St. Therese parents to be beatified.
Blog by the Sea reports:
La-Croix (through AFP) has reported that Pope Benedict XVI today signed the decree of the "miracle of the child" allowing the beatification of the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. The announcement was made in a statement released today by the Diocese of Séez. The diocesan announcement says that the announcement appeared at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon in L'Osservatore Romano. St. Thérèse's parents' bodies were exhumed in Lisieux on May 28 in preparation for placing them in the basilica in September. They were previously declared to be venerable in 1994. According to the diocese, which apparently is drawing from the Vatican's article in L'Osservatore Romano, the time and place of the beatification will be announced on July 13. That is the 150th anniversary of the marriage of St. Thérèse's parents, Louis and Zélie Martin.
This is great news. Some years ago another member of the Carmelite group I was attending lent me a book on Louis Martin and so I came to have a devotion to him. One of my favorite stories in the book is that he had a devotion to the Desert Fathers and would constantly read up on him. His daughters would sometimes hide his book on the Desert Fathers our of concern that he would run off to emulate them. This of course was never any threat of this since he was a true father devoted to his children. The irony is that it was all of his daughters that ended up becoming nuns and leaving him. He was not one to begrudge God anything and the gift of his daughters to God was a full offering.
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What a wonderful story about the Desert Fathers book! And wonderful news. Thanks for posting that.
Best news I've heard in weeks! Months!
Thanks for the wonderful news! I'll will pass the link along. :)
For what are they worthy of imitation?
Mike,
For the same thing all saints are worthy of for - heroic sanctity. They both considered religious vocations before they met and their first year of marriage was a Josephite marriage until they discerned their full calling. The holiness of the children they raised was no accident. Though I know much more about Louis then I do of Zélie. Louis certainly was a man who lived out holiness and poured himself to God and was willing to suffer slights for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Beautiful news! Thanks for the heads-up. My parish is St Teresa of the Child Jesus. This is something we can celebrate in a special way!
"Saints produce saints", as they say. There were a lot of people in St. Therese's extended family who were known for their sanctity. So the Martins were inspired by their cousins and relations to have a holy marriage, and their children were inspired by them and each other to become holy.
Of course, you get some royal and noble families that produced both saints and villains on a regular basis, and the martyrs and recusants tended to become holy along with their relatives, or in response to their martyrdoms.
But the Martins and their relations became holy en masse in the course of daily life, which is a pretty good trick.
Fantastic news! The parents will now share in the glory of their youngest daughter!
I went to Lisieux in 1991 and saw the tombs of Louis and Zelie Martin. At that time, they were behind the Basilica.
And next year it will be 50 years since the death of Celine (Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face). She was the last surviving Martin daughter, and she testified in the early stages of the Process to the sanctity of her parents, as well as assisted in the identification of their bodies when they were exhumed.
I did hear about Louis Martin's attraction to the Desert Fathers....