The Healing Journey

July 12, 2024

“Papa’s death does not give me the impression of death, rather one of a true life. I find him again after six years absence; I feel him near me, looking at me, protecting me.”
— St. Therese of Lisieux

Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin both were disappointed in their plans to enter the religious life. Louis’ desire to become a monk was stymied because he didn’t know Latin, and Zelie’s dream of becoming a Vincentian sister was denied. He became a watchmaker and moved to Normandy, where he met her, a talented lace-maker. However, when she first met him, an interior voice said, “This is he whom I have prepared for you.”

They married on July 12, 1858 and began a life that few could imagine, filled with joy and considerable suffering. A priest who was their friend said: “In their family life, the union was remarkable, both between the husband and the wife, and between the parents and the children.”

The deeply pious couple had nine children, but two sons and two daughters died while they were infants, and in 1877 Zelie, who had managed the household and their five daughters, died of breast cancer. Louis’ life was turned upside down over her loss, and he moved to Lisieux so he could be close to his brother and sister-in-law while raising his five daughters, four of whom eventually entered the Monastery of Mount Carmel at Lisieux and one the Visitation convent. Louis’ health declined and he was committed to a sanitarium, where he died in 1894.

Both parents gave their daughters a deep and profound love of God, and their youngest, Therese, who entered the convent at 15, eventually became one of the greatest saints in the history of the Church. St. Therese of the Child Jesus, the Little Flower.

Louis and Zelie were the first husband and wife to be canonized as a couple in 2015 by Pope Francis. We celebrate their feast day on July 12, the anniversary of their marriage.

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