The story of Louis Martin begins in Bordeaux in 1823. The son of a soldier, his early years were marked by mobility. Then the family moved to Alençon where Louis spent his schooling.
He learned watchmaking in Rennes, Strasbourg and Paris. Decisive years during which the desire to consecrate oneself to God was born, at the monastery of Great St Bernard. His difficulty in mastering Latin forced him to give up this project. He then opened a watch and jewelry store in 1850 rue du Pont Neuf in Alençon.
Until his marriage in 1858, he divided his time between his work, hobbies (fishing in particular), meditation and meeting others. He took part in the Vital Romet circle which brought together a dozen young Christian adults around Abbé Hurel and discovered a form of social commitment within the framework of the St Vincent de Paul conference.
His mother, who could not bring herself to see him single, told him about Zélie Guérin, with whom she learned the art of lace. Their first meeting on the Sarthe bridge will be decisive. They married less than a year later on July 12, 1858 at 22 p.m. at the town hall of Alençon and on the 13 at midnight at the Notre Dame church.
Their married life will last 19 years, entirely lived in Alençon.
It will be marked
- by a plan to live continence in marriage
- then by fostering nine children, five of whom will survive.
Madame Martin's correspondence reveals the deep affection that unites this couple.
She also describes her daily life:
- Louis' participation in the education of the children
- his professional choice to give up her activity to assist his wife in the management of the lace factory that she founded
- the deep faith that animates this family and makes it attentive to those around them
- the repercussions of the social and religious life of the time (it is the end of the Second Empire and the birth of the Third Republic ...)
- and finally the long ordeal of cancer which carried away Madame Martin at the age of 46, on August 28, 1877.
Then opens for Louis the time of widowhood that he decides to live in Lisieux with the Guérins, his in-laws.
A few letters from this period reveal him to us as a father who was attentive to each of his daughters and ready to consent to their project of religious life.
After Thérèse entered the Carmel, the ordeal of an illness began for him in 1888 which led him to be interned at the Bon Sauveur in Caen.
During periods of remission, we see him taking care of the sick around him.
Paralyzed, he was returned to his family where he died on July 29, 1894, at the age of 71.
