The Little Flower of Jesus is what St. Therese of Lisieux was known as. The Little Flower is a saint and a doctor of the Roman Catholic church. She lived from January 2, 1873, to 30 September, 30 1897. The Little Flower was a French Discalced Carmelite nun who is widely venerated in modern times and, among other things, has several churches named after her.
Biography of The Little Flower
The Little Flower felt an early call to religious life and, after overcoming various obstacles, in 1888, at age 15, she became a nun and joined two of her elder sisters in the cloistered Carmelite community of Lisieux, Normandy. She was a Carmelite nun, and in only nine years, she was the sacristan and assistant to the novice mistress. In her last eighteen months in Carmel, she fell into a night of faith, in which she is said to have felt Jesus was absent and had been tormented by doubts that God existed. The Little Flower died at the age of 24 from tuberculosis.
After her death, The Little Flower became known globally through her wildly successful memoir, The Story of a Soul, which explains her theology of the “Little Way.” She has many current-day followers and, as a result of her immense popularity and reputation for holiness, she was quickly beatified and canonized by Pope Pius XI, who completed the process of canonization just 28 years after her death. In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church, one of 37 that currently exist.
Importantly, the little flower was never that healthy. Saints often have significant physical challenges to overcome. Therese was often sick. She began to suffer from nervous tremors, which puzzled doctors. She also suffered from scruples, a condition experienced by other saints such as Alphonsus Liguori, also a Doctor of the Church, and Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. She wrote: “One would have to pass through this martyrdom to understand it well, and for me to express what I experienced for a year and a half would be impossible.”
The Little Flower recovered after she had turned to gaze at the statue of the Virgin Mary placed in her sister Marie’s room, where Therese had been moved. She reported on May 13, 1883, that she had seen the Virgin smile at her. She wrote: “Our Blessed Lady has come to me, she has smiled upon me. How happy I am.” However, when Therese told the Carmelite nuns about this vision at the request of her eldest sister Marie, she found herself assailed by their questions, and she lost confidence. Her concerns over this continued until November 1887.
She fasted rigorously during Lent in 1896; she went to bed on the eve of Good Friday and felt a joyous sensation. She wrote: “Oh! How sweet this memory is! … I had scarcely laid my head upon the pillow when I felt something like a bubbling stream mounting to my lips. I didn’t know what it was.” The next morning, her handkerchief was soaked in blood, and she knew what was happening.
Coughing up blood meant tuberculosis, and tuberculosis meant death. She wrote, “I thought immediately of the joyful thing that I had to learn, so I went over to the window. I was able to see that I was not mistaken. Ah! My soul was filled with a great consolation; I was interiorly persuaded that Jesus, on the anniversary of His death, wanted to have me hear His first call!”
Worldwide Cathedrals Named after the Little Flower
Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus Cathedral in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
St. Therese Cathedral in Bacabal, Brazil
Cathedral of Saint Theresa of Lisieux in Hamilton, Bermuda
St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Cathedral in Saitama, Japan
St. Theresa’s Cathedral, Changchun in Changchun, China
Cathedral of St. Therese of the Child Jesus in Padang, Indonesia
Cathedral of St. Therese of Lisieux in Sibolga, Indonesia
St. Theresa’s church in Nakandapola, Sri Lanka
Conclusion
When The Little Flower was near death, “her physical suffering kept increasing so that even the doctor himself was driven to exclaim, ‘Ah! If you only knew what this young nun was suffering!” During the last hours of Therese’s life, she said, “I would never have believed it was possible to suffer so much, never, never!”In July 1897, she made a final move to the monastery infirmary. On 19 August 1897, she received her last communion. She died on 30 September 1897, aged 24. On her deathbed, she said, “I have reached the point of not being able to suffer any more, because all suffering is sweet to me.” Her last words were, “My God, I love you!”[
