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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To prepare for the feast of Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin on July 12, please join in this novena, which runs from July 3-July 11. Below is an introduction, which I suggest that you read today, with links to Day One (for Monday, July 3) and to the full novena. May they obtain many graces for you.
If you can understand spoken French, you are in for a treat. Fr. Olivier Ruffray, the rector of the Shrine at Lisieux, who grew up in Lisieux and who is steeped in the spirituality of St. Therese and of Sts. Louis and Zelie, traveled to Quebec recently to present on Sts. Louis and Zelie. This 53-minute video will be worth every minute.
St. Louis Martin, 1892, with daughters Celine, left, and Leonie, right. In the background, their servants, Marie and Desire Le Juif.
In June 1892, St. Louis Martin, who had returned to Lisieux on May 10 after three years in the Bon Sauveur mental hospital, was living with his two daughters, Leonie and Celine, at 19 rue Paul Banaston, in the home of his brother-in-law, Isidore Guerin,
Isidore Guerin's home, 19 rue Paul Banaston, Lisieux
In 1892 the liturgical feast of Corpus Christi, known in France as "la Fete-Dieu," was celebrated on Thursday, June 16. The solemn procession of the Blessed Sacrament through the town took place on the following Sunday, June 19.*
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By Alexandre P. (carte postale ancienne) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
This procession was quite elaborate. At certain places in the town and at the homes of devout families, provisional Altars of Repose ("reposoirs") were constructed, flanked by greenery and flowers. The procession wound throughout the town, pausing at the altars for Benediction and other special prayers.
Celine recounts what happened at the Guerin house on June 19, 1892:
In June, on the second Sunday of Corpus Christi, the Guerin family made an Altar of Repose for the procession of the Blessed Sacrament. It was arranged in front of the house, and the altar was beside the open door of my uncle’s office. All of us used to gather together there, and this year our dearest father was in the center, surrounded by his family circle as with a crown.
Father Victor-Pierre Rohee, Arch-priest of St. Pierre's Cathedral in Lisieux, 1883-1898.
When the Archpriest of the Cathedral, Canon Rohee, had given Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament to the crowd, he entered the room and placed the monstrance on the venerable head of our dearest father . . . Oh! what an acceptable Thabor** it was for our Lord, while tears filled the eyes of the dear invalid . . . +
The monstrance at montmartre for which therese sent her bracelet
We can appreciate the full significance of this Eucharistic blessing only in the context of Louis Martin's deep Eucharistic spirituality. He attended Mass daily and received the Eucharist as often as his confessor allowed (at Lisieux, four or five times a week, highly unusual at that time). Every afternoon he made a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, taking Therese with him unless she was in school. He was a leader in the society for the Nocturnal Adoration of the Eucharist at Alencon, and, when he came to Lisieux, he persuaded Isidore Guerin, who was a member of the pastoral council, to introduce it at St. Pierre's.
The blessing Pope Leo XIII gave Louis may be seen as a foreshadowing of the 1892 blessing. In 1895 Therese recounts how Louis was presented to the Pope during their pilgrimage to Rome (November 20, 1887):
Papa had come to the Holy Father’s feet before us with the men. Father Révérony had been very charming to him, introducing him as the father of two Carmelites. The Sovereign Pontiff, with a sign of particular good will, placed his hand on my dear King’s venerable head, seeming to mark it with a mysterious seal in the name of Him whose venerable Vicar he is. Ah! now that he is in heaven, this father of four Carmelites, it’s no longer the Pontiff’s hand that rests on his forehead, prophesying martyrdom. It’s the hand of the Spouse of Virgins, the King of Glory, rendering His faithful servant’s head resplendent. Forever this adorable hand will rest on this head which He has glorified!***
Then, in May 1888, Louis visited Alencon, where he received deep consolation. Pauline inserted into Therese's memoir lines describing what he said to his daughters afterward:
"O Mother, do you remember the day and the visit when he said to us "Children, I returned from Alencon where I received in Notre-Dame Church such great graces, such consolations that I made this prayer: My God, it is too much! yes, I am too happy. it isn't possible to go to heaven this way! I want to suffer something for you! I offer myself . . . . the word 'victim' died on his lips; he didn't dare pronounce it before us, but we had understood."****
On June 15, 1888, when Louis was so delighted with one of Celine's works of art that he wanted to take her to Paris for lessons, she confided that, after his death, she planned to become a Carmelite. He said "Come, let's go together to the Blessed Sacrament to thank Him for honor He does me in choosing His spouses in my home. If I possessed anything better, I would hasten to offer it to him."
The following month he disappeared suddenly; four days later he was found at Le Havre. In October of the same year, a retreat of Nocturnal Adoration was preached at St. Pierre's Cathedral from September 30, 1888 through October 8, 1888. Leonie, Celine, and Louis became members of the Association of the Blessed Sacrament.
In December, Canon Rohee, arch-priest of St. Pierre's, announced at Mass that he was beginning a drive to raise 10,000 francs for a new main altar. Louis at once pledged the whole sum.
Very soon afterward, on February 12, 1889, Louis's mental state deteriorated so much that Isidore Guerin thought it safest for him to be interned at the Bon Sauveur mental hospital in Caen, where he remained for more than three years. Therese wrote: "Papa had just made a donation to God of an altar, and it was he who was chosen as a victim to be offered with the Lamb without spot." (Story of a Soul). She added that the "better thing" Louis had to offer was himself.
Less than a month after his discharge from the mental hospital in 1892, then, Canon Rohee, the very priest who had received Louis's gift of the altar, brought the Eucharist to the old man who could no longer approach the altar rail, bringing Louis's offering full circle. What a perfect symbol of God's acceptance of Louis's offering of himself with Christ.
This Eucharistic blessing becomes more poignant when we realize that, a short time after Louis returned to Lisieux, it was decided no longer to allow him to receive communion because he had grown so emotional that a deeply moving experience such as receiving the Eucharist increased the likelihood of heart trouble.****** Further, although on the evening before his death at Chateau La Musse near Evreux, Fr. Chillard, the pastor of the nearby Church of St. Sebastien, gave him the last sacraments, he could not administer communion because Louis could not swallow. Louis's being deprived of the Eucharist for the last years of his life foreshadows the reported words of Therese:
"If you find me dead one morning, don't be troubled; it's because Papa le bon Dieu will have come to get me. Without doubt, it's a great grace to receive the sacraments, but, when God doesn't allow it' it's good all the same; everything is grace."
Notes:
* Documentation from the archives of the diocese of Bayeux-Lisieux.
**The reference is to Mount Tabor, where the disciples saw Jesus transfigured with Moses and Elijah.
+The Father of the Little Flower, by Celine Martin (Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face). Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., p. 106.
***http://www.archives-carmel-lisieux.fr/english/carmel/index.php/61-70/63/63-verso
****Letters of Saint Therese of Lisieux, Volume I (1877-1890), tr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1982, p. 435 (LT 53, footnote 3).
*****Louis et Zelie Martin, une saintete pour tous les temps, by Jean Clapier. Paris: Presses de la Renaissance, 2009, p. 320.
******Louis et Zelie Martin, by Thierry Henault-Morel. Paris: Editions du Cerf, 2015, p. 254.
Above is a video of the restored farmhouse in Semalle, a small commune near Alencon, where St. Therese lived with the family of her wet-nurse, Rose Taille, from March 1873, when she was three months old, until April 1874, when, at 15 months, she returned to her family in Alencon.
On Saturday,. May 20, 2017, the house of St. Therese's wet-nurse, Rose Taille, will be inaugurated and opened to pilgrims. The property of the diocese of Sees since 1956, the house had been in ruins. Pilgrims often drove by it, but it was impossible to enter. Fr. Jean-Marie Simar, rector of the Shrine at Alencon, reports that the gift of an enthusiastic benefactor made it possible for the diocese to fund the first stage of the restoration. Some of the work was done by professionals. M. Guy Fournier,a deacon of the diocese of Sees and director of volunteers for the Shrine of Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin at Alencon, reports that for nearly two yearsthe Shrine's volunteers have dedicated many hours to restoring the house.
I thank Quest-France for much of the above information. See their story, with photos of the inside and outside of the house. See a photo of the stained-glass window in the church at Semalle depicting St. Therese; the artist included a cow in the background!
An early photo of the farmhouse at semalle where therese lived as a baby in 1873-1874. at left, the farmer, moyse taille; at right, his wife, rose taille, known as "little Rose," Therese's wet-nurse. PHOTO CREDIT: THE SHRINE OF STS. LOUIS AND ZELIE MARTIN AT ALENCON.
Rose Taille, the wife of Moyse Taille, a countrywoman in whom Zelie and Louis had great confidence, saved Therese's life by serving as her wet-nurse when breastfeeding was the only way to save her life. She took Therese to her own home where Therese lived among her children. Rose had earlier nursed the two little Josephs, the baby sons of Louis and Zelie, each of whom died before his first birthday. Later, after Zelie's death, when Louis moved to Lisieux, his mother did not want to change towns, so he entrusted her to the care of Rose Taille.
The Shrine of Louis and Zelie Martin at Alencon announces the program of the inauguration on May 20:
The little girl who had to leave home because she could not be breast-fed there grew up to associate this nourishment not only with the saving of her earthly life but with salvation itself. See the image Therese kept of Mary nursing the child Jesus. The title of Therese's first poem, "The Divine Dew, or the Virginal Milk of Mary," shows that the mystery of the child Jesus being breast-fed by his mother never ceased to fascinate her: "Your divine blood is Virginal Milk!" Thanks to the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux. For a fuller explanation of the doctrinal background of this daring poem, which unites the childhood of Jesus, Mary's nourishing him, the Incarnation, and the Eucharist, see the introduction to this poem in The Poetry of Saint Therese of Lisieux, tr. Donald Kinney, O.C.D. (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1996), pp. 35-37. The introductions and notes, which greatly enrich our understanding of the poems, are not available online.
Please congratulate the diocese of Sees, the shrine of Sts. Louis and Zelie, and all the generous persons who have made it possible for pilgrims to visit this sacred space. Offer a prayer of thanksgiving for their faithful stewardship. May God allow it to be not merely a visit to an historic house but a place to be drawn more deeply into the mystery of how Jesus nourishes us with the Eucharist as Mary nourished Him with her virginal milk.
An early photo of the lisieux carmel. visitors entered the speakroom, where louis visited his daughters, through a door at the right of the chapel above.
After more than three years in Bon Sauveur (the "Good Savior"), a big mental hospital in Caen, Louis Martin was discharged on May 10, 1892. At last he returned to his family in Lisieux. Leonie and Celine, then laywomen, had visited him every week in Caen, but his three Carmelite daughters, Marie, Pauline, and Therese, had not seen him in all that time. As enclosed nuns, they had had to rely on news from others. On May 12, he paid them a last visit.
Three days later Madame Celine Guerin, the wife of Zelie's brother Isidore, wrote to her daughter, Jeanne La Neele, in Caen and described this visit:
. . . it was touching at the Carmel. We took him there on Thursday, and one would say the day was very special, and in fact, I believe God blessed it because it was the best day he has had. He seemed to be aware of everything that was taking place. The Carmelites were happy to see their father again, but afterward the tears they held back flowed freely. They found him very much changed, and nevertheless here we find him less changed than we might have thought. However, all of us are very grateful. It was touching to see the way they expressed their gratitude to your father.
Read the rest of this short note on the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.
Louis returned from Caen much thinner and substantially paralyzed. His appearance after three years in "the asylum" must have been a shock to the daughters, who had not seen him in so long. In 1898 Pauline added an account of this visit to the first edition of Story of a Soul. These words were not written by Therese, who omits the visit from her memoirs:
Because of the state of his infirmity and weakness, we saw him only once in the speakroom during the whole course of his illness. Ah! what a visit that was! When he was about to leave us, as we were bidding him "au revoir," he raised his eyes and pointing to heaven with his finger, he remained this way for a long time, with only these words to express his thoughts, spoken in a voice filled with tears: "Au ciel!" ("In heaven!")
Letters of St. Therese of Lisieux, Volume II, tr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1988, pp. 751-752).
Then Louis was taken back to the Guerin home on rue Paul Banaston, where he lived until, in early July, he moved with his daughters to a small house nearby. We will meet him again there. His doctor evidently believed that to visit his daughters regularly would be too emotional for him in his weakened state. Although he lived more than two years longer, his Carmelites never saw him again.
Louis was able to hear and sometimes to understand conversations, but was hardly ever able to speak, and then only a few words. Inability to communicate was one of his sharpest sufferings. His remarkable holiness was forged in a veritable martyrdom. and the words "In heaven!" summed up the faith he lived in every circumstance.
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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