Letter from Pope Leo XIV
Rome, Sunday, October 19, 2025
To His Excellency Monsignor Bruno Feillet
Bishop of Séez
I am pleased to join you in thought and prayer, along with all the clergy and faithful people gathered, as you celebrate the 10thrd anniversary of the Canonization of Louis and Zélie Martin, on the very places where they sanctified themselves in their married life. The first couple as such to be canonized, this event is particularly important because it highlights marriage as a path to holiness. Among the vocations to which men and women are called by God, marriage is one of the noblest and most elevated. "Louis and Zélie understood that they could sanctify themselves not despite the marriage but through, in et by marriage, and that their marriage should be considered as the starting point of a journey together" (Card. Martins, Beatification Homily). The Holy Couple of Alençon is therefore a luminous and enthusiastic model for generous souls who have embarked on this path, or who plan to do so, with the sincere desire to lead a beautiful and good life under the gaze of the Lord, in joy as well as in trial.
