Sister Thérèse Saint-Augustin told the dying woman she’d had a dream in which Thérèse was in a very dark room, getting herself ready to join her magnificently dressed father and go through “an extremely black” door to a world of only light. In Thérèse of Lisieux: God’s Gentle Warrior, Nevin makes it clear that Thérèse’s life was far from tranquil, as her 1897 conversation with another nun revealed. At the end of the 20 th century, Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church, one of just 36 saints so designated, only four of them women. She died a decade later, leaving behind three manuscripts, published as The Story of a Soul, one of the great religious documents of Catholicism. Thérèse entered the Lisieux Carmel at the age of 14, joining two of her sisters and later welcoming a third. All five of the daughters, the only offspring to survive childhood, became nuns. She was the lively, doted-upon last child in a happy and devout family. In its outlines, the life of Thérèse can appear serene. She is popularly venerated as The Little Flower of Jesus and is often pictured in statues and holy cards tranquilly holding a bouquet of roses, clustered around a crucifix. Thérèse, a Discalced Carmelite, known in her French convent as Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, was designated a Roman Catholic saint nearly a century ago. Nevin, the key insight into the short life and rich spirituality of Thérèse of Lisieux is to be found in a conversation in January, 1897, eight months before her death from tuberculosis.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |