Feast – October 1^st
“Little Flower” ~ Doctor of the Church and Patroness of Foreign Missions

St. Thérèse was born on January 2, 1873 at Alençon, France and was baptized Marie Françoise Thérèse. When she was only four years old her mother died and her family moved to Lisieux. When Thérèse was still very young she did kind little deeds for everyone. She prepared for her First Holy Communion by making many little sacrifices. She became a very special friend of Jesus. She once said, “From the age of three, I never refused our good God anything. I have never given Him anything but love.”

Thérèse entered the Carmelite convent at the age of fifteen. She wanted to save souls, and to help priests save souls, by prayer, sacrifice, and suffering. Her “Little Way” means love and trust in God. St. Thérèse is called the Little Flower of Jesus because she loved the Infant Jesus and, like a child, did little things to please God.

She was only twenty-four years old when she died on September 30, 1897. After her death, Thérèse was credited with an extraordinary number of miracles. At the time of her death, there was a fifty-year waiting period required by canon law before a cause for canonization could be initiated, but this was waived in her case and she was beatified in 1923. She was canonized in 1925. At the canonization, Pope Pius X noted that she had achieved sanctity “without going beyond the common order of things.” Pope John Paul II made her a Doctor of the Church on October 19, 1997.  St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus is one of the best-loved saints in the Church. Moreover, Pope St. Pius X called Thérèse “the greatest saint of modern times.”