This house, located rue Saint-Blaise, was the scene of the Martin family life from 1871 to 1877. It is in this place that Saint Thérèse was born (1873), there also that Saint Zélie died (1877).
Originally the home of the Guérin family, Zélie lived here as a young girl from 1844 until her marriage in 1858.
This house is the beating heart of the sanctuary. This is where you can discover in depth the life and message of Saints Louis and Zélie and their family.
This chapel, inaugurated in 1928, offers decoration and furniture bearing meaning and symbols, which are as many invitations to interiorisation, reflection, meditation and prayer. The walls are covered with ex-votos.
In the choir of the chapel, the lower part of the altar represents a Nativity where Saint Thérèse offers a rose to the Child Jesus.
At the top, a sculpture shows the Child Jesus placing a rose in the left hand of Saint Thérèse who, with her right hand, spreads it on the ground. The Child Jesus stands near the Cross, a sign of Salvation. The veil of the Holy Face reminds us of the Passion of Christ and the name of Thérèse: Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.
To the right of the altar, the reliquary of Saints Louis and Zélie and their daughter Saint Thérèse is fixed on a glass plate. Three tubes in bronze and gold contain them: chiselled lace for Saint Zélie recalling her work as a lacemaker, gears and clock hands for Louis and in the center a rose covers the one hosting the relics of Saint Thérèse.
On the right side wall opens the native chamber. The door takes on the symbol of the passage into another space. Set back from the windows, the door frame allows the eye to pass through, making the interior space of the bedroom accessible. On the bronze, the text confronts the mystery of life and death: “Here, life and death rub shoulders. The Martin family learned to love each other and to abandon themselves to providence”.
The three steps, with the words God first served – Love and trust – Justice and charity invite you to rise towards heaven. These words are the life orientation translation of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin.
It is the heart of the spiritual and sacramental life of the Martin family: Saints Louis and Zélie were married there on July 13, 1858 at midnight, and Saint Thérèse was baptized there on January 00, 00. It is the parish church of the family where they received many graces.
Following the beatification of the holy spouses, this church was elevated to the rank of minor basilica in December 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.
The building, whose construction began in 1470, has a magnificent porch representing the scene of the Transfiguration, and contains a major altar from the 1798th century as well as a Virgin of the Assumption dated XNUMX.
A source place of the holy couple. It was there, when she bumped into Louis by chance, that Zélie heard an inner voice say to her: “This is the one I prepared for you. Three months later, Louis and Zélie get married.
When Louis acquired this small tower on the banks of the Sarthe in 1857, it was to have a place of meditation where he could indulge in his favorite hobby: fishing. After his marriage to Zélie, the spouses will come, with their children, to spend quiet hours there.
Purchased by Louis Martin in April 1857, the Pavilion was for him a place where he liked to go. At the corner of a garden, this small hexagonal tower has a ground floor and two floors to which an exterior stone staircase gives access, for the first and then interior for the second.
Louis installed, first of all in the Pavilion, the statue of the Virgin given to him by Miss Félicité Baudouin, a pious woman from Alencon very involved in social works. Copy of that of Bouchardon, at Saint-Sulpice in Paris, (original in silver, cast during the Revolution, this Virgin represents the Immaculate, her hands open as if to spread her graces).
As later at the Belvédère des Buissonnets, in Lisieux, Louis made the Pavillon the place of his readings. Notes kept during his life make it possible to discover his tastes. Son of his time, he liked, among many others, to feed on Lamartine or Châteaubriant (whose complete works he bought on October 21, 1846 “at the price of 25 f. the 10 volumes ».)
This building served both as professional premises for Louis' watchmaking ("Au Remontoir") and Zélie's lace workshop, and as family accommodation for the Martins between 1858 and 1871. Louis welcomed his parents and his nephew Adolphe Leriche, an orphan.
In 1871, the Martin family moved to rue Saint-Blaise, and Louis sold his watchmaking to Adolphe to devote himself to supporting his wife's lace business.
It was in this church in Alencon that the first eight children of Louis and Zélie were baptized. Before their move to the Notre-Dame district, this church was the parish church of the Martins from 1858 to 1871. Although the church was later rebuilt, the current building retains the baptismal font on which Marie, Pauline, and their brothers and sisters, except Thérèse.
Because of the breastfeeding difficulties encountered by Saint Zélie, Thérèse, a baby, was entrusted to the nurse Rose Taillé from March 1873 to April 1874. Despite the wound of the early separation from her mother, this stay was life-saving: Thérèse had his life saved thanks to the milk of his nurse and regained his strength in the countryside until he was completely cured.
