The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-01-03
"IHf LITTLE FLOWER

i IN January =, 1873, Just f0rty-One
years ago, little girl was born at
Alencon in France in the home of a
prosperous jeweler, Mr.. Martin. Her
parents called her Theresa. Today
she is known to many grateful clients
in almost every land under the sun
as the Little Flower Of Jesus. AS
a Carmelite Nun she was called Sister
Theresa of the Child Jesus and of
the Holy Face. The story of her life
is not fiction, but it is tale of won
derful truth far stranger than fiction
ever woven in the mind of story teller
or novelist. Here then we will tell
in outline the story of the Little
Flower"
i Her father, Louis Joseph Stanislaus
Martin, jeweler, and her mother, an
attractive woman whose maiden name
was Zelie Guerin, were very devout.
They attended Mass each morning and
knelt side by side at the altar rail.
Their marriage took place in the beau
tiful Church of Notre Dame, Alencon,
July IL, 1858, and was blessed with
nine children, four of whom died when
very young. The remaining five be-
came nuns, one joining the Visitation
Convent, the others, including the
Little Flower, the youngest, entering
the Carmel of Lisieux.
Two days after her birth the Little
Flower received the Sacrament of
Baptism in the same church in which
her parents received the Sacrament
of Matrimony. She was named Mary
Frances Teresa She is called the
Little Flower because this is the hum
BILE way in which she refers to her
self in her autobiography written as
an act of obedience at the direction
of Sister Mary Gonzaga, Prioress of
the Carmel of Lisieux. She entitled
this autobiography, "The Story of the
Springtime of Little White Flower"
In the early pages of the autobiogra-
ply, which, incidentally, was not de-
signed for circulation, but which in
recent years has been published in all
: parts of the world, Sister Teresa,
:, addressing Mother Prioress, says:
} 'It is for you alone that / write the
story of the Little Flower gathered
by Jesus"
] The name Little Flower was also
used by Blessed Theophane Venard,
a young priest who was martyred in
China twelve years before the Little
J Flower was born and for whom the
Young Carmelite had a great devo-
tion One author writing of Sister
Teresa says: "She called herself the
Little Flower of Jesus because, she
said, Our Lord had chosen her soul
purely out of His Infinite love, with
out any merit of her own, and loaded
it with His graces and favors, just
as He gives beauty and fragrance to
the flowers"
When the Little Flower was four
years and eight months old her
mother died. The child's intelligence
was acute even at this tender age
and her grief over the loss Of her
mother was great. Soon after the
death of his wife Louis Martin moved
with his family from Alencon to
Lisieux, where the brother of the
Little Flowers mother lived with his
wife. The move was made that the
Little Flower and her sisters might
have the benefit of their aunt's care.
Here in Lisieux the Little Flower
pursued her reading lessons under the
direction of her sister Pauline, whom
she called her Little Mother" This
name, Little Mother" Teresa gave
to Pauline, her second oldest sister,
at the time of her mothers death.
i When the Little Flower was two
years old she heard people say that
her Little Mother" would be nun
and, scarcely realizing what the
words meant, Little Teresa said that
she would be nun, too The thought
always remained with her. Her early
religious training by her loving par
ents and her devoted sisters was SO
thorough that from the time she was
three years old, her autobiography
tells us, she never refused Our Lord
Ianything
The Little Flower began to droop
when she was approaching her tenth
birthday and for many days it was
feared that she would never bloom
again. Her father and her sisters
were disconsolate. Little Teresa suf-
fered great pain. Then one day, when
all hope seemed to be gone, the Statue
of Our Lady which stood in the Little
Flowers room and before which she
had often prayed smiled on her and
the illness which had defied all human
remedies was gone.
From the time she was seven years
old Teresa had a great desire to re-
ceive Our Lord in Holy Communion.
She could hardly wait for the happy
day on which she would be permitted
to taste the Bread of Angels. The
three years preceding her First Holy
Communion were years of retreat, of
earnest preparation for the recep-
; ton of the august Sacrament. Her
First Communion day, she says, was
one of unclouded happiness. Her joy
was so intense, so deep, that it
could not be restrained; tears Of hap
piness welled up and overfowed.
And no one understood that all the
joy of heaven had come down into
one heart, and that this heart, exiled,
weak and mortal as it was, could not
contain it without tears"
Despite her immature years we find
: her at the time of her First Com
z 0v,Ixy S.v,r. IN lruc