Rev. Fr. Stephane-Joseph Piat - The Story of a Family: The Home of St. Therese of Lisieux

The Story of a
Family

The Home of St. Thrse
of Lisieux (The Little
Flower)

Fr. Stphane-Joseph
Piat, O.F.M.

In obedience to the decrees of Pope Urban VIII and other Sovereign Pontiffs, the author declares that all the graces and other supernatural facts related in this volume rest upon human authority alone, and that in regard to such, as in the use of all terms and in the opinions expressed, he submits himself without reserve to the infallible judgment of the Holy Apostolic See.

Copyright 1948 by P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York. Published by P.J. Kenedy &Sons under the title: The Story of a Family: The Home of The Little Flower.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 93-61562

ISBN: 978-0-89555-502-1

Cover design by David Ferris

www.davidferrisdesign.com

Cover Image: Maison familiale des Martin (Lisieux) o Sainte Thrse passa son enfance, Wikimedia Commons

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com

2015

Saint Thrse, the Little Flower (1873-1897), shortly before she entered the Carmelite Order at age 15. Although she lived to be only 24, Pope Saint Pius X described Thrse as "the greatest saint of modern times."

"When we had our children, our ideas changed somewhat. Thenceforward we lived only for them; they made all our happiness and we would never have found it save in them. In fact, nothing any longer cost us anything; the world was no longer a burden to us. As for me, my children were my great compensation, so that I wished to have many in order to bring them up for Heaven."

ZLIE MARTIN

Letter from His Lordship, Monseigneur Picaud, Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux.

Bayeux.

April 6th, 1945.

Reverend Father,

I have read with the keenest interest the M.S. of The Story of a Family, which you have been kind enough to send me. Your undertaking fulfils a wish I expressed many years ago, and which an excessive modesty persistently hesitated to grant. At last, you are about to reveal to the Catholic public the exemplary lives of M. and Mme. Martin.

I am firmly convinced that this book will do much good by setting before its many readers its vivid portrayal of a Christian marriage. At a time when so many unhealthy influences have attacked the indissolubility, the union, and the fertility of the home, what an attractive and persuasive sight, despite the seeming austerity of duty and sacrifice, was that household of M. and Mme. Martin! At a time when the inadequate home training of the children so frequently witnesses to the remissness of so many parents, even baptised Catholics, what a charm and what a benefit it is to note in the correspondence of Mme. Martin in particular the tender affection, and constant watchfulness of an ideal Christian mother! When priestly and religious vocations so often meet with an unfavourable reception and even with formal opposition in family circles, what an eloquent reminder of the hierarchy of vocations is emphasised by the noble aspirations and holy desires confided to God by the lace-maker of Alenon and the patriarch of Les Buissonnets! Would we find many parents today leading, as did M. Martin his "little Queen," to the Bishop of Bayeux in order to hasten her entry into a convent, even though this step must at the same time hasten the wounding and solitude of his fatherly heart?

To these examples of conjugal and family life, you have not omitted to add those of a laborious existence and of high professional conscientiousness, which, again, today it is very timely to recall in order to enlighten and readjust the attitude of many readers.

To sum up in a word, it is the portrait of two incomparable modelsI was nearly saying two holy patronswhich you set before us for our admiration and for the imitation of Catholic parents.

Need I add that the author's skill in such writing, and the obvious enthusiasm that has guided his pen, well add to the prestige of the subjects to charm and edify the reader. I would suggest, Reverend Father, that, over and above these, well chosen and abundant illustrations should still further enhance pages already so attractive by adding life and local color.

I believe that a success comparable to that of the Autobiography of the Saint will reward your labors, and that an immense good will result from this publication. It is in this hope that I bless your undertaking with all my heart, and am

Yours devotedly in Our Lord,

FRANCIS PICAUD.

Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux.

PREFACE

O N JULY 13th, 1858, Louis Martin and Zlie Gurin were united in the Sacrament of Marriage. On July 13th, 1927, Pius XI extended to the Universal Church the Office and Mass of St. Thrse of the Child Jesus. The coincidence of the dates emphasises in its own way the spiritual kinship which, repeating the blood relationship, united the wonder-worker and her parents even in glory.

"If I had not had this, you would not have had that," said significantly Signora Sarto pointing to her wedding ring and to the episcopal ring of the future Pius X. Without the patriarchal atmosphere of the Rue Saint Blaise and the Buissonnets, the ascension of the Carmelite would have been from a less pure lineage. She herself is careful to inform us of this in the opening pages of her Autobiography: "The little Flower that now tells her tale, rejoices in having to publish the wholly undeserved favors bestowed upon her by our Lord... He allowed her to grow up in holy soil enriched with the odor of purity, and preceded by eight lilies of shining whiteness."

"Nature does not make sudden leaps." It is by stages that the level of the ground rises to its culminating point. Though sudden interventions and thunderbolts are not unknown, preferably grace also proceeds by slow stages. In order to cause a peak of sanctity to emerge, God works at and raises up a whole series of generations. Giants of holiness who rise up in isolation and detached, as it were, from the family territory, are rare. Alexis, "the saint under the staircase," who ran away on his wedding night; Francis of Assisi, whom his father cursed and disinherited; Jane de Chantal, who stepped over the body of her own son to reach the convent, remain exceptional cases. Normally, the saint receives his early fashioning in the home circle.

Called as she was to teach the world the sovereign art of rendering the ordinary routine of life a divine thing, Thrse of Lisieux could not escape from the general rule. At the source of her greatness there is a twofold lineage of thoroughbred Christians; bent over her cradle are two saintly faces. Cardinal Mercier rejoiced at this as a providential sign. "Ah," he exclaimed, "how glad I am to know that she is the recompense of an exemplary family. We must never weary of repeating that everywhere."

The Church is readily accused of reserving liturgical honors for virgins, martyrs, bishops and religious. Married folk only find grace in her eyes on condition of having secured a certain rehabilitation by widowhood. Joking apart, and without taking it upon ourselves to research into the Roman Calendar, we must admit that a current prejudice, for which the Sacred Congregation of Rites is by no means responsible, condemns married couples to a "reduced" fervor which does not reach the altars. The greater number of spiritual books exude a monastic perfume. They would feel themselves out of place at a married bedside. Is marriage, to quote the celebrated words of Lacordaire, so wittily recalled by Pius IX, "the snare into which every ideal of perfection fatally stumbles"?