"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:

A photo album of those who knew St. Therese at Lisieux

As a special gift for the feast of St. Therese, I have created this photo album of those who knew St. Therese at Lisieux.  These photos of the Guerin family and their relatives; priests who knew Therese; her tutor, Mme. Papinau; and others who knew Therese at Lisieux were displayed at an exposition at St. Jacques Church (now a municipal exhibit hall) in Lisieux in 2009.  I am most grateful to the photographers, Peter and Liane Klostermann, for the gift of these photos, and to the Pilgrimage Office at Lisieux for permitting me to display them here. 

Novena of gifts for the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux - day four - contemporary photographs of the countryside around Lisieux

The photographer of the blog "l'instantane normandie" has graciously permitted me to display 72 of his beautiful photographs of the countryside around Lisieux, little changed since the day of St. Therese.  Many of the scenes he has photographed are places the Martin family would have included in their family walks, picnics, and fishing trips.  Please see them here.

Novena of gifts for the feast of Saint Therese of Lisieux - day three - Exhibit of photographs of Lisieux at the time of Therese

As today's gift to prepare for Therese's feast, I invite you to visit an online exhibit of 116 photos of Lisieux "au temps de Therese."  These photos are from the album of Francois Bidet, who was proprietor of a pharmacy near that of Isidore Guerin, Therese's uncle. I thank La Bibliotheque Electronique de Lisieux for mounting this exhibit.  The photos are the property of the Musee d'art et de histoire de Lisieux.  Jean Bergeret wrote the accompanying text.  You can see townspeople shoveling snow before the Cathedral Saint-Pierre on the Place Thiers during the bitterly cold winter of 1895; a man begging who could be one of the people helped by the Martin family; a Eucharistic procession in the town square; market day, and many other photos.  Please visit them at this site.

A novena of gifts for the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux

For the nine days leading up to the feast of St. Therese of Lisieux on October 1, I want to offer a feast-day gift every day.  The first one is a gallery of more than a hundred photos, icons, and images of St. Therese.  It is the work of M. Franck Monvoisin, and I thank him for permission to link to it.  As we prepare to celebrate the feast, may they be "windows of God" for us.