"The World of Saint Therese and Her Family," a photo show

In honor of the pilgrimage of the relics of St. Therese and of her parents, Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, and if the visit of Pope Francis o Ireland in connection with the World Meeting of Families, I have created a photo gallery, "The World of Saint Therese and Her Family," to offer you a visual experience of the concrete reality of their lives on earth, during which they became holy. It contains more than 350 photos, many, from my visit to France in May, never published before.  Arranged in chronological order, these images illustrate the story of their lives from the birth of St. Louis in 1823 until the canonization of the Martin spouses in 2015.  I thank the Shrine at Alencon and the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.  If you enjoy it, please help me spread the word. Thank you.  The above shows highlights of the first part of the photo gallery.  To see the gallery, click the photo below:

"An Encounter with St. Therese of Lisieux," a retreat day at the Carmelite Monastery in Santa Clara, California on Saturday, November 11, 2017

An Encounter with St. Therese of Lisieux

Carmel of the Infant Jesus
1000 Lincoln Street
Santa Clara, California

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Therese Martin aged 15, in April 1888

The Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites of Santa Clara invites you to this retreat day. 

Schedule

9:00 a.m.        Registration and coffee

9:30 a.m.        Welcome and Morning Prayer

                        Conference by Maureen O’Riordan

                        "Saints Louis and Zelie Martin,
                        the Parents of St. Therese of Lisieux”

                        followed by Questions and Answers

11:40 a.m.      Free Time

12:00 noon    Conference by Maureen O’Riordan
                       “A Map of Saint Therese’s Way of Confidence and Love”
                       followed by Questions and Answers

1:15 p.m.       Lunch

2:00 p.m.       Conference by Maureen O’Riordan
                      “How Can We Love One Another?  
                       St. Therese’s Practice of Sisterly Love in Her Carmelite Community”
                       followed by questions and answers

                      Personal Prayer

3:45 p.m.     
to 4:30 p.m.  Mass of the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
                      Fr. James Geoghegan,  O.C.D. will preside.

For information, visit http://bit.ly/speakroom 

Click below to

Learn about the speaker, Maureen O'Riordan

Maureen O'Riordan

Her journey with St. Therese; selected presentations and publications

Download a flyer

Note:  Maureen will also present "A Map of the Way of Confidence and Love of Saint Therese of Lisieux" the day after the above event, on Sunday, November 12, 2017 at the Mount Saint Joseph Monastery of the Discalced Carmelite friars in San Jose.  Details here.

"A Map of the Way of Confidence and Love of St. Therese of Lisieux," a conference at Mount Saint Joseph Carmelite Monastery in San Jose, California on Sunday, November 12, 2017

The Discalced Carmelite Friars of the Mount Saint Joseph
Carmelite Monastery in San Jose invite you to attend

“A Map of the Way of Confidence and Love
of  St. Thérèse of Lisieux” 

St. Therese in 1889, aged 16
Credit: Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux

a conference by Maureen O’Riordan of Philadelphia,
curator of “Saint Thérèse of Lisieux: A Gateway”

followed by questions and answers

Sunday November 12, 2017  

3:00 p.m.

At the Carmelite Monastery
12455 Clayton Road
San Jose, California

You are invited to stay for Evening Prayer and Benediction with the Carmelites at 5:00 p.m.

 No tickets; no registration
Donations are welcome at the event. 

For information, visit http://bit.ly/speakroom 

Click below to

Learn about the speaker, Maureen O'Riordan

Maureen O'Riordan

Her journey with St. Therese; selected presentations and publications

Download a flyer

Note:  Maureen will also present three conferences at a retreat day about St. Therese and Sts. Louis and Zelie the day before the above event, on Saturday, November 11, 2017 at the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite nuns in Santa Clara.  Details here.

"Death of a mama: August 28, 1877" - an article about the death of Saint Zelie Martin, the mother of St. Therese

saint Zelie Martin's first tombstone.  it marked her grave in the cemetery of the church of notre dame in alencon until 1894, when her body was moved to lisieux and interred beside the body of her husband.   photo credit:  susan ehlert.

Click on this title to read the article "Death of a mama: August 28, 1877," which gives details of the last hours, death, and funeral of Saint Zelie Martin.  It includes the testimony of Louise Marais, the maid who looked after Saint Zelie in her last illness.   This article originally appeared in French in Therese de Lisieux, the magazine of the Pilgrimage Office at Lisieux.  We thank them for permission to translate it and publish it in English.

The anniversary of the death of Saint Louis Martin on Sunday, July 29, 1894

Saint Louis Martin in death

The letter from Celine Martin, at La Musse, near Evreux, to her Carmelite sisters in Lisieux to tell them about the death of their father:

July 29, 1894

Dear little sisters,

     Papa is in heaven! . . . I received his last breath, I closed his eyes. . . . His handsome face took on immediately an expression of beatitude, of such profound calm !  Tranquility was painted on his features . . . He expired so gently at fifteen minutes after eight.

     My poor heart was broken at the supreme moment; a flood of tears bathed his bed.  But at heart I was joyful because of his happiness, after the terrible martyrdom he endured and which we shared with him . . . .

     Last night, in a sleep filled with anguish, I suddenly awakened; I saw in the firmament a kind of luminous globe . . . . And this globe went deeply into the immensity of heaven.

. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .    Today, St. Martha, the saint of Bethany, the one who obtained the resurrection of Lazarus . . . .

     Today, the gospel of the five wise virgins.  . . .

     Today, Sunday, the Lord's day . . . .

     And Papa will remain with us until August 2, feast of Our Lady of the Angels.  . . .

Your little Celine

(from Letters of Saint Therese of Lisieux, Volume II.   Washington, D.C.: copyright 1988 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, pp. 874-875.  Used with permission).

Read a meditation on the first anniversary of Louis Martin’s death written by his niece, Marie Guerin, later Sister Marie of the Eucharist.

Or learn more about the Martin family and about St. Therese in this volume:

image of the cover o f”letters of st. therese of lisieux, Volume II: 1890-1897”

 Below, courtesy of the Web site of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, is a photograph of the small building at La Musse in which Saint Louis Martin died on that Sunday morning in 1894.