While Louis and Zélie Martin were canonized in 2015, the process of beatification of their third daughter, Léonie, opens. Indeed, Monsignor Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, accepted, on January 24, 2015, the request of the sisters of the Monastery of the Visitation of Caen to introduce his cause of beatification. She is now a “servant of God”. We can only observe in this, after the canonization of their little last Saint Thérèse in 1925, another fruit that Louis and Zélie bore.
Born on June 3, 1863 in Alençon, she is difficult to place in the siblings between the pair Marie/Pauline and that of Céline/Thérèse. The death at the age of 5 of her little sister Hélène, born a year after her, must have reinforced this isolation.
There is nothing easy with this child: precarious health, difficult character, permanent instability, slow intelligence... Zélie, his mother writes to his brother Isidore: “I saw him between life and death for 16 months. » She worries her parents and her sisters, but around her they develop treasures of love, patience, prayer… Sent back several times, she will not study at the Visitation of Le Mans like her older sisters. Her parents must therefore give up the brilliant success that we always hope for her offspring and love her as she is, hoping to make her progress! Léonie nevertheless speaks of her future with a constant affirmation: “I will be a nun at the Visitation with my aunt. »
Life was not easy, neither for her nor for those around her… but she will enter the Visitation and be a nun. A "true" nun as she wishes to become. Without going into the details of Léonie Martin's tormented life, we can admire her mother's trust in God. Indeed, one can read in one of Zélie's letters: “As for Léonie, God alone can change her, and I am convinced that he will. » Even if the game is not won, Zélie will witness Léonie's change towards her once her daughter is delivered from the despotic and violent grip of Louise Marais, their servant. Zelie wrote: “She loves me as much as it is possible to love and with this love the love of God penetrates little by little into her heart. »
If Zélie undertakes a final and trying pilgrimage to Lourdes, it is because she hopes to heal in order to have time to raise her daughter. “It was from the moment I saw what happened to Léonie that I connected with life, I now know how much she needs me. » However, she resigns herself and offers this pilgrimage for Léonie: “At least if the Blessed Virgin does not heal me, I will beg her to heal my child, to open his intelligence and make him a saint. » Léonie is not left out in this offering: she wants to die in her mother's place. Finally Zélie will offer her life for her daughter until the end, as she said shortly before dying: “If it only took the sacrifice of my life for Léonie to become a saint, I would do it wholeheartedly. »
Zélie's prayer was answered. Léonie, after several fruitless attempts, definitively entered the monastery of the Visitation of Caen in 1899. It was there that she died in the odor of sanctity on June 16, 1941. For more than sixty years, through her sacrifices and her prayers, she managed to master her initially rebellious nature. Conscious of her weaknesses, she took refuge in abandonment in the Mercy of God. She made Thérèse's words her own: "Since I understood that it was impossible for me to do anything by myself, the task no longer seemed difficult to me, I felt that the only thing necessary was to unite myself more and more with Jesus and that the rest would be given to me as well. »
By discovering this crucifying and crucified love in the life of Louis and Zélie Martin, we understand why today's parents turn to Léonie to entrust their difficult, weak, tried children whose path is difficult to find in a world that is advocates success at all costs and at all levels. The monastery of the Visitation of Caen hears these suffering prayers daily. At the Sanctuary of Alençon, especially in the house where the family lived, many parents come to entrust their child. Those who suffer and those who cause suffering. We are witnesses to the graces obtained: a dialogue is renewed, pardons are exchanged, doors open. Often, if the signs are not so clear, it is faith, courage and humble patience that are reinforced to accompany this different child.
In the footsteps of Léonie in Alençon
- Born on June 3, 1863 in the house, rue du Pont Neuf, the first home of the Martin couple above the Watch and Jewelry store of Louis.
- Baptism at the Saint Pierre de Montsort church on June 4, 1863, on the feast of the Blessed Sacrament by Abbé Lebouc. (The baptistery is preserved in this church.)
- Family home from 1871 to 1877, 50 rue Saint Blaise where Léonie lived with her family from 8 to 14 years old. (House open to visitors, birthplace of Saint Thérèse)
- Education at the primary school run by the Institute of the Sisters of Providence, 5 rue du Pont Neuf, at the bedside of the Notre-Dame church. (We can see the location but there is no longer a school there.)
- First Communion on May 23, 1875, on the feast of the Holy Trinity in the Church of Notre-Dame. (Basilica since June 6, 2009.) Place of the marriage of Louis and Zélie, of the Baptism of Thérèse, of the funeral of Zélie.
- Monastery of the Poor Clares, rue de la demi-lune, October 7, 1886, Léonie's first attempt at religious life (Experience which will last 2 months: Léonie's fragile health cannot withstand the rigor of the rule.)
In Sées: Pilgrimage of Louis Martin on foot (42 km round trip) to obtain the healing of Léonie at the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception (raised to the rank of minor basilica on May 1, 1902) and annual pilgrimage of Zélie with Léonie on December 8, feast of the Immaculate Conception. (FC 117, June 1, 1874).
