A Cherished Childhood and Early Loss

Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin wasn’t always a saint. In fact, if you had met her as a young girl in 19th century France, you might have seen a rather spoiled little girl who would throw temper tantrums when things didn’t go her way. Born in 1873, Thérèse was the youngest of nine children, though only five sisters survived to adulthood. Being the baby of the family meant she was showered with attention and gifts, especially after her mother died when Thérèse was just four years old.

“When I got what I wanted, I was cheerful; when I didn’t, I cried and cried,” Thérèse later wrote about herself. Her father called her his “little queen,” and her older sisters doted on her constantly. But beneath this somewhat bratty exterior was a sensitive soul who felt everything deeply.

The Christmas That Changed Everything

One Christmas Eve, when Thérèse was thirteen, she experienced what she would later call her “complete conversion.” In French families at that time, children would leave their shoes by the fireplace to be filled with gifts. Thérèse, though nearly a teenager, still delighted in this tradition. However, as she came upstairs after midnight Mass, she overheard her father saying to Céline, her sister: “Well, thankfully this is the last year!”

Most teenagers might have simply pretended not to hear, but Thérèse’s sensitive nature meant she felt things more deeply. Yet something extraordinary happened in that moment. Instead of running to her room in tears as she might have done before, she chose to grow up. She dried her eyes and went downstairs to open her presents with genuine joy, much to her father’s relief and surprise. Later, she would write that in this moment, “Jesus made me strong where I had been weak. He poured his own strength into my soul.”

This seemingly simple event marked a profound change in Thérèse’s character. She later described it as the moment when she left her childhood behind, comparing it to a warrior picking up his weapons. It was her first step toward the emotional maturity that would later characterize her spiritual life.

The Test of Separation

Thérèse’s world changed dramatically when her beloved sister Pauline, who had become like a second mother to her, decided to enter the Carmelite convent. For the sensitive 9-year-old Thérèse, this felt like losing her mother all over again. She developed a mysterious illness that puzzled doctors – she would shake uncontrollably, run high fevers, and even hallucinate. Modern doctors might have recognized anxiety and depression in these symptoms, but in 1883, no one knew quite what to do.

A Miraculous Recovery

Yet it was during this illness that something extraordinary happened. As Thérèse lay in bed, seriously ill, she saw a statue of Mary near her bed smile at her. Whether this was a miracle or a fever dream didn’t matter – Thérèse was suddenly cured. This experience marked a turning point in her life, though she remained an incredibly sensitive child who would cry at the smallest criticism.

A Young Woman’s Determination

Despite her sensitivity – or perhaps because of it – Thérèse developed an incredible strength of purpose. At the age of 14, she decided she too wanted to become a Carmelite nun, just like her sisters Pauline and Marie. But there was a problem: she was too young. The rules said you had to be 21 to enter the convent.

Did this stop Thérèse? Not at all. Remember that shy, sensitive girl who used to throw tantrums? She transformed that energy into determination. During a pilgrimage to Rome, she broke all protocol and actually spoke directly to the Pope (imagine a teenager today breaking through security to speak to a world leader!). She begged him to let her enter the convent early. While the Pope didn’t give her an immediate yes, her persistence paid off, and she was eventually allowed to enter at age 15.

The Birth of the Little Way

Life in the convent wasn’t easy. Thérèse struggled with the cold, the strict routines, and some of the older nuns who found her youth irritating. But it was here that she developed what would become known as her “Little Way.” She realized that she couldn’t do great things like the saints she read about – she couldn’t go on missions to far-off lands or perform dramatic miracles. Instead, she decided to do small things with great love.

What does that mean? It meant doing the dishes with as much love as if she were serving Jesus himself. It meant smiling at the nun who always criticized her. It meant writing encouraging letters to missionaries even when she was too sick to leave her bed. “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice,” she wrote, “here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

Living the Little Way

Thérèse lived her Little Way in countless small moments. When drops of water splashed her during laundry duty, she accepted it without complaint. When a sister constantly rattled her rosary beads during evening prayer (which Thérèse found incredibly annoying), she tried to listen to it as if it were beautiful music. When another nun would splash dirty mop water onto her feet, instead of complaining, Thérèse stepped back silently and offered it up as a small sacrifice of love.

This might not sound revolutionary, but think about it: how many of us get discouraged because we can’t solve all the world’s problems? Thérèse’s “Little Way” tells us that even our smallest actions matter if they’re done with love.

An Early Departure and Lasting Legacy

Sadly, Thérèse developed tuberculosis when she was just 23. Even during her painful illness, she continued to write down her thoughts and experiences, which would later become the book “Story of a Soul.” She died in 1897, at the age of 24, believing that her life had been insignificant. “I have never done anything worth anything,” she said near the end.

How wrong she was! Her “Little Way” has inspired millions of people around the world. She was canonized (made a saint) in 1925, and in 1997, she was declared a Doctor of the Church – one of only four women to hold this title. Not bad for someone who thought she had never done anything important!

A Saint for Today

Today, Thérèse’s message resonates perhaps more than ever. In a world that often tells us we need to be extraordinary to matter, she reminds us that the small acts of love we perform each day – being kind to someone who annoys us, helping with chores without being asked, sending an encouraging message to a friend – these things truly matter. She shows us that we don’t need to be perfect or do dramatic things to make a difference in the world.

Thérèse once compared herself to a little flower growing in God’s garden, content to bloom where she was planted. Her story teaches us that we don’t need to be the biggest or most spectacular flower in the garden to be beautiful and meaningful. We just need to be authentically ourselves and do small things with great love.

More about St Therese

• St Therese on Catholic Online
• Society of the Little Flower
• A very ordinary life
• 5 Things You Didn’t Know about the Little Flower