"A marriage is as much a road to holiness as a monastery" - Fr. James Martin, S.J. on the canonization of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin

fr. James Martin, S.J.

"The canonization of Louis and Zelie Martin is a reminder from the Vatican that married people are just as holy as--and often holier than--priests, sisters, brothers, bishops, cardinals and popes.  And that a marriage is as much a road to holiness as a monastery."

James Martin, Jesuit priest and author of My Life with the Saints.  June 27, 2015

When Louis and Zelie were beatified in 2008, Fr. Martin wrote "His Wife's a Saint; So Is Her Husband" for the Wall Street Journal, an article worth reading or re-reading.

My Life with the Saints has a chapter about his favorite saint, Therese of Lisieux.

Below, in the five-minute video "In Praise of Lay Saints," he speaks engagingly of the universal call to holiness and the need for the Church to recognize saints to whom lay people can relate.  He mentions Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin and displays their portrait.  

Why the Vatican needs to recognize ordinary men and women who have lead extraordinary lives of holiness. A commentary by James Martin, S.J.

June 27, 2015: one-minute video of Pope Francis announcing the canonization of Louis and Zelie Martin at the consistory of cardinals

Vatican Central Television has posted this 51-second video of the consistory of cardinals this morning in Rome.  The commentary is in Italian, but you can watch Pope Francis make this historic announcement!  

UPDATE: The video of the consistory of cardinals for the canonization of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin has now been posted in English.  Enjoy! 

June 27, 2015: statement from the bishops of Seez and of Bayeux-Lisieux on the announcement that Louis and Zelie Martin will be canonized on October 18, 2015

With thanks to the Shrine at Lisieux, I share with you this English translation of the statement given by Mgr Jacques Habert, Bishop of Seez, and Mgr Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, immediately after the Pope announced the canonization of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin.  

Communique immediately after the announcement
of the canonization of Louis and Zelie Martin

The news that we have just received from Rome announcing the canonization of Louis and Zelie Martin fills us with joy.

Joy in heaven for this family, joy on earth for the whole Church.

We thank Pope Francis for giving to the church and  the world, for the first time, saintly spouses and parents as an example.

We thank Pope Francis for telling us how marriage is a path to holiness.

We awaited this decision with confidence.  It is the successful conclusion of a process begun sixty years ago (1956).  The beatification in 2008 was a milestone.

For the Shrines of Alençon and Lisieux, this canonization is also a responsibility.

• Alencon: the city where the family lived, where Louis and Zelie celebrated their marriage, where they celebrated the baptisms of their children.  The place of the ordinary family life, happy, committed, and often tested by trials.
• Lisieux: the city where the family moved  after the death of Zelie, the place where the daughters successively decided to enter religious life.  The place of Louis’s illness and death. 

If the Church canonizes some of her children, it does so to offer them as examples, so that they may inspire Christians of all times.  It is for us to deepen the wealth.  The one who wants to discover the Martin family in all its truth must go both to Alençon and Lisieux. This couple, this family has experienced the joy of the Gospel in all its dimensions.

Now that the Church has recognized their holiness, may they help us, with their daughters Therese and Leonie, to move forward on this path.

+ Jean Claude BOULANGER. (Bishop of Bayeux).

+ Jacques HABERT. (Bishop of Séez).

Note that Bishop Boulanger is conducting a press conference at the Basilica at Lisieux right now (12:30 p.m. Lisieux time).

June 27, 2015: Pope Francis announces canonization of Louis and Zelie Martin for Mission Sunday, October 18, 2015

Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin

The Shrine at Lisieux has announced that at an "ordinary public consistory" (a meeting of cardinals) this morning in the Consistory Hall of the Apostolic Palace in Rome, Pope Francis announced that on Mission Sunday, October 18, 2015, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, will become the first spouses in the history of the Church to be canonized as a couple.  Thanks be to God. 

Pope Francis during the canonizations of St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II.  Photo by Jeffrey Bruno from New York City, United States [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

• The lives of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin
• Their significance
• Recent homilies and conferences about them
• Their letters:  "A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, 1863-1885."
• The history of their cause for canonization 
• Their canonization miracle: the cure of Carmen Perez Pons

The Apostolic Palace seen from St. Peter's Square.  By Gaspard Miltiade (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Louis and Zelie will be named a saintly couple on the liturgical anniversary of their beatification in 2008 and of their daughter, St. Therese, being named a Doctor of the Church in 1997.  In 1997 and again in 2008, Mission Sunday fell on October 19.  In 2015 it falls on October 18.   The canonization ceremony will take place in Rome during the fourteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which has as its theme "the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the contemporary world."

Pope Francis announced the news during the celebration of Terce, the midmorning hour of the Divine Office.  He also announced, for the same date, the canonizations of Blessed Vincenzo Grossi, a diocesan priest from Italy, and Blessed Mary of the Immaculate Conception, a nun from Spain.

"Miracle of Life in Valencia," a documentary in English about the healing of little Carmen, the canonization miracle for Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin

The Canonization Miracle of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin

The miracle accepted for the canonization of Louis and Zelie Martin: the healing of little Carmen Perez Pons in Valencia, Spain, including "Miracle of Life in Valencia," a 15-minute documentary in English. 

On the eve of the announcement of the canonization of Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, I am dleighted to present in English the documentary about their canonization miracle.  To view it, please click on the photo or on the headline above.