Religion: La Petite Fleur

Some 30 years ago, a young girl died of tuberculosis at the Carmelite Monastery of Lisieux, which is on the Paris-Cherbourg railway line. She had written an autobiography-a simple story of her spiritual life. She was credited with saying that “God would permit her to remain on earth until the end of time”; that she “would spend her Heaven on earth doing good”; that she would “let fall a shower of roses.” After these things was she forgotten by that great mass-the outside world.

Then, the roses began to fall. Her autobiography was read by one person, another and another, until thousands had read it, until it had been translated into most known tongues.

Soon letters began to descend upon the Carmelite Monastery at Lisieux. They came first one at a time, then ten, a hundred, a thousand. These letters told of the good that the departed girl-nun was doing in her Heaven on earth. There were stories, attested by doctors, priests and numerous other witnesses, of miracles: deadly diseases cured, sinners converted, moral and material help rendered, etc., etc. Never was such a bed of roses prepared for mankind.

In the War, French poilus died with her name on their lips, fought under her banner, prayed to her on the blood-stained Marne, before the rain of steel at Verdun and in the hour of victory. After the War, soldiers went to her grave at Lisieux, covered it with their medals and swords.

Her fame swept throughout the world. At Paris, special permission was sought from the Pope to name a church after her-L’Eglise de la Petite Fleur. Welsh Catholics placed their Apostolate of the Faith under her protection. President Cosgrave of the Irish Free State planted the Irish standard before her tomb. The Bishop of Alaska confided his scattered Indians and Eskimos to her charge. A Catholic cathedral in the newest diocese in the U. S.-Monterey-Fresno-is to be built in her honor.*Two years ago, the Pope beatified her; more than 60,000 persons went to Rome. At the beatification triduum at Lisieux, 100,000 persons were present; the Pope sent a Legate and there were no less than three Cardinals, 14 Bishops and 500 Priests. In the past ten years, some million and a half persons have made pilgrimages to her tomb. In short, she is the greatest woman of our times.

Who is she? Sister Therese Martin, one of the nine children of a jeweler of Alencon, a provincial town to the south of Lisieux. At the age of 16 -that was in 1889 -she decided to join the Carmelite Order, but was rejected because of her extreme youth. Taken on a visit to Rome, she threw herself at the feet of Pope Leo XIII, “the greatest of modern Popes,” imploring him to sweep away the barriers which prevented her becoming a nun.

His Holiness replied: “If it be God’s will, it shall be done.” It was done.

For eight years, Thérèse lived with the Carmelite Sisters at Lisieux and in 1897 she expired. No great words had she uttered. No supernatural acts were credited to her. No weighty theological thesis had flowed from her quill. Outside the Carmel walls her name was unknown.

Last Sunday, His Holiness Pope Pius XI celebrated the rites for can-onization for Sainte Thérèse, La Petite Fleur (the Little Flower), in St. Peter’s Church, Rome. The ceremony began at 8 o’clock in the morning and ended at 2 o’clock in the afternoon; but long before, at 4 o’clock in the morning, street cars, taxis and private automobiles began to move a vast number of pilgrims to St. Peter’s. Nearly 70,000 persons crowded into the basilica, being the greatest number that ever assembled there since the coronation of Pope. Pius X, 22 years ago.

In full Pontificial robes, the Pope was carried the entire length of the Church in the sedia gestoria amid scenes of emotion. Owing to the installation of a loud speaker-a great innovation for the conservative Catholic Church-His Holiness’ voice was distinctly heard throughout the long service into the recesses of the basilica. Supported by all the Cardinals in Rome, including Cardinal Dougherty of Philadelphia, who led 15,000 Americans to Rome for the event, the Pope began the mystic ceremony of making the Blessed Sister Therese, the Blessed Sainte Thérèse. Outside the Church, hundreds of people knew that the great moment of the ceremony had arrived. Silver bugles were sounded from the dome of the Church. Their clarion notes cut the still air with peculiar sweetness. A few seconds later, from the north, south, east and west, the bells of Rome’s 400 churches tolled their joy.

At night, the dome and portico of St. Peter’s and the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square, which Caligula brought from Egypt, were illuminated for the first time since 1870, when the Papacy was deprived of its temporal power. The illumination was done not with electricity but with thousands of tallow torches and candles, many of which were encased in saucer-shaped lanterns, giving the impression of a blazing building. It took 300 men a fortnight to prepare the pyro display. Many thousands of frantic people cheered in polyglot tongue: “Long live the Pope!” “Vivet la Sainte Thérèse!” “Viva la Chiesa Romana!”

*In the formality preceding beatification, a postulator (solicitor) appears before a tribunal (commission of Cardinals) of the Congregation of Rites, of which the Pope is supreme judge. The postulator must prove:

1) A reputation for sanctity,

2) The heroic qualities of the virtues,

3) The working of miracles.

An advocatus diaboli (devil’s advocate) appears to point out the weaknesses of the case, which must be proved in each of the three particulars, when a decree de tuto is issued. All is then ready for the ceremony of beatification-raising the candidate from the rank of Venerable to Blessed, a step to canonization. This last always takes place in the basilica of St. Peter’s and is one of the most important ecclesiastical functions of the Pope.