It was a practice to send an obituary notice to other Carmels when any Carmelite nun dies. A month before St Therese died one of the nuns said, “I really wonder sometimes what mother prioress (superior) will be able to say about Sr. Therese. It won’t be easy, for though the little sister is very good…

St Therese  became one of the most popular saints of the twentieth century. Pope Pius XI made her the “star of his pontificate”. She was beatified in 1923, and canonized in 1925. Therese was declared co-patron of the missions with Francis Xavier in 1927, and named co-patron of France with Joan of Arc in 1944. On October 19, 1997 Pope John Paul II declared her the…

Through what she did and wrote she showed how, in the daily business of life, we can make sure that we are advancing along the path of perfection. She called it “the little ways of spiritual childhood”. Benedict XV said that it holds “the secret of sanctity” and Pius XI declared that “human society would…