Lisieux's Poet Laureate: Gems From Saint Thérèse's Correspondence

By W. Bruce Ingram

The evolution of Saint Thérèse's spirituality can be traced through the two volumes of her published General Correspondence. Each chapter is devoted to a particular correspondent, and explores the nature and scope of the rapport Thérèse established with this individual. To achieve his objective, W. Bruce Ingram employs the avant-garde medium of

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Oct 21, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638378860

W. Bruce Ingram

W. Bruce Ingram served for thirty‐five years as a Catholic educator and has received numerous awards of excellence in his fi eld.In addition to Lisieux's Poet Laureate and Timeless Classics, Ingram has written and edited a variety of publications, including literature detailing the RCIA process, guidelines for implementing the USCCB Curriculum Framework, mission and philosophy statements for Middle States accreditation, course catalogs, school yearbooks, and newspaper articles.His credentials include a Bachelor of Arts from LaSalle University and a Master of Arts from Villanova University, with additional graduate studies at the Washington Theological Union and the New School for Social Research.He is now retired and resides with his family in Vineland, New Jersey.

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1

LOUIS MARTIN

(1823–1894)

Louis Martin was the venerable patriarch of nine children. But, given the high infant mortality rate in nineteenth-century Europe, only five—all girls—survived to adulthood. Even more than providing tangible and financial security for his children, Louis was adamantly determined to instill in them a knowledge of and fidelity to the precepts and traditions of the Catholic faith. He sought no worldly disposition for his daughters…but wished they would all dedicate themselves to God.¹ His beloved wife, Zélie, was of a decidedly likeminded persuasion. In fact, before their marriage, both had unsuccessfully attempted to enter monastic orders. In many respects, then, the children were all raised unequivocally to view the convent as their destiny.² And so it came to pass. All the Martin girls eventually professed vows as consecrated religious and lived the remainder of their lives in cloistered settings.

After the untimely death of Zélie at age forty-five to breast cancer, Louis moved his family from Alençon to Lisieux so that Zélie's last wish could be fulfilled.³ There, his daughters could complete their formative years under the watchful eyes of Isidore and Céline Guérin, Zélie's brother and sister-in-law, the former having been named the surrogate guardian of his five nieces.⁴ Situated at the town's center was the Carmelite monastery. In 1882, Pauline, Louis’ second oldest, would be the first to enter this convent at the age of twenty-one; four years later, Marie, the first born, followed in her footsteps at the age of twenty-six.

Realistically, Louis could not have been too terribly surprised to learn that his youngest, Thérèse, harbored similar inclinations, though the timing of her decision certainly caught him off guard. Despite being taken aback and perhaps secretly crestfallen at the prospect of his little queen's departure at the tender age of only fifteen, he refused to subvert her will and to undermine the authenticity of her vocation. Rather, he stood by her side and staunchly defended her cause against the many obstacles she faced in pursuit of her entrance to Carmel, even to the point of taking her to Rome to solicit Pope Leo XIII's approval. In the end, her persistence and numerous appeals finally triumphed. With ethereal elation, Thérèse entered the Lisieux Carmel on April 9, 1888. She described this momentous event, indelibly etched into her psyche, in all but celestial terms: My desires were at last accomplished; my soul experienced a PEACE so sweet, so deep, it would be impossible to express it…I was fully recompensed for all my trials. With what deep joy I repeated those words: ‘I am here forever and ever!’⁵

Among the many hardships Thérèse endured behind the walls of Carmel was the illness and eventual death of her incomparable king. A month after her Reception of the Habit on January 10, 1889, Louis suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Over the course of the next five years—culminating in his death on July 29, 1894—Thérèse and her sisters knew him only as a living corpse, first among strangers in an institution, then at home under the care of Léonie and Céline.⁶ Well in advance of the inevitable, Céline openly acknowledged her own aspirations for a life in Carmel but put these on hold to care for the needs of her dying father. Less than two months after his death, Céline's desires came to fruition as the doors of the holy ark⁷ closed upon her. As for Léonie, after three aborted attempts to join religious life, she definitively entered the Visitation Monastery at Caen in January of 1899.

Indisputably, according to Dorothy Day, Louis Martin's vocation was a great one, although he was not to spend his days in the religious life or in a struggle to better social conditions. It was through marriage and the bringing up of a family that he was to play his great and saintly role in the world.⁸ This appraisal was affirmed by many ecclesiastical authorities, not the least of whom was Pope Francis, who, on October 18, 2015, officially proclaimed both Louis Martin and his devoted wife, Zélie, saints of the Roman Catholic Church.

MY INCOMPARABLE KING

[Adapted From the Letters of Thérèse to Louis Martin]

In the nest of Carmel, I have found my way.

When taking me for Himself from under the

Cart, Jesus, the King of Heaven, has not taken

Me away from my holy King on earth; always I

Shall remain Papa's Queen of France and Navarre.

You as both a Father and a King wanted to