As soon as she entered, Thérèse hooked up with St Vincent de Paul. The day before, 32 years old, her eldest conversed about her grief and Thérèse complained to Sr Agnès of Jesus: "This morning I had trouble at my Sister Saint-Vincent de Paul's, I went away . » to Latvia
An incident clearly shows the difficulty of the relationship that existed between the two Carmelites, on the occasion of the death of the foundress of the Carmel, Mother Geneviève, on December 5, 1891. The families of the sisters, the friends, the workers had sent many bouquets of flowers that Therese arranged as best she could near the coffin. Sister Saint Vincent de Paul, who was watching her, suddenly exclaimed: “You know how to put the wreaths sent by your family in the first row and you put the bouquets of the poor in the back. Thérèse replies: “Thank you, my sister, you are right, I am going to highlight the foam cross sent by the workers, that is where it will do well, I had not thought of that.” Sister St Vincent de Paul confessed later that it was from that day that she looked up to Thérèse as a saint. Reported by Mother Agnès in her testimony to the PO.
But as the days go by, his opinion varies. At the end of July 1897, Thérèse was seized with an insurmountable disgust for food. Sr. St. Vincent de Paul came one day to offer her a cup of gravy, which the patient refused. St Vincent de Paul returned to the kitchen cursed saying: “Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus not only is not a saint but she is not even a good nun. » (same source).
The opinion of Sister St. Vincent de Paul will change definitively the day of Thérèse's death, when she asked her to be cured of the cerebral anemia which had afflicted her for a long time. Leaning her head on Thérèse's feet, she asked her forgiveness for her offenses and said that from then on she had obtained her complete cure. See testimony of Sr Marthe at the PO.
She then expresses her devotion to him by picking up the scraps of photographs representing Thérèse, hastening to keep them as souvenirs. She would say to Sister Geneviève (Céline) in 1898: “You can flatter yourself and be very proud of having been the sister of a saint. »
