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Therese
was born in France in the nineteenth century. When she was thirteen
she had a vision where Baby Jesus appeared to her. She then
wanted to follow in the footsteps of all five of her blood sisters
and become a Carmelite sister but the Carmels refused her because
of her young age. On a pilgrimage with her father to the Vatican,
she boldly asked Pope Leo XIII to waive the age restriction.
He told her she would become a nun “if it be God's will.”
Sure enough, a local Bishop conceded, and she was admitted.
She once said, “I would like to find an elevator to raise
me to Jesus, for I am too little to climb the steep steps of
perfection.” Her lift came in the form of tuberculosis.
“All suffering is sweet to me,” she said and called
her hemorrhaging the “coming of the bridegroom.”
Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, became a best seller
and she inspired many people with her “little way”
of finding perfection in everyday things. “After my death
I shall let fall a bouquet of roses,” she once said and
is usually depicted in art holding a bouquet which explains
her association with florists. Therese is also the patron of
France, Russia, pilots and foreign missions (because of her
dream to travel to Indochina, which was aborted because of ill
health); and she's invoked against tuberculosis. Her feast day
is October 1. |
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| St.
Therese of Liseaux
Patron St. of
Florists |
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