Saint Thérèse of Lisieux  – Also known as:
• Françoise-Marie Thérèse Martin
• Thérèse of the Child Jesus
• The Little Flower of Jesus
• The Little Flower

Biography:
She was born into a devout French family of upper-middle-class merchants; she was the daughter of Blessed Louis Martin and Blessed Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin, and all four of her sisters became nuns. Her mother died when Françoise-Marie was only four years old, and the family moved to Lisieux in Normandy to be closer to relatives. At the age of eight, she was healed of an illness when a statue of the Virgin Mary smiled upon her. She was educated by the Benedictine nuns at the convent of Notre-Dame-du-Pré, where, at the age of eleven, she received the sacrament of Confirmation. Shortly before her fourteenth birthday, she had a vision of the Child Jesus; she immediately understood the great sacrifice that had been made for her and acquired an unshakeable faith. She attempted to enter the Carmelite convent, but was refused on account of her young age. She set out on a pilgrimage to Rome to mark the jubilee of Pope Leo XIII, whom she met and who was aware of her desire to become a nun. She entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux on April 9th 1888 at the age of 15 and took her final vows on  September 8th 1890 at the age of 17. She was known for her complete devotion to spiritual growth and the strict rules of the Carmelite Order. Due to health problems caused by her ongoing battle with tuberculosis, her superiors forbade her from fasting. At the age of 20, she became novice mistress. When she was twenty-two, her superior instructed her to begin writing down her memories and thoughts; this material later became the book *The Story of a Soul*. She called her path to God and holiness the ‘Little Way’; it consisted of childlike love and trust in God. She maintained a lively correspondence with the Carmelite missionaries in China and often expressed a desire to go and work alongside them. She is credited with numerous miracles. In 1997, Pope John Paul II proclaimed her a Doctor of the Church.
Born: January 2nd 1873 in Alençon (Normandy, France) as Françoise-Marie-Thérèse Martin
Died: on Thursday September 30th 1897 at 7.00 pm in Lisieux (France) of tuberculosis
Canonized: May 17th 1925 by Pope Pius XI
Depictions:
• roses
• a Discalced Carmelite nun holding a bouquet of roses
• a nun with roses at her feet
• roses surrounding a cross
Quotes:
“For me, prayer is a soaring of the heart; it is a simple gaze fixed upon heaven, a cry of gratitude and love that embraces both trial and joy!” 

“What beauty? I do not see my own beauty at all; I see only the graces I have received from God. You always misunderstand me; do you not realize that I am but a little sapling, a tiny almond shoot?” 

“You know full well that our Lord looks not so much at the greatness of our deeds, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we perform them.” 

"Oh, no! You’ll see, it will be like a shower of roses. After I die, you’ll go to the letterbox and find much comfort there." – Saint Thérèse (June 9th 1897, when her sister Marie of the Sacred Heart told her that we would be very sad after her death)
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Virtues according to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux:
Here are the main virtues she possessed, and the way in which she teaches us to practise them:
1. Childlike trust and surrender (spiritual childhood).
● Her virtue: Thérèse was deeply aware of her human weakness, but instead of letting it lead to despondency, she turned it into her strength. She took her cue from a small child who is not afraid to fall, because they know that their parent will immediately pick them up and help them.
● How she teaches us to practise it: She teaches us to stop relying solely on our own strength and merits. We practise it by entrusting our weaknesses, sins and limitations with trust to our heavenly Father, believing that his mercy is infinitely greater than our wretchedness.
2. Humility and obscurity.
● The virtue: Thérèse longed for holiness, but did not wish to stand out. She wanted to be a ‘little flower’ in God’s garden, noticed only by God. With a joyful heart, she accepted misunderstanding, being overlooked or humiliation from others.
● How she teaches us to practise it: She urges us not to seek human praise or recognition. True humility, she believed, lies in accepting ourselves as we truly are – with all our gifts and shortcomings – and giving thanks to God for everything, for without Him we can do nothing.
3. Love shown in ‘small things’.
● Her virtue: Her love for God was not expressed through martyrdom or great deeds (which she had longed for in her youth but was unable to carry out due to illness), but through an endless number of small, everyday acts of love.
● How she teaches us to practise it: She says that nothing is too small for God – not even the tiniest sacrifice, a smile given to someone who angers us, patiently listening to another person, or suppressing impatience. Love is shown in the details of everyday life.
4. Patience and the joyful endurance of suffering.
● Her virtue: Thérèse spent a large part of her religious life in spiritual darkness (she experienced severe doubts about her faith) and ultimately died in immense pain from tuberculosis. Despite this, she never lost her inner joy or her smile.
● How she teaches us to practise this: She teaches us to unite our daily crosses, pains and disappointments with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. She does not want us to seek out suffering, but when it comes, to offer it up with love for the salvation of souls, without complaining or grumbling.
“My whole path is one of trust and love.” — Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
*** Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) ***