Our Patron Saint – Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux was born on 2 January 1873. She felt an early call to religious life, and, overcoming various obstacles, in 1888 at the early age of 15, she became a nun and joined two of her elder sisters in the cloistered Carmelite community of Lisieux, Normandy. For nine years she lived the ordinary life of a Carmelite Sister combining prayer, work and recreation.

The simplicity and profundity of Theresa’s approach to God and the things of the sprit, which she called her little way, has influenced millions of people all over the world.

She loved flowers and saw herself as the “little flower of Jesus”, who gave glory to God by just being her beautiful little self among all the other flowers in God’s garden. Because of this beautiful analogy, the title “little flower” remained with St Theresa.

Theresa died of tuberculosis on 30 September 1897 at just 24 years of age. Her last words, to the assembled sisters, before she died were an expression of her Faith and Love of God; she looked at her crucifix and said “I am not dying, I am entering eternal life”. Her feast day is celebrated on the 1^st of October.