THERESA OF LISIEUX, SAINT

born Jan. 2, 1873, Alenon, Fr. died Sept. 30, 1897, Lisieux; canonized May 17, 1925; feast day October 1 also called Saint Theresa Of The Child Jesus, or The Little Flower, French Sainte Thrse De Lisieux, or Sainte Thrse De L'enfant-jsus, or La Petite Fleur, original name Marie-franoise-thrse Martin Carmelite nun whose service to her Roman Catholic order, although outwardly unremarkable, was later recognized for its exemplary spiritual accomplishments. Theresa moved with her family to Lisieux in 1877 and was raised by older sisters and an aunt. In the deeply religious atmosphere of her home, her piety developed early and intensively. At the age of 15 she entered the Carmelite convent at Lisieux, having been refused admission a year earlier. While she continued to suffer from depression, scruplesa causeless feeling of guiltand, at the end, religious doubts, she kept the rule to perfection and maintained a smiling, pleasant, and unselfish manner. Before her death from tuberculosis she acknowledged that because of her difficult nature not one day had ever passed without a struggle. Her burial site at Lisieux became a place of pilgrimage, and a basilica bearing her name was built there (192954). The story of Theresa's spiritual development was related in a collection of her epistolary essays, written by order of the prioress and published in 1898 under the title Histoire d'une me (Story of a Soul). Her popularity is largely a result of this work. The best English translation is that by R.A. Knox (1958). St. Theresa defined her doctrine of the Little Way as the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute surrender.