I. C. S. Publications. 1999.

"I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children" (Mt 11:25).There are few saints to whom these word's of Christ's are more appropriate than Therese of Lisieux. The youngest daughter of a Norman jeweller, Marie Francoise Therese Martin's academic formation was minimal; she left school at fourteen and entered the enclosed Carmelite Order one year later. Therese had a sheltered upbringing, travelled outside France only once, founded no order, experienced no great visions and died unknown at the age of twenty-four. Yet in the years that followed her death devotion to her spread with a rapidity that Pius XI dubbed a "glorious hurricane". The source of this remarkable phenomenon was a small book: her spiritual autobiography "The Story of a Soul". Written at the request of her sister Pauline as a private family memoir, "The Story of a Soul" was to become the spiritual bestseller of the twentieth century.

Therese was dubbed the "greatest saint of modern times" by St. Pius X years before she was even beatified. Between 1910 and 1925 alone the Carmel at Lisieux published over 3750 pages of testimonies detailing cures and conversions obtained through her intercession. She was made Patron of the Missions and co-patron of France. Her works anticipate the spirituality of Vatican II and some of the century's greatest theologians testify to her influence. Devotion to her has spread beyond the Catholic Church, she is honoured by Orthodox Christians, and in Cairo there is even a mosque dedicated to "Saint Fatma" - Therese of Lisieux. In 1997, the centenary of her death, John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church; one of only thirty-three saints on whom that title has been conferred. 

It is easy to underestimate Therese of Lisieux. A legion of red-lipped, flower-laden church statues can give the impression that her "little way of spiritual childhood" is as saccharine as they. All too often well-intentioned admirers depict her as childish rather than child-like. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The real Therese was more like a steel rod than a shrinking violet. She delved deep into the mystery of suffering and finding Jesus there found joy. The name she took in religious life reflects this vision: Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. Her "little way of spiritual childhood" has it its heart the Way of the Cross. 

Her theology is not purely cerebral, abstract and rational, but warm and human - the expression of a lived relationship with God. She put prayer at the heart of theology. "The Story of a Soul" is a radical affirmation of the Gospel injunction "unless you become like little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 18:3). Like all great spiritual writing her work is, in essence, a reiteration of the Gospel message: God is our Father and we are his children. Therese's particular genius was to take the God at his word. She entered into this relationship with complete confidence and radical self-giving, and drew from it a simple yet profound way of life lived with childlike trust and love.