the challenge openly, with strength and determination, by proclaiming the "Gospel of the family.”
In the first instance, the Church must address the need for clear ideas on what the family is and find a common conceptual vocabulary that all can understand. Then we must clarify the Church's teachings on the family. From that follows the need for good preparation for marriage.
The challenges are many and enormous; they touch the life of individuals, of future generations, and of society as a whole. They call for profound study, by the social sciences and the ecclesiastical sciences alike, specifically in the fields of anthropology and pastoral policy. This latter must seek to bring the Church close to people, to be with them when they are in difficulties, and to comfort them when they are suffering.
The long list that is given in the Instrumentum Laboris runs from problems that are internal to the family, like the crisis of faith, and violence and abuse, all the way to external pressures like poverty, war, and displacement, and including issues like family breakdown, financial bankruptcy, children undergoing certain family events, difficulties in education, and the phenomenon of same-sex unions.
The Synod will survey the family from every angle, seeing not only what takes place within it, but its geographic, ethnic, social, and political dimension . . . . It is well, in fact, to have as broad a perspective as possible. The West is marked by a strong tendency to devalue the family, notably at the legislative level. But it is quite otherwise on other continents, where a strong family identity, tied to ancient traditions, is preserved.
From this perspective, the Church does not feel itself alone. Rather, it is encouraged to furnish to humanity its heritage of wisdom, as an expert in humanity. I believe that the moment in which we find ourselves is, in fact, the best moment to make known and to offer to families the human and spiritual potential of the Church.
What is important in the first place is to give people with the knowledge and the tools to enter the state of marriage fully conscious of the reasons for doing so. Marriages that last are normally those that have been built on a good foundation.
Furthermore, we must encourage among married couples openness, acceptance, kinship, as a free gift, and a great understanding of those who live differently, while at the same time learning to help them, if they need correction, to resume the right path.
Even though it is no longer taken for granted as it once was, the family continues to be the core of society. Ideologies that encourage hedonism, individualism, and materialism, and above all the massive incursions of propaganda on international organizations, have a great effect on the very fabric of the family structure. It is almost as if the media were part of an organized effort aimed at destabilizing the family.
Christians must react. They will succeed if they rely on the appropriate means--if the rely on the faith, and the deepening of their faith, and on the concrete pastoral direction that will emanate from the Synod.
Louis and Zélie Martin are a married couple the Church has raised to the honors of the altar as models of married life and family life. The approaching Synod on the family wants to highlight concrete examples of actual marriages and families. The Martin spouses are one such example. They illustrate the fact that it is possible to build a family in a Christian way, to become holy in the state of married life, in an intimate union fortified by the grace of God.
On July 12th at Alençon you received some relics. What place will they have at the Synod?
I did, in fact, have the honor of receiving relics of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin at Alençon from the hands of Mgr Jacques Habert, and I am most grateful to him. The exhibition of the relics of spouses who are saints or blesseds during the Assembly of the Synod in the month of October is in preparation.
These relics will be exposed fpr the veneration of the Fathers and of the faithful in the chapel of the Synod. They will be a powerful symbol during this Synod consecrated to the family.
The lives of Saints Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux; their spirituality; the life of their family; their beatification in 2008 and canonization in 2015; what we can learn from them today. Articles, homilies, conferences, photo galleries. A unique photo show to celebrate the visit of their relics to Ireland in 2018.
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