St. Therese of Lisieux's parents to be beatified

...from Zenit:

"VATICAN CITY, JULY 4, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes is expected to announce the date for the beatification of St. Thérèse's parents at celebrations marking their 150th wedding anniversary. According to Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux-Lisieux and other Church leaders in France, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins will attend the anniversary celebrations set for July 12-13 in Lisieux and Alencon (where the Martins married on July 12, 1858). Benedict XVI recognized Thursday a miracle attributable to the intercession of Louis and Marie-Zélie Martin. It involved the healing of Pietro Schiliro of Monza, Italy. Pietro was born in 2002 with a fatal lung malformation. Italian Carmelite Father Antonio Sangalli suggested that the child's parents pray a novena to Thérèse's parents to receive the strength to endure their suffering. However, Pietro's mother decided to do the novena to ask for her son's cure. When Pietro regained his health, he and his parents went on pilgrimage to Lisieux to thank the Martins. On July 13, Cardinal Saraiva Martins will preside at a Family Day in Lisieux, during which he will bless a statue of St. Thérèse."

What's interesting to me was that at one point Louis had wanted to be a priest, but his Latin was terrible. Mme. Martin was quite an enterprising business woman, with her own lace firm which she had established when she was still single. When she married Louis for the first year or so they lived as "brother and sister" until a confessor had advised otherwise. I'd read that in several of the books written about the family. One gets the impression it was Louis's idea to begin with! Thanks goodness at least one of them got frustrated!

"Uh, Louis, if you think I'm just going to cook your meals and wash your socks....DUDE."

St. Therese and Tom

a spaniel after my own heart

So many people have posted wonderful things about St. Therese - I thought I might do a little twist on Therese for the dog lovers among us. As many of us know from reading Story of a Soul, Therese was given a dog.

I'd known she had a dog named Tom, but I never knew what kind of dog he was until I went on a pilgrimage to Lisieux with my mother in the spring of 1990. I was delighted from seeing various pictures that Tom was a spaniel too - not unlike my own dog. To everyone else Therese sends roses, to me she sends spaniels.

This photo of Tom is in a book called "Therese and Lisieux" by Pierre Descouvemont and Helmuth Nils Loose. It has many photos of places she frequented, people she knew and artifacts she owned and family pictures not found elsewhere. I highly recommend it for St. Therese fans.

In one of the Therese books, I read that when she was in the convent and was on the "turn" that day to let a workman in, Tom happened to be passing by the convent. Tom ran to Therese and put his head under her skirts and was overjoyed. Therese was somewhat overcome herself and did shed some tears. Our families may understand us "leaving the world" but our dogs don't! I found that little vignette very touching when I came across it, because as a child I loved my pets too and I wondered how Therese handled leaving her dog.


This second picture is a blown up portion of a little day book she kept to note important dates. It notes that Tom has come to live with them. In the entry below, Therese records that she had her period. I didn't crop this part out, because sometimes people try to disassociate saints from the physical world - and it's useful to remember that they had to deal with everyday life just as we do. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. [I'm still not sure if some of my nuns in grade school ever had need of the restroom, but I'll take it on faith that they did!]