Early childhood
She was born on January 2, 1873 in Alençon and was baptized on January 4 in the Notre-Dame church. The Martin family often spent their holidays in Lisieux with Isidore Guérin, Zélie's brother, a pharmacist, and his wife Céline. Zélie also has a sister, Marie-Louise, Sister Marie-Dosithée, Visitandine at the monastery of the Visitation in Le Mans. The eldest Marie and Pauline will be boarders there.
Thérèse lost her mother at the age of 4 and a half and was left very marked by it. Marie and Pauline, the two eldest daughters will then take care of the three youngest.
In 1877, his father moved to Lisieux in the Buissonnets house with his 5 daughters. It is a secluded residence, where the Martin family lives in solitude away from the city. Thérèse, a playful little girl with a strong character, becomes after the death of her mother "shy and gentle, overly sensitive".
She attended school at the Bénédictines de Lisieux boarding school. She discovers there the collective life that she lives with difficulty, finding her comfort in the presence of her sister Céline by her side.
In 1882, Pauline, sister of Thérèse whom she had chosen as a second mother, entered the Carmel.
Disease
At the end of 1882, Thérèse fell ill with an illness causing her discomfort and headaches. His condition worsened in the following months. Very worried, the family prays to Our Lady of Victories. On May 13, 1883, Léonie, Marie and Céline prayed at the foot of Thérèse's bed and turned towards the statue of the Virgin. Thérèse also prays. She then sees the Virgin smiling at her. The patient is definitely recovered. At Christmas 1886, she received a grace of conversion which brought her out of childhood. “Jesus clothed me with his armor and, since that night, I was not defeated in any battle, but on the contrary I walked from victory to victory and began, so to speak, a race of a giant. » (Ms A) In July 1887, after a Sunday mass at Saint-Pierre Cathedral, she received the revelation of her mission: to save souls through prayer and sacrifice.
Therese flourishes. She discovers the power of prayer when she sees her prayer for Pranzini (sentenced to death, refusing all help from religion, he kissed the crucifix when climbing the scaffold) answered. She then has the desire to save many other souls for God. She told her father of her desire to enter the Carmel at the age of 15. He accepts, but she comes up against the categorical refusal of Canon Delatroëtte, superior of the Carmel. To console his daughter in tears, Louis Martin takes her to the bishop, Mgr Hugonin, in Bayeux. He listens to her express the wish to consecrate herself to God, which she has felt since she was a child. But he postpones his decision.
Trip to Rome
In 1887, Louis Martin took his daughters Céline and Thérèse on the diocesan pilgrimage to Rome: “Oh! …these beauties of nature… I didn't have enough eyes to look. Standing at the door I almost lost my breath; I would have liked to be on both sides of the wagon…” (Ms A 57v°) During this stay, Thérèse had the audacity to ask Pope Leo XIII for permission to enter the Carmel at the age of 15 despite the opposition of the superiors. The bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, Mgr Flavien Hugonin, finally gives him his authorization.
carmel
On April 9, 1888, Thérèse entered Carmel.
“I felt my heart beating with such violence that it seemed impossible to move forward when someone came to sign us to come to the convent door; however, I advanced while wondering if I was not going to die by the force of the beating of my heart…” (Ms A 69°) She learns about the harsh life of Carmel: "I found religious life as I had imagined it...my first steps encountered more thorns than roses...I mean the lack of judgment, of education, of the susceptibility of certain characters, all things that don't make life very pleasant… A word, a friendly smile, are often enough to make a sad soul blossom. » (Ms A 69v° and Ms C 28r°)
She took the habit on January 2, 1889
Barely twelve days after taking the habit, her father, suffering from a degenerative brain disease, has a particularly serious crisis. He was to be interned in the Bon Sauveur asylum in Caen. Thérèse plunges into silence and prayer, contemplating the Holy Face for a long time. She deepens her vocation, she who wants to become a great saint, practices charity towards her sisters, reads Saint John of the Cross.
Thérèse pronounced her final vows on September 8, 1890, at the age of 17 and a half, in the hands of Mother Marie de Gonzague, her prioress.
Her life of prayer draws its source from the reading of the Gospel which she always carries with her. In 1893, Sister Agnès of Jesus (Pauline, sister of Thérèse) became prioress and entrusted the novitiate to Mother Marie de Gonzague. She asks Thérèse to help her. In 1894, Thérèse wrote her first pious recreations (small plays, performed on major feast days by a few sisters for the rest of the community). She also writes spiritual poems. On July 29, 1894, Louis Martin died. Céline entered the Carmel of Lisieux on September 14, 1894. In August 1895, the four Martin sisters were joined by their cousin, Marie Guérin. At the end of 1894, Thérèse discovered her little way and experimented with it more and more, until she offered herself to merciful love on June 9, 1895.
At the request of her sister Pauline, mother Agnès of Jesus, she undertook the writing of her childhood memories, which would become part of Story of a soul: "It is to you, my dear Mother, to you who are twice my Mother, that I come to entrust the story of my soul... I will only do one thing: Start singing what I must repeat eternally “The Mercies of the Lord!!! »… » (Ms A)
Illness – The ordeal of nothingness
On the night of Thursday to Good Friday 1896, Thérèse spits blood, which she perceives "like a soft and distant murmur which announced to me the arrival of the Bridegroom" (Ms C 5r°). A few days later, she is plunged into the deepest spiritual darkness from which she will never emerge. On May 30, Mother Marie de Gonzague entrusts him with a second missionary after Abbé Bellière, Father Roulland, of the Foreign Missions of Paris, who is preparing to leave for China. He will be a true soul brother to her.
Entry into life: April – September 30, 1897
Thérèse's health deteriorated rapidly, she was in a lot of pain. She is installed in the infirmary of the monastery. Mother Agnès and Sister Geneviève begin to write down their sister's words. In June, at the suggestion of Mother Agnès, Mother Marie de Gonzague asked Thérèse to write down her memories of Carmelites. What she does during this month of June, using her last strength there. She will end the manuscript with the word "love", like each of the autobiographical manuscripts.
On the evening of September 30, she died at the age of 24.
“I don't die, I enter into life. »
