Day One of the Novena to Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin: "The Meeting: God's Time" - July 3, 2021
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"STS. LOUIS AND ZELIE MARTIN, ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX, AND SIBLINGS" - ICON By PAOLO ORLANDO
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Introduction to the novena to Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, July 3-11, 2021
/During the “Year of Amoris Laetitia Family,” Pope Francis has chosen the theme “Family Love: A vocation and a path to holiness” for the Tenth World Meeting of Families in June 2022. I invite you to join me in praying the novena to Sts. Louis and Zelie so that all of us may know our vocation to love and may follow that path of holiness into full solidarity with all of humanity.
Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin on Valentine's Day: "Witnesses of Conjugal Love"
/Homily of His Eminence
CARDINAL JOSE SARAIVA MARTINS
Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation
for the Causes of Saints
Representative of the Holy Father
BENEDICT XVI
On the occasion of the beatification
of the Venerable Servants of God
LOUIS MARTIN AND ZÉLIE GUERIN
lay persons, spouses, and parents
"...shine like lights in the world,
as you hold on to the word of life" Ph.2,15d-16a
WITNESSES OF CONJUGAL LOVE
Basilica of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus
October 19, 2008
XXIXth Sunday in Ordinary Time
World Day of Missions
The medallion Louis designed and gave Zélie during the wedding ceremony as a souvenir of their marriage. At right, the front side: the biblical figures of Sarah and Tobias, with the names “Louis” and “Zélie” under them. At left, the reverse: a wreath of roses with the initials “M.L. (Louis Martin) united to G. Z. (Zélie Guerin), July 13, 1858.”
WITNESSES OF CONJUGAL LOVE
Venerable colleagues in the Episcopate and the Priesthood,
Eminent Authorities, Dear pilgrims, brothers and sisters, in Christ.
"Worthy of Heaven"
Thérèse wrote in Story of a Soul: “Ah! my Jesus, pardon me if I am unreasonable in wishing to express my desires and longings which reach even unto infinity. Pardon me and heal my soul by giving her what she longs for so much! . . . ”(Ms B 2v). Jesus always answered the prayers of Thérèse, even those that she confided in a letter to Fr. Bellière, which many people now know by heart: “the good God gave me a father and a mother more worthy of Heaven than of earth.” (LT 261).
I have just finished the Rite of Beatification with which the Holy Father has inscribed conjointly the two spouses in the Book of the Blessed. This Beatification of Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin, whom Thérèse described as “parents without equal, worthy of Heaven, holy soil impregnated with a virginal perfume,” is a great first.
My heart gives thanks to God for this exemplary testimony of conjugal love, capable of encouraging Christian homes in the complete practice of Christian virtues in the same way that it aroused the desire for holiness in Thérèse.
While I was reading the Apostolic Letter of the Holy Father, I thought of my father and my mother, and I would like, now, for you also to think of your Papa and your Mama, so that together we may thank God for having created and made us Christians through the conjugal love of our parents. If having been given life is a marvellous thing, for us, it is yet more admirable that our parents led us to the Church, which alone is capable of making Christians. No one can make himself a Christian by himself.
Children of Normandy, a gift for all
Among the vocations to which people are called by Providence, marriage is one of the most noble and elevated. Louis and Zélie understood that they could sanctify themselves not despite marriage but through, in, and by marriage, and that their nuptials would be considered as the starting point for a rising together. Today the Church does not only admire the holiness of these children of Normandy, a gift for all, but She is reflected in this Blessed couple who contribute to make more splendid and beautiful the gown of a bride married in the Church. She doesn't only admire the holiness of their life; she recognizes in this couple the eminent holiness of the institution of conjugal love as conceived by the Creator Himself. The conjugal love of Louis and Zélie Martin is a pure reverberation of the love of Christ for his Church, but it is also a pure reverberation of the love "resplendent, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and immaculate" (Ephesians 5, 27) in the manner that the Church loves her spouse: the Christ. The Father "chose us before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him, in love" (Ephesians 1, 4).
Only the violent take heaven by force
Louis and Zélie gave witness to the radicalism of the evangelical engagement of the vocation of marriage, even to the point of heroism, for "from the days of John the
Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force” (Matthew 11, 12). Those who are violent in their speech are not the violent that God asks for, nor those who suffer tortures. It is those who do violence to themselves, who are moderate, gentle and peaceful. The Martins were not afraid to do violence to themselves to take the kingdom of heaven by force, and thus they became the “light of the world” that today the Church “sets on a stand to give light to all in the house [Church]. Just so, your light must shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify our heavenly Father." Their example of Christian life is like "a city built on a mountain which can no longer be hidden" (Mathew 5, 13-16).
The message the Gospel in the Martin home was not just a word
The words of the apostle Paul in the first letter to the Thessalonians, on this Sunday,
don't sketch out only the life of each Church (Diocese), of each ecclesial community (parish), but also--and this can appear paradoxical---it is the program of life for all Christian families. What is affirmed for the Church can also be affirmed for the family,
a little domestic Church, a living and vital cell that gives life to the members of the Church, through which the Church exists and carries out the mission desired by the Head of its body: the Christ.
But the words of the apostle also trace the moral and spiritual portrait of the newly beatified: Louis and Zélie practiced throughout their lives an active faith, a charity that goes beyond what is required, a hope that holds firm in our Lord Jesus Christ and in the presence of God our Father. We know it, beloved sisters and brothers of God, and today the Authority of Peter has confirmed it for us: the Martin spouses were chosen by God. Indeed, the message of the Gospel with them was not only words, but power, the action of the Holy Spirit, absolute certitude.
The Gospel at the Martins was not simply words. "Master", they said to him, "we know it: you are always true and you teach the true path of God": for them, Jesus is the Master, the only Master who teaches the true path of God. There is no dichotomy between Jesus and the Church: Jesus and the Church are one, they are no longer two but one flesh, as with man and woman, as the husband is united to his spouse, Jesus is the Church, the Church is Jesus. Louis and Zélie "are not two wax saints, without ardor, without passion.
They are two beings of flesh and blood who love each other with fervor, who each wanted the other to be happy, who were so united that the least separation weighed heavily upon them" (Fr. Piat).
"Master, give us your advice"
But what is the secret of the success in their Christian life? "You have been told, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: Only to do the right, and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6, 8). Louis and Zélie: a man and a woman who walked humbly with God in search of the counsel of the Lord. “Master, give us your opinion.” They looked for the counsel of the Lord. They thirsted after the counsel of the Lord. They loved the counsel of the Lord. They conformed themselves to the counsel of the Lord without complaining and without discussion or, worse, contesting it. And to be sure and certain of walking in the true counsel of the Lord, they always turned toward the Church, expert mistress in humanity, and towards its teaching. There is no aspect of their private or public life that is not in perfect harmony with the teachings of the Church, teachings of their time as well as of ours.
”Hypocrites! Why do you want to put me to the test?” We have the impression that this way of questioning the Christ--or the Church--is not only an attitude of contemporaries of Christ or of opponents of Christ, but it is brewing in a sly way, disguised under the form of rationality, even in Christian circles . . . . Questions are posed, not for the purpose of knowing the truth, but to turn them into objections. Christ’s response, and that of the Church, is always the same, yesterday as today: “Hypocrites! Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and unto God that which is God's.”
"God, the first served!"
For the Martin spouses, “that which is Caesar's and that which is God's” was very clear. There was no hesitation with putting God first in their life. "My Lord God, first served" was the emblem of Joan of Arc, and the Martins made it the emblem of their home. It is remarkable to see how this couple always submitted themselves to the divine will. In their home, God was always the first served. When a trial touched their hearth, their spontaneous reaction was always the acceptance of the divine will. When Madame Martin said, as she often did, "God is Master, He does what He wants,” Monsieur Martin echoed her in saying: “God, first served.” They served God in serving the poor, neither as an outpouring of generosity, nor as social justice, but simply because the poor are Jesus. To serve the poor is to serve Jesus, or, giving to God what is God's: "whatever you did for one of these least brothers or sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25, 34-40).
Heaven is not empty, "Heaven is filled with souls"
In several minutes we will proclaim our Profession of Faith that Louis and Zélie repeated so many times at Mass and above all taught their children. After having confessed the Holy Catholic Church, the Symbol of the Apostles adds the Communion of saints. This term designates not only the assembly of all the saints but also the communion of holy people in the Christ who died for all; the lives of those people who acted for Christ or suffered for him bear fruit for all.
In the Gospel that she carried with her, Thérèse had written the Credo with her own blood, and we all know the love she had for the Church: “In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be Love!” That love for the Church Thérèse saw in the teaching of her parents and learned by heart on their knees. “I believed, I felt there was a heaven and that this heaven is filled with souls who actually love me, who consider me their child.... ” (Ms B 2v),
“In this Heaven filled with souls”--as Thérèse said-- today we can count from now on the Blessed Louis and Zélie, whom we invoke for the first time: “Louis and Zélie, pray God for us. I beg you, cherish us, look on us as your children. Cherish the entire Church. Cherish above all our homes and our children.”
--Louis and Zélie are a gift for young engaged couples because of the courage they showed in obeying the Church even when this required them to go against the tide, to go against their inclination. They weren't afraid of such words as purity, chastity, or virginity; they didn't take shortcuts; they spent their premarital time of engagement, brief as it was, respectful of the will of God and the teachings of the Church.
--Louis and Zélie are a gift for spouses of all ages through the esteem, the respect, and the harmony with which they loved each other in marriage for nineteen years. She wrote to him “I can't live without you, my dear Louis.” He replied to her “I am your husband and friend who loves you for life.” They lived out heroically the matrimonial promises of faithfulness to the commitment, of the indissolubility of the bond, of the fruitfulness of love in happiness as well as in trial, in health as well as in sickness.
--Louis and Zélie are a gift for parents by the evangelical abnegation with which, in common agreement, they wanted many children to offer to the Lord. Veritable ministers of love and life, they sought fecundity as service. We all admire Thérèse, incomparable child of this couple, masterpiece of God’s grace but also masterpiece of their love toward life and children.
--Louis and Zélie are a gift for educators because they respected and wisely guided the vocational choices of their children. Madame Martin wishes her daughters to lead a holy life, in the vocation that God gives them (Correspondance Familiale, letters 154, 163, 184). We know that during their youth, Louis and Zélie, before meeting, had thought seriously of a consecrated religious life. Did their hearts hold some nostalgia for the vocation to consecrated life? Yes. Certainly. In all seriously considered Christian vocations, there is the possibility of all the other vocations. Even this Thérèse learned through her parents, as she wrote in Story of a Soul, that she would have desired all the vocations and all the missions possible.
--Louis and Zélie are a gift for all those who have lost a spouse. Today, perhaps more than ever, widowhood is a condition that is hard to accept. Louis lived the loss of his wife with faith, going so far as to make a gift of himself. He did not listen to his legitimate personal wishes; he denied them for the good of his children.
--Louis and Zélie are a gift for those who must face coming death. Zélie dies of breast cancer; Louis ends his existence because of cerebral arteriosclerosis. In a world that has made death commonplace and which abandons those who are dying, they taught us to look death straight in the face, surrendering themselves to God. In a world which asks itself where to find reasons that justify death, we offer the human and Christian example
of Louis and Zélie. She wrote to her husband: “the good God gave me the grace to not be afraid [of death], I feel very peaceful. I am almost happy. I wouldn't change my lot for any other.” Louis also is sustained by the same sentiment. When he is told that the whole family is making a novena to St. Joseph to ask for his healing, he answers: “No, you mustn't ask that, but only the will of God.”
Exemplary model of a missionary home
Finally, I give thanks to God on this 82nd Day of World Missions, because Louis and Zélie are an exemplary model of a missionary home. This is the reason that the Holy Father wanted the beatification to take place on this day so dear to the Church Universal, to unite the masters Louis and Zélie to the disciple Thérèse, their daughter, who became the Patroness of Missions and a Doctor of the Church.
The testimony of the Martin children on the subject of the missionary spirit that reigned in their home is unanimous and striking. "My parents were much interested in the salvation of souls... But the work of the apostolate the best known in our house was the Propagation of the Faith, for which, each year, my parents made a very large offering. It is this zeal for souls that made them want so much to have a missionary son and daughters in religious life. My father, in his devotion to [Saint Francis Xavier] the apostle of the Indies, liked to sign himself ‘Xavier.’” (Positio, Vol. II, p. 972).
Thérèse tells us “Papa rewarded me by giving me a pretty little coin worth four sous. I placed it in a box which was to receive a new coin of the same value every Thursday. It was from this box that I drew my offerings on the big feasts when there were special collections for the Propagation of the Faith or other similar works.” (Positio, Vol. II, pp. 895-896).
Quite recently, Cardinal Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, wrote: "For a disciple of Christ, to announce the Gospel is not an option but a commandment of the Lord . . . . A Christian must consider himself to be on a mission (...) to spread the Gospel in each heart, in each home, in each culture.” (Lambeth Conference, July 23, 2008).
But the Martin family didn't have only admirers. Many saw in them the numerous defects of the century of the "belle époque" which translates into a mediocre history and which has nothing extraordinary. They recalled that the ground where Thérèse flowered was poor soil and banal from a cultural and religious point of view. I don't know, truthfully, if there exist better or worse time periods for the "quality" of people who lived there, but among them, there are persons whom the Church recognizes as models of saintliness. This husband and wife lived within the limits of their own time, even as we do, but they were passionate disciples of Jesus until the day they went to Paradise. I have no doubt about the mystery of the saintliness of Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin, but for those who have doubts, I turn again to the words of little Thérèse, which are, even in this case, those of a Doctor of the Church:
"Jesus deigned to teach me this mystery. He set before me the book of nature; I understood how all the flowers He created are beautiful, how the splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not take away the perfume of the little violet or the delightful simplicity of the daisy . . . I understood that if all the flowers wanted to be roses, nature would lose her springtime beauty, and the fields would no longer be decked out with little wildflowers . . .
And so it is in the world of souls, Jesus’ garden. He willed to create great saints comparable to lilies and roses, but He has created smaller ones, and these must content to be daisies or violets destined to give joy to God’s glances when He looks down at His feet. Perfection consists in doing his will, in being what He wills us to be...." (Oeuvres complètes, Ms A 2v, p.72).
My sisters, my brothers, may your families, your parishes, your religious communities of Normandy, of France . . . and of the entire world, be also holy and missionary homes, as was the home of the Blessed spouses Louis and Zélie Martin. This evening, if you look into the heavens, next to the name of Thérèse you will also see sparkling the names of her papa and her mama. Amen.
translated by Susan Ehlert for thereseoflisieux.org
Fifth anniversary of the canonization of Louis and Zelie Martin on October 18, 2015
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Visit the canonization ceremony with me, and see images of what happened in St. Peter’s Square that morning; Pope Francis; Pietro Schiliro, the child whose healing was the miracle for Louis and Zelie’s beatification; and more. They have been canonized for five years. Pray that people come to know and love them more and more and to lead lives inspired by tem.
150 years ago with Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin: October 8, 1870: little Marie-Melanie-Therese Martin dies of starvation at the age of seven weeks
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Of all the tragedies that happened in the Martin family, I find this one almost the hardest of which to write. I have written of the birth of Marie-Melanie-Therese, Louis and Zelie’s eighth child, on Tuesday, August 16, 1870, one week after the Franco-Prussian war broke out. This baby girl lived only seven weeks, dying on Saturday, October 8, 1870. I would like to tell her story. As usual, within days of the child’s birth, Louis and Zelie had to face the question of how she could be nourished.
Infant mortality and the shortage of wet-nurses in 19th-century France
Zelie had been able to breast-feed only her first three daughters. Then the breast trouble which would end her life began to manifest itself. Beginning with little Helene in 1864, she had to find wet-nurses for the other babies. Dr. Frances Renda sketches the social and economic conditions in 19th century France which made this search so difficult. As more women began to work in factories, the demand for wet-nurses grew, and the supply could not keep up with it. Many infants died. In these years, medicine did not yet understand the connection between bacteria and gastro-intestinal illnesses. “The origins of the bacteria that caused most diseases were only identified in the late 1880’s . . . . a high rate of infant mortality continued until pasteurization began in the 1880s.”[i] Fr. Thierry Henault-Morel points out that babies who were not fed breast-milk did not develop immunities that could have protected them from gastro-intestinal troubles. Unpasteurized cow’s milk, already hazardous, was often cut with unsafe water.[ii]
Rosalie taille, nee cosnard, who nursed louis and zelie’s two baby boys as well as the future st. therese
The Martin Family’s Experience with Wet-Nurses
Louis and Zelie searched diligently for good nurses. Since the wet-nurses had their own babies to look after, it was usually necessary to send the child to board in the nurse’s home. Helene was sent to live with a nurse in the country whose name is unknown. The two little boys who followed, Marie-Joseph-Louis and Marie-Joseph-Jean-Baptiste, each were sent to Rosalie Taille, nee Cosnard, in Semalle, a farming hamlet five miles from Alencon. She was a good woman, in whom Louis and Zelie had confidence. But both baby boys developed enteritis, and Rose could not save them from this intestinal disease which killed so many children.
Later, Zelie and Louis did not always succeed in finding reliable nurses. When Celine was born in 1869, her parents, having lost the two boys, wanted to keep this new infant as near as possible to their own house, so they tried two wet-nurses in Alencon. The second was a disaster, and Celine almost died of neglect. In her memoir about Louis, she tells how, despite the nurse’s reputation for orderliness and cleanliness, Louis was so anxious for his infant daughter’s welfare that he used to walk up and down in front of the nurse’s house.
I was only a few weeks old when one day he heard me crying convulsively. He entered and found me in the cradle all alone. He searched around the house and inquired from the neighbors: the nurse had gone—for a drink! He learned then that she was often drunk, and did not nourish me sufficiently. Already puny, I was dying of neglect.[iii]
Rose taille’s cottage at semalle, where she nursed three of the martin children.
Celine was taken away from the alcoholic nurse and sent to Madame Georges, “a good, decent woman” in Semalle, where, to her parents’ great relief, she thrived.
When the little “Therese,” as the family called Marie-Melanie-Therese, arrived, Zelie tried to nurse the baby herself, but it wasn’t enough, and they had to give her bottled milk. On the third day, little Therese developed such a severe stomach upset that the doctor said they must find a wet nurse within an hour. The next night Zelie gave the baby to a nurse on the rue de la Barre in Alencon, one about whom she had “very good information.”
The baptism of Marie-Melanie-Therese
On Monday, September 5, 1870, the infant received the Complementary Rites of Baptism at her parents’ parish church, St. Pierre de Montsort. (The phrase “complementary” suggests that Marie-Melanie-Therese was baptized privately at home on the day of her birth, with only the essentials of the ceremony—the pouring of water and the words of baptism—performed. Later, at the ceremony in the church, the godparents assumed their roles and the baby, dressed in a white robe, was anointed by the priest and given her name, and this ceremony was entered in the parish’s records).
Her christening robe
the martin family christening robe. the gift of leonie’s godmother,
When Leonie Martin was baptized in 1863, her godmother, Mme Leonie Tifenne, gave her this christening robe. All six of the children who followed her, including little Marie-Melanie-Therese and the future St. Therese, wore it. It is now on display above the font in the Basilica of Notre Dame in Alencon, where St. Therese was baptized. All the other children wore it for their baptisms at St. Pierre de Montsort.
Her godparents
Major Henry charles de lacauve, louis martin’s first cousin
Louis and Zelie had planned to ask Louis’s first cousin, Major Henry Charles de Lacauve, to serve as godfather. Zelie’s letters recount how a young society woman of Alencon had told Zelie that she would like to be the baby’s godmother,
“but I didn’t have a godfather distinguished enough to please her. I didn’t like to say anything. Finally, I thought of the handsome cousin who had previously refused to be a godfather, but this time he accepted wholeheartedly.”[iv]
Zelie’s letter suggests that both “Mademoiselle X” and Major de Lacauve, who had not met, were considering the possibility of marriage. But Major de Lacauve, a battalion commander in the French Army, was fighting in the Franco-Prussian war. The very day before the baptism, he was wounded and taken prisoner of war. Perhaps the young woman withdrew as godmother. In the end, Pauline Martin, a few days short of her ninth birthday, served as godmother for her baby sister. (Quite young children must have been permitted to be godparents at that time. Pauline had served as godmother for Marie-Joseph-Jean-Baptiste in 1867, and Marie had been godmother to the little Marie-Helene in 1864, when Marie was not yet five).
Her names
Louis and Zelie had given all their children, boys and girls, the first name “Marie.” They might have chosen the name “Melanie” in honor of Melanie Calvat, the shepherdess who, in 1846, saw a vision of Our Lady at La Salette. La Salette became the site of mass national pilgrimages. Louis and Zelie must have had a particular affection for the name “Therese,” since they gave it intentionally to both of their last two daughters. After Marie-Francoise-Therese was born in 1873, Zelie wrote: “This child is named Therese, like my last little girl.”
The baptismal font and the church of St. Pierre de Monsort
In 1860, when Louis came there to present his first child, Marie-Louise, for baptism, he looked so happy that the priest commented on it. Louis answered “This is the first time you’ve seen me here for a baptism, but it won’t be the last!” Now, ten years later, this little Therese, as the family called Marie-Melanie-Therese, was the last of eight Martin children to be baptized in this font and in this church.
The baptismal font in which the first eight Martin children were baptized is still in the present-day church of St. Pierre de Montsort. By the time St. Therese was born in 1873, the family had moved to a different parish.
The little Therese’s wet-nurse and the role of Louise Marais
Rue de la barre, the street where the wet-nurse of little marie-melanie-therese martin lived in alencon
Although this wet-nurse, like Celine’s, had a good reputation, she was guilty of criminal neglect. The older sisters, home from boarding school on vacation, went to see their baby sister often when Zelie could not go. On these visits they were accompanied by the maid, Louise Marais, whose sinister role in the Martin family would be further revealed only in 1877, when Zelie learned of how Louise had been beating and abusing Leonie.
In her 1909 memoir, Marie Martin recounts how she noticed what was happening to her “ravishing” baby sister under the nurse’s care. At ten, Marie was already very intuitive. She wrote that, although the nurse appeared clean and kept her house well, Marie instinctively did not trust her, thinking that she looked dishonest. Marie noticed that, when they arrived, the nurse immediately fed little Therese, who threw herself on the breast as though she were dying of hunger. Marie felt that, at only ten, she could say nothing to the nurse that would make a difference. But, on the way home, she told Louise that she was sure her little sister was being neglected and that she planned to tell her mother how the infant had thrown herself on the nurse like someone who was starving.
Louise told me I didn’t know anything, that it wasn’t worth the bother of worrying our poor little mother, that she had enough trouble without that, etc. . . . . But one day unable to keep it to myself any longer I said, looking at the bread, “Ah, if that poor little Therese only had a little morsel, at least she wouldn’t be dying of hunger.” Louise looked at me stupefied, sensing what was about to happen. Indeed, Mamma questioned us and from the next morning on the poor little one was at our house. Alas! it was already too late . . . . I had a pain in my heart for reproaching myself for not having said sooner what I thought and, for fear of Louise, having caused the death of my little sister.[v]
Louise Marais, who worked in the family from 1865, when she was 16, to 1877, terrorized the Martin daughters when they were children. Marie writes that she herself was the only one Louise did not dominate, but, in this case, she was sufficiently frightened of Louise not to speak until it was too late. If Louise had taken Marie seriously, little Therese might have been saved, and Marie spared the pain of guilt and self-reproach.
The death of Marie-Melanie-Therese
The house on rue pont-neuf where the martin family lived from the marriage of louis and zelie in 1858 until 1871. Little Marie-Melanie-Therese was born in this house. She died here seven weeks later.
The day after they brought the baby home to the house on rue Pont-Neuf, Louis left Alencon at 4:00 a.m. for the commune of Heloup, about five miles away. He had heard of a good nurse there, but, when he arrived, she was sick in bed and could not return with him. Little Therese lived for at least a week after she returned to her parents’ house; she began to gain some weight, but she was already too weak to recover.
Zelie wrote to her sister-in-law as soon as little Therese died:
October 8, 1870
… My little Thérèse (Mélanie-Thérèse) died today, Saturday, at one o’clock in the afternoon. Last Sunday, I believed she was saved. She was much better and had gained three hundred grams during the week . . . . but Friday morning, after using the doctor’s prescription, she was dying. At noon, it was finished!
Her death agony began this morning, at ten-thirty. You couldn’t imagine how she suffered! I’m heartbroken. I loved this child so much. With each new loss, it always seems to me that I love the child I’m losing more than the others. She was as sweet as a bouquet, and then I looked after her all by myself. Oh! I would like to die, too! I’ve been completely exhausted for two days. I’ve had almost nothing to eat, and I was on my feet all night, in mortal anguish.[vi]
We will return to the grief Zelie experienced as she lost a child for the fourth time, and the faith with which she met it.
Notes:
[i] “The Historical, Social, and Religious Background of 19th Century France in the Time of the Martin Family” in A Call to a Deeper Love: The Family Correspondence of the Parents of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, 1863-1885, ed. Dr. Frances Renda, tr. Ann Connors Hess. Staten Island, New York: Society of St. Paul/Alba House, 2011, pp. xxxiv-xxxvi.
[ii] Louis et Zelie Martin, by Thierry-Henault Morel. Paris: Editions du Cerf, 2015, p. 105.
[iii] The Father of the Little Flower: Louis Martin, 1823-1894, by Celine Martin (Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face), tr. Fr. Michael Collins, SMA. Charlotte, North Carolina: TAN Books and Publishers, 2005, pp. 40-41.
[iv] A Call to a Deeper Love, op. cit., pp. 65-66.
[v] Therese de Lisieux, “Marie, l’Intrepide” (“Marie, the Intrepid”), February, 2010, p. 5, cited and translated in A Call to a Deeper Love, op. cit., pp. 71-72, note 152.
[vi] A Call to a Deeper Love, op. cit., pp. 70-71.