Louis Martin

Leaving her to herself forces her to have recourse to God in order to see her faults and humble herself.

I think there's a lot that us men and fathers and husbands could learn from this, especially as fathers.

The fact is, we could all benefit from her friendship.

She deserves our love.

She daily inspired those who knew her, and she continues to inspire those who read her story.

Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin was born on January second, eighteen seventy-three in Rue Saint-Blaise, Alençon, France to Marie-Azélie Guérin, "Zélie," and Louis Martin, a jeweler and watchmaker.

Her mother, who often called Therese her "little angel," died from breast cancer only a few months before Therese's fifth birthday.

But those early years with her mother had such an impact upon Therese that in many ways her mother remained with her in her heart and mind throughout her life.

The love that mother and daughter shared was eternal.

Her father, Louis Martin, who called Therese his "little queen," daily manifested his profound love for her, and she looked up to him as her king.

As a child, Therese would spend hours with her father as he worked in the garden, desiring to be near him as often as she could.

She would regularly accompany him on daily walks that would always include a visit to the Blessed Sacrament at the nearby convent in Lisieux.

He set out for home, for exile he would have said, but ere long he saw clearly that his life was to be dedicated to God in another and equally fruitful way, and that the Alpine monastery was to be nothing more to him than a sweet memory.

A few years after the vain quest of Louis Martin, a similar scene was enacted in Alençon itself.

Accompanied by her mother, Zélie Guérin, an attractive and pious girl, presented herself at the convent of the Sisters of Charity in the hope of gaining admission.

For years it had been her desire to share the sisters' work, but this was not to be.

Shortly afterwards the gates of the Visitation Convent at Le Mans closed upon her beloved sister, and Zélie's thoughts turned to the sacrament of holy matrimony.

Oh my God, she repeated constantly, since I am unworthy to be thy spouse, like my dear sister, I shall enter the married state to fulfill thy holy will, and I beseech thee to make me the mother of many children, and to grant that all of them may be dedicated to thee.

God gave ear to her prayer, and his finger was visible in the circumstances which led to her becoming the wife of Louis Martin on July 12, 1858, in Alençon's lovely church of Notre Dame.

Like the chaste Tobias, they were joined together in matrimony, solely for the love of children, in whom God's name might be blessed forever and ever.