"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.