Parents of St Therese of Lisieux
This couple is best known as the parents of St. Therese of Lisieux (the Little Flower), but they are models of holiness in their own right. Louis was born in 1823 in Bordeaux. When his hope of entering religious life was thwarted he became a watchmaker. Zelie Guerin was born in 1831. She, too, hoped to become a religious, but eventually understood that it was not God’s will. She became a successful lace-maker. Louis and Zelie met in Alencon and were married in 1858 after a three-month courtship. Zelie gave birth to nine children, four died in infancy and the remaining five whom entered religious life.
The family lived a comfortable lifestyle, but they also suffered greatly from the loss of four children at an early age and had many difficulties with their middle daughter, Leonie who led a challenging life: ill from childhood; abused by a maidservant; expelled from school; isolated within her family. She tried religious life three times before she succeeded: in 1899, at the age of 35, she entered definitively the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen, where she died in 1941 at the age of 78. Her cause for canonisation her now been introduced.
In their sufferings Louis & Zelie’s trust in God never wavered, however. The couple lived modestly, reached out to the poor and the needy, and led daily prayers in the household. St. Therese would later write: “God gave me a father and a mother who were more worthy of heaven than of earth.”
In 1877, at age 45, Zelie Martin died of breast cancer. Louis and his daughters moved to Lisieux. Gradually his daughters left to enter the convent. Despite his loneliness he said: “It is a great, great honor for me that the Good Lord desires to take all of my children. If I had anything better, I would not hesitate to offer it to him.” Louis died in 1894 after suffering greatly, including a three-year stay in a psychiatric hospital.
Louis and Zelie Martin were beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008 and canonized by Pope Francis in 2015.
The first reading from the book of Tobit (8:4-8) gives the prayer of Tobit and Sarah on the night of their marriage in which they ask for God’s blessing on their life together. This reading must have had special significance for Louis Martin as after he and Zelie exchanged wedding vows he presented her with a silver medallion he had designed and engraved with the images of Sarah and Tobias on it. In the Gospel from Matthew (22:35-40) we hear Jesus speaking giving the great commandments to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and all your strength” and to “love your neighbour as yourself”. These commandments were certainly lived by Louis and Zelie in the family life and their love for God and their neighbour.