Leonie Jezenska 1839-1918
prince's daughter
Another Saint Therese
After God, it is in part to Sister Thérèse of Jesus that the Christian universe owes today to invoke “Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus”. Because Thérèse told us herself, in her Story of a Soul, how one morning in October 1882, shortly after Pauline entered Carmel, she thought of her future name of Carmelite. “I knew that there was a Sister Thérèse of Jesus, however my beautiful name of Thérèse could not be taken away from me (Ms A, 31 r°). » She is not ten years old but her whole heart already belongs to « Little Jesus ». Then the desire came over her to call herself “Thérèse of the Child Jesus”. And that's just the name that Mother Marie de Gonzague proposes to the community, in the next parlour; this name that she will effectively receive on her entry on April 9, 1888, the name under which the Church will choose to invoke her. Without the “contemporary” that we encounter today, perhaps we would have had a second “great and Saint Thérèse of Jesus” (CG II, 1097), as Mother Marie de Gonzague wrote. But no confusion possible now. The Christian people will continue for a long time to distinguish between "the great Thérèse", that of Avila, and "the little Thérèse", that of Lisieux.
But let us return to the Carmelite woman of Lisieux, 43 years old in 1, who was called Thérèse of Jesus.
prince's daughter
Once upon a time there was a candid 20-year-old Breton girl, Julienne-Marie Chevrier. Born in Laillé, llle-et-Vilaine (April 1821, 6), she lived in Rennes with her widowed mother. A prince charming came to flirt with her. They fell in love and married on June 1839, 6. Two months later, on August 1839, XNUMX, our heroine, Léonie-Anastasie, was born.
Who was this handsome prince? Erasmus, 25 years old, undoubtedly handsome, was a medical student. Born of a Polish father (Adam Jezewski) and a mother of German descent (Anastasie Herman), in Bratalow, in Volhinia says the marriage certificate: province then annexed by Russia. He called himself the son of princes, or at least of nobles. He was about fifteen years old when his family took refuge in France. It lives there rather poorly, some of its members becoming stallholders.
Erasmus and Julienne have as witnesses at their marriage: on the one hand, two medical students, on the other hand Joseph Piel, baker, maternal uncle of Julienne, and a locksmith. Were the newlyweds happy? History says nothing about it. Did they have many children? No trace has yet been found of Léonie's brothers or sisters. Madame Jezewska dies at twenty-five. The little one, who is only seven, is taken in by her grandmother Chevrier (born Anne-Marie Baussant). The orphan attaches herself so strongly to her grandmother that she does not leave her until after her death. Léonie was then 33 years old. Nothing is known of his youth.
At Carmel
Miss Jezewska, left alone, presents herself at the Carmel of Rennes. Since the exodus of September 1870, this monastery has kept close ties with that of Lisieux (whose sister Fébronie it hosted for several months). He directs the pretender to the Lexovian Carmel. The superior and the prioress, Mr. Delatroëtte and Mother Marie de Gonzague, are new to their respective offices. They admit without difficulty the postulant who has a good build, in the absence of physical beauty (the photos reveal manly features and no doubt a divergent strabismus). She therefore entered on May 6, 1873, two days before the profession of Sisters Saint-Jean-Baptiste and Aimée of Jesus. A postulant joined her in the novitiate two months later, Sister Marguerite-Marie. In this spring of 1873, a baby of four or five months is in the process of regaining a taste for life, in Semallé, at the "Little Rose" farm...
Sister Thérèse of Jesus of the Heart of Mary (Léonie Jezewska) received the habit of Carmel on October 1, 5, from the hands of the Superior. The sermon is given by Father Rohee, then parish priest of Vaucelles, in Caen. By means of a slight extension of the novitiate of the eldest, the two postulants of 1873 found themselves twins by profession on March 18, 1875. Thérèse of Jesus and Marguerite-Marie received the black veil on April 6. Canon Delatroëtte presides over the ceremony on the Tuesday of Quasimodo. Father Hodierne, parish priest of Crépon, and spiritual director of Marguerite-Marie, delivers the homily. 1875 is a Holy Year. the chaplain, Father Youf, gives the Community "very good sermons during the month of Mary to earn it the precious indulgence (of the great jubilee)".
With the entry of Sister Thérèse of Saint-Augustin on 1er May 1875, there are therefore five postulants in three and a half years, who come to reinforce the workforce.
We know very little about the jobs of Sister Thérèse of Jesus. In 1893, she assisted Sister Saint-Jean-Baptiste in the laundry. Sister Marie des Anges then describes her as “nailed to the cross by her poor eyes which often refuse her their service, matter of great sacrifice for this soul cherishing work, the making of the scapulars of the Sacred Heart”. Nevertheless, she presents “a cheerful and amiable character” (CG II, 1174). But not for all, thus Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, good heart if ever there was one, noted sadly, in May 1903: “I have a little pain thinking of what Mgr [Amette] said to me: that the Sisters who displease me are perhaps more pleasing to the good Lord than me. So I imagine a Sister Thérèse of Jesus and others more loved than me by the good God and this thought makes me so sad that it takes away all my enthusiasm and all my courage. (Note to Mother Agnes of Jesus.) Ah! this demon of comparison!...
With Therese
After such an unspoiled childhood, without any real family life, with also rather ungraceful features, what could Sister Thérèse of Jesus feel when faced with a pampered little Thérèse Martin, pretty as an angel? “Jealousy,” respond Mother Agnès and Marie of the Sacred Heart. The beauty of Therese? "There's nothing rare about it," says the former. His talents for painting? She put them to use as early as 1890, sometimes choosing subjects "really bizarre and in bad taste... for example a lion surrounded by flowers and birds" (NPPA/AJ). “Should we do all this to her?” asks Thérèse, then on professional retirement (LT 114). “In 1897, the last year of her life, little Thérèse still painted small works for this sister. It was the last time she used her brushes. (PA, 1). We are in June (according to NPPA): Thérèse begins to write her manuscript C and her unforgettable pages on fraternal charity. Once again, she lives what she writes.
The documents are silent on the last years of Sister Thérèse of Jesus in the monastery, since her departure in 1909, under the priorate of Mother Marie-Ange. Where was she welcomed, at seventy? Same laconicism of the Book of Professions on his death: "Deceased outside the monastery, October 31, 1918", without specifying the place. So we still have a lot to learn in paradise about this sister.
Sr Cecile ocd
