St. Therese is my favorite saint. Many people call her the Little Flower and that is where the Catholic group Little Flowers comes from. Therese was born in France in 1873. Her family was quite wealthy. She had eight other siblings. Only five of the nine children lived.

As a little girl St. Therese wanted to be a nun. She confessed in her autobiography that she was full of pride. One time her mother told her she could have a penny if she touched her nose to the ground. Therese told her no. When Therese’s mother came home one day Therese was on the couch with a blanket over her. Her mom told her to come out and give her a kiss but Therese ignored her then said no, a couple minutes later though she jumped up crying and ran and hugged her mom saying she was sorry.

When Therese was only four and a half, her mother died of breast cancer. When her sister Celine said, “Marie will be my new mother.” Therese said, “Pauline will be my mother.” Marie and Pauline both took care of Therese and Celine. (Celine was Therese’s closest sister, two or three years older than she was.)

Therese longed to have first Holy Communion after Leonie had hers. When the family left to go to church Therese stayed with her aunt, uncle, her cousin, and Celine. They used to make an Altar and have their own mass, with grape juice and bread cut into circles.

A couple of years later, she had her first Holy Communion and her Confirmation.

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Pauline entered the Carmelite convent when she was twenty years old and Therese was eleven. This was tragic for Therese. A few months later, Therese became really sick. She was delusional, and had a very high fever. People thought she was dying; all the doctors who saw her had no clue what to do. The family prayed over her constantly. One time, Therese was alone in the room and was crying for Marie who was in the garden. When Marie heard this she came running to Therese. But Therese did not recognize her! She screamed when she saw Marie. Therese said later she thought Marie was the devil. When Therese screamed, Marie got Leonie who tried to soothe Therese, but nothing worked. Later, Therese said that a picture on the wall turned into the devil and came out and swooped down into her. A while later, Therese saw her sisters praying to their statue of Mary so Therese prayed too. She saw Mary smile at her and then she was cured! Everyone called it a miracle.

Later, her sisters Marie and Leonie left to join the Poor Clares and the Carmelites. Now it was just Celine and Therese at home. Whenever Therese thought someone was being mean to her she burst into tears. She had become spoiled from her father and over-sensitive. Therese wanted to enter the Carmelites with Marie and Pauline, but how would people think she was ready if she was always crying?

At fourteen, Therese wanted to enter the convent. She asked the convent but they said no. So she asked the Bishop, but he said no. She did not give up. Therese and Celine went to Rome with their father to ask the Pope. They went and saw all of the Catholic sites. When she went to see the Pope, they told her not to talk to him just to kiss his feet and leave. But she did not listen. She went up to the Pope and told him everything. The Pope did not say anything. The guards dragged her to her family.

A couple of weeks later, a letter came saying Therese could come into the convent. She wanted to be called Therese of The Child Jesus, and when she went in to see the nuns they told her she would be called just that! But her father suffered strokes and became very weak. Celine said she would take care of him and told her to enter the convent, so she did.

Therese said she only had one wish on her “Marriage day,” that it would snow. It did! She was so thrilled. She said this was the happiest day of her life!

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In 1889, Therese got tuberculosis. Everyone thought she was faking being sick, they did not know she had tuberculosis. But Therese was coughing up blood. This was the beginning of Therese’s worst suffering. When she went to see her father (for the last time) with her sisters, he was in a wheelchair and was pale. He could not talk and did not move. Only Celine talked, she talked about how she was and about what the doctors said about their father. When he was leaving (in a wheelchair with Celine pushing him) he said, “In heaven,” and pointed toward the sky. Soon afterward he died. Though this was very sad, it gave Celine the freedom to choose her path. She joined the Carmelites a couple of weeks later.

Soon after that, Therese, with the nuns (and her sisters Marie, Pauline, and Celine) sitting around her, died with only one wish, to be a saint.