She posted a photo of herself and asked who this saint was. I also became interested and approached the village of Małgorzata with this question. Cathedral Immaculate Conception Holy Virgin Maria. The sister explained that this was Saint Therese of Lisieux, or as she is also called, the Little One. By the way, the relics of her parents are kept in our Cathedral. Below I will give a story about her by the author Liliya Shelomanova.
Photo by silver_slider
Teresa died at the age of 24, having lived in solitude for about 10 years in a Carmelite monastery. She never engaged in missionary activity, did not found any religious order, and did not perform great deeds. After her death, only a single book was published, entitled “The Story of a Soul,” which is a short, edited version of Teresa’s diary. Despite this, 28 years after her death, interest in her had grown so much that Teresa was canonized in response to the persistent demands of the faithful.
What made the Roman Catholic Church canonize this girl?
St. Therese of Lisieux, in the world Therese Martin, was born on January 2, 1873 in France in the family of watchmaker Louis Martin. The family was very religious, and from childhood Teresa and her sisters absorbed sincere faith parents.
Teresa's mother died when the girl was four years old, five years later her older sister Polina, who replaced her mother, went to the Carmelite monastery, and a few months later Teresa became seriously ill. No one hoped that she would recover, but Teresa believed that God would save her and constantly prayed before the face of the Virgin Mary. One day Teresa suddenly saw the Virgin Mary smile at her, and at that very moment she was healed.
After her unexpected healing, Teresa Martin decided to devote her life to serving God, but how could she convince everyone that she was able to endure the difficulties? monastic life, if she couldn't even cope with her emotional outbursts? No matter how hard she tried to control her violent emotions, every time someone judged her or made the slightest remark, Teresa burst into tears. She prayed for Jesus to help her, but there was no sign in response.
Teresa's father did not want the girl to grow up, and until the age of fourteen, according to tradition, he continued to put Christmas gifts in her shoe. On Christmas Day 1886, fourteen-year-old Teresa and her sister entered the house and saw their father putting gifts in shoes. Everyone expected Teresa to burst into tears, but there was no explosion of emotions. Something incredible happened to Teresa. Jesus came down into her heart and did what she could not do herself. He made her feel her father's feelings more than her own. In her autobiography, she calls this Christmas the day of her “conversion.”
Teresa was called a "little flower", but she had steel will. In 1889, at the age of 15, Teresa made her first attempt to enter the monastery, but the abbess of the monastery refused to give her consent, citing her young age. However, the girl went to the bishop. When the bishop said no, she decided to go higher. Soon the bishop, convinced that Teresa’s desire was not a momentary whim, changed his decision, and Teresa was able to realize her dream. Jesus tested Teresa's will three times and tested how strong her desire was to devote herself to serving him.
Teresa understood that, being a Carmelite nun, she would never be able to accomplish great deeds. “Love can be proven by actions; how should I show my love? I can't do great things. The only way to prove my love is to scatter flowers, and these flowers will be small donations, like my every look, word and all my outwardly unremarkable actions that I will do for the sake of love.” She took every opportunity to make a sacrifice, no matter how small it seemed. She smiled at the sisters she didn't like. She ate everything she was given without complaining - so she was often given the worst leftovers. One day Teresa was accused of breaking a vase. Even though it was not her fault, Teresa did not argue, but fell to her knees and begged for forgiveness.
When Pauline was elected abbess of the monastery, many sisters feared that the Martin family would take over the monastery, so she asked Teresa for the great sacrifice of remaining a novice. This meant that Teresa would never become a real nun, that she would never take monastic vows, that she would always have to ask permission for everything she did.
Teresa constantly thought about how she could achieve holiness in her life. She didn't want to be just good, she wanted to be a saint. She thought that there must be a way for people who lived their little, unnoticed lives like the one she led. “But I told myself: God does not force me to desire something impossible and therefore, despite my smallness, I can strive for holiness. I will look for any opportunities to get to heaven by finding my own way, albeit very short and direct, but completely new.”
The main concept in Saint Teresa’s thoughts was the “small way.” This is what she called the path to achieving holiness, which does not imply performing heroic actions or deeds in the name of faith.
Teresa turned to the Holy Scriptures to learn how to achieve the life she wanted, and read these words: “Whoever you are, come to me.” “Your hands, Lord Jesus, will lift me to heaven. And that’s why I don’t have to grow any more: I have to stay small and become smaller and smaller,” Teresa wrote.
She reflected on her destiny, she felt within herself the calling of a priest and an Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of her youth, and this dream grew with her. Love for her neighbor gave the key to her calling. Teresa realized that the Church has a heart, and this heart burns with love. She realized that love contains all callings, it is all-encompassing, it is eternal. Then, filled with insane joy, Teresa exclaimed: “Oh Lord, my Love... my calling, I have finally found it! My calling is Love!”
In the monastery, Teresa lived by two mysteries: the childhood of Jesus (requiring obedience and simple, trusting surrender to God) and His passion (requiring participation and sacrifice). Therefore, she asked permission to be called Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.
In 1896, Teresa began to develop tuberculosis, despite this she continued to work, not telling anyone about her illness, but a year later everyone knew about it. The pain was so severe that Teresa wrote that if it were not for her faith, she would have given her life without hesitation. She felt that she would die young and leave nothing behind. Yet she tried to appear smiling and cheerful - and she did it so well that some thought she was just pretending to be sick.
Teresa dreamed of the work that she would do after death, helping everyone who lives on earth. “I'll be back,” she said. "My heaven will be on earth." Teresa died on September 30, 1897, aged 24. She knew that with the blessing of the Lord she would die at this age. After all, she felt the calling of a priest within herself, and the Lord allowed her to die at the age when she would have been ordained if she had been a man, so she did not have to suffer. Last years She dedicated her life to an autobiographical book, where she described her life and reflected on theological issues.
A year after Teresa's death, Pauline published Teresa's diary under the title "The Story of a Soul" with a circulation of only 2,000 copies, but to everyone's surprise the book was a stunning success - bishops and leading theologians of France expressed their admiration along with ordinary readers. At the beginning of the twentieth century, “The Story of a Soul” was translated into all leading European languages.
Saint Therese of Lisieux was canonized on May 17, 1925. In 1929, given the increasing scale of pilgrimage to the saint’s grave, the magnificent Basilica of St. Therese was built in Lisieux. In 1997, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Teresa a Doctor of the Church.
Teresa sought to develop an approach to the spiritual life that would be understandable and replicable to all who wished to follow it, regardless of their level of education. The “little way” of faith in the Lord that Teresa found to achieve holiness was to perform small daily duties, not great deeds. Generations of Catholics have worshiped this young saint, called the “Little Flower,” and her short life has inspired people much more than the volumes written by learned theologians.
Thérèse of Lisieux is one of the patron saints of missionaries, not because she ever engaged in missionary work, but because of her special love for the missionary movement and the prayers and letters with which Thérèse supported the missions. Her life is a reminder to all of us who feel that nothing can be done - it is precisely the “little” things that Teresa did that build the Kingdom of God.
IN Catholic Church Today is the feast day of Saint Therese of Lisieux.
A striking evidence of Catholic holiness is Catherine of Siena (+1380), elevated by Pope Paul VI to the highest rank of saints - “Teacher of the Church”. I will read a few extracts from the Catholic book “Portraits of Saints” by Antonio Sicari. Quotes, in my opinion, do not require comment.
Catherine was about 20 years old. “She felt that a decisive turning point was about to take place in her life, and she continued to earnestly pray to her Lord Jesus, repeating that beautiful, most tender formula that had become familiar to her: “Be married to me in faith!” (Antonio Sicari. Portraits of Saints. T. II. - Milan, 1991. - P. 11.).
“One day, Catherine saw a vision: her divine Bridegroom, hugging her, drew her to Himself, but then took her heart from her breast to give her another heart, more similar to His own” (p. 12).
One day they said that she had died. "She herself said later that her heart was torn to pieces by the force divine love and that she passed through death, "seeing the gates of heaven." But “come back, My child,” the Lord told me, you need to return... I will lead you to the princes and rulers of the Church.” “And the humble girl began to send her messages all over the world, long letters, which she dictated with amazing speed, often three or four at a time and for various reasons, without getting lost and ahead of the secretaries. All these letters end with the passionate formula: “Jesus sweetest, Jesus Love” and often begin with the words...: “I, Catherine, handmaid and servant of the servants of Jesus, write to you in His most precious Blood...” (12).
“In Catherine’s letters, what is most striking is the frequent and persistent repetition of the words: “I want” (12).
“Some say that in a state of ecstasy she even addressed the decisive words “I want” to Christ” (13).
From correspondence with Gregory X1, whom she convinced to return from Avignon to Rome: “I tell you in the name of Christ... I tell you, father, in Jesus Christ... Answer the call of the Holy Spirit addressed to you” (13).
“And he addresses the king of France with the words: “Do the will of God and mine” (14).
No less indicative are the “revelations” of Teresa of Avila (16th century), also elevated to “Teacher of the Church” by Pope Paul VI. Before her death, she exclaims: “Oh, my God, my Husband, finally I will see You!” This extremely strange exclamation is not accidental. He is a natural consequence of Teresa’s entire “spiritual” feat, the essence of which is revealed at least in the following fact.
After his numerous appearances, “Christ” says to Teresa: “From this day you will be My wife... From now on I am not only your Creator, God, but also your Spouse” (Merezhkovsky D.S. Spanish mystics. - Brussels, 1988. - P. 88 .) “Lord, either suffer with You, or die for You!” - Teresa prays and falls exhausted under these caresses ... ", writes D. Merezhkovsky. Therefore, one should not be surprised when Teresa admits: “The Beloved calls the Soul with such a piercing whistle that one cannot help but hear it. This call acts on the soul in such a way that it becomes exhausted with desire." It is no coincidence that the famous American psychologist William James, assessing her mystical experience, wrote that "her ideas about religion boiled down, so to speak, to an endless love flirtation between an admirer and his deity" (James W. Diversity religious experience. /Trans. from English - M., 1910. - P. 337).
Another illustration of the idea of holiness in Catholicism is Teresa of Lisieux (Teresa the Little, or Teresa of the Child Jesus), who, having lived 23 years of age, in 1997, in connection with the centenary of the death, by the “infallible” decision of Pope John Paul II was declared another Teacher of the Universal Church. Here are a few quotes from Teresa's spiritual autobiography, The Tale of a Soul, that eloquently testify to her spiritual state(The Tale of One Soul // Symbol. 1996. No. 36. - Paris. - P. 151.)
“During the interview that preceded my tonsure, I told about the work that I intended to do in Carmel: “I came to save souls and, first of all, pray for priests"(Not to save yourself, but others!).
Speaking about her unworthiness, she immediately writes: “I always keep the bold hope that I will become great saint... I thought that I was born for fame and was looking for ways to achieve it. And so the Lord God... revealed to me that my glory will not be revealed to mortal eyes, and its essence is that I will become a great saint!!!" (cf. Macarius the Great, whom his companions called "earthly god" for his rare height of life, only prayed: "God, cleanse me, a sinner, for I have never done anything good before You"). Later Teresa would write even more openly: " In the heart of my Mother Church I will be Love... then I will be everything... and through this my dream will come true!!!"
Generations of Catholics have worshiped this young saint, called the “Little Flower,” and her short life has inspired us much more than the volumes written by learned theologians. Teresa died at the age of 24, having lived in solitude for about 10 years in a Carmelite monastery. She never engaged in missionary activities, founded any religious order, or performed great deeds. After her death, only a single book was published entitled “The Story of a Soul,” which is a short edited version of Teresa’s diary (collections of her letters and original version diary). Despite this, 28 years after her death, interest in her had grown so much that Teresa was canonized in response to the persistent demands of the faithful. As time has passed, some modern Catholics have turned away from her because for them Teresa's name is associated with an overly idealized piety, but nevertheless, her message to us is still as modern and true as it was a century ago. Teresa was born in 1873 in France. The parents tenderly loved and spoiled the girl. Teresa's mother wanted so much to be righteous, and her father to become a monk, that after getting married, they remained chaste until the priest explained to them what exactly God meant by marriage! Teresa's parents followed the priest's advice so diligently that they had nine children. Only five girls survived, who were very close all their lives. When Teresa was four and a half years old, she learned what grief and loss of loved ones were - Teresa's mother died of breast cancer. Polina, Teresa's sixteen-year-old sister, became her second mother. Five years later, Teresa suffered an even more bitter loss when Pauline went to the Carmelite monastery. A few months later, Teresa became so seriously ill that they thought she would not survive. The worst thing for Teresa at that time were those people who sat around her bed, staring at her annoyingly, in Teresa’s own words, they were always in the room like “a bunch of onions.” When she saw her sisters praying near the statue of the Virgin Mary, she also began to pray. Suddenly Teresa saw that the Virgin Mary smiled at her, and at that very moment she recovered. Teresa tried to keep the story of her miraculous healing a secret, but people found out and began to pester her with questions about how Mary was dressed and who she looked like. When Teresa refused to satisfy their idle curiosity, they spread the rumor that the girl had invented everything. By the age of eleven, Teresa had developed the ability to pray spiritually (praying in the mind) without realizing it at all. She usually found a place between her bed and the wall and there, in solitude, she thought about God, about life and eternity. When two other sisters, Maria and Leonia, entered the religious orders (Carmelites and Clarisses), Teresa remained with her sister Selina and her father. Teresa tells us that she wanted to be good, but she chose a rather strange way to do this. This little princess, spoiled by her father, usually did not do any homework. She believed that when she made the bed, she was doing a big favor! Whenever Teresa felt like someone was judging her or not caring about her, she would burst into tears. And then she cried because she had just cried and she felt sorry for herself! All her efforts to restrain her violent emotions failed as soon as the slightest remark was made to her. Teresa wanted to join convent Carmelites and being with Sisters Pauline and Maria, but how could she convince everyone that she was capable of enduring the difficulties of monastic life if she could not cope with her emotional outbursts? Teresa prayed for Jesus to help her, but there was no sign in response. On Christmas Day 1886, fourteen-year-old Teresa was hurrying home from church. In France, small children left their shoes near the hearth, and their parents put gifts there for them. However, by the age of fourteen, most children had grown up and understood where gifts actually came from. Selina didn't want Teresa to grow up. Therefore, for “baby” Teresa, gifts continued to be placed in the shoe. As Selina and Teresa hurried up the stairs to take off their hats, they heard their father's voice from the living room below. Standing near the shoes, he said with relief: “Thank God we’re doing this in last time!" Teresa froze, and her sister looked at her helplessly. Selina knew that after hearing her father's words, Teresa would burst into tears in a couple of minutes. However, there was no explosion of emotions. Something incredible happened to Teresa. Jesus descended into her heart and did something she couldn't do herself. He made her feel her father's feelings more than her own. She, swallowing her tears, went downstairs and expressed surprise at the gifts found in the shoe as if she had not heard what her father said a year later. Teresa went into a convent. In her autobiography, she refers to this Christmas as the day of her “conversion.” Teresa was called a “little flower,” but she had a will of steel. When the abbess of the Carmelite monastery refused Teresa because she was too young, usually a very shy girl. went to the bishop, but when the bishop said no, she decided to turn higher. Her father and sister took Teresa on a pilgrimage to Rome, believing that the pilgrimage would help her forget this strange desire to go to a monastery. Teresa really enjoyed the pilgrimage. This time her age gave her an advantage! Young and little Teresa could run anywhere, touch shrines and tombstones without fear of being yelled at. Finally, they got to the Pope's audience. They were forbidden to talk to the Pope, but this did not stop Teresa. As soon as she came closer to him, she immediately began to beg him for permission to enter the Carmelite monastery. It took two guards to get her out! The little girl’s bravery impressed the Vicar General, and Teresa was soon accepted into the Carmelite monastery, where her sisters Pauline and Maria had previously joined. Teresa's romantic ideas about monastic life and suffering suddenly collided with the realities of life in the monastery, which she never expected to see. Teresa's father suffered several strokes, which seriously affected his physical and mental state. When one day he had hallucinations and, grabbing a pistol, was about to go fight, he was taken to a mental asylum. Teresa was horrified to learn about the humiliation of the father she idolized and admired, as well as the gossip and regrets of their “so-called” friends. Since Teresa was in the monastery, she could not even visit her father. There came a terrible time of suffering for Teresa when she found no support in prayer; she said that “Jesus doesn’t try very hard to engage in our dialogue.” Teresa was so heartbroken that she often fell asleep while praying. She consoled herself by saying that mothers love their children who fall asleep in their arms, so God must love her who falls asleep during prayer. Teresa understood that, being a Carmelite nun, she would never be able to accomplish great deeds. “Love can be proven by actions; how should I show my love? I can't do great things. The only way to prove my love is to scatter flowers, and these flowers will be small donations, like my every look, word and all my seemingly unremarkable actions that I will do for the sake of love.” She took every opportunity to make a sacrifice, no matter how small it seemed. She smiled at the sisters she didn't like. She ate everything she was given without complaining - so she was often given the worst leftovers. One day Teresa was accused of breaking a vase. Even though it was not her fault, Teresa did not argue, but fell to her knees and begged for forgiveness. These small sacrifices cost her much more than any big ones, since no one knew about them or recognized them as sacrifices. No one ever told her how wonderful she was because she endured these little secret humiliations and committed good deeds . When Pauline was elected abbess of the monastery, she asked Teresa for a great sacrifice. Given the current situation in the monastery, many sisters feared that the Martin family would take over the monastery. Therefore, Polina asked Teresa to remain a novice in order to dispel fears that the three sisters would bully the rest of the nuns. This meant that Teresa would never become a real nun, that she would never take monastic vows, that she would always be forced to ask permission for everything she did. Selina helped Teresa bear this sacrifice more easily when she came to the monastery after her father’s death. All four sisters were together again. Teresa constantly thought about how she could achieve holiness in her life. She didn't want to be just good, she wanted to be a saint. She thought that there must be a way for people who lived their little, unnoticed lives like the one she led. “I always wanted to become a saint. Unfortunately, when I compared myself with the saints, I saw that there was such a difference between us as between a mountain whose peak is lost in the clouds and a tiny grain of sand under the feet of a passerby. But I did not lose heart, I told myself: God does not force me to desire something impossible and therefore, despite my smallness, I can strive for holiness. I can’t grow higher, become more than I am now, which means I have to come to terms with this and accept myself as I am with all my countless shortcomings. But I will look for some opportunities to get to heaven by finding my own path, albeit very short and straight, but completely new. "We live in an age of progress. We no longer need to pant up the stairs, overcoming flight after flight, because wealthy houses have elevators. And I intend to find an elevator that will take me to the Lord Jesus, because I am too small to overcome the steep steps of perfection. I turned to the Holy Scriptures to learn from it how to achieve the life that I would like to have, and read these words: “Whoever you are, come to me, Lord.” Jesus is the elevator that will take me to heaven. And therefore I do not need to grow any more: I must remain small and become smaller and smaller." She reflected on her destiny: "I feel the calling of a priest. I have the calling of an Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth, and this dream grew with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I wanted to recognize myself in all its members. Love for one's neighbor gave the key to my calling. I realized that the Church has a heart, and this heart burns with love. I realized that love contains all callings. That love is everything, and it covers all times and spaces... in a word, it is eternal! Then, filled with insane joy, I exclaimed: “Oh Lord, my Love... my calling, I finally found it! My calling is Love!” When a new abbess of the monastery was elected, suspicions and rumors arose again. The fear about the Martin sisters may not have been in vain. In the small monastery, the sisters made up a fifth of all the inhabitants. Despite this and the fact that Teresa was a permanent novice/disciple, she was assigned the care of all the other students. Later, in 1896, Teresa fell ill with consumption (she began to cough up blood). She continued to work, not telling anyone about her illness, but a year later everyone knew about it. The worst thing is that she stopped being joyful and lost confidence; she felt that she would die young and leave nothing behind. Pauline had previously given her the obedience to write down her thoughts in a diary, and now she wanted Teresa to continue the entries - in this case they would have something to tell about Teresa after her death. The pain was so severe that Teresa said that if it were not for her faith, she would have given her life without hesitation. Still, Teresa tried to appear smiling and cheerful - and she did it so well that some thought she was just pretending to be sick. She dreamed of the work that she would do after death, helping everyone who lives on earth. “I'll be back,” she said. "My heaven will be on earth." Teresa died on September 30, 1897, aged 24. Teresa knew that with the blessing of the Lord she would die at this age. After all, she felt the calling of a priest within herself, and the Lord allowed her to die at the age when she would have been ordained if she had been a man, so she did not have to suffer. After her death, everything in the monastery returned to normal. One nun commented on this: there is nothing to say about Teresa. But Polina collected everything Teresa wrote (unfortunately, heavily edited) and sent 2,000 copies to other monasteries. The “little way” of faith in the Lord that Teresa found to achieve holiness was to perform small daily duties, not great deeds. This path inspired thousands of Catholics and others who tried to become saints by leading ordinary life. Two years later, the Martin family had to move - Teresa’s fame was so great, and in 1925 she was canonized. Thérèse of Lisieux is one of the patron saints of missionaries, not because she ever engaged in missionary work, but because of her special love for the missionary movement and the prayers and letters with which Thérèse supported the missions. Her life is a reminder to all of us who feel that nothing can be done - it is precisely the “little” things that Teresa did that build the Kingdom of God. Memorial Day: October 1 Patron Saint of Missionaries.
"I wanna spend my Heaven,
Doing, doing work on Earth.
Heaven on Earth..."
The story of one soul
Memoirs of Therese Martin of Lisieux (little Therese), a girl who introduced many new and revolutionary thoughts into Catholic theology, recently canonized.
From translators
Preface.
"The Lord's Work is Hard"
Manuscript "A"
Manuscript "B"
Manuscript "C"
“I’m entering life” - last conversations
Prayer for sacrificing oneself to merciful Love
From the poems of St. Teresa
Lord, to be Your bride, to be a Carmelite, to be, by virtue of union with You, the mother of souls - all this should have been enough for me. But this is not so. Of course, these three gifts are my calling: Carmelite, bride and mother. And yet I feel in myself other callings: warrior, priest, apostle, teacher of the Church, martyr - finally, I feel the need, the desire to perform for You, Lord, all the most heroic deeds. In my soul I feel the courage of a crusader, I would like to die on the battlefield defending the Church.
I feel the calling of a priest within me! With what love, Lord, I would hold You in my hands, when at my voice You would descend from Heaven. But, alas! Desiring to be a priest, I admire and adore the humility of St. Francis of Assisi and feel called to imitate him by renouncing the high office of the priesthood.
Oh my God! My love and my life... How to combine these contradictory aspirations? How can I fulfill the desires of my poor little soul?
Yes, despite all my smallness, I would like to enlighten souls like the prophets and teachers of the Church. My calling is to be an apostle... I would like to go around the whole earth, preach Your name and plant Your glorious Cross on the land of the pagans. But, my Beloved, the mission alone would not be enough for me. I would like to proclaim the Gospel simultaneously in five parts of the world, even to the most distant islands... I would like to be a missionary not just for a few years, but from the creation of the world until the end of time. But most of all I would like, O my beloved Savior, I would like to shed my blood for You, all, to the last drop...
Martyrdom was the dream of my youth. Under the arches of Carmel she grew up with me. But here again I feel all the madness of my dream, for I would not be able to limit myself to the desire for only one kind of torment. To satisfy me, I would need everyone... Like You, my desired Bridegroom, I want to be scourged and crucified. I want to die flayed like St. Bartholomew. Like St. John, I desire to be immersed in boiling oil; I wish to endure all the tortures reserved for martyrs. Together with Saint Agnes and Saint Cecilia, I wish to put my neck to the sword and, like my beloved sister Joan of Arc, I wish to whisper at the stake Your name, O Lord Jesus... Thinking about the torment that will be the lot of Christians during the time of the Antichrist, I feel my heart trembling, and I would like these torments to be prepared for me too. Lord, Lord, if I wanted to write down all my desires, I should ask You for the book of life, where the deeds of all the saints are set out, and I would want to perform these deeds for Your sake...
Oh Lord Jesus! What will You answer to all my madness? Is there a soul even smaller, even weaker than mine! It was because of my weakness that You, Lord, were pleased to fulfill my little childhood desires, and now You want to fulfill others that surpass the universe itself...
During prayer, I suffered painfully from these desires and opened the letters of the Apostle Paul to look for some answer. Chapters 12 and 13 of First Corinthians caught my eye. There, in the first of them, I read that everyone cannot be apostles, prophets, teachers of the Church, and that the Church is made up of various members, and that the eye cannot be at the same time a hand.
The answer was clear, but it did not fulfill my desires and did not bring peace... Like Mary Magdalene, who, continuing to lean towards empty coffin, nevertheless, I found what I was looking for (see John 20:11-18), I, too, having sunk to the very depths of my insignificance, rose so high that I was able to achieve my goal. Without despair, I continued reading, and here is a phrase that brought me relief: “Be zealous for great gifts, and I will show you an even more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31). The Apostle explains that all these great gifts are nothing without love... That love for one's neighbor is that most excellent path that certainly leads to God. I finally found peace. Looking at the mystical body of the Church, I did not recognize myself in any of the members described by the Apostle Paul, or rather, I wanted to recognize myself in all of them. Love for one's neighbor provided the key to my calling. I realized that if the Church has a body composed of different members, this means that the most necessary, the noblest of all members is also present. I realized that the Church has a heart, and this heart burns with love. I realized that only love motivates its members to action, and if love grows cold, the apostles will no longer proclaim the Gospel, and the martyrs will refuse to shed blood. I realized that love contains all callings. That love is everything, and it covers all times and spaces... in a word, it is eternal!
Then, filled with insane joy, I exclaimed: “Oh Lord, my Love... my calling, I finally found it! My calling is Love!”
Yes, I found my place in the Church. This place, my God, You gave it to me... in the heart of my Mother Church I will be love... then I will be everything... and my dream will come true!
Poor women, how they are despised! Although there are many more of them who love the Lord God than men, and during the Passion on the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, women turned out to be bolder than the apostles: they were not afraid of the insults of the soldiers and dared to wipe the blessed Face of Jesus... Of course, only for this sake did He allow their fate on earth was contempt, for it was precisely this that He chose for Himself... In Heaven He will be able to show that His thoughts are not the thoughts of men (see Isa. 55:8) and then “the last will be first” (Matt. 20, 16).
The publication was prepared on the basis of French editions:
SAINTE THERESE DE L"ENFANT-JESUS ET DE LA SAINTE-FACE HISTOIRE D"UNE AME
Manuscrits autobiographiquesEditions du Cerf et Desclee De Brouwer, Paris, 1992
OEUVRES COMPLETES (TEXTES ET DERNIERES PAROLES)
Editions du Cerf et Desclee De Brouwer, Paris, 1992
The prologue and epilogue to The Story of a Soul were written by Monseigneur Guy Gaucher.
(Editions du Cerf et Desclee De Brouwer, Paris, 1994)
Translation from French by Andrey and Olga Dyachkov.
Theological consultant of the Russian text of the priest. Georgy Chistyakov.
Photos used from the archives of the Carmelite monastery in Lisieux
From translators
We bring to your attention a new translation of “The Story of a Soul,” and the question immediately arises: “What is all this for? After all, there already exists “The Tale of a Soul” translated by Deacon Vasily von Burman!” Let's try to explain.
It was December 1894. One evening, after the service, four Carmelite sisters Teresa, Selina, Maria and Polina gathered together to warm themselves: even in winter, the cells here were not heated and there was only one warm room in the entire monastery. When the youngest of them, Teresa, began to remember her childhood, Maria thought it would be nice to write it down. However, in the monastery everything is done according to obedience, and Maria turned to Polina, who at that time was the abbess of Carmel, with a proposal for such unusual obedience. - “You will see that this angel will not stay on earth for long and then we will lose all these little things that are of such interest to us!” At first, Polina resisted, but eventually yielding to her sisters’ requests, she asked Teresa to write her a story about her childhood for Angel’s Day. This was the beginning of manuscript “A”.
Teresa, faithful to obedience, wrote exclusively in her own free time. She wrote without drafts and practically without erasing, interrupting whenever the time ran out. It's been a while more than a year. And so, on the appointed day, January 20, 1896, Teresa approached Polina and, kneeling down, handed her a notebook. She nodded silently and, without opening it, put it on her shelf. Days passed. The abbess did not have time to read, and Teresa never reminded her of her notes. Pauline read the manuscript only after a new abbess, Mother Maria de Gonzaga, was chosen in March.
September 1896. Teresa is twenty-three years old and has another year of life ahead of her. From 7 to 18 she holds her last “retreat” - an annual prayer retreat. Shortly before this, Maria asked Teresa to write about the “little path” she had discovered. On September 8, on the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, she writes a letter to her sister. This letter will go down in history as manuscript “B”.
The summer of 1897 arrived. Teresa is seriously ill, and all obediences have been removed from her. She has four months to live. Late in the evening of June 2, the former abbess comes to the newly elected one: “Mother, I cannot sleep without trusting you with one secret! While I was abbess, Sister Teresa, out of obedience and to please me, described several episodes from her childhood. I recently re-read them. All very nice, but you are unlikely to be able to use this for a posthumous circular (1): there is almost nothing there about her monastic life. If you entrusted her, she could write something more serious, and I have no doubt that what I wrote for you would be much more significant than what I have.” The next day, Teresa began her last obedience - the “C” manuscript.
Teresa knows that these notes are needed for the posthumous circular. Her attitude towards the publication of manuscripts is also changing. On her deathbed, she tells Polina: “After my death, the manuscript must be published immediately. If you delay in doing this or carelessly talk about it with anyone except the Mother Superior, Satan will place thousands of obstacles in the way of this publication, which is so necessary!” She continued: “Mother, whatever you consider necessary to remove or add in my notebooks, consider that I did it. Remember this and have no doubts about this.”
“The Tale of a Soul” first appeared in a circulation of 2,000 copies a year after the death of Sister Teresa. This publication was prepared by Mother Maria de Gonzaga together with Mother Agnes (Polina). The manuscripts were collected together, divided into chapters, and significant portions were omitted or rewritten. The book sold out very quickly. A year later - a new edition with a circulation of four thousand. By 1915, the story was translated into nine languages and sold in huge numbers. That same year, the Carmel of Lisieux received an average of 500 letters per day. Preparations for the canonization process have already begun. Documents, memories, testimonies and original manuscripts are needed. By 1925, the canonization process was completed: by Pope Pius XI in front of a crowd of five hundred thousand in Rome in St. Peter's sister Teresa is recognized as a saint. However, Mother Agnes is still involved in the preparation of new publications, because Saint Teresa entrusted this task to her. In parallel with new editions of “The Tale of a Soul,” interest in the originals themselves is growing. In September 1947, one of the leaders of the Carmelite Order writes to Mother Agnes: “The Church has spoken its word. Holiness and teaching of St. Therese of the Child Jesus is universally recognized. To avoid erroneous or incomplete interpretations, in order to deepen the teachings of the saint, the documents and texts that you gave us are not enough. Only the original manuscripts will help to understand the movement of thought, the rhythm of life and the light that is contained in its definitions, usually clear and final.” Eighty-six-year-old mother Agnes is unable to undo her life’s work - “The Tale of a Soul.” However, anticipating her imminent death, on November 2, 1950, she instructs her sister Genevieve (Celina): “Do this on my behalf after my death.” Six months later, Agnes's mother died. But only in 1957 the first incomplete edition of the original manuscripts was published. Based on this edition and after painstaking work for 35 years, it was only in 1992 that the first complete edition of the manuscripts of St. Teresa appeared. Comparing this edition with The Tale of a Soul, one researcher counted more than 700 changes in the text. Such a volume of changes made it impossible to simply edit the well-known translation, although we turned to it with gratitude more than once during our work.
For my short life Sister Teresa wrote more than fifty poems and eight plays. This side of her creative heritage for a long time remained in the shadows. She composed her first poem in early 1893 after five years spent in the monastery. Having received a very modest provincial education, Sister Teresa had a very vague understanding of versification. Actually, she did not write poetry, but words to known melodies, so sister Genevieve (Selina) argued that “they sound much better if you sing them.” However, a hundred years passed, the melodies sank into oblivion, and theologians were more interested in Sister Teresa’s poems. Indeed, their spiritual richness requires special study. But a few years ago a small “miracle” happened in France: songs based on the words of Sister Teresa began to sound again! Sung in a new way, they quickly spread far beyond the borders of France and reached Russia, finding an echo in thousands of hearts. Therefore, the translations of poems published in this book should be treated, first of all, as the words of already existing songs.
We are well aware that any translation is a distortion of the original. Therefore, we ask for your prayers and indulgence in advance.
Preface
"The Lord's Work is Hard"
The experience of faith of Saint Therese of Lisieux, who was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by John Paul II last October, needs serious reflection. What do the Fathers of the first centuries, John Chrysostom or Ambrose of Milan, Gregory the Great or Augustine, have in common, and the girl from Normandy, who read little, had no life experience, did not receive a systematic education and, having gone to Carmel at the age of fifteen, it would seem that she completely cut herself off from reality. It may seem that the story of Therese Martin is nothing more than a plot for a sad and beautiful movie, the authors of which set themselves the goal of making their viewer think about what, in addition to problems today God and eternity also exist.
It is precisely this perception of Teresa’s life that pushes the reader and latest edition her "Autobiographical Manuscripts" on French V popular series Litre de vie, where the cover reproduces a still from the feature film “Thérèse”, shot not so long ago by Alain Cavalier.
Not only skeptics and scoffers, but also serious theologians see her as just the heroine of a sad movie. That is why the question of what “my little teaching” is, which Cardinal Lustige first spoke about as Teresa’s theological feat fifteen years ago, remains relevant today. What is her theology?
Saint Teresa, unlike the great saints of the past, chooses the small path. This is the first feature of her personal credo. The theme of childishness turns out to be almost the main one for her - childishness, which becomes the defining characteristic of our “I”. The words “unless you are converted and become like children...” were endlessly quoted during sermons, but the gospel’s call to childhood in the history of Christianity was never comprehended until Thérèse of Lisieux’s “The Story of a Soul” appeared.
The basilica is an outstanding religious shrine, the second largest and most important pilgrimage site in France (note that today the main center of pilgrimage in France is Lourdes).
More than two million believers visit the basilica every year. Teresa of Lisieux, in whose honor this Basilica was erected, is called by her compatriots “little” (or also “Little Flower”) to distinguish her from Teresa of Avila, a Spanish saint who lived in the 16th century. Teresa of Avila is the “great” figure, a reformist, battle-hardened. Thérèse of Lisieux is small next to her. Construction of the temple began in 1929, given the increasing scale of pilgrimage to the saint’s grave, and was completed in 1954. Interestingly, the interior of the basilica was created by three generations of Cordonier architects - father, son and grandson. It can be attributed to the Roman-Byzantine style. Interior decoration The temple is lined with beautiful mosaics. The total length of the Basilica of St. Teresa is 105 meters and the height is 90 meters. The temple can accommodate up to 4 thousand people at the same time.
Interior decoration:
A little about Therese of Lisieux:
Therese was born in 1873, in Alencon, in the family of watchmaker Louis Martin and his wife Marie-Zélie Martin. The family was very religious, and from childhood Teresa and her four sisters (who also became nuns) absorbed the sincere faith of their parents.
When Teresa was four years old, her mother died of cancer. The family moved to Lisieux. At the age of nine, Teresa became seriously ill and was on the verge of death. After an unexpected recovery, the girl finally decided to devote her life to serving God and the Church in the Carmelite monastery.
In 1889, at the age of 15, Teresa made her first attempt to enter the monastery, but the bishop refused to give his consent, citing her young age. A trip to Rome for an audience with Pope Leo XIII did not help either. Soon, however, the bishop, convinced that Teresa’s desire was not a momentary whim, changed his mind, and Teresa was able to realize her dream of becoming a Carmelite. 7 years after entering the monastery, Teresa began to develop tuberculosis. On September 30, 1897, Teresa died, remaining an unknown nun from a remote monastery. She devoted the last years of her life to an autobiographical book, where she described her life and reflected on theological issues.
A year after Teresa’s death, the abbess of the monastery releases Teresa’s autobiographical work entitled “The Story of a Soul” with a circulation of only 2,000 copies. However, unexpectedly for everyone, the book was a stunning success - editions followed one after another, bishops and leading theologians of France expressed their admiration along with ordinary readers. At the beginning of the 20th century, “The History of a Soul” was translated into all leading European languages. In 1907 Pope Pius X first expressed his desire that Teresa be glorified. At one private audience, he, anticipating the future, calls her “the greatest saint of our time.” St. Therese of Lisieux was beatified on April 29, 1923 and canonized on May 17, 1925 by Pope Pius XI. In 1929, given the increasing scale of pilgrimage to the saint’s grave, the magnificent Basilica of St. Therese was built in Lisieux. The author of the book about Therese of Lisieux (“Little Therese”) was the Russian writer and Christian mystic Dmitry Merezhkovsky; he and his wife Zinaida Gippius treated her personality and writings with great respect. In 1997, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Teresa the Minor a Doctor of the Church.
Lord, to be Your bride, to be a Carmelite, to be, by virtue of union with You, the mother of souls - all this should have been enough for me. But this is not so. Of course, these three gifts are my calling: Carmelite, bride and mother. And yet I feel within myself other callings: warrior, priest, apostle, teacher of the Church, martyr, and finally, I feel the need, the desire to perform for You, Lord, all the most heroic deeds. In my soul I feel the courage of a crusader, I would like to die on the battlefield defending the Church.
I feel the calling of a priest within me! With what love, Lord, I would hold You in my hands, when at my voice You would descend from Heaven. But, alas! Desiring to be a priest, I admire and adore the humility of St. Francis of Assisi and feel called to imitate him by renouncing the high office of the priesthood.
Oh my God! My love and my life... How to combine these contradictory aspirations? How can I fulfill the desires of my poor little soul?
Yes, despite all my smallness, I would like to enlighten souls like the prophets and teachers of the Church. My calling is to be an apostle... I would like to go around the whole earth, preach Your name and plant Your glorious Cross on the land of the pagans. But, my Beloved, the mission alone would not be enough for me. I would like to proclaim the Gospel simultaneously in five parts of the world, even to the most distant islands... I would like to be a missionary not just for a few years, but from the creation of the world until the end of time. But most of all I would like, O my beloved Savior, I would like to shed my blood for You, all, to the last drop...
Martyrdom is the dream of my youth. Under the arches of Carmel she grew up with me. But here again I feel all the madness of my dream, for I would not be able to limit myself to the desire for only one kind of torment. To satisfy me, I would need everyone... Like You, my desired Bridegroom, I want to be scourged and crucified. I want to die flayed like St. Bartholomew. Like St. John, I desire to be immersed in boiling oil; I wish to endure all the tortures reserved for martyrs. Together with Saint Agnes and Saint Cecilia, I wish to put my neck to the sword and, like my beloved sister Joan of Arc, I wish to whisper Your name at the stake, O Lord Jesus... Reflecting on the torment that will be the lot of Christians in the time of the Antichrist, I feel how my heart trembles, and I would like this torment to be prepared for me too, Lord, Lord, if I wanted to write down all my desires, I should ask You for the book of life, where the deeds of all the saints are set out, and I would like to. to perform these deeds for Your sake...
Oh Lord Jesus! What will You answer to all my madness? Is there a soul even smaller, even weaker than mine! It was because of my weakness that You, Lord, were pleased to fulfill my little childhood desires, and now You want to fulfill others that surpass the universe itself...
During prayer, I suffered painfully from these desires and opened the letters of the Apostle Paul to look for some answer. Chapters 12 and 13 of First Corinthians caught my eye. There, in the first of them, I read that everyone cannot be apostles, prophets, teachers of the Church, and that the Church is made up of various members, and that the eye cannot be at the same time a hand.
...The answer was clear, but it did not fulfill my desires and did not bring peace... Like Mary Magdalene, who, continuing to bow to the empty tomb, nevertheless found what she was looking for (see John 20:11-18) , I, too, having sunk to the very depths of my insignificance, rose so high that I was able to achieve my goal. Without despair, I continued reading, and here is a phrase that brought me relief: “Be zealous for great gifts, and I will show you an even more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31). The Apostle explains that all these great gifts are nothing without love... That love for one's neighbor is that most excellent path that certainly leads to God. I finally found peace. Looking at the mystical body of the Church, I did not recognize myself in any of the members described by the Apostle Paul, or rather, I wanted to recognize myself in all of them. Love for one's neighbor provided the key to my calling. I realized that if the Church has a body composed of different members, this means that the most necessary, the noblest of all members is also present. I realized that the Church has a heart, and this heart burns with love. I realized that only love motivates its members to action, and if love grows cold, the apostles will no longer proclaim the Gospel, and the martyrs will refuse to shed blood. I realized that love contains all callings. That love is everything, and it covers all times and spaces... in a word, it is eternal!
Then, filled with insane joy, I exclaimed: “Oh Lord, my Love... my calling, I finally found it! My calling is Love!”
Yes, I found my place in the Church. This place, my God, You gave it to me... in the heart of my Mother Church I will be love... then I will be everything... and my dream will come true!
Poor women, how they are despised! Although there are many more of them who love the Lord God than men, and during the Passion on the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, women turned out to be bolder than the apostles: they were not afraid of the insults of the soldiers and dared to wipe the blessed Face of Jesus... Of course, only for this sake did He allow their fate on earth was contempt, for it was precisely this that He chose for Himself... In Heaven He will be able to show that His thoughts are not the thoughts of men (see Isa. 55:8) and then “the last will be first” (Matt. 20, 16).
The publication was prepared on the basis of French editions:
SAINTE THERESE DE L "ENFANT-JESUS ET DE LA SAINTE-FACE
HISTOIRE D"UNE AME
Manuscrits autobiographiques
Editions du Cerf et Desclee De Brouwer, Paris, 1992
OEUVRES COMPLETES
(TEXTES ET DERNIERES PAROLES)
Editions du Cerf et Desclee De Brouwer, Paris, 1992
The prologue and epilogue to The Story of a Soul were written by Monseigneur Guy Gaucher.
(Editions du Cerf et Desclee De Brouwer, Paris, 1994)
Translation from French by Andrey and Olga Dyachkov.
Theological consultant of the Russian text of the priest. Georgy Chistyakov.
Photos used from the archives of the Carmelite monastery in Lisieux
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