The testimonies of the Ordinary Trial

Questions for questioning witnesses

Trial of the Ordinary

EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES

In order to facilitate the reading of each testimony, here is a summary of the thirty requests planned for the interrogation of witnesses.

1 - Oath: - very serious obligation, sincerity, integrity; - possible excommunication; - obligation of secrecy.

2 - Presentation of the witness.

3 - Sacramental practice of the witness.

4 - Has the witness been publicly accused of any crime?

5 - Was the witness subject to any ecclesiastical censure?

6 - Was the witness subjected to any pressure in view of giving evidence at the Trial and, if so, in what way?

7 - With what dispositions does the witness come to testify? If he is a relative of the Servant of God, does he feel free from any family bias?

8 - Sources of the witness's information: personal contacts with the Servant of God? information due to third parties? information from writing? -If it is a question of The Story of a Soul, what does the witness know of its origin, its spirit, its objectivity, its integrity, etc.?

9 - Devotion, love of the witness for the Servant of God. Does he want his beatification? For what?

10 - Birth, childhood, family background, education of the Servant of God. - Who took care of her after her mother died?

11 - Reputation, faith, conduct, piety, character of the Servant of God's parents.

12 - Baptism of the Servant of God.

13 - Education given by her parents: to their children in general and to Thérèse in particular. - If the witness speaks of Mr. Martin's predilection for his daughter Thérèse, ask whether the latter took advantage of it out of vanity or attachment to her own will.

14 - Childhood of the Servant of God, education at the Benedictine Abbey of Lisieux, first communion, confirmation.

15 - Why was Thérèse removed from the Benedictine Abbey before the end of her education? - How did she behave afterwards in the family? Its qualities, its faults, its religious practice, that of communion in particular.

16 - Origin of her Carmelite vocation. - At what age did she feel called? What signs did she give of the authenticity of her vocation?

17 - The novitiate, the profession. - Attitude of the Ecclesiastical Superior. Behavior of the Servant of God during her training.

18 - The Servant of God, help in the novitiate. - Why wasn't she Mistress of Novices? His pedagogy. - Did she fulfill other offices at the monastery?

19 - Did the Servant of God leave any writings? If yes, which ones?

20 - Heroic virtues. - Did the Servant of God, or not, show an alert and constant fervor, above the average, in the exercise of the virtues throughout her life?

21 - theological virtues.

Heroic faith. - Positive exercise of faith in words and deeds. - Adherence to the infallible teachings of the Church and the Popes. - Fight against temptations.

Heroic hope. - Eternal bliss and its joys. Trust in God.

Heroic charity, love of God. - Horror of sin, zeal for the glory of God, Love of the Servant of God for Jesus Christ: how did she manifest it?

Heroic charity, love of neighbor. - Physical care. Poor. Sick. - Spiritual influence. - Support of possible insults, annoyances and oppositions. - Equal love for all or limited by preferences? - Love disengaged or not from sensual and even sensitive sympathy?

Cardinal virtues.

Caution. - Attitude of the Servant of God in case of notable difficulties. - Escape from dangerous occasions, recourse to positive means. - Help given to others in difficulty.

Justice. - Worship of God, BV Mary and the Saints. - Obedience and respect due to Superiors. - Concern for truth. - Respect for the rights of friendship; affability in day-to-day dealings.

Strength. - Patience and constancy in adversities. Perseverance and magnanimity in hard works. Works. Bodily mortifications. Psychological mortifications.

Temperance. - Food and drink. Modesty in dress. Way of speaking. - Did the Servant of God have to fight against a nature prone to violence and anger? Did she arrive and how (if at all) at the domination of herself in leniency?

Additional virtues and vows of religion. -Observance of the vows of religion according to the rule and the constitutions. Heroic exercise of obedience, poverty and chastity. - Humility: self-contempt, acceptance of disdain or contempt from others.

22 - “Extraordinary” donations. - Apparitions, revelations, gift of prophecy, reading of consciences, ecstasies, etc.

23 - Renown for holiness during life. - In the world, then in the monastery: fame discussed or not? And if so, for what reasons?

24 - Last illness, reception of the sacraments, submission to the will of God.

25 - Burial, possible transfer, current place of burial. What was said then of the Servant of God?

26 - Did the witness go to the Servant of God's burial place? - What does he know of the number and social condition of the faithful who thus go to the tomb of the Servant of God?

27 - Renown for holiness after death. - Is this fame a fact? If so, where is it prevalent? In what environments? Is it declining or growing? Where did she come from? Could it be some industrious zeal?

28 - Does this reputation for holiness arouse opposition? If yes, from whom? How? For what?

29 - Graces and miracles after death.

30 - The witness is invited to complete and possibly correct everything he said during the interrogations.

Witness 1 - Agnes of Jesus

The series of depositions given at the informative Processes for the beatification and canonization of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus opens with the imposing testimony of Mother Agnès of Jesus, sister of the Servant of God, testimony completed by the Novissima Verba.

Who better than Mother Agnes to penetrate the soul of the Saint? The mother gave us in the Last Interviews the expressions which testify to the deep affection of her "little daughter" towards her, who went so far as to call her her "light" (ib. 25.7.14), her "sun (ib. 5.8.5, 7.8.5), her "telephone" (ib. 27.7.11), her "support" (19.8.2), further affirming that she was for her "a lyre, a song" (1 1.9.2). Everyone knows that Sister Thérèse entrusted her manuscripts to Mother Agnès, also calling her “her historian” (ib. 29.7.7) and saying to her: “You know all the recesses of my little soul, you alone! (ib. 16.7.4). It was therefore right that Mother Agnès should be called first to give her testimony.

Second of the nine children of Louis-Joseph-Stanislas Martin (1823-1894) and Marie-Zélie Guérin (1831-1877), Marie-Pauline was born in Alençon on September 7, 1861. After having been a boarder at the Visitation from 1868 to 1877 du Mans, where she received an intellectual and spiritual formation imbued with the Salesian spirit which she reflected throughout her life, it was following an inspiration which diverted her from the Visitation towards which she was oriented, that Pauline entered on October 2, 1882 in the Carmel of Lisieux, a town where her father had lived since November 15, 1877. She received the habit there on April 6, 1883 under the name of Agnès of Jesus and made profession there on May 8, 1884, the day Thérèse made his first communion.

The future saint entered Carmel on April 9, 1888 and Mother Agnès was elected prioress for the first time on February 20, 1893. It was as prioress that in December 1894 she ordered Thérèse to write the memories of her childhood and that This is how Mother Agnès was able to receive for the feast of her patron Saint, in 1896, the autobiographical pages which today constitute the Manuscript A.

Mother Agnès' first priorate ended in 1896. Elected sub-prioress in 1899, she was again elected prioress in 1902, then in 1909 after the premature death of Mother Marie-Ange de l'Enfant-Jésus. She was then re-elected to this office without interruption until Pope Pius XI appointed her prioress for life on May 31, 1923. She died on July 28, 1951, after a painful illness.

It is thanks to Mother Agnès that, under the priorate of Mother Marie de Gonzague, Sister Thérèse had to write in 1897 the text which today constitutes Manuscript C. It is Mother Agnès who again had the very great merit of publication so quickly of the Story of a soul, published on September 30, 1898, for the first anniversary of Thérèse's death.

As we know, the work also had a prodigious distribution early on and Mother Agnès later gave it as a supplement the Novissima VerbaIn 1927.

Convinced of the great good that the glorification of her sister would not fail to do for souls, as she declared at the Apostolic Process (cop. publ., pp. 341-342), Mother Agnès worked at it with all her heart, with ardor and constancy. Difficulties, of course, were not lacking to her, but she had very great joys with the conclusion of the Informative Processes of the Ordinary (1910-1911) and the Apostolic Processes (1915-1917), with the declaration of the heroicity of the virtues of Thérèse on August 14, 1921, under the pontificate of Benedict XV, and even more with her beatification on April 29, 1923 and her canonization on May 17, 1925 under the pontificate of Pius XI who, until his death in 1939, held always mother Agnès in the highest esteem. The liturgical feast of Saint Thérèse was extended to the universal Church on July 13, 1927 and the Saint was proclaimed patroness of the missions as equal to Saint François-Xavier on December 14, 1927, then secondary patroness of France on May 3, 1944.

With her limits, of course, but which must be judged according to her time and her educational background, Mother Agnès is truly entitled to the recognition of the whole Church because she clearly had, in depth, the intuition of the value of the writings of the Saint and applied himself without delay, not without audacity, to their publication.

In responding to Canon Dubosq's requests, Mother Agnès intended to clearly identify the spiritual face of the Servant of God and the meaning of her message and therefore first sought to have Thérèse speak herself, as we underlined in note by referring to the writings of the Saint. She gave the court the Novissima Verba September 2, 1910 (f. 247r-297v).

The witness gives here and there the details that seem essential to him. When Mother Agnès wanted to have Thérèse repeat on July 7, 1897 what the latter had told her about the wound of love received on June 14, 1895, she heard herself reply: "Mother, I told you that on day and you barely listened to me" (Last interviews, Yellow Book, 1, 7.7.2). Fortunately, Mother Agnès expanded on the Act of Offering during the fourteenth session on August 27, 1910 (f. 208v-212r).

As for the Story of a Soul, it was on August 16, 1910, during the seventh session, that Mother Agnès spoke of its origin. She explained the circumstances in which Therese had written her texts and how she had confided to her that she could, as she saw fit, modify them, reduce them or add to them (cf. f. 155v -

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

159v and Autobiographical manuscripts, ed. Francis of Sainte Marie, I, 1956, pp. 66-70).

On the following day, session VIII, the promoter of the faith asked if Thérèse's autobiographical manuscript corresponded perfectly to the texts that had been printed. It was then that Mother Agnès declared, moreover in a rather discreet way, that certain passages had been deleted and other modifications had been made, with a view to editing, and that the just as if it had been dedicated to the only mother Marie de Gonzague (f. 161v-162r). The court could not remain insensitive to this and decided that the authentic copy of Thérèse's autograph texts should be attached to the Acts of the Trial, which was done. In the copy of the Trial which we publish, this authentic copy is found in vol. IV, f. 1404v-1634v. We will give the text at the end of our volume.

Mother Agnès testified from the fourth to the ninth session (August 12-19, 1910) and from the fourteenth to the twenty-first session (August 27-September 15, 1910), fr. 135r-176v and 208v-301v. The interruption is explained by the fact that the court wanted to allow Thomas Nimmo Taylor, a Scottish priest who was then in Lisieux at the head of a pilgrimage (*), to testify without further delay.

[Session 5: - August 12, 1910, at 8:30 a.m. and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[135r] [The witness answers the first request correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Marie-Pauline Martin, born in Alençon, diocese of Séez, on September 7, 1861, of the legitimate marriage of Louis-Joseph-Aloys-Stanislas Martin, originally from Bordeaux and Marie-Zélie-Guérin, originally from Gandelain, near Alençon, diocese of Séez. My religious name is Sister Agnès of Jesus, nun, prioress of the Carmel of Lisieux, sister, according to nature, of the Servant of God.

[From the third to the sixth request, inclusive, the witness answered regularly and correctly].

[135v] [Answer to the seventh request]:

I am happy to testify; it is for the glory of God. I am happy, no doubt, that she is my sister, but her life seems so edifying to me that even if she were not my sister, I would still be very happy to give the same testimony.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I knew the Servant of God above all through the constant family relations that I had with her and through our community of life, either in the family, from 1877 to 1882, then, in Carmel from 1888 until her death. . During the first five years (1873-1877), I was in boarding school, absent from the family. From 1882, the date of my entry into the Carmel, until 1888, the date of her entry into the same monastery,136 I was separated from her, but we kept family relations. What she reports in the "Story of a Soul", written by herself, I had observed and seen for myself, and reading her writings has added little to the knowledge that I have of his life. [16r] On her deathbed, she said to me: “You know all the recesses of my soul, you alone” - DE 7-XNUMX - '.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have for her a very great affection and a very great confidence because I believe her very close to God and very powerful on his Heart; I pray to her a lot, not because she is my sister, but because of her holiness; I have a real feeling of respect for her; during his life, I had respect, but above all affection. I very much desire his beatification, because it will procure the glory of God, above all will make his mercy known; we will trust more in his mercy and fear his justice less, what Sister Thérèse called her “little way of trust and abandonment” that she wanted to show to souls after her death.

[Answer to the tenth request]:

She was born on January 2, 1873, in Alençon, rue Saint-Blaise, parish of Notre-Dame, diocese of Séez. Our father, as I said above, was called Louis-Joseph-Aloys-Stanis-[136v]las Martin and was born in Bordeaux on August 22, 1823; our mother was called Marie-Zélie Guérin; she was born in Gandelain on November 23, 1831. Our father was a jeweler and our mother traded in Alençon point lace. When the Servant of God was born, our father had retired from business and our family was well off. Our parents had nine children from their marriage:

Marie-Louise, born in Alençon on February 22, 1860.

2' Marie-Pauline, born in Alençon on September 7, 1861.

3' Marie-Léonie, born in Alençon on June 3, 1863.

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

4' Marie-Hélène, born in Alençon on October 13, 1864, died at the age of 4 and a half. 5' Marie-Joseph-Louis, born in Alençon on September 20, 1866, died at 5 months.

6' Marie-Joseph-Jean Baptiste, born in Alençon on December 19, 1867, died at 9 months.

7' Marie-Céline, born in Alençon on April 28, 1869.

8' Marie-Mélanie-Thérèse, born in Alençon on August 16, 1870, died at 3 months.

9' Marie-Françoise-Thérèse (the Servant of God), born in Alençon on January 2, 1873.

[137r] The education of the children took place partly in the family and partly in the boarding houses run, either by the visitandines of Le Mans for the eldest daughters, or by the Benedictines of Lisieux for the youngest, because of the change of home following our mother's death. This was especially the case for Léonie, Céline and Thérèse.

[Answer to the eleventh request]:

Our parents had the reputation of being religious, even very pious; our mother, in spite of the fatigues of her life, attended mass every day with our father at half-past five and both made Holy Communion there four or five times a week; towards the end of his life, my father took communion every day; he was part of the Conference of Saint Vincent de Paul, of the work of Nocturnal Adoration, etc. Both were doing their Lent, fasting and abstinence, despite my mother's weak complexion. My father held to the strict observance of Sunday, although the closing of his jewelry business, especially on that day, caused him considerable prejudice.

[139r] [Answer to the twelfth request]:

She was baptized in the church of Notre-Dame [139v] in Alençon on January 4, 1873.

[How do you know?]:

Because I was there.

[Do you know why they waited two days after her birth to baptize her?]:

Because we were waiting for his godfather. During this interval, our pious mother was in continual trances, regretting this interval and fearing that some harm would happen to this child: she constantly imagined that the child was in danger. All of her other children had been baptized the same day they were born. Moreover, the act of baptism must be in the hands of the vice-postulator.

[Answer to the thirteenth request]:

Their sole concern was, so to speak, our spiritual interest. Our mother wanted all her daughters to be nuns, without however wanting to influence us.

[Could you give more details here?]:

[140r] Our mother often made us raise our hearts to God during the day; led us on visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Our mother was rather firm in our upbringing and did not pass us anything, especially concerning vanity, etc. Our father was of a milder character; he particularly loved his little Thérèse, and our mother used to say: “You will lose her!”

[Why was the Servant of God especially loved by her father?]:

XNUMX° she was her youngest child, then she was particularly intelligent and loving. As a child, she guessed the feelings of my father, who found in her especially his consolation after the death of our mother.

[From this paternal predilection, did the Servant of God sometimes derive some occasion for vainglory, etc.?]:

No way; besides, our father loved her, but did not spoil her; one day when she had said to him a little freely: "take it easy" (she was perhaps three years old), he reprimanded her and made her feel her fault: it was for life, she didn't never did it again and his words were always very respectful. I never noticed that she was proud of her sisters, quite the contrary. After the death of our mother, she considered her older sisters and me especially as her [140v] mother. I don't remember that she once disobeyed me; she asked permission for everything. When my father asked her to go out with him, she always answered: “I will ask Pauline's permission” - MSA 19,1 - '. My father himself urged him to this submission; and if I refused, she would sometimes cry, because of my father, who would have been happy to go out with her, but obeyed without insisting.

[Answer to the fourteenth request]:

After the death of our mother arrived on August 28, 1877, our father came to settle in Lisieux, because Mr. Guérin lived in this city, our mother's brother, and Mrs. Guérin, being particularly good and pious, my father thought he would find from her support and useful assistance for the education of her daughters. Thérèse was raised in the family by my father and by Marie and me, her older sisters, until the age of eight and a half. At the age of eight and a half, she entered the Benedictines of Lisieux as a half-boarder. Two of his sisters, Léonie and Céline, had been brought up in this house. [141r] Léonie having finished her education, Thérèse took her place. She was instructed by the nuns, and my sister Céline, who was there with her, knows better than I

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

details of his stay. During the years which preceded his entry into the Abbey, I was particularly employed in his education; she was very diligent and took great advantage of all my lessons. She was careful to gain control over her actions and from then on she got into the habit of never complaining or apologizing. At the Abbey, she gave perfect satisfaction by her application and as evidenced by the notes transmitted to the family each week. She confided to me later that she had had to suffer from the feelings of jealousy of a companion, but she never complained about it at that time. Having then noticed that some of her companions became particularly attached to such and such a mistress, she had the idea of ​​imitating them, but could not succeed, which she considered as a particular grace of the good God; she often said it to me, as moreover she recounted it in the story of her life: "Not knowing how to win the good graces of creatures, I could not succeed in it." Oh! happy ignorance, how it has saved me from great evils! - MSA 37,1 - '. [141v] She made her first communion at the Benedictine Abbey on May 8, 1884; I was then at Carmel and it was above all my sister Marie who prepared it. Three months before her first communion, I gave her a little book in which her sacrifices and her aspirations of love towards Jesus were to be marked each evening. During these three months, she recorded 818 sacrifices and 2.773 acts or aspirations of love. She was confirmed at the Benedictine Abbey on June 14, 1884.

[Answer to the fifteenth request]:

Shortly after her first communion, she passed through a crisis of scruples, and, as her health seemed to be failing, our father thought it prudent to withdraw her from the boarding school and resume the system of education in the family.

[Was illness the only cause of this departure, or was it rather motivated by some disapproval on the part of the mistresses or some repugnance on the part of the Servant of God?]:

Oh! no, it was his state of weakness that made my father [142r] fear that the stay at school would be too tiring, but I know these details less well than my sisters.

[Do you know how the Servant of God lived after leaving the Benedictine Abbey?]:

I was in Carmel, my sisters who were in the family will know it much better than me. I could only reproduce the manuscript of his life.

[Answer to the sixteenth request]:

From her earliest childhood, the Servant of God said that she wanted to live in a desert the better to pray to God; when she accompanied my father on his walks in the country, while he was busy fishing, she liked to retire to a place where, she says, she thought of eternity. When I entered the Carmel in 1882, his aspirations turned to this form of religious life; from the age of 9, she would have liked to enter Carmel, and her desire became clearer and clearer until the age of 14, when she took the first steps to realize her plan.

[142v] [Could she perhaps have conceived this desire because of the company of her sisters or, at the very least, because of the special affection she had for the witness, already a nun in Carmel?]:

My sisters Marie, Céline and Léonie did not then express the desire to be religious; my sister Marie in particular affected rather to divert the conversation from this subject. Fearing myself that she would speak of Carmel because of me, I asked her one day if it was not to be with me that she expressed these desires. She was pained by this supposition and said to me: “Oh! no, it is for the good God all alone” - MSA 26,1 - '. She proved it well afterwards.

[Session 6: - August 13, 1910, at 8:30 a.m. and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[144v] [Response to sixteenth request continued]:

She only found me to encourage her in her project of entering the Carmel; she could not talk about her desire without feeling repulsed by Marie (her older sister) who found her too young and did everything possible to prevent her entry. Myself, to [145r] test it, I sometimes tried to slow down its ardor, if it hadn't really had a vocation, it would have stopped at the start, only encountering obstacles to respond to the call of God. She did not know what means to take to announce it to my father who had just sacrificed his three eldest. Marie, in fact, had come to join me at Carmel and Léonie was then at the Poor Clares of Alençon. The Servant of God was 14 and a half years old, she chose the day of Pentecost to make her great confidence and all day long she begged the holy Apostles to inspire her with the words she was going to have to say. After pointing out to her that she was very young, my father allowed himself to be convinced by the reasons she gave him and replied that it was a great honor for him that God asked him for his children. But painful trials still awaited him. Our uncle Mr. Guérin, consulted on the project, replied that as much as he depended on him, he forbade him to speak to him about this vocation before the age of 17. It was, he said, unwise to let a 15-year-old child in.

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

in Carmel; it would, in the eyes of the world, do great harm to religion to let an inexperienced child [145v] embrace this kind of life. He finally says that it would take a miracle to make him change his mind. Thérèse sought her only consolation in prayer and begged Jesus to perform this miracle. Some time later, she had an inner trial, a feeling of great abandonment for three days. On the fourth day, my uncle unexpectedly gave his consent. A few days later, she came to Carmel to tell me of her joy, but what was her sadness to hear me say that the Superior would not consent to her entering before the age of 21.

[Who was then the superior of the monastery and do you know why he opposed the entry of the Servant of God?]:

It was Monsieur Delatroëtte, parish priest of Saint Jacques de Lisieux. He declared to me that he found this child too young; he gave me no other reason for his opposition.

[Perhaps the Superior would have opposed the entry of the Servant of God, because two of her sisters were already in this same monastery?]:

[146r] He never told me that.

[The witness then continued his statement as follows]:

No one had thought of this opposition; our Reverend Mother Prioress was very favorable to Thérèse's entry. The Servant of God, without losing heart, asked our father to take her to the superior, where she was accompanied by her sister Céline. She tried to touch him and prove to him that she really had the vocation of Carmel. He received them very coldly and said that there was no danger in the house, that she could lead a Carmelite life at home, that all would not be lost if she did not take the discipline, etc. But he added that he was only the bishop's delegate and that if the bishop wanted to allow him to enter Carmel, he would have nothing to say.

[Are you reporting all of this based on the manuscript of "Story of a Soul Written by Itself"?]:

She told me all this out loud, very often.

My father having promised her, at the request she expressed, to take her to the bishopric, she added: "If my lord does not give me permission, I will go [146v] and ask the Holy Father" - MSA 52,1 - '.

She told me the whole story of this trip which she then wrote in the "Story of a Soul." What worried her above all was that, having never been on a visit unless accompanied by her elder sisters and speaking there only rarely and to answer the questions put to her, she did not know how to overcome her shyness to herself explain to Monsignor the object and the reasons for her request. However, she overcame her emotion and pleaded her cause as best she could. Monsignor expressed the thought that the child could stay with his father for several more years for his consolation, but he was not a little surprised to see the father himself support his daughter's request. Monsieur Révérony, Vicar General, expressed his admiration. Asked by Monsignor about the time when she conceived her first ideas of a religious vocation, she replied that it was a long time ago. Monsieur Révérony, vicar general, said with a smile: “It's still not 15 years” - MSA 54,2 - '. She replied that there were not many years to take away from it, because she had wanted religious life from the age [147r] of 3 years, and Carmel as soon as she had known it. Monseigneur said that he wanted to discuss this matter with Monsieur Delatroëtte, superior of the Carmel, and that he would give his answer later. The Servant of God, who knew of Mr. Delatroëtte's opposition, was sorry for this decision and wept bitterly. During the conversation, Monsieur Martin having spoken of a plan to travel to Rome, Monsignor approved it. On her return from Bayeux, she came to see me in the visiting room. I was very struck to notice in her, despite a real sadness, a very great peace of soul, based on her complete surrender to the will of God. I seem to hear this conversation again, which inspired me with a great feeling of respect for her, so high did the dispositions of her soul seem to me.

She preceded her trip to Rome with a pilgrimage to Notre-Dame des Victoires in Paris. There she recommended to the Blessed Virgin the main object of her journey, which was to obtain from the Holy Father her admission to Carmel. She also recommended very specifically to the Blessed Virgin the preservation of her virtue. “I asked her again [147v] - she said - to keep away from me all opportunities to sin. I was not unaware that, during my journey, many things would come across capable of troubling me; having no knowledge of evil, I feared to discover it” - MSA 57,2 - '. These words, recorded in her manuscript, she repeated to me many times, like all the content of the story of her life. During her journey, as her letters attest, she was not insensitive to the beauties of nature and art, the admiration of which always ended in some supernatural thought; but she was constantly preoccupied with her plans for a meeting with the Holy Father. The details of her trip are recorded in the "History of her life", written by herself, and my sister Céline, who accompanied her, could repeat them; I know them by what they have told me about it, which conforms in all respects to the manuscript, a copy of which I propose to add to the documents of the Cause.

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

[148r] [Continued from the response to the sixteenth request. - The judge asks if the witness can complete the “Story of a Soul” regarding this trip]:

No, everything she told me is reproduced in this writing. In her audience with the Sovereign Pontiff, she overcame her great shyness and requested authorization to enter Carmel at the age of 15. Monsieur Révérony, vicar general of Bayeux, present at the audience, having pointed out to the Sovereign Pontiff that the question was being studied by the superiors, [148v] Leo XIII replied to the Servant of God: “Do what the superiors say.” She insisted, saying, “Oh! most Holy Father, if you said yes, everyone would like it.” The Pope resumed: “Come, you will enter if the good Lord wills it” - MSA 63,1 - '. She wanted to insist again and the audience only ended because Monsieur Révérony and the guards pulled her from the feet of the Holy Father.

Here is the passage from a letter she wrote to me after this audience: “I believe that I did what the good Lord wanted; now all I have to do is pray. I have a very heavy heart, however the good Lord cannot give me trials that are beyond my strength. He gave me the courage to endure this ordeal. Oh! she is very tall; but, Pauline, I am the little ball of the Child Jesus; if he wants to break his toy, he is quite free; yes, I want whatever he wants” - LT 36 -.” After her return to France, she relied with perfect obedience, for the pursuit of her project, on the advice that I gave her after consulting the Reverend Mother Prioress myself, certain, she told me, that to obey was the only way not to be wrong. [149r] On my advice, before Christmas 1887 she wrote a letter of entreaty to the Bishop of Bayeux, who this time replied on December 28, granting the much-desired authorization. However, she did not enter the Carmel until April 1888.

[Do you know why the Servant of God did not enter the monastery as soon as she had permission from the bishop?]:

The immediate superior, Monsieur Delatroëtte, was so dissatisfied with all the steps taken outside of him, and with the authorization obtained against his feelings, that we at Carmel thought it best to give him some satisfaction, by postponing the entrance of the postulant. Finally, she entered Carmel on April 9, 1888. She was brought by my father and the whole family. Monsieur Delatroëtte, the superior, introduced her to the community in these terms: “My reverend mother, you can sing the Te Deum; as delegate of Monsignor, I present to you this 15-year-old child; it was you who wanted her to come in, I hope she doesn't deceive your hopes. But I remind you that you will bear all the responsibility.”

[149v] [How do you know?]:

I witnessed all these events.

[Do you know whether or not the superior still retained these same feelings?]:

It took several years for this holy priest to change his mind, but finally he came to a deep admiration for the Servant of God, even saying to the mother prioress: “Ah! truly, this child is an angel.” I myself heard these words, and, while pronouncing them, the good superior had the eyes full of tears.

[Answer to the seventeenth request]:

When she entered the monastery, the sisters who, for the most part, only expected to see an ordinary child, were as if overcome with respect in her presence. She had in her whole person something so dignified, so resolute, so modest that I was surprised myself. One of the sisters confessed to me later that, seeing how hard I worked to promote her entry, she said to herself: “How imprudent to bring such a young child into Carmel! What [150r] imagination this Sister Agnès of Jesus has! She will be disappointed!...» She confessed to me that she was very mistaken.

[Which sister is this? Is she still alive?]:

It was Sister Saint John of the Cross; she died a few years ago.

[response continued]:

Having started her postulancy in April, at 15 years and three months, she could have taken the habit regularly within six months, before the end of October; in fact, she did not take the habit until January 10, 1889.

[Why was the taking of the habit so delayed?]:

Around this time, our father was very ill and it was hoped that thanks to this delay, he would be in a condition to assist later in the taking of the habit.

[response continued]:

On January 11, 1890, after a year and a day of novitiate, being 17 years old, she could have been admitted to profession. But the Reverend Mother Prioress, sensing that the Superior would put a stop to it because [150v] of his age, told him to postpone it.

[How does the Servant of God react to this new delay?]:

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I myself was with our Reverend Mother Prioress when she made her this refusal, in which I associated myself. She was deeply saddened by this, but almost immediately she understood, in prayer, that this delay was willed by God. She told me at that time what she recorded later in the manuscript of her life: “I understood that my strong desire to make profession was mixed with a great self-love; since I had given myself to Jesus to please him, to console him, I should not force him to do my will instead of his. Oh! my God - she said I am not asking you to pronounce my holy vows, I will wait as long as you want; only, I do not want, through my fault, my union with you to be postponed. I am going to take all my care to make myself a beautiful dress enriched with jewels; when you find it richly enough adorned, I am sure that all creatures will not prevent you from descending to me in order to unite me forever with you, O my Beloved" - MSA 73,2-74,1 -

[151r] She was admitted to profession on September 8, 1890. The authorization to submit the admission of the Servant of God to the vote of the chapter had to be requested from the immediate superior who, still hesitating, sent the Bishop back to him, who granted the requested permission. Her dispositions, at the time of her profession, are recorded in the manuscript of her life, as she showed them to me elsewhere. The characteristic note of this period of his life, which extends from his entry into Carmel until the time when the novices were entrusted to him, is humility, the care to be faithful even in the smallest things, despite constant aridities. I know all this from the confidence she made to me of her state of mind, on the days when the Rule allowed us to converse.

[Did she especially seek the company of her blood sisters?]:

On the contrary, at recreation and in other circumstances, she deprived herself of our company and sought out the sisters who were less sympathetic towards her.

[Session 7: - August 16, 1910, at 8:30 a.m. and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[153r] [Answer to the eighteenth request]:

She was charged, as an auxiliary, with the formation of novices (1893), being 20 years old. This charge was first entrusted to her by me, who was prioress, in 1893. She retained it until her death (1897), having been confirmed in this auxiliary charge by our mother Marie de Gonzague, who had become prioress [153v] in 1896.

[Why was she appointed only assistant to the novitiate and not mistress of novices?]:

Having become prioress in 1893, I thought I should give the title of mistress of novices to Mother Marie de Gonzague who was then leaving the office of prioress.

[Why did you decide to name the Servant of God aide to the mistress of novices, Mother Marie de Gonzague?]:

Mother Marie de Gonzague leaving the office of prioress, I thought myself obliged by convenience to appoint her mistress of novices. But, in addition to real qualities, there were gaps and faults in her, the unfortunate influence of which I hoped to counterbalance by adding Sister Thérèse to her in the exercise of this charge.

[Why, re-elected prioress, did Mother Marie de Gonzague confirm Sister Thérèse in her role as assistant without giving her the title of mistress of novices?]:

Mother Marie de Gonzague thought it best to keep the role and influence of the mistress of [154r] novices to herself at the same time as she exercised the office of prioress.

[How did the Servant of God behave in the exercise of this office?]:

She did not fear her pain, warned without fear, despite all the cost to her. However, she did so with caution and discernment. She said to me jokingly: “Some of them I have to take by the skin, and others by the tips of the wings.” She never spoke of her sorrows and her troubles; she never asked novices questions that would have satisfied her curiosity; she wasn't trying to win their hearts; she put all her trust in God in her difficulties and then more especially implored the help of the Blessed Virgin. She said to me one day on this subject these words which I immediately wrote down: "I throw to the right, to the left, to my little birds the good seeds that the good Lord puts in my hand, then it goes as it wants: I no longer concern myself with it; sometimes it's as if I hadn't sown anything, but the good Lord says to me: give, always give without worrying about anything else” - DE 15-5 -.” She let the novices say what they thought against her. They did so with all the more [154v] freedom since the Servant of God was not titular mistress and younger than several of them. I met her one day when a novice had just spoken to her in a

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very humiliating. Her face was animated. I said to him: “What is the matter with you? Are you more tired? She replied: “I am very happy: the good Lord has just given me the opportunity to remember that I am very, very (sic) small and without virtue. I thought of Semei cursing David, and I said to myself: yes, it is indeed the Lord who ordered Sister *** to tell me these things. I believe it all the more because this morning I had a real desire to be humiliated”. - HA ch.12 -

[How did the Servant of God behave, as assistant to the novitiate, towards the mistress of novices, Mother Marie de Gonzague?]:

She was always very respectful and deferential, and conducted herself with great caution in this delicate situation. Mother Marie de Gonzague, on her deathbed, said to me in 1904, seven years after the death of the Servant of God: "My mother, not a single soul here has been guilty as I was and yet I trust in God and in my little Thérèse: she [155r] will obtain my salvation.”

[Where did you get that from?]:

I saw all these things myself, I constantly received communication of Sister Thérèse's thoughts and I noted down what seemed interesting to me,

[Did the Servant of God hold other positions or offices?]:

She successively filled various ordinary obediences in the monastery, such as sacristan, portress, refector, laundry, almost all the offices of the house, with the exception of the function of nurse, which however she very much wished . She showed herself to be indifferent to the choice of jobs and applied herself very carefully to fulfilling them as being the expression of the divine will at every moment.

[Answer to the nineteenth request]:

His principal writing is the manuscript of his life. Apart from this composition, she wrote a number of letters to members of her family; she composed a few pious poems, either to express her own feelings, or at the request of one of her sisters in [155v] religion, to please them, for example on the day of their profession, their birthday, etc. There are also pieces entitled Récréations pieux, which are little sketches to be recited in our intimate celebrations.

[Continuing the same question, the witness is asked to speak specifically about the origin and composition of the manuscript entitled "Spring story of a little white flower written by herself and dedicated to the Reverend Mother Agnès of Jesus" (Story of a soul, written by herself]:

At the beginning of the year 1895, two and a half years before the death of Sister Thérèse, [156r] one winter evening when I was with my two sisters (Mary and Thérèse), Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus told me several features of her childhood, and Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (my elder sister Marie) said to me: “Ah! my mother, what a pity that we don't have all this in writing. If you asked Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus to write down her childhood memories for us, how much that would please us!” "I ask nothing better," I replied; and turning to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who was laughing as if someone had made fun of her, I said to her: "I order you to write to me all your memories of childhood."

The Servant of God set to work out of obedience, for I was her mother prioress at the time. She wrote only during her free time and gave me her notebook on January 20, 1896 for my birthday. I was at evening prayer. Passing by to go to her stall, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus knelt down and gave me this treasure. I replied with a simple nod and put the manuscript on our stall, without opening it. I only took the time to read it after the elections of that same year, in the spring. I noticed the virtue of the Servant [156v] of God, because after her act of obedience, she no longer cared about it at all, never asking me if I had read her notebook or what I thought of it. . One day, I told him that I hadn't had time to read anything about it; she didn't seem at all pained. I found his accounts incomplete. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had particularly insisted on her childhood and her early youth, as I had asked her; his religious life was scarcely sketched there; the end of this first part of the manuscript corresponds to page 149' of the printed book (Story of a soul), edition in 8°, 1910.

I thought it was a pity that she had not written with the same development what had to do with her life in Carmel, but in the meantime I had ceased to be prioress and Mother Marie de Gonzague had returned. in this load. I was afraid that she did not attach the same interest to this composition as I did and I dared not say anything to her about it. But finally, seeing Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus become very ill, I wanted to try the impossible. On the evening of June 2, 1897, four months before the death of Sister Thérèse, around midnight, I went to find our mother prioress: "My mother - I said to her -, it is impossible for me [157r] to sleep before you confiding a secret. While I was prioress, Sister Thérèse wrote to me to

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please and out of obedience some memories of his childhood. I read that the other day; that's nice, but you won't be able to get much out of it to help you make his circular after his death, because there's almost nothing about his religious life. If you commanded her, she could write something more serious, and I have no doubt that what you have is incomparably better than what I have."

God blessed my approach, and the next morning our mother ordered Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus to continue her story. I had already chosen a notebook for her, but she found it too beautiful, although it was very ordinary, as the court can judge (the witness communicates the notebook) - she was afraid of making a mistake against poverty by by serving. She asked me if it was not necessary, at least, to tighten the lines, to use less paper. I replied that she was too ill to tire herself writing like this and that, on the contrary, the lines should be spaced out and written in large characters. So she went back to writing in a first draft, still without erasures, but so disturbed, because of her illness, also because of the comings and goings of nurses and novices who wanted to [157v] take advantage of her last days. , she said to me. "I don't know what I'm writing." And one day, when she had been particularly disturbed: “I write about charity, but I didn't do what I wanted; it couldn't be more badly done. Finally my thought is there. You will have to retouch all that; I assure you that it has no consequence.” Another time again: “Mother, whatever you find good to remove or add to the notebook of my life, it is I who remove it and add it. Remember this later and have no qualms about it” - DE 9-8 - .

She stopped writing at the beginning of July of this last year, 1897. She could only write the last page in pencil, because of her great weakness; the last sentence written by her, is thus conceived: "Yes, I feel it, even if I had on my conscience all the sins that can be committed, I would go, heartbroken with repentance, throw myself into the arms of Jesus, because I know how much he cherishes the prodigal son who returns to him. It is not because the good God, in his considerate mercy, has preserved my soul from mortal sin that I raise myself to him by trust and love” - MSC 36,2 -.” As I expressed my regrets to her that she could not continue, she said to me: "There are quite enough, there will be enough for everyone, except for the extraordinary ways" - DE 158-9 - .” This end of the manuscript corresponds to page 8 of the printed work "Story of a soul", edition in 207', 8, towards the middle of the eleventh chapter. The pages which follow in the printed book and which end her story, are the reproduction of the pages previously written by the Servant of God, during her last retreat in September 1910, at the request of her sister Marie du Sacré Cœur and with the authorization of the Reverend Mother Prioress, Marie de Gonzague.”

[Do you know if, when writing these comments, the Servant of God suspected that they would be published one day or that, at the very least, they would be used for the drafting of the circular usually sent to monasteries after the death of a nun? ?]:

She suspected nothing of the sort in the composition of the first part, which relates above all to her childhood and her youth; she thought she was writing only for me and for her two other sisters, Marie and Céline, also present at Carmel. Such was, moreover, our conviction. Likewise, the pages that became [158v] the third part were written exclusively for his sister Marie, who asked him to do so. But when the mother prioress, Marie de Gonzague, ordered her to write what related to her life in Carmel, I gave her a glimpse that this manuscript could serve for the edification of many, and that its publication would be a means by which God would use to fulfill her desire to do good after her death and she accepted this thought very simply. When I told her that it could also be that the manuscript was burned by our Mother Prioress, she replied: “Oh! but what would that do; it is that the good Lord would not want to use this means, but he would have others.”

[Was it customary, previously, for the Carmelites to also write autobiographical notes and did the prioresses use such notes for the drafting of circulars, at least at the monastery of Lisieux?]:

This had never been done since the foundation of Lisieux, most certainly.

[159r][Did the Servant of God change anything in her way of writing, after knowing that her work might be published?]:

She continued to write just as simply these last pages of her manuscript; it suffices, moreover, to read them to recognize that they are written almost without order and in the flow of the pen. She even asked me: "What do you want me to write about?" I answered him: “on charity, on novices”, etc. She did it immediately, without further investigation.

[The writings of the

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Servant of God already been printed?]:

A book was published for the first time in the year 1898 (October) entitled: Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face: Story of a soul, written by herself.” This work contains her life written by herself, with a selection of her letters and poems. It was I who took the initiative to propose this publication after his death. Rereading the manuscripts I had in my hands, I had the impression that I possessed a treasure that could do a lot of good to souls. This is why I thought of publishing it with the permission of the Reverend Mother Prioress. She communicated my copy to the Reverend Father Godefroy Madelaine of the Premonstratensian Order, now abbot [159v] of Saint Michel de Frigolet, and at that time prior of the Abbey of Mondaye, diocese of Bayeux; on his report, Monseigneur Hugonin, bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, gave his license to print (March 7, 1898). My copy was printed after some alterations indicated by Father Godefroy.

[Session 8: - August 17, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[161v] [Would the contact and reading of this story usefully supplement the testimony of the witness for the instruction of the Cause?]:

Certainly, because she expresses herself much better than me on the story of her life.

[The printed book (Story of a soul) fully agree with the autograph of the Servant of God, so that we can read for each other with safety?]:

There are a few changes, but of little importance and which do not change the general and substantial meaning of the story. These changes are: 1° the deletion of a few very short passages relating intimate details of family life during his childhood; 2° the deletion of one or two pages whose content seemed to me less interesting for readers outside the Carmel; 3° finally, as the handwritten story was composed of three parts, one addressed to me (his sister Pauline), the other to his sister Marie and the [162r] most recent to Mother Marie de Gonzague , then prioress; the latter, who presided over the publication of the manuscript, required certain retouching of detail in the parts addressed to her sisters, so that, for greater unity, the whole seemed to have been addressed to her.

[Thereupon, the judges decided that an authentic copy of the Autograph should be established, according to the rules of law in the matter, and that it should be included in the documents of the Trial].

[Do you know under what circumstances the portraits of the Servant of God published in the “Story of a Soul” were made?]:

Most of these portraits are drawings composed by our sister Céline (Sister Geneviève de Sainte Thérèse) from her family memories and from some photographic documents. We had at Carmel a camera that Sister Geneviève knew how to use. She used it for her various drawing works and she photographed Sister Thérèse and other members of the community several times. The Servant of God lent herself to satisfy all these demands with complete simplicity.

[162v] [Answer to the twentieth request]:

When she entered Carmel, I must say that there was reason to trace a current of relaxation. Several nuns were no doubt regular, but there were others, and quite a number of them, who indulged in abuses. The Servant of God applied herself to her duty, without worrying about what the others were doing; I have never seen her stop in the groups that formed around the mother prioress, on leaving a parlor, to hear the news; nor listen to breaches of charity. In our great family sorrows, she was much braver than us. After we had heard such distressing news in the visiting room, for example about our father's state of health, instead of trying to console herself by talking to us, she immediately resumed her community exercises, and so on.

She seemed so perfect to me from the first years of her religious life that I never noticed the progress of which she speaks when she writes: “When I think of the time of my novitiate, [163r] how I see my imperfection! "-MSC 15,1-." This imperfection was only visible to her. His attention to pleasing God seemed uninterrupted to me. In the midst of the most distracting occupations, one felt that the Servant of God gave herself up entirely to grace. I have never detected in her any dissipation; when I approached her, she communicated this recollection to me, even when she only said indifferent things. She never complained about what made her suffer. Instead of her personal interior or exterior trials causing her to relax in the generosity of her efforts, it is

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precisely when one saw her more cheerful in recreation, more alert in her work, that one could judge that she was subject to some suffering. I asked her one day why she was so exceptionally happy: “It's - she replied - that I'm sad; nothing gives me joy like sorrow” - DE 19-5 - . She was always at peace, despite her aridities and her sufferings; she was all sweetness, grace was spread on [163v] her lips with a perpetual smile, and most often this smile was not the expression of a natural joy, but the result of her love for the good God who made him look upon suffering as a cause of joy. His generous fervor was, however, without rigidity or affectation, but full of simplicity.

[Response to the twenty-first request]:

In a general way, she judged all things from the point of view of faith; she never stopped at the [164r] earthly and human side of events. Thus, being mistress of novices, she did not allow anyone to criticize the way in which sermons and instructions were given. She doubtless did not believe that all the priests spoke equally well, but she did not allow anyone to discuss the imperfections of their preaching. She also said that the spirit of faith did not allow us to speak of the faults of priests.

She confessed for the first time around the age of six and a half. It was for her a great event in her life; she did her examination with great care, near me. As I had told her that the tears of the little Jesus were going to fall on her soul and purify it at the moment of the priest's blessing, she rejoiced in her confession as in a great celebration. As she made her examination of conscience with me very candidly, she asked me what she should say. I was very embarrassed to find any sin in her, having never seen her disobey or commit any fault. I excited him more to love and gratitude than to contrition.

At the boarding school of the Benedictine Abbey[164v] of Lisieux, she succeeded perfectly in her studies, but the religious instruction above all captivated her; Father Domin, chaplain to the Benedictines, called him "his little doctor." When she was 7 years old, I was preparing her sister Céline for her first communion; she came to attend these lessons. I sometimes told her to go away, because she was too young; she writes on this subject, which moreover she said to me: "My heart was very heavy then and I thought that it was not too much that four years to prepare to receive the good God" - MSA 25,1 - .” All that had to do with God and religious truths found his heart open and his intelligence applied itself naturally to it.

All her life, she experienced aridities. When her sorrows became greater, the reading of spiritual authors left her in aridity, but the Holy Gospel which she constantly carried on her heart then occupied her mind and nourished her soul. She wrote in 1895: “At the age of 17 and 18, I had no other spiritual nourishment than the [165r] works of our Father Saint John of the Cross; but later, all the books left me in aridity, I'm still in that state. In this impotence, Holy Scripture and the Imitation come to my rescue. In them, I find a solid and completely pure nourishment; but it is above all the Gospel that sustains me during my prayers; I find there all that is necessary for my soul;... I understand and I know by experience that the kingdom of God is within us (Lk. 17, 21)... I have never heard (Jesus) speak, but I feel that he is in me. At every moment, he guides me and inspires me what to say or do. I discover, just when I need them, lights that I had not seen before; it is not most often during my prayers that they are most abundant, it is rather in the middle of the occupations of the day” - MSA 83,1-2 -.

Communion was the happiness and the desire of her life, although she confessed to me that she had, so to speak, never felt any perceptible consolation from it. At the time of the 1891 Decrees, [FOOTNOTE: Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars (Dec. 17, 1890): De nonnullis abusibus qui in Instituta religiosa irresponsible evellendis (in: Leonis XII Pontificis maximi Acta, vol.X, Romae 1891, pp. 353-357). - Here is the essential passage: "Regarding the permission or prohibition to approach the Holy Table, the Most Holy Father decrees that these permissions or prohibitions concern only the ordinary or extraordinary confessor, without the superiors having any authority to interfere in this thing... Anyone who has obtained permission from the confessor for more frequent or even daily Communion will be required to notify the superior."], she hoped that the confessor would finally be free to to give daily Communion to whomever she liked, since it was [165v] the will of the Pope, and she was inexpressibly joyful. She seemed to be triumphant: “No, it shouldn't be up to the mother prioress to regulate the communions; I've always been amazed by that."

Towards the end of her life, she was subjected to a very painful temptation against the thought of heaven. She very often expressed to me then, as always, her thoughts and her impressions, I cannot render them better than by recalling what she wrote of them in the manuscript of her life; it is exactly the expression of what she said to me: “I enjoyed then a faith so lively, so clear that the thought of heaven made all my happiness. I couldn't believe there were impious people without faith. I thought they were speaking against their minds, denying the existence of heaven. In the joyful days of the Easter season, Jesus made me feel that there are truly souls who do not have faith; who, through the abuse of graces, lose this precious treasure. He allowed my soul to be invaded by the deepest darkness and the thought of heaven, so sweet to me, to be nothing more than a subject of combat and torment... This ordeal was not to last a few days, a few weeks. -[166r]nes, it was not to go out until the hour marked by God and that hour has not yet come... You must have traveled

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in this dark tunnel, to understand its darkness... The King of the fatherland with the brilliant sun came to live thirty-three years in the country of darkness; Alas! darkness did not understand that this divine King was the light of the world. But, Lord, your child has understood her, your divine light, she asks your forgiveness for her brothers; she agrees to eat the bread of pain as long as you want and does not want to get up from this table filled with bitterness where poor sinners eat, before the day you have marked; but also cannot say in her own name, in the name of her brothers: "Have mercy on us, Lord, for we are poor sinners (Lk. 18:13)." May all those who are not enlightened by the luminous torch of faith finally see it shine! Oh! Jesus, if it is necessary that the table defiled by them be purified by a soul who loves you, I am willing to eat there alone the bread of trial until it pleases you to introduce me into your luminous kingdom. ; the only grace I ask of you is to [166v] never offend you... redouble; it seems to me that darkness borrowing the voice of sinners is telling me, mocking me. “You dream of the light, a homeland fragrant with the sweetest perfumes; you dream of the eternal possession of the Creator of all these marvels; you think you will one day emerge from the mists that surround you! Advance, advance, rejoice in death which will give you, not what you hope for, but an even deeper night, the night of nothingness. blaspheme... Ah! may Jesus forgive me if I have caused him pain, but he knows well that while not having the enjoyment of faith, I try at least to do the works. I believe I have made more acts of faith in the past year than in my entire life”. - MSC 5,1-7,1 -

[Session 9: - August 19, 1910, at 8:30 a.m. and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[170v] [Response to the twenty-first request continued]:

I remember that in her last illness, one day when she suffered especially from her temptations against the faith, she repeated this stanza from one of her poems:

"Since the Son of God wanted his Mother to be subject to the night, to the anguish of the heart,
Mary, is it good to suffer on earth? Yes, to suffer while loving is the purest happiness!
Everything he gave me, Jesus can take it back, tell him never to get in his way with me;
He can well hide, I agree to wait for him until the day without sunset when my faith will be extinguished. - PN 54 16* -

I was present in this circumstance. It was July 11, 1897.

[Asked about the heroic hope, the witness replied]:

I've always known her touching the ground only with her toes. From her early childhood, when she isolated herself on walks with my father, [171r] it was to think of heaven and eternity, as she told me later. On the evening of Sundays and religious holidays, she was sad to see the end of the beautiful ceremonies and said that it is only in heaven that happiness is lasting. As a child, she would sometimes say that she wanted the death of her father or her mother, whom she nevertheless loved extraordinarily; as they were astonished at these words and reproached her for it, she answered: "It is so that you may go to heaven." I haven't heard those words myself. I was a boarder at the Visitation of Le Mans, and my mother wrote it to me in a letter. - CF 147 -

Around the age of ten, my father took him during the holidays to visit friends in Alençon. She often told me, in the parlor, and later in the monastery, repeated the

impressions she experienced during this stay in the middle of the world. What she said to me is in every respect consistent with what she recorded in her manuscript: “The good Lord has given me the grace to know the world just enough to despise it and distance myself from it. I could say that it was during my stay in Alencon that I made my first entry into the world. [171v] Everything around me was joy, happiness: I was celebrated, admired, pampered; in a word, my life for 15 days was strewn only with flowers. I admit that this life had charms for me. Wisdom is quite right to say that the bewitchment of the trifles of the world seduces the spirit, even far from evil (Sap. 4, 12). So I consider it a great grace not to have stayed in Alencon; the friends we had there knew too well how to combine the joys of the earth with the service of God. They didn't think enough about death... I like to go back in thought to the enchanting places where these people lived, to ask myself where they are, what comes to them of the castles and parks where I have them. enjoy the conveniences of life?... And I see that all is vanity and affliction of spirit under the sun (cf. Eccles. 2, 11)..., that the only good is to love God with all his heart and to be here below poor in spirit... Perhaps Jesus wanted to show me the world before the first visit he was to make to me, so that I could choose more freely the path that I had to promise to follow” - MSA 32,2 - '.

[Are these testimonials all based on reading the autograph manuscript?]:

[172r] But! of course not, there is nothing in the manuscript that we do not

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we knew through our intimate conversations. The Servant of God herself. when I ordered him to write down his childhood memories, he replied: "What do you want me to write that you don't already know?" Only, in the manuscript it is better expressed than I could do.

[Mother Agnès continued]

In Carmel, I knew her completely celestial, the earth was nothing to her. She told me, in a thousand different forms, that what she envisaged above all in the thought of heaven was not the personal enjoyment she would experience in this stay, but the fact that she would love God there. 'advantage; that she would be loved by God and that she would find there the means of making God better loved.

Confidence in God had become like the special seal of his soul. She had felt drawn to it from her earliest childhood, and I had done all I could to develop this disposition. She told me one day that she had been struck from childhood by this verse of Job: "Even if he killed me, I would hope in him" (13, 15) " - DE 7-7 - Scruples came to paralyze Later, in [172v] Carmel, she endured in the first years of her religious life interior sorrows, due in part to what she had heard in certain instructions: that it was very easy to offend God and losing purity of conscience. This was a cause of torment for the Servant of God. The preacher at the 1891 retreat restored her peace: "He did me good above all - she wrote - saying that my faults caused no pain to the good God. This assurance made me bear patiently the exile of this life. I know that the good God is more tender than a mother, and is not a mother always ready to forgive the little involuntary indelicacy of her child?” - MSA 80,2 -

From this retreat, she gave herself entirely to trust in God; she sought in the Holy Books the approval of her boldness. She happily repeated the words of Saint John of the Cross: "We obtain from God as much as we hope for" - Obscure Night " -. She also said that she had found an "elevator", that is to say the arm of Jesus to go to heaven. She rested there without fear, apprehending absolutely nothing of all the evils of this life. She said that her great temptations against the faith only took away from her desires for heaven what would have been too natural. [173r] "One might think - she said - that it is because I have not sinned that I trust in the good God, but I feel that if I had committed all possible crimes, I would always have the same confidence'" - DE 11-7 - . She hoped as much for the justice of the good God as for his mercy: "What sweetness - she said - to think that the good God is just, that is to say that he takes our weaknesses into account and that he knows perfectly the fragility of our nature” - MSA 83,2 -.” She also said that she preferred to live without consolation, because she thought that this would give the good Lord a greater mark of confidence.

[173v] [About the heroic hope, the witness answered again this]:

The Servant of God counted solely on the help of God for everything. She told me that when, after having tried to encourage and console her sister Céline in the visiting room, she had been unable to do so; she then asked the good Lord with great confidence to console her himself and to make her understand such and such a thing as she pointed out. After that she no longer cared about it, and her confidence, she told me, was never betrayed. Each time, Celine received the lights and the consolations she had asked for. She became aware of this through the confidences that were made to her in the [174r] next visit.

[Answer given regarding heroic charity toward God]:

I think, as I breathe the air, she breathed the love of God. When she was a very small child, our mother made her say in the morning, as we make all children say, a formula for the offering of her heart to God. But, instead of sticking to this morning recitation, the Servant of God herself repeated this offering often during the day. I kept the impression that on the evening of her first communion she seemed like a seraph who no longer lives on earth. I have seen many pious little girls on the day of their first communion, but that was quite another thing. When she came to see me in the parlor, in the time that elapsed between her first communion and her entry into Carmel, her talks revolved constantly on the love of God and the practices of a fervent life.

Although she was of a very sensitive, loving and ardent nature, she was tested by almost continual droughts during her stay at [174v] Carmel. His love for the good God then translated into a very generous attention to seizing every opportunity to do works pleasing to God. She let none escape. She looked for these opportunities to do acts of charity especially in the details of common life. She wanted to find more difficult opportunities to show more love, but let obedience guide her. There was then in the infirmary a nun whose age and illness made it strangely difficult, she would have liked (the Servant of God) to be a nurse: “Oh! - she told me - how I would have liked everything

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

that, there would have been more to suffer for the good Lord” - CSG p.92 -.”

In the first years of her childhood, she worried about knowing if the good Lord was pleased with her, or if he had nothing to reproach her for. As I was a mother to her, she asked me every evening what I thought of it. Around the age of 12, she passed for a year and a half through a crisis of violent scruples which affected all the details of her conduct. She was then in continual trances for fear of offending God in something. [175r] She told me twice that she had experienced great happiness: 1st when, around the age of fifteen and a half, her confessor, Father Pichon, of the Society of Jesus, assured him that she had never mortally offended God; 2° when, at the retreat of 1891, Father Alexis, a Récollet, taught him that his imperfections, all of fragility, "did not cause God pain" - MSA 80,2 -. This last declaration was for her the cause of very great joy, for the fear of offending God poisoned her life. For the ceremony of her profession, she had composed a little prayer which she wore on her heart. We read in this note the following sentence: “Take me, O Jesus, before I commit the smallest voluntary fault” ' - PRI 2 - .

Before entering the Carmel, she told me that she wanted to become a Carmelite, if only to save a single soul; that a lifetime of suffering would not be too much for that. But thereafter, his desires took on quite another extension: winning souls to the good God was his constant concern; she talked to me about it constantly. At the time of her profession, as she was asked in the canonical examination [175v] (September 2, 1890) for what reason she felt inclined to embrace this holy state, she replied: "It is above all to save souls and to pray for priests" - MSA 69,2."

She told me that she would have liked to share the vocation of priests, of missionaries to carry the name of the good God in all the countries of the earth and to be a martyr of Jesus Christ. But, being unable to do so, she thought that she must make up for it by the ardor of her feelings of love and of her desires; that if these desires were ardent, they would be effective as actions. One day when she was in a great inner trial, she said to me: “Oh! my mother, what happiness that God became man, so that we could love him; Oh! that he did well; without it, we would not dare.” She envisaged Our Lord, especially in his Childhood and his Passion, thus responding to the indication of his double religious name: “Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face.” Her love for the Child Jesus led her to give herself up to him to be in his hands like a toy in the hands of a [176r] little child. She meant by this expression of childish appearance, that she had to abandon herself entirely to the will of Our Lord and accept to be treated by him, according to his good pleasure. She saw in the Holy Face the expression of all the humiliations endured for us by Our Lord and drew from it the constant will to suffer and to humble herself for love of him. One day, in front of an image of the Holy Face, I said to him: “What a pity that his eyelids are lowered and that we cannot see his gaze!.” She replied, “Oh! no, it's better that way, because otherwise what would have become of us? we could not have seen his divine gaze without dying of love.”

[How did you know all these things?]:

It is the result of our continual relations. If I said everything I observed and everything she told me, it would be a trial that would last until eternity. I have known many truly fervent Carmelites who really loved God and feared to offend him, but the Servant of God's state of mind seems to me so different from [176v] what I saw among the others, that it seems that there is nothing in common; one would have said that she saw God constantly, so great was the intimacy of her union with him.

[Session 14: - August 27, 1910, at 8:30 a.m.]

[208v] [Again on the subject of charity towards God]:

In the month of June 1895, she was inspired to offer herself as a victim to the merciful Love of God. She came to ask my permission, for I was prioress. By making this request to me, her face was animated, she seemed to me to be ablaze with love. I allowed him to do this act, but without seeming to care much about it. She then composed the form of her donation and submitted it to me, also expressing the desire to have it checked by a theologian. It was the Reverend Father Le Monnier, superior of the missionaries of La Délivrande, who examined it. He replied simply that he found nothing in it contrary to the faith; however, it was not necessary to say "I feel infinite desires within me", but "I feel immense desires within me." It was a sacrifice for the Servant of God; she did it, however, without any recrimination. Besides, the principal was approved and she showed great joy.

It was on June 9, 1895, feast of the Most Holy Trinity, that she officially made this offering of herself. In this act I note two requests for very extraordinary favours: first, the favor of preserving in her the real presence of Our Lord between her communions: "Remain in me, as in the tabernacle." 2° the favor of seeing the stigmata of the Passion shining in heaven on her glorious body.

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

[Do you know if these words: "Real presence between communions" and "Stigmata on her glorified body" were uttered and written by the Servant of God in a certain metaphorical sense, or in a strict sense?]:

[209v] She often expressed these thoughts to me in conversation and I am sure that she meant them literally. Moreover, her loving confidence in Our Lord led her to a kind of limitless boldness in her requests. She had no doubts when she thought of almighty love.

[This offering of herself, did she express it openly in front of the other nuns?]:

Oh no! no one knew. Later, she spoke of this act to two of her novices only, showing them the advantages and the glory it can give to God.

Besides, she never ceased to say that to surrender to love was to surrender to suffering; she again expressed the same thought in this stanza:

“To live on love is not on earth to set up your tent at the top of Tabor: with Jesus it is to climb Calvary, it is to look at the Cross as a treasure” - PN 17-4 - '.

[210r]

[Can you show us the autograph of this “Offering”? At the same time, she showed both the autograph and the copy she had prepared with the intention of attaching it to the documents of the Cause. This copy was immediately read and its perfect conformity to the original authentically recognized. It was added to the trial file].

«JMJT

Offering of myself as Victim of Holocaust to the Merciful Love of God.

O my God, blessed Trinity! I desire to love you and make you loved, to work for the glorification of the Holy Church, by saving souls who are on earth and delivering those who suffer in purgatory. I desire to accomplish your will perfectly and to arrive at the degree of glory that you have prepared for me in your kingdom; in a word, I desire to be holy, but I feel my powerlessness and I ask you, O my God, to be my holiness yourself.

Since you loved me to the point of giving me your only Son to be my [210v] Savior and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of his merits are mine; I offer them to you with happiness, begging you to look at me only through the Face of Jesus and in his Heart burning with love.

I again offer you all the merits of the Saints who are in heaven and on earth, their acts of love and those of the holy Angels. Finally, I offer you, O Blessed Trinity, the love and merits of the Blessed Virgin, my dear Mother, it is to her that I leave my offering, begging her to present it to you. Her divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, in the days of his mortal life told us: "Whatever you ask my Father in my name, He will give it to you" (In. 16, 23). I am therefore certain that you will fulfill my wishes. I know it, oh my God!, the more you want to give, the more you make people want.” I feel in my heart immense desires, and it is with confidence that I ask you to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I wish; but, Lord, are you not Almighty?... Stay in me as in the tabernacle; never move away from your little host.

[211r] I would like to console you for the ingratitude of the wicked and I beg you to take away my freedom to displease you. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may your divine gaze immediately purify my soul, consuming all my imperfections, like the fire which transforms everything into itself.

I thank you, oh my God, for all the graces you have granted me, especially for having made me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy that I will contemplate you on the last day carrying the scepter of the cross, since you have condescended to share this precious cross with me. I hope in heaven to resemble you and to see the sacred stigmata of your Passion shining on my glorified body.

After the exile of the earth I hope to go to enjoy you in the Fatherland, but I do not want to amass merits for heaven, I want to work for your love only, with the sole aim of making you happy, of consoling your Sacred Heart and save souls who will love you forever. On the evening of this life I will appear before you empty-handed, for I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works. All our justices have spots in your eyes (Is. 64, 5). [211v] I therefore want to put on Your own righteousness and receive from Your love the eternal possession of Yourself, I want no other throne and no other crown but You, O my Beloved!... In your eyes time is nothing, a single day is like a thousand years, (Ps. 89, 4) you can therefore in an instant prepare me to appear before you...

In order to live in an act of perfect love, the offers me as Victim of holocaust to your merciful Love, begging you to consume me ceaselessly, letting overflow in my soul the waves of infinite tenderness which are contained in you and which thus I become a martyr of your love, O my God! May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before you, make me finally die, and may my soul soar without delay, in the eternal embrace of your merciful Love... I want,

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart renew this offering to you an infinite number of times, until the shadows [212r] having vanished (Cant. 4, 6), I can repeat to you my love in an eternal face-to-face!...

MARIE-FRANÇOISE-THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS ​​AND THE HOLY FACE, rel. carm. ind.

Feast of the Most Holy Trinity.

June 9 of the year of grace 1895 " - PRI 6 -

[This offering of herself once made, did the Servant of God forget it?]:

Oh! no never; she repeated it constantly: it was like the basis of her life. On her deathbed, she said to me one day: “I often repeat my act of consecration”.

[On the subject of heroic charity towards the neighbour]:

She was very compassionate, [212v] even as a small child, for the suffering of others. She was charged especially with distributing alms to the poor. Every Monday, he came from the poor to Les Buissonnets (our house in Lisieux). At each ring of the bell, little Thérèse went to open the door and then came to say to me: "Pauline, he's a poor crippled old man!" She is a poor woman with very small children, there is one in the jersey, the woman is very pale! And I read a deep compassion in his eyes. She then ran to carry either bread or money. Sometimes she came back very happy: "Pauline, the poor thing said to me: The good Lord will bless you, my little young lady." To reward her for her work, our father gave her a few silver coins. She spent them all in alms, it was her happiness.

In Carmel she would have liked to be a nurse, to apply herself to the relief of the sick. She said to the nursing sister: “You are very happy, you will hear Our Lord say: 'I was sick, and you relieved me'” (Mt., 25, 36) - DE 29-7 - CSG p. 91 -

At the monastery there was a [213r] lay nun, aged, infirm and cantankerous; she died in 1895. The Servant of God herself asked for the favor of helping and supporting her by going from one exercise to another. The quirks of character and abruptness of this poor cripple made it very difficult. The Servant of God devoted herself for years to this office with so much constancy, attention and gentleness that she ended up forcing the confidence of this nun who at first had received her very badly. Sister Thérèse said that she took to leading our Sister X. The same care she would have taken to lead Our Lord.

[Session 15: - August 29, 1910, at 8:30 a.m. and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[215r] [Again on the subject of heroic charity towards one's neighbour]

When she was a child, I taught her the practice of imposing sacrifices on herself for the conversion of sinners. She adopted this practice with enthusiasm. It was especially on Christmas Day 1886 that she felt particularly inclined to adopt this exercise of charity: "Jesus made me a fisher of souls - she wrote to me - I felt a great desire to work for the conversion of sinners” - MSA 45,2 -.”

An image of Our Lord Jesus Christ crucified shedding His blood revealed to her what she had to do to save souls; she understood, she told me, that she had to collect the blood of Jesus and sprinkle it on sinners: “I felt devoured by the thirst [215v] for souls. It was not yet the souls of priests that attracted me, but those of great sinners” - MSA 45,2 -.” She also told me in the parlor and told me later in Carmel all that she did for the conversion of the assassin Pranzini; but my sister Geneviève knows more about it than I do, because she was at home then.

Later, the souls of the priests attracted her more, because she knew them to be dearer to Our Lord and more capable of attracting hearts to Him. She has told me so many times since her trip to Rome, during which she had seen with astonishment that if their sublime dignity raises them above the angels, they are none the less weak and fragile men. Ever since she prayed for the priests and spoke of the need to obtain graces for them. She was very happy to offer her prayers and mortifications especially for two missionaries, in whose labors the Mother Prioress had associated her. On August 19, 1897, feast of Saint Hyacinthe in Carmel, she offered her communion, which was the last of her life, [216r] for the conversion of the unfortunate priest of our Order who bears that name (Father Hyacinthe Loyson). It was, moreover, one of his most ardent desires; she often spoke to me about it during her life, telling me that she made many sacrifices for this purpose.

She said to me on July 12, 1897: “Nothing holds me in my hands. Everything I have, everything I earn is for the Church and souls. If I live to be 80, I will always be just as poor... If I had been rich, it would have been impossible for me to see a poor person without immediately giving him some of my possessions. Thus, as I gain some spiritual treasure, feeling that at the same moment souls are in danger of falling into hell, I give them all that I possess, and I have not yet found a moment to say to myself: now I will work for Me.” - FROM 12_7 -

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

During her religious life, she often had to suffer from the antipathy, faults of character, opposition of temper, even jealousy and hurtful behavior from certain nuns. Not only did she put up with everything with constant patience, but she did her best to excuse these bad practices; she sought out these nuns more than the others and had [216v] more delicate attention for them.

She said to me of one of them, whose actions seemed to me particularly blameworthy: “I assure you that sister... inspires me with deep compassion; if you knew her like me, you would see that she is not responsible for all that seems so abominable to us. I thought that if I had such a disease and such a bad mind, I would not do better than her and that I would despair, because she suffers a lot morally.

On the death of Mother Geneviève (foundress of the Carmel of Lisieux), our families and the workers of the monastery sent many bouquets and wreaths. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was arranging them as best she could around the coffin, when Sister... who was watching her, exclaimed in displeasure: “Ah! you know how to put in the first row the wreaths sent by your family and you put the bouquets of the poor in the back.” To this painful observation, I heard this response full of sweetness: “Thank you, my sister, you are right: give me the foam cross sent [217r] by the workers, I will place it in front” - SH 12 - .” From that day on, sister confessed later... she looked upon the Servant of God as a saint.

She seemed to have a particular affection and sought out sisters who could make her suffer. Her eldest sister (Marie of the Sacred Heart) expressed to me her astonishment and even her pain several times: “It seems that she loves more than me, who nevertheless was like a mother to her, this nun who displeases me so much. » In recreation she did not seek out her three sisters by nature, Carmelites with her, in any special way. She went indiscriminately with any nun; very often she conversed more willingly with those who were alone and neglected. Although she was, by nature, very sensitive and affectionate. she showed herself very reserved in sensitive expressions of her affection, and her approach inspired above all respect. During his last illness, they wanted to kill the flies that bothered him. She made this singular remark: [217v] “I have no enemies but them, and as the good Lord has recommended that we forgive our enemies, I am happy to find this opportunity to do so; that is why I always give them thanks.”

[Cardinal virtues. - About caution]:

Until her entry into Carmel, she never felt the need to ask advice on the affairs of her soul, except from her sisters who had served as her mother and who knew the slightest dispositions of her soul. It was with them that she clarified her scruples in time; and when her sister Marie had told her that such a fear was unfounded, she stood at peace in perfect obedience. The question of her entry into religion seemed to her so simple that she did not even dream of seeing in it a problem for the solution of which she would need the guidance of a director. From the age of ten, she was fixated on her future; the only difficulty for her, was to obtain her admission; it was on the means to be taken for that that she consulted me in the visiting room.

[218r] At this period of her life (from 13 to 15 years old) she saw clearly what Our Lord was asking of her, and except for the determination of the number of her communions she found nothing that seemed useful to her. to his confessor. She writes about it: “Jesus gave himself to me in Holy Communion more often than I would have dared to hope. I had made it a rule of conduct to make, without missing a single one, the communions that my confessor would give me, but to let him regulate the number of them, without ever asking him for any. I did not have, at that time, the audacity which I possess now; without that, I would have acted differently, because I am quite sure that a soul must tell its confessor the attraction it feels to receive its God... I was only very little [of] time at confession , I never said a word about my inner feelings: the way I walked was so straight, so luminous that I needed no other guide than Jesus... I compared the directors to faithful mirrors which reflected Jesus in souls, and I said that, for me, the good God did not use an intermediary, but acted directly” - MSA 48,2 - .

[218v] [Again on the subject of caution]:

After entering Carmel, she felt the need to submit to an enlightened director the spiritual path towards which she felt drawn and which included, with an ardent desire for very high holiness, a powerful attraction towards childlike confidence and total abandonment in the goodness and love of Our Lord. God allowed that she experienced great difficulty in making her feelings known and that for several years she could not find the director she was looking for. The first one barely hears him and has to [219r] set off for Canada, from where he writes a few lines to him once a year. Another, astonished at the boldness of his aspirations to supereminent sanctity, told him that it was pride to want to equal and even surpass Saint Thérèse. Another finally, in 1891, assures her that she does not offend God and that she can safely follow her path of trust and abandonment.

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

In the conduct of the novices, for whom she was responsible, it is remarkable that she never sought to conciliate their affection by the concessions of human prudence. She saw only the interest of their religious perfection and tried to procure it, even at the expense of her popularity. I have witnessed a hundred times the fidelity she had in acting towards them according to her conscience.

Around 1895-1896, she accepted on the order of her reverend mother prioress to establish a kind of spiritual brotherhood between her and two missionaries: Father Bellière, of the White Fathers, and Father Roulland, missionary at Sut-Tchuen. Not only did she offer her prayers and sacrifices for them, but she exchanged several letters with each of them on spiritual matters. Now, in her last illness, she made me the following remarks and [219v] recommendations on this subject: here the same favor; it can be a hazard. It is through prayer and sacrifice that we can only be useful to the Church. Correspondence must be very rare, and it must not be allowed at all to certain nuns who would be preoccupied with it, would believe they were doing wonders and would, in reality, only hurt their souls and perhaps fall into the subtle traps of the demon. . My mother, what I am telling you is very important; don't forget it later” - DE 8-7 -.”

[About justice and its components]:

When she was a sacristan, she brought great piety to the exercise of her office, especially when she touched the sacred vessels and prepared the altar linens and ornaments. This office urged her to be very fervent, and she remembered these words from the Holy Books: "Be holy, you who touch the vessels of the Lord" (Is. 52, 11) - MSA 79,2 - .. If she found in the ciborium or in the corporal some small parcel, she manifested the liveliest joy. Once, having [220r] discovered a fairly large plot, she ran to the laundry room where the community was and beckoned several to come. She knelt down first to adore Our Lord, put the corporal back in the purse and then made us kiss it. She was in indescribable emotion. Another time the priest, while giving Holy Communion, dropped the host. The Servant of God stretched out the end of her scapular, so as not to let the holy host fall to the ground. She then told me with joy: "I carried the Child Jesus in my arms, like the Blessed Virgin." During his illness, they brought him the chalice of a young priest who had just said his first mass. She looked at the inside of the sacred vase and said to us: “My image was reproduced at the bottom of this chalice where the blood of Jesus descended and will descend so many times. I liked to do that in the chalices when I was a sacristan” - DE 19-9 - . His devotion to the Blessed Virgin was very lively and wholly filial.

His spirit of faith inspired him with a religious respect for all those who legitimately held authority. During her stay at [220v] Carmel, it happened that a nun was elected prioress, despite notable faults which perhaps should have removed her from this office. I know that the Servant of God was particularly apprehensive about this election. Nevertheless, the election having been made, not only did she render regular obedience to this prioress, but she applied herself in a very particular way to showing her her filial and affectionate respect. She tried to console her for the grief she felt because her election had been particularly difficult. The Servant of God also acted as much as she could on the novices she knew were opposed to this prioress to inspire them with religious respect for her.

No longer being prioress, I had several times received Sister X's confidences out of compassion... I asked Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus what she thought of it: "My mother - she answered me without hesitation - , in your place I would not receive these confidences; you are no longer prioress, it is an illusion to think that one can do good outside of obedience. Not only can you do no good to this poor soul by listening to it, but you can harm it and expose yourself to offending [221r] the good God.”

Around 1894, there appeared in France, under the name of a certain Doctor Bataille (Léon Taxil) and a certain Diana Vaughan, a series of so-called disclosures of the mysteries of Freemasonry. These stories fascinated the public in France for some time. Later, we were undeceived. But the Servant of God, who was first interested in these revelations, did not wait for the official denial to pronounce that they deserved no credit. However, she based her disapproval on the sole fact that, in one of these pages, the alleged Diana Vaughan spoke against the authority of a bishop: "It is not possible - she said - that it comes from the good Lord .” She had a real horror for the smallest lies, even happy ones. It was righteousness personified. She reproached the novices even for these words of joy and jest in which no one believed and she never allowed them herself. She had so much grace, so much gaiety, that it was impossible to know her without loving her. She was the charm of our recreations, and we felt that this gaiety came from her inner joy. She said to me: “I am always cheerful and happy, even when I am suffering. Saint Louis [221v] de Gonzague pleases me less than Théophane Vénard, because it is said in the life of Saint Louis de Gonzague that he was sad, even in recess, while Théophane Vénard was always cheerful” - DE 27-5 - .

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

[Session 16: - August 30, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[223v] [About strength. Was the Servant of God sad at times and (if so how did she behave then?]:

The subjects of pain did not fail him. I will first point out the bodily sufferings which she bore with extraordinary courage and enthusiasm. In her childhood, she had, every winter, bronchitis which gave her an intense fever and oppression. She continued her ordinary occupations without complaining to the end of her strength and resumed her work at the first symptoms of improvement. But it was especially in her last illness at Carmel that she showed heroic courage. Until a violent haemorrhage came on the night of Thursday to Good Friday 1896 reveal[224r] the seriousness of her condition and the true nature of the sore throat from which she suffered, she did not dispense with any of the work, even very difficult for her, of the community, for example, the sweeping of the dusty rooms and the work of the laundry, which made her suffer a lot. When she experienced the first vomiting of blood on Maundy Thursday night, she abstained, to mortify her curiosity, from lighting her lamp to realize what had just happened to her. The next morning, having recognized that her handkerchief was full of blood, she said to the Reverend Mother Prioress: "This is what happened to me, but please don't attach any importance to it, it doesn't is nothing, I do not suffer and I beg you to let me continue, like everyone else, the exercises of Holy Week.” She followed, in fact, the next day, Good Friday, all the exercises of the community and practiced all the penances in use that day in Carmel. For another year, she persuaded so well that no importance should be attached to her sufferings, that in fact she was allowed to continue all the exercises and works of the community.

One of the greatest [224v] sorrows that she and we experienced was the particularly painful and humiliating illness that afflicted the last five years of our father's life. A paralysis which, first localized in the limbs, then caused the most painful cerebral disorders: we had to treat him in a nursing home. Unscrupulous people said in front of Sister Thérèse herself that the entry of her daughters into Carmel and especially the entry of the youngest, whom he especially loved, had caused these accidents. Well-meaning people talked to us about it in the visiting room, bluntly. Even in the community they often talked in front of us, during recreation, about this subject which was so distressing for us. While my sister Marie and I were overwhelmed with this pain, the Servant of God, who undoubtedly suffered greatly from it, endured this ordeal with great calm and a great spirit of faith. On an image where she had inscribed the date of the main graces she had received, she noted February 12, 1889, the day our father entered the special establishment where he was cared for. What she writes in the “History of her life” is indeed the expression of the feelings that she communicated to us then: “Words cannot express our anguish... One day, in heaven, we would love to talk to each other about our glorious trials. Are we not already happy to have suffered them? Yes, the three years of papa's martyrdom seem to me the most pleasant, the most fruitful of our whole life; I would not give them for all the ecstasies and revelations of the saints. My heart overflows with gratitude in thinking of this priceless treasure which must cause holy jealousy to the angels of the celestial court. My desire for suffering was fulfilled; however my attraction to them did not diminish.” - MSA 225 -

She carried herself with great generosity to the practices of bodily mortification determined by the rule. She would have liked to multiply them and repeatedly asked permission; but he was refused it on account of the delicacy of his constitution. To make up for it, she seized skilfully and without letting anything show all the opportunities to suffer that presented themselves. We only learned, towards the end of his life, that the cold, doubtless because of the state of his health, tried him in a particularly painful way. Never, however, was she seen rubbing her hands in winter, or [225v] adopting an attitude that gave any indication of her suffering. She never said, "it's very cold", or "it's hot". So it was with the thousand opportunities she knew how to manage to make herself suffer. She never complained of anything. One day, a sister, wanting to reattach the scapular of the Servant of God, went through the skin and the fabric at the same time with the pin. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus let nothing show and continued her work as refectory happily for several hours. But in the end she was afraid, she said, "of no longer being obedient since our mother knew nothing," and took the pin from her shoulder.

[226r] [Mother Agnès continues on the same subject]:

One day when she wore a small cross armed with spikes too long, an injury resulted which worsened and finally forced her to seek treatment. She said on this occasion: “You see very well that great penances are not for me; the good Lord knows very well that I desire them, but he never wanted them to happen, otherwise I wouldn't have been sick for so little. What is that compared to the macerations of the Saints? Besides, I would have found too much joy there, and natural satisfactions can very well be mixed with the most austere penance. You have to challenge yourself. Believe me, my mother, never embark on this path, it is not that of very small souls like ours. » - FROM 27-7 -

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

[About Temperance]:

In 1897, she told me about her childhood memories: “If the good God and the [226v] Blessed Virgin had not consented themselves to attend feasts, I would not have understood the use of invite his friends on this occasion. I would have understood that we invited each other to talk, tell stories about travels, talk about science, etc.; but it seemed to me that to eat we should have hidden or at least stayed with the family: I found this function shameful....” In Carmel, she said that she went to the refectory as if to torture; as she never complained, people ended up believing that she did not have the same repugnance and the same delicacies as the others, and willingly they served her the leftovers and the scraps of previous meals which she always accepted without ever protest. During her last illness, she was unexpectedly assailed by a veritable temptation to gluttony. Her imagination presented her with all kinds of delicacies and she was obsessed with the desire to have them at her disposal. She then said to me with a sigh: “To say that all my life eating has been torture for me, and here is where I am today: it seems to me that I am starving! Oh! how dreadful [227r] it is to starve! but I'm immersed in the matter! Oh! my God, come quickly and get me!” - FROM 12-8 -

She was extremely sensitive by temperament; a child and already grown up, she wept with extraordinary ease. That's the only flaw I've seen in it. On December 25, 1886, she said to herself that it was necessary to dominate, for God, these excessive emotions and in fact she acquired, from that day, a perfect mastery of herself. In the "History of her life" she calls this day her "conversion" - MSA 45,1 - . At Carmel, she was as sensitive as others to the annoyance caused by the inconvenience of intruders during a work begun. Nevertheless, not only was she always gracious, but she affected to put herself in the way of those who could disturb her the most.

[About additional virtues and religious vows]:

His obedience was extraordinarily faithful. She took the smallest commands literally and you had to watch yourself so as not to expose her to excessive constraint. She said that [227v] obedience is an infallible compass and that one strays far from the paths of grace when one evades the directions of authority. In many circumstances she abstained, out of obedience to our Reverend Mother Prioress, from communicating her thoughts and feelings to me, although the habits of her early youth made her need it and she would have found great consolation in continuing her outpourings. of yesteryear. One day, I asked her what she would have done if one of her three sisters had been sick in her place: “Would you have come to the infirmary during recess? She replied: "I would have gone straight to recess without asking for any news, but I would have done that simply so that no one would notice my sacrifice" - DE 20-7 -.

The practice of religious poverty was very close to his heart; not only did she gladly accept the ordinary poverty of Carmel, but in Carmel itself she was happy to lack even the most necessary things. When, [228r] for example, in the refectory they forgot to serve her, she was happy about it and avoided pointing it out. She said: “I am like the really poor; it is not worth taking a vow of poverty, in order not to suffer from it.” Sometimes we plagiarized one of his thoughts. She found it quite natural and said that by virtue of poverty she should not claim this good any more than any other.

She had a very fair idea of ​​chastity, free from scruples and illusions. I found her very enlightened in the advice she gave to novices, and it was certainly not the experience of evil that provided her with this enlightenment. She told me one day that she had learned, without looking for it, by observing flowers and birds. But, she added, “it is not the knowledge of things that is wrong; the good Lord has done nothing but very good. Marriage is very beautiful for those whom the good, God calls to it, it is sin that disfigures and defiles it. She put great fidelity into practicing this virtue, but also her usual simplicity. I don't think she's ever had any very violent struggles on this point. In [228v] a few circumstances, however, we can note her delicacy and her vigilance: 1° before her trip to Rome, she was concerned about the dangers she might encounter and entrusted in particular to Notre-Dame des Victoires de Paris the preservation of her innocence ; 2nd, she did not allow her novices marks of affection into which the slightest nuance of sensuality could have entered; 3° when she was alone, she never relaxed her reserve and her modesty, saying that she was in the presence of the angels.

[Session 17: - August 31, 1910, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[230v] [About the humility of the Servant of God]:

In his childhood, we took great care to train him in humility, carefully avoiding giving him praise.

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

ges. At the pension, she was sometimes congratulated on the success of her studies. She said on this subject that she recognized then that her heart would not have been indifferent to praise, and she thanked God that, on returning to the family, and particularly to her uncle, she found as a counterweight to the praise that she received. she received elsewhere. At the age of ten, she came [231r] one day to the parlor of the Carmel where a nun inconsiderately showed the other people present her admiration for the beauty of this child. The Servant of God was pained and scandalized. As she was already thinking of becoming a Carmelite, she said: “It is not really to hear praises that I would come to Carmel. If I leave the world, it is for Jesus alone” - MSA 26,2 -

She told me many times that "by entering Carmel, Our Lord 'showed her that true wisdom consists in wanting to be ignored" - MSA 26,1 - . In the midst of the humiliations caused to us by my father's illness, she told me that her wishes were fulfilled, because she shared suffering and contempt. On the day of her profession, she carried a note on her heart in which she had written: “Let no one bother about me; may I be trodden down like a little grain of sand” - PRI 2 - . She wrote to me during her retreat in 1892 (she was 19): “What happiness to be so well hidden and to be unknown, even to the people who live with us, I have never desired human glory; contempt had attracted my heart, [231v] but having recognized that it was still too glorious for me, I became passionate about oblivion” - LT 95 - . The more she advanced in perfection, the more humble she was. Instead of being discouraged by certain little involuntary faults which escaped her, she said: "I resign myself to seeing myself always imperfect, and I even find my joy in it." I expect to discover new imperfections in myself” - MSA 74,1 -.”

On May 28, 1897, four months before her death, she suffered from a violent attack of fever. They came to ask him in front of me for his help with a very delicate painting job. For a moment her face betrayed by some blush the fight she was waging not to show impatience. That evening, she wrote me a note which testifies with what humility she recognized her weakness. Here are a few sentences: “This evening, I showed you my virtue, my treasures of patience! And me, who preaches so well to others!!! I'm glad you saw my imperfection. Ah! how good it does me to have been mean... I am [232r] much happier to have been imperfect than if, supported by grace, I had been a model of gentleness. It does me so much good to see that Jesus is always so gentle, so tender towards me!...» - LT 230 - . At the height of her last illness, a lay sister came to offer her meat juice, she gently refused it, saying that it was really impossible to drink this juice which was going to cause vomiting. I don't remember if she drank it at the end, I only know that she humbly begged the lay sister for forgiveness. This one remained nevertheless badly edified by this resistance, and she went to say to another sister: “Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus not only is not a saint, but she is not even a good nun.” These words were reported to the Servant of God who was so holy happy that she could not help confiding her happiness to a sister whom she knew was understood and who said to me: "It is the most edifying memory which I kept from the Servant of God.” In her illness, she had continual occasions of nervousness and impatience. Sometimes she barely showed any slight emotion. She then [232v] recognized her weakness and asked for forgiveness, recommending that people pray for her. She said to me some time later: "I experience a very lively joy, not only that people find me imperfect, but above all to feel myself there, and to have so much need of God's mercy at the moment of my death." - FROM 29-7 -

His humility did not prevent him from recognizing the gifts of God. One day when someone asked her what she thought of the graces she had received, she replied simply: "I believe that the Spirit of God blows where it wills" (cf. In. 3, 8) - DE 11 -7 - . As she advanced in a more perfect humility, her simplicity in recognizing and confessing the gifts of God became greater and greater and seemed a kind of boldness. But however precious these gifts were, one felt that in the account she gave of them, there was nothing but simplicity and not the slightest return to herself.

I would have many more things to say about humility and the other virtues I witnessed, but it would not end.

[233r] [Answer to the twenty-second request. About gifts from above]:

In general, the life of the Servant of God was very simple; otherwise she could not be the model of "little souls", which, she said, "was her way." It is however necessary to mention here several isolated facts which seem to be extraordinary graces,

1°. At the age of six or seven she had a vision, the circumstances of which she relates in the manuscript of her life - MSA 19,2-20,2 -. Our father was on a trip, and was not to return for several days; around two o'clock in the afternoon, Thérèse, looking out of a window into the garden, saw walking down a well-decorated alley.

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

covered and distant about 20 meters a figure who had the stature and all the exterior of our father; but he came forward as if bent with age, and his head was covered with a veil of undecided color. She followed that shape for a few moments, then called out, "Daddy, Daddy." My sister Marie and I, who were in an adjoining room, came running. Thérèse then told us about this vision which had just disappeared. We descended into the garden which was walled and where no one could enter. We did not recognize any trace of [233v] human presence. We advised our little sister not to think about it any more and not to talk about it. But she remained convinced, not only of the reality of her vision, but also that this vision had a positive meaning which would be manifested to her later, that it presaged some trial or some misfortune. When in the last five years of her life our father suffered the great humiliation of cerebral degradation of which I spoke above, she recognized that the vision of her childhood presaged these sad events.

[Did the Servant of God only affirm the sad meaning of this vision when she learned that her father was indeed ill?]:

It was then that she recognized its precise meaning. But long before the event and from the time of the vision, the Servant of God was absolutely convinced that this vision presaged some painful event.

[Was the Servant of God, either from childhood or later, affected by an excessive imagination, or by some element of a “neuropathic” temperament?]:

[234r] Not at all, she was a very calm child, with a balanced mind, not at all imaginative. Around the age of ten and a half, she was affected by a rather strange illness which I will speak about shortly, and of which my sisters who were present are better informed than I; but the period of the vision in question is three years prior to this disease which, moreover, was absolutely transient and left no trace.

2°. At ten and a half she was suddenly seized with a strange illness that my sisters will be able to describe in more detail. I was already at Carmel and only knew what was told me in the visiting room. They were fits of fright with horrible visions and an urge to throw one's head out of bed on the pavement. She has since said that she had not lost the use of her reason for a moment, and that when she seemed deprived of sense, she heard and understood everything that was said around her. She was always persuaded thereafter that these phenomena were due to the action of the devil. Be that as it may, this illness disappeared suddenly, never to reappear, on May 10, 1883, and this under the following circumstances: During a novena that we were doing for her at Notre Dame des [234v] Victoires, a occurred more painfully than the others. My sisters present then began to invoke the Blessed Virgin at the feet of a statue which was in the room. Thérèse also, during her very crisis, began to invoke Mary. Suddenly she saw, she told me, the statue come to life and the Blessed Virgin come towards her and smile at her. From that moment he never reappeared a trace of his illness. In her last illness, I placed near her, in the infirmary, this same statue which formerly adorned her room as a little girl. She looked at her with complacency. I was near his bed with our sister Marie du Sacré-Coeur. She says: “Never has she seemed so beautiful to me, but today it is the statue; formerly you know very well that it was not the statue.” - FROM 6-7-5 -

[Session 18: - September 1, 1910, at 8:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[236v] [Response to the twenty-second request continued]:

3°. She confided to me several times during her life that she had sometimes experienced extraordinary outbursts of love. [237r] Before entering Carmel, she experienced several times, without provoking them by any effort, what she called “transactions of love” - MSA 52,1 -; she felt in her heart impulses unknown until then, She told me that not knowing then how to tell Jesus her love and her desire that he be loved and glorified everywhere, she said to the good God that "to please him , she would consent to be plunged into hell so that someone in this place of blasphemy might love him.” She adds on this subject in her manuscript: "I knew well that it could not glorify him, since he only desires our happiness, but when we love, we feel the need to say a thousand follies" - MSA 52,1- 2 - .

She also told me that during her novitiate she had remained almost eight days separated from her body: "I was no longer on earth, I was doing the work in the refectory, as if I had been lent a body. I cannot express this. Finally, there was a veil thrown for me over all things on earth. - FROM 11-7 -

[Do you know if such states differed from any particularly intense recollection?]:

Certainly, because she was always very collected; and if it had only [237v] been that, she would not have spoken of it as a special condition. On my request if in the course of her religious life she had still experienced extraordinary operations of grace, she replied: "In the garden, several times, at the hour of great silence in the evening,

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

I felt myself in such great recollection and my heart was so united to the good God, I formed with such ardor and yet without any work such aspirations of love, that it seems to me that these graces were ' thefts of the spirit, as Saint Thérèse calls them.” - FROM 11-7 -

In 1895, when I was prioress, she spoke to me of a grace she called "wound of love." At that time, the good Lord had allowed, in order to test it no doubt, that I paid no attention to it. I even appeared to believe nothing of it, and I confess that it was so; but, reflecting on what she had said to me, I wondered how I could have doubted her assertion for a moment. However, I did not say a word to him until his last illness. I wanted then (1897) to make her repeat, in the infirmary, what she had told me in 1895 about this wound of love. [238r] She then looked at me with a gentle smile and said: “Mother, I told you that very day, and you barely listened to me.” As I was expressing regret to her, she resumed: “You didn't hurt me, I simply thought that the good Lord was allowing this for my greater good. This is what happened then: it was a few days after my offering to merciful Love. I was beginning in the choir the exercise of the Way of the Cross, when I suddenly felt wounded by a line of fire so ardent that I thought I was going to die. I don't know how to explain this transport; there is no comparison which can make understand the intensity of this flame of the sky. One more second, I would certainly be dead. Finally, my mother added with simplicity - this is what the saints have experienced so many times. We read that in their life; you know well. Me, I only experienced it this once in all my life, and the dryness quickly returned to live in my heart. I spent my entire religious life in this dryness, so to speak. It is very rare that I have been consoled; besides, I never wanted it. I was quite proud, on the contrary, that the good Lord didn't hesitate with me; extraordinary graces have never tempted me; I liked half-[238v] them repeating to God:

That my desire is not to see him here below” - DE 7-7 and PN 24 verse 27 - .

Towards the end of her life (the last three months), while my two sisters and I were by her bed, she expressed to us with great simplicity strange presentiments of what was to happen to her after her death. She made us understand that after her death, her relics would be sought and that she would have to accomplish a mission in souls, spreading her "little way of trust and abandonment." In particular, she recommended that we keep carefully even the clippings of her fingernails. In the last weeks of her life, we brought her roses to pluck on her crucifix; if petals fell on the ground, once she had touched them, she would say to us: "Don't lose this, my little sisters, you will make pleasures with these roses" - DE 14-9 -

She also says: “The manuscript (the story of his life) must be published without delay after my death. If you delay, the demon will lay a thousand ambushes for you to prevent this publication, however very important.” I said to him: “So you think that it is through the manuscript that you will do good to souls?” - “Yes, it is a means that the good Lord will use to answer me. He will do good to all kinds of souls, except those who are in the extraordinary ways. - "But - I added - what if our mother threw him into the fire?" “Hey! Well, I wouldn't have the slightest pain, nor the slightest doubt about my mission. I would simply think that the good Lord will fulfill my desires by another means. - FROM 239-11 -

[While she was writing the said manuscript, was the Servant of God planning its publication?]:

Certainly not for the first part which she had written on my order, when I was prioress. She did not think of it either when composing what is addressed to her sister Marie. As for chapters IX, X and the first pages of chapter XI, addressed to Mother Marie de Gonzague, she anticipated publication, but certainly did not incur more expense for it. She wrote with absolute simplicity, as things came to her.

[239v] One day when my sisters and I, a few days before her death, were giving her care, she suddenly told us. “You know very well that you are caring for a little saint.” And after a moment of silence: “Besides, you are saints too” - DE .11.8.3 - .

[During her last illness, was the Servant of God subject to delirium or any other similar ailment?]:

She did not lose her presence of mind for a single moment; on the contrary, she was all the calmer the nearer death was.

[240r] [Answer to the twenty-third request. - About the fame of holiness during his life]:

I noticed that in her childhood people looked at her in an exceptional way. I guessed that it was not only for her beauty, but for I don't know what extraordinarily pure and celestial that she had in her countenance; I have heard it said many times. Victoire Pasquer, our servant, whom I saw again in the parlor a few months ago, said to me during this visit: "It is true that Mademoiselle Thérèse was not

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

not ordinary; I really liked you all, but Thérèse had something that neither of you had: she was like an angel; it struck me.” A venerable young lady who took care of the chapel of the Blessed Virgin and of the supervision of the children at processions, in the parish of Saint-Pierre de Lisieux, said of the Servant of God: "This little Thérèse is a true angel, I would be very surprised if she lived a long [240v]time; but if she lives, you will see that we will talk about it later, because she will become a saint.”

At the Carmel, I saw all the nuns, except perhaps one or two, very surprised and edified by the virtues that we saw her practicing from the first days of her novitiate. Over the years, this good opinion grew even more. Mother Marie de Gonzague, prioress, who often used a particular severity towards her, said to the mistress of novices to explain her attitude: "It is not a soul of this stamp that should be treated like a child. and fear to humiliate in all encounters” - HA 12 - Before she had made her profession, the Reverend Mother Prioress and the other nuns loved to introduce her to the members of their families who came to the parlor, assured that they were of the esteem and good name that would reflect on the community. In fact, the Reverend Mother Prioress was often praised for it. Retreat preachers and confessors spoke of him to the Mother Prioress as of an angel. The sacristan who knew her to hear her in the sacristy, [241r] held her in great veneration and said that this sister was not like the other good sisters, that when he came to work inside the monastery, he recognized her, despite her lowered veil, by the modesty of her dress.

Some nuns, to my knowledge, however, thought otherwise. One of them said that it wasn't difficult to be a saint when, like her, you had everything you wanted; that we lived in family and in honors. I am obliged to say that this nun, who had been professed for a long time, had a poor judgment, that she wanted to leave the monastery and that she has now returned to the world. Another, during her illness, said: “I wonder what our Mother Prioress could write about Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. What do you mean by a person who has been pampered all the time and who has not acquired virtue like us through struggle and suffering? She's sweet and good, but it's natural for her” - DE 29-7 - . I learned these words from Sister Thérèse herself who had heard them. The nun who uttered them has since died. On the other hand, this same nun, who was a lay sister, said at other times that Sister Thérèse of the Child [241v] Jesus was a saint.

[Response to the twenty-fourth request]:

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus died in the infirmary of our monastery in Lisieux on Thursday, September 30, 1897, around seven o'clock in the evening. She died of consumption resulting from pulmonary tuberculosis. Around 1894, she began to suffer from granulations of the throat; they were treated with cauterizations and she did not change anything, for that, in her ordinary life as a Carmelite. On the evening of Maundy Thursday 1896, a haemorrhage broke out in the circumstances described above. This accident was repeated the next day. Nevertheless, until towards the end of Lent the following year, 1897, she continued all the exercises and penances customary in Carmel. For only a few weeks, following a persistent cough, she was put on a diet of fatty foods. At the end of Lent, 1897, his condition worsened greatly; the fever became continuous and she was subjected to a vigorous treatment of blisters, [242r] points of fire, tincture of iodine and friction. All these cares were without result; on July 6, 1897, the hemorrhaging began again and recurred two or three times each day for the whole month. On July 8, she was taken down to the infirmary where the disease took its course until the day of her death, September 30. During the last five months of his life, and especially from July 6, his sufferings were very violent and ever increasing. Doctor de Cornières, the monastery's doctor, said: "It's dreadful what she is suffering from, don't want to keep her in this state." He was surprised at her unfailing patience and her angelic smile. Around May 25, she was still in her cell stretched out on her mattress. She then said to me: "I would rather stay in our cell than go down to the infirmary, because here you can't hear me cough, I don't bother anyone, and then, when I'm too well looked after, I no longer enjoy” - DE 25 and 26 –5 - .

[Session 19: - September 2, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[244r] [Response to the twenty-fourth request continued]:

She welcomed suffering as a long-desired grace. She only asked for relief when obedience demanded it, and then with a lot of [244v] discretion; "I ask as little as I can," she said one day; you had to guess what could relieve her. She never wanted to pray for the reduction of her ills and contented herself with saying, even in the midst of her most cruel sufferings: “My God, have pity on me, you who are so good! » - FROM 39 - . She did not apprehend the greater suffering than she anticipated and contented herself with saying: “The suffering may reach to the extreme limits; but the good Lord who held me by the hand from my most tender childhood, will not abandon me, I am sure of it. I may well not be able to, but I never will

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

too much” - DE 27-5 - . I couldn't say that she suffered with delight and wanted to suffer more and more; she expressed her dispositions thus: "Are you not surprised, my mother, at the way in which I suffer?" I am like a very small child during my illness; I have no thought, if not that of a simple acquiescence to everything the good Lord wants, suffering from minute to minute what he [245r] sends me, without worrying about the future . I only rejoice in death because it is the expression of God's will for me. I don't want to die any more than I want to live. For my nature, I prefer death; but if I had to choose, I would choose nothing. it's only what God does that I love” - DE 26-8 - .

His soul remained immersed until the end in a real night, because of his temptation against the existence of heaven. She said to me, confiding her sorrows to me: "Must one have these thoughts and love the good Lord so much?" - FROM 10-8 - . This note, which she wrote on August 3, summarizes well the feelings of her soul in the face of physical and moral suffering: “O my God, how good you are for the little victim of your merciful Love! Even now that you join the external suffering to the trials of my soul. I cannot say: 'The pangs of death have surrounded me', (*Ps. 0, 17) but I cry out in my gratitude: “I have gone down into the valley of the shadows of death; however, I fear no evil, because you are with me, Lord!' (*Ps. 5, 22) - LT 4 - . She always kept the hope, or rather the assurance, of dying of love: “I always hope [262v] to die of love”, she told us. “To die of love is not to die in transport. Our Lord died of love on the cross, and see what his agony was” - DE 245-4 - . Another day, she said to me: “I don't make a party of enjoying myself, of resting in heaven. That's not what attracts me. What attracts me is love; it is to love, to be loved and to return to earth to make the good God loved, to help the missionaries, the priests, the whole Church: I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth»" - DE 7- 17. What I saw shine in her more during her last illness was simplicity, self-distrust, humility, constant recourse to prayer and trust in God.

She received Extreme Unction on July 30; and, from August 19, she had to cease to receive Holy Communion. because of the vomiting from which she constantly suffered. On September 29, the day before her death, as she suffered extraordinarily, she cried out: “I can't take it anymore. Ah! pray for me, if you only knew! » - FROM 29-9 - . After [246r] matins, she joined her hands and said: “Yes, my God, I want everything” - DE 29-9 - . On the morning of September 30, his sufferings were inexpressible; she clasped her hands, looking at the statue of the Blessed Virgin, placed opposite her bed: “Oh! - she said -, I prayed to her with fervor!... But it's agony, all pure, without any mixture of consolation” - DE 30-9 - . Around three o'clock, she crossed her arms and said to the mother prioress: “Oh! my mother, present me quickly to the Blessed Virgin! Prepare me to die well” - DE 30-9 - She repeated again: “All that I wrote about my desires for suffering, oh! it's very true, but I don't repent of having given myself up to Love, on the contrary” - DE 30-9 - . At 7:30 a.m., the mother prioress, believing her condition to be stable, dismissed the community. And the poor little victim sighed: “Mother, isn't it still agony? won't I die? - "Yes, my child - replied our mother -, it's agony, but the good Lord wants, perhaps, to prolong it for a few hours." She resumed with courage: “Hey! well... let's go!... let's go!... Oh! I would not like to suffer for less time...” - DE 9-246 - . And, fixing his eyes on his crucifix: [30v] “Oh!... I love him!... My... God!... I... love you...!! - DE 9-XNUMX - After saying these words, she fell gently backwards, her head tilted to the right. The Mother Prioress hastily recalled the community and all witnessed her ecstasy. Her face, purplish and decomposed in agony, had regained the freshness and lily complexion that she had in full health, her eyes were fixed upwards, shining with peace and joy. A sister approached with a torch, to see more closely this sublime gaze. In the light of this torch, there appeared no movement of his eyelids. This ecstasy lasted, at least, the space of a Credo. Then I saw her close her eyes; she heaved several sighs and gave up her soul to God.

After her death, she kept a sweet smile: she was ravishingly beautiful. It remained exposed, according to the custom of Carmel, in the choir of the nuns, near the gate. On Sunday evening, October 3, the coffin was closed after some symptoms of decomposition had appeared. The burial took place on Monday [947r] October 4 in the Lisieux cemetery, without anything out of the ordinary.

What I have just said about the last illness and death of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus is only a very incomplete summary of my memories. During the last months of her life, I noted, day by day, as I witnessed her, the peculiarities of her days, and especially the words she said. I could not complete this deposition better than by giving the court a copy of these daily notes.

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

[The text of a manuscript by Mother Agnès follows, duly signed by her and recognized as authentic by the notary in agreement with the judges and the promoter]:

+ MORAL physiognomy of SISTER THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS ​​AND THE HOLY FACE during her last illness according to her verbatim words, collected by me (Sister Agnès of Jesus) from the Servant of God's own mouth and recorded as by measure [247v] on a notebook, which seemed to her to be a fatigue and paralyzed her outpourings, but which she let me do with simplicity, fearing to cause me pain.

15th May 1897

“I don't care if I live or die. I don't really see what more I will have after my death than I have right now... I'll see the good Lord, that's it! Because to be with him, I am already completely there on earth” - DE 15-5 - .

"I am very happy to be going to heaven soon, but when I think of this word of the good God: 'He will come soon and I carry my reward with me to render to each one according to his works' (*Rev. 22, 12), I tell myself that he will be very embarrassed with me, because I have no works... so he will not be able to repay me according to my works. Hey! well, I trust that he will reward me according to his own works” - DE 15-5 - .

“If, by impossibility, the good Lord himself did not see my good deeds, I would not be distressed. I love him so much that I would like to be able to please him with [248r] my love and my little sacrifices, without him even knowing that they come from me. Knowing it and seeing it, he is as if obliged to surrender... I wouldn't want to give him that much trouble! » - FROM 9-5 - .

“I would very much like to be sent to the Carmel of Hanoi to suffer a lot for the good Lord; I would like to go there, if I recover, to be all alone, to have no consolation, no joy on earth. I know very well that the good Lord doesn't need our works, I'm sure I wouldn't be of service there. But I would suffer and I would love. That is what counts in his eyes” - DE 15-6 - .

May 18

"I was relieved of all employment, I thought that my death would not cause the slightest disturbance in the community."

I said to her: Are you saddened to appear before the sisters as a useless member?

" Oh! for that, it is the least of my worries. It makes no difference! » - FROM 18-5 - .

I had done my best, seeing her so ill, to obtain that she be dispensed from the offices of the dead prescribed by our Constitutions on the death of each member of our Order.

[248v] "Please don't make me dispense from the offices of the dead, that's all I can do for the souls in purgatory"" - DE 18-5 - .

I was surprised to see that, despite her condition, she was never idle, I told her.

“I always need to have work prepared; like that, I am not preoccupied and I never waste my time.”

“I had asked the good Lord so much to follow the community exercises until my death! He didn't want to answer me. Yet it seems to me that I could go for anything, I wouldn't die a minute sooner. It sometimes seems to me that if I hadn't said anything, they wouldn't find me ill” - DE 18-5 - .

May 19

I said to him: Why are you so cheerful today?

“Because this morning I had two small sorrows, oh! very sensitive... Nothing gives me small joys, like small sorrows” - DE 19-5 - .

[249r] May 20

“I am told that I will be afraid of death; it may well be. If you only knew how insecure I am! I never rely on my own thoughts; I know too well how weak I am, but I want to enjoy the feeling that the good Lord is giving me now. There will always be time to suffer from the opposite” - DE 20-5 - .

From 21 to 28 May

"I know I'm going to die soon. But when? Oh! it does not come! I am like a child who is always promised a cake; we show it to him from afar... then, when he approaches to seize it, the hand withdraws! But I am abandoned either to live or to die. I really want to get well again to go to Cochinchina, if the good Lord asks for it” - FROM 21 to 26-5 - .

“We must not, after my death, let wreaths be given to put around my coffin, as we did for Mother Geneviève (our foundress). It's wasted money, it means nothing; but with the money that we would have spent for that, you will ask the people who are redeemed from slavery.

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

a bunch of poor [249v] little niggers. You will say that is what would give me pleasure. I would like a little 'Theophane' and a little 'Marie Thérèse'” - FROM 21 to 26-5 - .

"Some time ago, I had great difficulty taking expensive remedies, but now I don't mind, on the contrary, because I read that Saint Gertrude rejoiced over it for herself, thinking that everything was to the advantage of those who did him good. She relied on the word of Our Lord: 'What you will do to the least of mine, you will have done to me (*Mt. 25, 40)'” - FROM 21 to 26 – 5 - .

“I am convinced of the uselessness of remedies to cure me, but I made arrangements with the good Lord, so that he would benefit poor missionaries who have neither the time nor the means to take care of themselves. I ask him that all the care given to me heal them” - FROM 21 to 26-5 - .

“I have been told so often that I have courage, and it is so untrue, that I said to myself. But after all, we must not make the world lie like this! And I began, with the help of grace, [250r] to acquire courage. I acted like a warrior who, hearing himself congratulated on his bravery while knowing very well that he is only a coward, would end up being ashamed of the compliments and would like to deserve them " - FROM 21 to 26-5 - .

“I'd rather stay in our cell than go down to the infirmary because here you can't hear me coughing, I don't disturb anyone; and then, when I am too well cared for, I no longer enjoy” - FROM 21 to 26-5 - .

"If I did not have this trial of soul, these temptations against the faith that it is impossible to understand... I believe that I would die of joy at the thought of leaving this earth soon" - DE 21à26 –5 - .

May 28

“I am in no way afraid of the last fights, nor of the sufferings, however great they may be, of illness. The good Lord has helped me and led me by the hand since my earliest childhood, I count on him. I am sure that he will continue to help me until the end. I may well suffer extremely, but I will never have too much, I'm sure " - DE 27-5 -

“I no more want to die than [250v] to live; that is to say, if I had to choose, I would rather die, but since the good Lord chooses for me, I prefer what he wants. It's what he does that I like” - DE 27-5 - .

“Let no one believe that if I recover, it will confuse me and destroy my plans. No way! Age is nothing in the eyes of God and I will manage to remain a little child, even if I live a very long time” - DE 27-5 - .

“I always see the bright side of things. There are those who take everything in such a way as to hurt themselves the most. For me, it's the opposite. If I have only pure suffering, if the sky is so dark that I see no clearing, eh! Well, I'm happy about it! » - FROM 27-5 - .

May 29

She had suffered a lot. I took the Holy Gospel to read a passage to him and I came across these words: “He is risen, he is no longer here, see the place where he was put” (*Mc. 16, 6).

“Yes, that's right, I am no longer, in fact, as in my childhood, accessible to all pain; I'm like [251r] resurrected, I'm no longer in the place where people think I am... Mother, don't worry about me, I've come to be unable to suffer anymore, because all suffering is sweet to me” - DE 29-5 - .

May 30

I said to him: You may suffer a great deal before you die!

" Oh! don't worry about it, I have such a great desire for it! » - FROM 30-5 - .

4 June

She bade farewell to us (her three sisters). That day she was as if transfigured and seemed to no longer suffer.

“I asked the Blessed Virgin not to be drowsy and absorbed like all these days. I felt so good that I hurt you. Tonight she answered me. O my little sisters, how happy I am! I see I'm going to die soon, I'm sure of it now."

“Don't be surprised if I don't appear to you after my death and if you don't see anything extraordinary as a sign of my happiness. You will remember that it is my 'little way' of not wanting to see anything. You know well what I have said so many times to the good God, to the angels and to the saints:

[351v] 'That my desire is not to see them here below'” - DE 4-6 - - PN 24,27 - .

The angels will come to get you, says Sister Geneviève de Sainte Thérèse.

"I don't think you see them, but that won't stop them from being there." However, I would like to have a good death, to please you. I asked the Blessed Virgin; I didn't ask God... Asking the Blessed Virgin is not the same thing as asking God. She knows what she has to do with my little desires, whether she has to say them or not... well, it's up to her to decide not to force the good Lord to grant, to let him do in all his will.

“I don't know if I'll go to purgatory, I don't worry about it at all; but, if I go, I will not regret not having done anything to avoid it, I will never regret having worked only

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

to save souls. How happy I was to see that Saint Thérèse thought that!

“Don't worry if I suffer a lot and if you don't see in me, [252r] as I have already told you, no sign of happiness at the moment of my death. Our Lord died a victim of love, and see what his agony was! » - FROM 6-4 - .

That same day in the afternoon, as I saw her suffer a lot, I said to her: Well! you wanted to suffer, the good Lord has not forgotten it.

“I wanted to suffer and I got it. I have been in a lot of pain for several days. One morning, during my thanksgiving, I felt like the pangs of death, and, with that, no consolation! » "'. - FROM 4-6 -

"I accept everything for the love of God, even the extravagant thoughts that come to mind and bother me" "'. - DE 4-6 -

5 June

“If you find me dead one morning, don't worry; it's because Papa the good Lord would have simply come to get me. No doubt it is a great grace to receive the sacraments; but when the good Lord does not allow it, it is good all the same, all is grace” - DE 5-6 -

June 6

“I thank you for having asked [252v] that only a portion of the Holy Host be given to me. I still had a hard time swallowing it. But how happy I was to have the good God in my heart! I cried like the day of my first communion” - DE 6-6 - .

“See how little I am consoled in my temptations against the faith. The chaplain told me today: 'Don't stop at all that, because it's very dangerous'. He said to me again: 'Are you really resigned to dying?'. I replied: 'Ah! my father, I find that there is no need for resignation except to live, To die, it is joy that I experience!' » - FROM 6-6 - .

7 June

She had walked in the garden supported by me. On her way back she stopped to look at a little white hen which sheltered her chicks under her wings. Her eyes were full of tears. I tell him: You are crying! So she put her hand in front of her eyes crying more and answered me:

"I can't tell you why right now I'm too emotional."

Later, she said to me with a heavenly [253r] expression:

“I wept thinking that the good Lord had taken this comparison to make us believe in his tenderness (cf. * Mt. 235 37). All my life, that's what he's done for me; he completely hid me under his wings. Sometimes I couldn't contain myself any longer; my heart overflowed with gratitude and love” - DE 7-6 -

9 June

(She suffered from a violent pain in the side).

“It is said in the Gospel that the good God will come as a thief (cf. *Mt. 24, 43-44). He will soon come and rob me! Ah! that I would like to help

thief! - FROM 9-6

To Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (her elder sister Marie) who said to her: What sorrow we will have after your death!

" Oh! no, you will see, it will be like a shower of roses” - DE 9-6 - .

"I'm like a little child on the railway track waiting for his mom and dad to put him on the train. Alas! they don't come and the train leaves! But there are others, I won't miss them all! » - FROM 9-6 - .

[253v] June 10

“I very often ask the Blessed Virgin to tell the good Lord that he doesn't have to bother with me. She's the one who does my errands well!... Now I don't understand anything about my illness and I'm better! But I let myself go and I'm happy. What would become of me if I harbored the hope of dying soon! What disappointments! But I don't have one, because I'm happy with everything the good Lord does, I only want his will” - DE 10-6 - .

14 June

"From moment to moment we can bear a lot" - DE 14-6 - .

15 June

I said to him: Are you tired of seeing your condition prolong and of suffering so much?

" Suffer! but I like it!” - For what?

“Because it pleases God” - DE 15-6 -

" I am happy. It seems to me that I do not at all offend God during my illness. Sometimes I wrote about charity (in the notebook of his Life) "and [254r] very often people came to bother me. I tried not to get impatient, to put into practice what I was writing » - FROM 15-6 -

22 June

She was in the garden in the sick car. When I came to her in the afternoon, she said to me:

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

“How well I understand the words of Our Lord to our Mother Saint Thérèse: 'Do you know, my daughter, those who truly love me? They are the ones who recognize that everything that does not relate to me is a lie - *TH d'Avila Vie - . Oh! how true! Yes, everything apart from the good Lord, everything is vanity! - FROM 22.6 -

23 June

I said to him: Alas! I will have nothing to give to God when I die, my hands are empty; she replied:

" Well! You are not like me. When I would have accomplished all the works of Saint Paul, I would still believe myself a useless servant (* Lc. 17, 10), I would find that my hands were empty; but that is precisely what makes me happy, because having nothing, I will receive everything from the good God” - DE 23.6 - .

25 June

She showed me a passage from an annal of the [254v] Propagation of the Faith where it is spoken of the apparition of a beautiful lady dressed in white to a baptized child. She said to me: “Later, I will go like this around the little baptized children...” - DE 25-6 - .

26 June

“What trouble I had in the side yesterday! And so it happened today! Ah! when will I go away with the good Lord! How I would like to go to heaven! » - FROM 26-6 - .

30 June

I told him about certain Saints who had led an extraordinary life like Saint Simeon Stylites. She said to me: “I prefer the Saints who are not afraid of anything, like Saint Cecilia who allows herself to be married and who is not afraid” - DE 30-6 - .

July 3

I confided to him my thoughts of sadness and discouragement after a fault.

“You are not like me. When I have committed a fault that makes me sad, I know very well that this sadness is the consequence of my infidelity. But do you think I'm stopping there? Oh! no, [255r] not so stupid! I hasten to say to the good Lord: 'My God, I know that this feeling of sadness, I have deserved it, but let me offer it to you all the same, as a test that you send me out of love. . I regret my sin, but I am happy to have this suffering to offer you'” - DE 3-7 -

She had been saddened and to distract her from it, she said with a sad and gentle air:

“I need food for my soul. Read me a life of a saint.”

- Do you want the life of Saint Francis of Assisi? It will distract you, he talks about flowers, little birds. She replied gravely:

“No, not for that... but to see examples of humility” - DE 3-7 - .

July 4

"I tell you frankly: to die of love, as Our Lord died of love on the cross, it seems to me that is what I feel" - DE 4-7 - .

July 5

I told him about my weaknesses; she tells me:

“I also have weaknesses, but I'm never surprised by them. Nor do I always place myself as quickly as I would like [255v] above the nothings of the earth; for example, I will be teased for something stupid that I have said or done. So, I return to myself and I say to myself: Alas! I am therefore still at the first point as before! But I tell myself that with great peace, without sadness. It's so sweet to feel weak and small! - FROM 5-7 -

"Don't be so sad to see me sick, my little mother, because you see how happy God makes me. I am always cheerful and happy.” - FROM 5-7 -

July 6

“I make a lot of small sacrifices...” - DE 6-7 -

It is clear that you are happy today to have spat blood and that you see the divine Thief.

“Oh! even if I wouldn't see him, I love him so much that I'm always happy with what he does. I wouldn't love him any less if he didn't come and rob me, on the contrary. When he seems to be cheating on me, I pay him all kinds of compliments, he no longer knows what to do with me.

« I read a beautiful passage in the reflections of the Imitation: - *I JC II. 9 thoughts - Our Lord [256r] in the Garden of Olives enjoyed all the delights of the Trinity, and yet his agony was no less cruel. It's a mystery, but I assure you that I understand something of it by what I experience myself.

I put a lamp on the Blessed Virgin, to get her not to continue spitting blood.

“So you are not happy that I am dying! Ah! to rejoice, I would have had to continue spitting blood! But that's it for today!

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

“When will the Last Judgment come? Oh! that I would like to be at that moment... And, what will happen after?! » - FROM 6-7 - .

July 7

She is still spitting blood.

"I'm going to go see the good Lord soon!"

- Are you afraid of death now that you see it so close?

“Oh! less and less!."

- Are you afraid of the “Thief”? This time he's at the door!

"No, he's not at the door, he's entered!" But what are you saying, my little mother! If I'm afraid of the Thief? How can I be afraid of someone I love so much! [256v] These words: 'Even if God kills me, I will still hope in him' (*Job 13, 15) delighted me from my childhood. But I was a long time before establishing myself at this degree of abandonment. Now here I am! The good Lord took me in his arms and put me there!”

I asked him to say a few words of edification and kindness to Doctor de Cornière so that he would be edified even more.

“Oh! my mother, it's not my way. Let Monsieur de Cornière think what he wants! I only like simplicity, I hate the opposite. I assure you that to do as you wish would be wrong of me.”

I told him about his past life.

“From the age of 14, I also had love attacks. Ah! how I loved the good Lord! » - FROM 7-7 - .

July 8

She was so ill that there was talk of giving her Extreme Unction. They took her down to the infirmary in the evening. She said happily:

“I'm only afraid of one thing; is that it does not change! » - FROM 8-7 - .

[257r] Looking at her wasted hands:

"It's already becoming a skeleton. That's what I like! » - FROM 8-7 - .

" Oh! I will certainly cry when I see the good Lord!... No, however, one must not cry in heaven... But yes, one cries, since he said: 'I will wipe all the tears from their eyes' (*Rev. 7, 17). » - FROM 8-7 -

She looked with me for the sins she might have committed through her senses, to accuse herself of them before Extreme Unction. We were on the scent. She tells me:

"I remember that I once used with pleasure a bottle of eau de cologne that had been given to me on a trip" - DE 8-7 - .

She said in a serious and gentle tone in a circumstance where she was not understood:

“The Blessed Virgin did well to keep everything in her heart (* Lk. 2, 19, 5 1). You can't blame me for doing like her..."

"It seems that the little angels gave themselves the word to hide from me the light that showed me my approaching end."

[257v] Did they hide the Blessed Virgin too?

“No, the Blessed Virgin will never be hidden from me, because I love her too much!”

“I very much desire to receive extreme unction. Too bad if they laugh at me afterwards!

(If she came back to health afterwards, because she knew that some sisters did not find her in danger of death) - DE 8-7 - .

We thanked her for consoling us with her sweet and kind words.

“My little sisters, I offer you my little fruits of joy, just as the good Lord gives them to me.”

“In heaven I will obtain many graces for those who have done me good. For you, my mother, everything will not even be able to serve you. There will be plenty to make you happy."

“If you only knew how sweet my judgment will be! but if the good Lord scolds me a little bit, I will find him sweet all the same. If I go to purgatory, I will be very happy again; I will do like the three Hebrews (* Dn. 258, 3 ff), I will walk in the furnace singing the canticle of love. Oh! how happy I would be if I could thereby free other souls, suffer in their place, for then I would do good, I would free the captives.”

She warns me that later, a large number of young priests, knowing that she has been given as a spiritual sister to two missionaries, will ask for the same favor here. She warns me that it can be a danger.

... “Anyone would write what I write and receive the same compliments, the same confidence. It is through prayer and sacrifice that we can only be useful to the Church. Correspondence must be rare and it must not be allowed at all to certain nuns who would be preoccupied with it, would believe they were doing wonders and would in reality only hurt their souls and perhaps fall into the subtle traps of the devil. My mother, what I am telling you is very important, don't forget it later” - DE 8-7 - .

"My sister *** will need me... But for the rest, I'll be back!" » - FROM 9-7 - .

[258v] July 9

Our Father Superior said to him: You! go to heaven soon! But, your crown

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

is not completed. You're just getting started.

“Oh! my father, you are telling the truth! No, I did not make my crown, but it was the good Lord who made it» - DE 9-7 - .

July 10

We said to him: There are saints who have been afraid of damning themselves, how do you not have this fear? She answered with a thin smile:

“Little children, you can't be damned! » - FROM 10-7 - .

It occurs to her that she is not seriously ill, that the doctor is mistaken.

"If my soul were not filled in advance by abandonment to the will of the good God, if it had to let itself be overwhelmed by the feelings of joy or sadness which follow one another so quickly on earth, it would be a flood of very bitter pain! but these alternatives only touch the surface of my soul. Ah! yet these are great trials! » - FROM 10-7 - .

[259r] July 11

I spoke to him of the manuscript of his life, of the good it would do to souls.

".. But as we will see that everything comes from the good God, and what I will have of glory will be a free gift that will not belong to me, everyone will see it!."

She speaks to me of the Communion of Saints. She explains to me how the goods of some will be the goods of others:

“As a mother is proud of her children, so will we be of each other without the slightest jealousy. »

About the manuscript of his life:

“... One might think that it is because I have not sinned that I have such great confidence in the good God. Say well, my mother, that if I had committed all possible crimes, I would always have the same confidence, I would feel that this multitude of offenses would be like a drop of water thrown into a burning brazier. You will then tell the story of the sinner. Souls will understand immediately, this example will encourage them.”

Here is what she wanted me to say:

“It is reported in the life of the Fathers [259v] of the desert that one of them converted a public sinner whose disorders scandalized an entire country. This sinner touched by grace was following the saint in the desert to accomplish a rigorous penance there, when, the first night of the journey, even before being returned to the place of her retreat, her mortal bonds were broken by the impetuosity of her repentance. full of love, and the solitary saw at the same moment his soul carried by the angels into the bosom of God. This is a very striking example of what I would like to say, but these things cannot be expressed” - DE 11-7 - .

She suffered from her temptation against the faith and from her physical impotence; she began to recite this stanza composed by her to the Most Blessed Virgin:

"Since the Son of God wanted his Mother to be subject to the night, to the anguish of the heart,

Mary, is it good to suffer on earth? Yes, to suffer while loving is the purest happiness.

Everything he gave me, Jesus can take back. Tell him never to be embarrassed with me;

he can well hide himself, I agree to wait for him until the day without sunset when my faith will be extinguished! - PN 54,16 - .

I said to him: How the good Lord has favored you! What do you think of this predilection?

260r] “I think the Spirit of God blows where it wills!...” - DE 11-7 - .

July 12

“Nothing is in my hands. Everything I have, everything I earn is for the Church and souls. If I live to be 80, I will always be so poor! » - FROM 12-7 - .

"The good Lord will have to do all my will in heaven, because I have never done my will on earth."

You'll be watching us from above, won't you?

“No, I will come down! - FROM 13-7 -

During the night of the 12th, she composed this couplet to prepare for communion:

“You who know my extreme lowliness, you are not afraid to lower yourself towards me!

Come into my heart, O white Host that I love, come into my heart, it longs for you!

Ah! I would like your kindness to let me die of love after this favour.

Jesus! hear the cry of my tenderness. Come into my heart! - *PS 8 -

"I'm not saying: If it's hard to live in [260v] Carmel, it's sweet to die there, but if it's sweet to live in Carmel, it's sweeter still to die there."

He was offered wine:

"I no longer want the wine of the earth.. I want to drink new wine in my Father's kingdom."

“I ask you to make an act of love and an invocation to all the Saints... They are all my relatives up there!.”

She still speaks to me of the Communion of Saints:

“.. With virgins we will be like virgins, with teachers like

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

the doctors, with the martyrs like the martyrs, because all the Saints are our parents; but those who have followed the path of spiritual childhood will always keep the charms of childhood.

"Since my childhood, the good Lord had given me the deep feeling that I would die young."

“The good Lord has always made me want what he wanted to give me.”

[261r] To his sisters:

“Don't think that, when I am in heaven, you will only have joys. This is not what I had, nor what I wanted to have. On the contrary, you may have great trials, but I will send you lights that will make you appreciate and love them. You will be obliged to say like me: 'Lord, you fill us with joy by all that you do'.

“I don't make fun of enjoying, that's not what attracts me. I cannot think much of the happiness that awaits me in heaven. A single expectation makes my heart beat; it is the love that I will receive and the one that I will be able to give. I think of all the good that I would like to do after my death: to have the little children baptized, to help the priests, the missionaries, the whole Church!...»

"Tonight I heard music in the distance and I thought that soon I would hear incomparable melodies, but this feeling of joy was only temporary" - DE 13-7 -

“If I had been rich, it would have been impossible for me to see a poor man hungry without immediately giving him some of my goods. Thus, as I gain some spiritual treasure, [261v] sensing that at the same moment souls are in danger of falling into hell, I give them all that I possess and I have not yet found a moment to say: now I will work for myself” - DE 14-7 - . "Always what the good Lord has given me has pleased me, even the things that seem to me less good and less beautiful than those that others had."

“My heart is full of God's will, so when you pour something over it, it doesn't get inside. It's nothing that slides easily like oil that can't mix with water. I always remain deep down in a deep peace that nothing can disturb” - DE 14-7 - .

She began to repeat this stanza of her hymn: "Remember", with a heavenly air and accent:

“Remember that your holy will is my rest, my only happiness. I abandon myself and fall asleep without fear in your arms, O my divine Saviour! If you fall asleep too, when the storm is brewing, I want to remain always in deep peace.

[262r] But while you sleep, Jesus! for revival prepare me! » - PN 24,32 - .

She said to me, noting the extreme thinness of her limbs:

" Oh! how happy I am to see myself destroying myself! » - FROM 14-7 -

July 15

You may die tomorrow feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, after communion.

" Oh! it wouldn't look like my little way. I would therefore leave to die! To die of love, after Communion! It's too beautiful for me; little souls could not imitate that....”

She told me the following story, a memory which had been a grace to her:

“Sister Marie of the Eucharist wanted to light the candles for a procession; she had no matches, but seeing the small lamp burning in front of the relics, she approaches it. Alas! she finds it half extinguished, only a faint glow remains on the charred wick. However, she succeeded in lighting her [262v] candle, and by this candle all those of the community found themselves lit. It is therefore this little half-extinguished lamp which produced these beautiful flames which, in their turn, can produce an infinity of others, even set the whole world ablaze. However, it would always be to the small lamp that the first cause of this conflagration should be attributed. How could the beautiful flames boast after that of having made a fire, since they were kindled only by correspondence to the little spark? The same is true for the Communion of Saints. Often, without knowing it, the graces and lights we receive are due to a hidden soul, because the good God wants the Saints to communicate grace to each other through prayer, so that in heaven they may love with a great love, a love even greater than that of the family, even the most ideal family on earth. How many times have I thought that I could owe all the graces I have received to the prayers of a soul who would have asked God for me and whom I will only know in heaven. Yes, a tiny spark [263r] will be able to ignite great lights throughout the Church, like doctors and martyrs who will undoubtedly be far above this little soul in heaven. But how could anyone think that their glory will not become his?

“In heaven, you will not meet with indifferent looks, because all the elect will recognize that they owe each other the graces that have earned them the crown” - DE 14-7 - .

July 16

About her wish fulfilled to have near her her sister Céline (Sister Geneviève of Sainte Thérèse):

“I had made the complete sacrifice of Sister Geneviève, but I cannot say that I no longer desired her. Very often, in the summer, during the hour of silence

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

before matins, being seated on the terrace, I said to myself: 'Ah! if my Céline was there near me! But no, that would be too much happiness. And that seemed like an impossible dream to me. However, it was not by nature that I wanted this happiness, it was for her soul, so that she would follow my little way. And when I saw her entered here, and not only entered, but given to me completely to instruct her, when I saw that the good Lord thus exceeded my desires, I understood what immensity of love he had for [263v] me. Well! my little mother, if a barely expressed desire is thus fulfilled, it is therefore quite impossible that all my great desires of which I speak so often to the good Lord are not completely fulfilled” - DE 16-7 - .

July 17

“I feel that I am going to enter into rest. But above all I feel that my mission is about to begin: my mission to make the good God loved, as I love him, to give my little way to souls. If the good Lord grants my desires, my heaven will happen on earth until the end of the world. Yes, I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth. It is not impossible, since within the beatific vision itself, the angels watch over us. I will not be able to enjoy my rest, as long as there are souls to be saved, but when the angel has said: 'The time is no longer!' (*Ap. 10, 6), then I will rest, I will be able to enjoy, because the number of the elect will be complete and all will have entered into joy and rest. My heart leaps at the thought..." - DE 17-7 -

I said to him another day: What way do you want to teach souls?

“My mother is the way to spiritual [264r] childhood, it is the way of trust and total abandonment. I want to teach them the little ways that have worked so well for me, tell them that there is only one thing to do here below: throw the flowers of the little sacrifices to Jesus, embrace him with caresses, that's how I took it, and that's why I'll be so well received” - DE 17-7 - .

July 19

“Sometimes I felt like asking Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart (her sister Marie), who was returning from the parlor to the chaplain, what he had said about my condition after his visit. I was thinking to myself: maybe it will do me good, console me to know it. But thinking about it, I said to myself: no, it's curiosity, I don't want to do anything to find out. Since the good Lord doesn't allow her to tell me of herself, it's a sign that he doesn't want me to know. And I avoided bringing the conversation back to this subject, for fear that Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart would inevitably tell me; I wouldn't have been happy." - FROM 19-7 -

July 20

What would you have done if one of us (her 3 sisters) had been sick in your place? Would you have come to the infirmary during recess?

“I would have gone straight to recess [264v] without asking for any news, but I would have done that quite simply so that no one noticed my sacrifice. If I had come to the infirmary, I would have done so to please, never to satisfy myself. All this to fulfill my duty, to attract to you graces that the search for myself would certainly not have attracted you. And myself, I would have drawn great strength from my self-sacrifice, If sometimes, out of weakness, I had done the opposite of what I wanted, I would not have been discouraged, I would have tried to repair my shortcomings by depriving even more without it appearing.

“The good Lord is represented by whoever he wants, but that doesn't matter. With you, there would have been a human side, I prefer that there was only divine. Yes, I say it from the bottom of my heart, I am happy to die in the arms of our mother, because she represents the good God.

(She had suffered a lot from this mother prioress) - DE 20-7 - .

We wanted to enjoy her last days and asked her about everything:

“I'm being harassed with questions, it [265r] makes me think of Joan of Arc before her tribunal. It seems to me that I answer with the same sincerity” - DE 20-7 - .

July 21

“I have never done like Pilate who refused to hear the truth (cf. In. 18, 38). I have always said to the good Lord: 0 my God, I want to hear you, I beg you, answer me when I humbly say to you: What is the truth? Let me see things as they are, let nothing dazzle me.

We told her that she was very happy to have a path of love and trust to show souls. She replied:

“What does it matter to me that it is me or someone else who gives this way to souls. Provided it is shown, what does the instrument matter? » - FROM 21-7 - .

July 22

“I have never given God anything but love, he will return love to me” - DE 22-7 - .

July 23

I told her that I was apprehensive to see her suffer even more. She tells me:

[265v] "We who run in the way of love, I find that we do not

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

We shouldn't think about what painful things can happen to us in the future, because then it's a lack of confidence and it's like getting involved in creating."

« In te Domine speravi (*Ps. 70, 1)! Ah! at the time of our great sorrows, how happy I was to say this verse to the choir!” - FROM 23-7 - .

They had sent her beautiful fruit, but she could not eat it. She took them one after the other as if to offer them to someone and said to me:

“The Holy Family has been well served! Saint Joseph and baby Jesus each had a peach and two plums. The Blessed Virgin had her share too. When they give me milk with a little rum, I offer it to Saint Joseph; I say to myself: 'Oh! How good it will do poor Saint Joseph!'. In the refectory, I always saw to whom I had to give: the sweet was for baby Jesus, the strong for Saint Joseph, the Blessed Virgin was not forgotten either... But when I lacked something I I was much happier, because I really gave it to the Holy Family” - DE 24-7 - .

[266r] July 25

I told her that I ended up wanting her death, so as not to see her suffer so much.

"You mustn't say that, my little mother, because suffering is precisely what I enjoy in life!"

His uncle Monsieur Guérin had sent him some grapes. She ate it and said:

“How good is that grape! But I don't like what comes to me from my family... In the past, when they brought me bouquets of flowers for my little Jesus, I never wanted to take them without making sure that our mother had said so."

Where is the divine Thief now? We don't talk about it anymore. She answered by putting her hand on her heart:

" He's there! He is in my heart..."

I told her that death was very sad in appearance and that I would be very sorry to see her dead. She replied in a tender voice:

“The Blessed Virgin held her dead Jesus on her knees, disfigured, bloody! It was something other than what you will see! Ah! I don't know how she did it!... I suppose they report me to you in this state, what [266v] would become of you?... Answer mihi?...” (Good Friday Office).

I asked him for some advice about spiritual directions.

"I think you have to be very careful not to look for yourself, because you would have your heart hurt afterwards and you could say with truth: 'The guards took my coat off me, they hurt me... It was only after passing them a little that I found my Beloved. I think that, if the soul had humbly asked the guards where her Beloved was, they would have told her where he was, but for having wanted to be admired, she fell into trouble, she lost her simplicity of heart” - 25-7 - .

About a novice who wanted to hide her feelings from him:

“Virtue naturally shines; as soon as she is no longer there, I see him” - 26-7 - .

July 27

The community was doing the laundry.

“Around one o'clock, I said to myself: They are very tired from the laundry! And I prayed to the good Lord to relieve you all, so that the work would be done in peace, in charity. When I [267r] saw myself so ill, I felt joy at having to suffer like you.”

In the evening she reminded me of the words of Saint John of the Cross:

"Break the web of this sweet encounter" - *Vive Flamme str1 v6 - . I have always applied this word to the death of love that I wish to make. Love will not wear out the web of my life, it will suddenly break it. With what desires and what consolation I repeated to myself from the beginning of my religious life these other words of Saint John of the Cross: "It is of the utmost importance that the soul practice much love, so that , consuming itself quickly, it hardly stops here below, but comes quickly to see its God face to face. - *VF s.1 v6 -

"I only rejoice in death because it is the expression of God's will for me."

"I never wanted to ask God to die young, so I'm sure he's only doing his will right now."

She was suffocating and I showed her my compassion and my sadness:

“Don't worry, come on! If I[267v]suffocate, the good Lord will give me strength. I love it! He will never abandon me” - DE 27.7 - .

July 29

A sister had told her this reflection made during recess: “I don't know why we speak of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus as a saint. She practiced virtue, it is true, but it was not a virtue acquired by humiliations and sufferings. She tells me:

“And I, who have suffered so much since my earliest childhood! Ah! How good it does me to see the opinion of creatures at the time of death.”

We had thought to please him by bringing him an object, and the opposite had happened. She was afraid of having

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

saddened the sister and begged her forgiveness with tears.

" Oh! I beg your pardon, I acted by nature. Pray for me!."

And a bit later:

" Oh! that I am happy to feel imperfect and to need God's mercy so much at the moment of death.

We expressed to her the fear that she would die during the night. She replied: [268r] “I will not die at night, believe it; I had the desire not to die at night.”

In a soft voice she said:

“I will finally die! For three days, it's true that I've been in a lot of pain; tonight I'm like in purgatory.

“Very often, when I can, I repeat my offering to The Love.”

"What makes our humiliation the moment we suffer it, then makes our glory even in this life."

“I have no capacity to enjoy, I have always noticed that; but I have a very big one to suffer” - DE 29.7 - .

July 30

"My body has always bothered me, I didn't feel comfortable in it... When I was little, I was ashamed of it."

“I wouldn't have wanted to pick up a straw to avoid purgatory. Everything I did, I did it to please God, to save souls for Him.”

[268v] The flies tormented her a lot, but she did not want to kill them:

“I have no enemies but them, and as the good Lord has recommended to forgive his enemies, I am happy to find this opportunity to do so. That's why I always give them thanks."

It's really hard to suffer so much, isn't it?

"No, I can still tell God that I love him, that's enough."

Showing a glass which contained a very bad remedy, while having the appearance of a delicious liqueur, she said to me:

“That glass is the image of my life. Yesterday, a sister said to me: 'I hope you are drinking good liquor!'. And that's the bitterest thing I drink! Well, my mother, this is what appeared to the eyes of creatures. It always seemed to them that I drank exquisite liqueurs, and it was bitter! I say bitterness, but no! because my life has not been bitter because I knew how to make my joy and my sweetness out of all the bitterness.”

“Do you want to prepare me to [269r] receive Extreme Unction? Pray to the good Lord that I receive it as well as one can receive it.

“Our Father Superior told me: 'You are going to be like a little child who has just been baptized. Then he spoke to me only of love. Oh! how touched I was!”

After Extreme Unction, she showed me her hands with respect. The other days, she let us take the little skins that came off her lips parched with fever, but that day she wanted to swallow them. After Extreme Unction, she received Holy Viaticum. No sooner had she finished her thanksgiving than several sisters came to look at her and talk to her. She tells me:

“How disturbed I was during my thanksgiving! But I thought that when Our Lord withdrew into solitude, the people followed him there and did not send him away. I wanted to imitate her by receiving the sisters well” - DE 30.7 - .

They had taken down her mattress in advance to expose her after having buried her, because her death seemed imminent. She saw him in the infirmary close to hers, when the door was opened, and exclaimed with joy:

[269v] “Ah! here is our bench! She will find herself all ready to put my corpse in!” - FROM 30.7 -

"My mother, after my death, if you want to show my gratitude to Doctor de Cornière who treated me, you will paint him a picture with these words: 'What you have done to the smallest of mine is mine that you did'” - DE 30.7 -

July 31

“I found happiness and joy on earth, but only in suffering, because I suffered a lot here below. It will be necessary to make it known to the souls... Since my first communion, since I had asked Jesus to change for me into bitterness all the consolations of the earth, I had a perpetual desire to suffer. I didn't think, however, of making my joy out of it. It is a grace that was granted to me only later. Until then it was like a spark hidden under the ashes and like the flowers of a tree which must become fruits in due time. [270r] But seeing the flowers always fall, that is to say giving way to tears when I suffered, I said to myself with astonishment and sadness: So it will never be anything but desires! » - FROM 30.7 -

1 August

She spoke to me of the great grace that an image of Our Lord on the cross had once brought her and of which she also speaks in her life. She repeated to me what she had said to herself then:

" Oh! I don't want to lose this precious blood! I will spend my life collecting it for souls.”

About the manuscript of his life:

“After my death, no one should be told about my manuscript before it is published, only our mother should be told about it. If you do otherwise, the demon will lay more than one trap for you

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

to spoil the work of the good Lord.... a very important work. - FROM 1.8 -

No one will be able to say of me: "She is dying not to die." » - *TH d'Avila Poetry – Gloss - For my nature, yes, the sky! but the grace in my soul has taken a lot of sway over nature and now I can only repeat to God:

I want to live well for a long time yet, [270v] Lord, if that is your wish.

In the sky, I would like to follow you, if it pleased you.

Love, this fire of the Fatherland, never ceases to consume me.

What does death or life do to me, my only happiness is to love you! » - PN 45.7 - .

“Everything passes in this mortal world, even little Thérèse... but she will come back!”

“I experience a very lively joy, not only when people find me imperfect, but above all to feel myself there. It surpasses all the compliments that annoy me” - DE 2.8 - .

3 August

How did you manage to arrive at this unalterable peace which is your share?

“I forgot myself and I tried not to look for myself in anything.”

“My little sisters, pray for the poor sick to death. If you knew what is going on! How little it would take to lose patience! One must [271r] be charitable for any....”

To us his three sisters:

“Pay attention to regularity. After a visit, do not stop to talk among yourselves; because then, it's like at home, you don't deprive yourself of anything.

" Oh! that my shoulder is bruised; if you knew!."

- We'll put cotton wool in there.

- " No! you must not take away my little cross” - DE 3.8 - .

4 August

On a word that we said to him:

" Oh! no, I don't think I'm a great saint! I think I'm a tiny little saint; but I think that the good Lord was pleased to put things in me that do good to me and to others.

They had brought her a sheaf of ears of corn, she untied one of the most beautiful and said to me:

“My Mother, this ear is the image of my soul; the good Lord has loaded me with graces for me and for many others...

Then, fearing that she had had a thought of pride, [271v] she added:

" Oh! how I would like to be humiliated and mistreated to see if I really have the humility of heart!... However when I was humiliated in the past, I was very happy... Yes, it seems to me that I am humble. The good Lord shows me the truth; I feel so well that everything comes from him!”

" Oh! how I feel that I would be discouraged if I did not have faith, or rather if I did not love the good God!

“I fell asleep for a second during prayer. I dreamed that we lacked soldiers for a war against the Prussians. You said: 'We must send Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus'. I replied that I consented to it, that I would have preferred it to be for a holy war. Finally I left anyway. 0 my mother added with animation - what happiness I would have had, for example, at the time of the crusades, to fight against the heretics. Come on! I wouldn't have been afraid to catch a ball, I wouldn't have been afraid of the fire! Is it possible that I die in a bed? » - FROM 4.8 -

[272r] August 5

People had complained about the Carmelites for wearing heavy clothes during the heat: “Ah!... heaven! to the sky! the good Lord will repay us for this, for having worn heavy clothes on earth for his love.”

Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart told her that the angels would come at her death to accompany Our Lord, that she would see them resplendent with light and beauty.

“All these images do me no good, I can only feed on the truth. That's why I never wanted visions. One cannot see on earth the sky, the angels as they are; I prefer to wait until after my death.”

We had placed a painting of the Holy Face, which she liked very much, near her bed, to celebrate the next day, August 6, the Transfiguration. She tells me:

“How well our Lord lowered his eyes to give us his portrait! for, since the eyes are the mirror of the soul, if we had divined its soul, we would have died of joy. Oh! how good this Holy Face has done me in my life! While I [272v] was composing my hymn: 'Vivre d'amour', she helped me to do it with great ease. I wrote from memory during the three-quarters of an hour of silence in the evening the 15 verses that I had composed during the day. That day, on my way to the refectory after the exam, I had just composed the stanza: 'To live on love is to wipe your face, it is to implore sinners for forgiveness'.

I repeated it to him, in passing, with much love. Looking at her, I cried with love.

(We pass in front of this painting of the Holy Face to go from the choir to the refectory).

"I repeat like *Job (7, 4): 'In the morning I hope not to arrive at evening, and in the evening I hope not to see the morning again'."

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

“These words of Isaiah: 'Who has believed your word *.. etc. It is without brilliance, without beauty...etc. (Is. 53, 1-2)' have formed the whole foundation of my devotion to the Holy Face, or, to put it better, the foundation of all my piety. I, too, wanted to be without brilliance, without beauty, alone treading the wine in the press, unknown to all creatures” - DE 5.8 - [273r] About a confidence I made to her, she said to me:

“A mother prioress should always give the impression that she is without pain. It does so much good and gives so much strength not to say your sorrows unnecessarily. For example, it is necessary to avoid expressing oneself thus: 'You have troubles and difficulties, I have many too with such a sister, etc.'

6 August

She had hoped to die in the night and had not stopped looking at the Holy Face. She said to me in the morning:

“I waited for Jesus all night! I repelled many temptations... Ah! I have made many acts of faith... I can well say: 'I looked to my right and considered, and there is no one who knows me (Ps. 141, 5).. .' who knows the moment of my death....”

She then looked at the statue of the Blessed Virgin and sang softly:

"When will it come, my tender Mother, when will it come that beautiful day

where from the exile of the earth I will fly in the eternal stay? - *Sigh of the exile in Chants à Marie, Paris, 1879 -

About the offices of the dead that our Constitutions [273v] prescribe for each of the sisters who died in the various monasteries of the Order, but from whom she had been dispensed because of her illness, she says:

“I cannot lean on anything, on any of my works to have confidence. So I would have liked so much to be able to say to myself: I am quit of all my offices of the dead. But this poverty was for me a real light, a real grace. I thought that I had never been able in my life to discharge a single one of my debts to the good God, but that it was for me a real wealth and a strength if I wanted it. So I made this prayer: 0 my God, I beg you, discharge the debt I contracted towards the souls in purgatory, but do it in God, so that it would be infinitely better than if I had said my offices of the dead. I remembered with great sweetness these words from the canticle of Saint John of the Cross: 'Pay off all debts! ' - *VF str.2 v6 - . I had always applied this to love. I feel that this grace cannot surrender! one experiences such great peace in being absolutely poor, in counting only on the good God” - DE 6.8 -

About certain things which were confided to her [274i-] and which she regretted, she said:

" Oh! that there are few perfect nuns who do nothing haphazardly and almost, saying to themselves: I don't have to do that! There is no great harm in talking here, in being satisfied there... How rare are those who do everything possible! And yet they are the happiest, because it does the soul so much good to keep silent, it prevents so many breaches of charity, so many pains of all kinds. I speak above all of silence, because it is at this point that one misses the most” - DE 6.8 - .

About the Office recited in chorus: “How proud I was when I was a semainer at the Office! How I said the prayers aloud in the middle of the choir! because I thought that the priest said the same prayers at mass and that like him I had the right to speak out loud before the Blessed Sacrament, to give blessings, absolutions, to say the Gospel when I was first cantor. I can say that the Office was both my happiness and my martyrdom, because I had such a great desire to recite it well and not make mistakes! I excuse the sisters who forget or who make mistakes, I have [274v] seen myself sometimes when saying something and after having marked it well, well foreseen, let it pass without opening my mouth by a completely involuntary. I don't believe though

that it is possible to desire more than I to recite the Divine Office perfectly and to attend it well in choir...

In a circumstance where the mother prioress had asked her for an explanation of a way of acting of the nurse (the first nurse, former nun) which could have had serious disadvantages for her condition, she said to me:

"I told our mother the whole truth, but as I spoke I thought of a more charitable expression than the one I was going to use and which was not bad, however, I followed my inspiration and the good Lord has rewarded me with great inner peace.”

I asked her in the evening what she meant by "remaining a little child before God." She answered me:

“It's recognizing one's nothingness, expecting everything from the good God, like a little child expecting everything from his father; it's [275r] not worrying about anything, not making a fortune. Even among the poor, the child is given what he needs, but as soon as he grows up, his father no longer wants to feed him and says to him: Work now, you can be self-sufficient. It was in order not to hear this that I did not want to grow up, feeling incapable of earning my living, the eternal life of heaven! So I always remained small, having no other occupation than that of picking flowers, the flowers of love and sacrifice, and offering them to the good Lord for His pleasure.

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

To be small is still not to attribute to oneself the virtues that one practices, believing oneself capable of something, but to recognize that the good Lord places this treasure of virtue in the hand of his little child, so that he can use it when he needs it; but it is still God's treasure. Finally, it is not to be discouraged by one's faults, because children often fall, but they are too small to do much harm to themselves” - DE 6.8 - .

7 August

" Oh! how little is the good God loved on earth! even priests and religious!... No, the good Lord is not much loved!....»

“My mother, if I were unfaithful, if I [275v] committed even the smallest infidelity, I feel that I would pay for it with terrible troubles and I could no longer accept death. Also, I keep saying to God: 0 my God, I beg you, save me from the misfortune of being unfaithful!

- What infidelity are you talking about?

- “From a thought of pride maintained voluntarily. If I said to myself, for example: I have acquired such a virtue, I am certain of being able to practice it. Because then, it would be relying on one's own strength, and when one is there, one risks falling into the abyss. But I will have the right, without offending God, to do little stupid things until my death, if I am humble, Look at the little children, they keep breaking, tearing, falling, all the while loving a lot , many their parents. Oh! when I fall like a child like this, it makes me feel my nothingness and my weakness and I say to myself: What would I become, what would I do if I relied on my own strength! I understand very well that Saint Peter fell (cf. *Mt. 26, 69-75). That poor Saint Peter! He relied on himself instead of relying on the strength of God. I conclude that if I said: 'O my God, I love you too much, you know, to stop at a single thought against the faith', my temptations would become more violent and I would succumb to them. certainly. I have no doubt that if Saint Peter had said humbly to Jesus: 'Grant me, I beg you, the strength to follow you until death'. This strength would not have been given to him on the spot. I am also certain that our Lord said no more to his apostles by his instructions and his sensitive presence than he says to us by the good inspirations of his grace. He could well have said to Saint Peter: 'Ask me for the strength to do what you want'. But no, because he wanted to show him his weakness and because, having to govern the whole Church which is full of sinners, he had to experience for himself what man can do without the help of God. Before the fall, Our Lord said to him: 'When you have come to yourself, confirm your brothers', (*Lc. 276, 22) that is to say, show them the weakness of human forces by what you have experienced yourself”. - FROM 32 -

8 August

I told him that I would promote his virtues later. [276v] She replied:

“It is the good God alone that must be promoted, because there is nothing to promote in my little nothingness.”

She was looking at the sky and Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart said to her: How lovingly you look at the sky! She later told me what she had thought:

“Oh! she thinks that I look at the firmament thinking of the real sky! but no, it's quite simply because I admire the material sky, the other is more and more closed to me!... Then immediately I follow myself and say with great gentleness: Oh! but yes, it is out of love that I look at the sky, yes, it is out of love for the good Lord, since everything I do: the movements, the looks... it is out of love.”

"I thought today of my past life, of the act of courage I had once done at Christmas... and the praise addressed to Judith came back to me: 'You have acted with virile courage and your heart is strengthened' ( - *. Jdt. 15, 11 according to the Vulgate - ). Many souls say: But I don't have the strength to perform such a sacrifice! So let them make an effort! The good Lord never refuses the first grace that gives the courage to act; after that the heart [277r] grows stronger and we go from victory to victory” - DE 8.8 -

9 August

I said of her: He is shot down our warrior? She replied:

“I am not a warrior who fought with earthly weapons, but with 'the sword of the spirit which is the word of God' (Ep. 6, 17). So illness could not bring me down, and just last night I used my sword with a novice... I said it: I will die with arms in hand!»

She was told that she was a saint: “No, I am not a saint, I have never done the deeds of the Saints”. I am a very small soul that the good Lord has filled with graces. What I say is the truth, you will see it in heaven” - DE 9.8 -

10 August

We said that souls who, like her, had arrived at perfect love could see their supernatural beauty without danger. She resumed:

" What a beauty? I don't see my beauty at all. I only see the graces that I have received from God.”

[277v] He was shown a photograph of Joan of Arc in her prison:

“The Saints encourage me too, in my prison. They tell me: As long as

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

you are in irons, you cannot fulfill your mission; but later, after your death, it will be the time of your conquests.”

“I am thinking of the words of Saint Ignatius of Antioch: I too must be crushed by suffering to become the wheat of God. »

I spoke to him of heaven, of Our Lord, of the Blessed Virgin, who are there in body and soul. She heaved a deep sigh:

"Ah!..."

You tell me enough by this exclamation how much you suffer inside!

"Yes!... Must we love the good Lord and the Blessed Virgin so much and have such thoughts!... But I don't stop there." - FROM 10.8 -

“I would never want to ask God for greater suffering. If he increases them, I will bear them with joy, because they will come to me from him. But if I asked for it, it would be my [278r] sufferings, I would have to bear them alone and I have never been able to do anything on my own”, - DE 10.8 -

Speaking of the Blessed Virgin:

“Oh! really, she is less happy than us, since she has no Blessed Virgin to love! » - FROM 11.8 -

I often pray to the Saints without being answered; but the more they seem deaf to my voice, the more I love them” - DE 11.8 -

12 August

“Since the epi (see August 4), I have very low feelings of myself. But how great is the new grace I received this morning when the priest began the 'Confiteor' before giving me Holy Communion! I saw there the good Jesus very close to giving himself to me and I heard this confession so necessary: ​​I confess to God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to all the Saints, that I have sinned a great deal. Oh! yes, I said to myself, it is good to ask forgiveness for me at this moment from God, from all the Saints. How necessary is this humiliation! I felt, like the publican, a great sinner. I found the good Lord so merciful! I found it so [1v] touching to address the entire heavenly court to obtain God's forgiveness through their intercession. Ah! I almost cried and when the holy host was on my lips, I was very moved...

How extraordinary it is to have experienced this at the 'Confiteor'! I believe it is because of my present disposition; I feel so miserable! My confidence is not diminished, on the contrary, and the word miserable is not right, because I am rich in all the divine treasures; but it is precisely for this that I humble myself more. When I think of all the graces the good Lord has bestowed on me, I hold myself back so as not to continuously shed tears of gratitude.

I believe the ones I shed this morning were tears of perfect contrition. Ah! how impossible it is to give oneself such sentiments! It is the Holy Spirit who gives them, he who blows where he wills (cf. Jn. 3, 8)” - DE 12.8 -

We spoke to her of the resistances she had made in the past, when we conjured her to take it easy, not to get up at community time, not to go to the evening service. She tells us:

“You didn't understand me [279r] when I insisted, but it was because I felt that we were trying to influence our mother. I wanted to tell our mother the whole truth so that she would decide for herself. I assure you that if of her own accord she had asked me not to go to mass, to communion, to the office, I would have obeyed with great docility.” - FROM 12.8 -

13 August

I was talking to him about the interior lights that we sometimes see in the sky. She tells me:

"For me, I only have lights to see my little nothingness, that does me more good than lights on faith" - DE 13.8 - .

14 August

Very painful day for the body and for the heart. I say to him in the evening: Have you had a lot of trouble today?

" Yes! but since I love them! I love everything that the good Lord gives me” - DE 14.8 -

15 August

I reported to him the words of Saint John of the Cross on the death of souls “consumed in divine charity” - *VF str 1v.6. - She sighed and said to me:

"It must be said that it is at the bottom of my soul, joy and transports... But that would not encourage souls so much if one believed [279v] that I did not suffer much."

She suffered greatly from oppression:

"I don't know what will become of me," she said.

- Does it worry you what you will become?

- " Oh! No...."

"I asked the Blessed Virgin last night to finish coughing so that Sister Geneviève could sleep, but I added: If you don't, I will love you even more."

“The good Lord gives me courage in proportion to my sufferings. I feel that, for the moment, I could not bear any more, but I am not afraid, since, if they increase

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tent, it will increase my courage at the same time” - DE 15.8 -

16 August

... "Can't...no more...even be able to talk to you!" Oh! if one only knew!... If I did not love the good God! » - FROM 16.8 -

He was told of the angels:

“They can't suffer, they're not as happy as me. But [280r] how surprised they would be to suffer and feel what I feel. Yes, they would be very surprised, because I am myself" - DE 16.8 -

17 August

“I feel that the good Lord wants me to suffer. Remedies which should do me good and which relieve other patients, do harm to me.”

I will pray that the Blessed Virgin lessens your oppression:

"No, we have to let them do it up there" - DE 17.8 -

18 August

“I suffer a lot, but do I suffer well? This is what is important!”

She said to me during recess:

“Mother, please read me the letter you received for me. I refrained from asking you for it during prayer, to prepare myself for my Communion tomorrow and because it is not permitted.”

Seeing that I took the pencil to write this:

“My merit will be lost, perhaps, since I told you and you write it down.”

[280v] So you want to acquire merits?

"Yes, but not for me... for poor sinners, for the needs of the whole Church."

I told her she was very patient. She resumed:

"I haven't had a minute of patience yet!" It's not mine!... People are always wrong!»

I said to him: And if you return to health?...

“If it were God's will, I would be very happy to offer him that sacrifice. But I assure you that would be no small thing, for to go so far and come back! Listen!...” - DE 18.8 -

19 August

She nearly fainted from weakness on hearing the chanting, even in a low voice, of the Miserere before Communion.

“Perhaps I will lose my ideas - she said -. Oh! if they only knew what I feel! Last night, unable to bear it any longer, I asked the Blessed Virgin to take my head in her hands, so that I could bear her.”

The crucifix was placed in his hands. She [281r] kissed him tenderly. This crucifix had its head bowed. She says looking at him:

“He is dead! I prefer that we represent him dead, because I think he no longer suffers.

She asked for a remedy and care that cost her a lot to take: "I ask for them - she said - out of fidelity."

She was still watching over the novices and said to one of them:

“You mustn't sit askew on the chairs like that. It is written."

“I only suffer for a moment. It is because we think of the past and the future that we become discouraged and despair” - DE 19.8 - .

20 August

They talked to her about the trouble caused to the nurses by a poor sister suffering from neurasthenia. She said enthusiastically: “How happy I would have been to be a nurse to take care of this sister! Grace would have spoken louder than nature. Yes, I would have had a taste for all that... And I would have put so much love into it!

Oh! how happy I would have made that sister! With the thought above all of the words [218v] of Our Lord: “I was sick and you relieved me” (cf. Mt. 25, 36).

She could no longer drink the milk, which caused her extreme repugnance. I say to him: Would you drink this cup well to save my life?

" Oh! Yes! - she replied

- Well! look! and I wouldn't take it for God's sake?”

And she drank the cup in one gulp.

"When I'm in a lot of pain, I'm glad it's me, I'm glad it's not one of you."

She told me about the letter from a priest who said that the Blessed Virgin did not know physical suffering.

“My mother, looking at the Blessed Virgin this evening, I understood that it was not true, I understood that she had suffered not only in her soul, but also in her body. She suffered a lot during her travels from cold, heat, fatigue... She fasted many times... Yes, she knows what it is to suffer!»

“How delicious it will be to know in heaven all that has happened in the [282r] Holy Family! When baby Jesus grew up, perhaps he said to his mother whom he saw fasting: 'I would like to fast too!'. And the Blessed Virgin replied: 'No, my little Jesus, you are still too young, you don't have the strength'.

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Or maybe she didn't dare stop him. And the good Saint Joseph! Oh! That I like! He couldn't fast because of his work... I see him planing... then wiping his brow from time to time... Oh! how I pity him! How simple it seems to me that their life was! The women of the country came to speak to the Blessed Virgin familiarly; sometimes they asked her to entrust her little Jesus to them to go and play with their children. And the baby Jesus looked at the Blessed Virgin, to know if he should go there... What makes me feel good, when I think of the Holy Family, is to imagine a quite ordinary life. Not everything we are told, everything we suppose! For example that the Child Jesus after kneading birds of earth breathed on them and gave them life. No! baby Jesus didn't perform useless miracles like that! So why were they not transported to Egypt by a miracle which would have been so useful and which would have seemed [282v] so easy to God! In the blink of an eye, they would have been there! But no, everything in their life happened like ours. And how many sorrows, disappointments! How many times have people reproached the good Saint Joseph! How many times have you refused to pay for your work! Oh! how astonished one would be if one knew how much they suffered! » - FROM 20.8 -

“I felt pleasure in thinking that people were praying for me; so I told God that I wanted it applied to sinners.”

- So you don't want it to be for your relief?

-"No!" - FROM 22.8 -

From 21 (forgot)

I looked at her on my knees, my heart very sad.

“You are sad, my mother, why?.”

- Because you suffer so much!

- “Yes, but what peace too! what peace! » - FROM 21.8 -

You were found imperfect on such an occasion when you were not understood. With satisfaction:

" Oh! well, so much the better! » - FROM 22.8 -

22 August

[283r] “0 my mother, what would become of me if the good Lord did not give me strength? There are only hands left! (free). We don't know what it's like to suffer like that! No! You have to feel it” - DE 22.8 -

23 August

“I had never had such a bad night before. Oh! that God must be good for me to be able to bear all that I suffer! I never thought I could suffer so much."

- You sang: “All that he gave me, Jesus can take it back” - PN54 - . He takes you at your word.

• "Yes, I don't regret it!"

“The good Lord does not make me foresee an approaching death, but much greater suffering. But I don't torment myself, I only want to think about the present moment.

To his nurse:

“Pray well to the Blessed Virgin for me, because if you were sick, I would pray to her a lot for you. When it's for yourself, you don't dare..."

She had offered her sufferings for a tempted young seminarian. He had heard of it and wrote a most humble and touching letter.

[283v] “Oh! what consolation this letter has given me! - she says -. I saw that my little sufferings were bearing fruit. Have you noticed the feelings of humility she expresses? And how good it does me to see how in such a short time you can have so much love and gratitude for a soul who has done you good, whom you did not know until now! What will it be like in heaven when souls know those who have saved them! » - FROM 23.8 - .

She spoke to me again of the Blessed Virgin, telling me that everything she had heard preached about her had not touched her.

“Let the priests show us practicable virtues! It's good to talk about his prerogatives, but above all we have to be able to imitate him. She prefers imitation to admiration. However beautiful a sermon on the Blessed Virgin may be, if one is constantly obliged to say: Ah!... Ah!... we have had enough!

That I like to sing to him:

"The narrow way to heaven, you made it easy by always practicing the humblest virtues" - DE 23.8 -

24 August

[284r] I asked her if she was discouraged:

" No! but yet, all is for the worse. With each breath, I suffer violently. No, it's not all for the worse, it's all for the best! » - FROM 24.8 - .

25 August

I told him of my desire to know the date of his death. She answered me:

“Oh! I don't want it! In what peace I am!

A sister came into the infirmary every evening and stood at the foot of her bed and looked at her laughing for quite a long time. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus returned her smiles. But I feel-

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

I know that this indiscreet visit must have greatly fatigued her. At my request, she replied:

“I think that Our Lord on the cross was indeed looked at thus in the middle of his sufferings, since it is said in the Gospel that one looked at him while shaking the head. This thought helps me to offer him this sacrifice with a good heart. But yes, it is very painful to be looked at while laughing when one suffers.

She remained for several days as though mute with pain and in inexpressible agitation and anguish. [284v] From time to time, she begged us to pray and have others pray for her:

" Oh! how one must pray for the dying! If only we knew! I believe that the demon asked the good Lord for permission to tempt me with extreme suffering, so that I could run out of patience and faith!

She was moaning, but so softly!

" Oh! how I complain! Yet I would not like to suffer less!”

“I'm ready for anything You have to give up! My little sisters, I would like you to rejoice” - DE 25.8 -

26 August

They had left the blessed candle lighted for him all night.

"It's because of the blessed candle that I didn't have a bad night." “O my little mother, how the good Lord must help when we suffer so much”.

“How strange to be [285r] afraid to die! » - FROM 26.8 -

She suffered continuously from thirst. Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart said to him: Would you like some ice water? And this answer escaped him:

" Oh! I have a craving for it!”

Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart resumed: But our mother has obliged you to ask for everything you need. Do it out of obedience. She replied:

"I ask, indeed, all that I need..."

- You only ask for what is necessary, never what can relieve you? - “No!... Only what is necessary. So when I don't have grapes, I don't ask for them."

Sometime after drinking, she stared at her glass of ice water. "Drink some more." they tell him.

"No, my tongue is not dry enough" - DE 27.8 - .

28 August

She said to me, pointing out a dark spot in the garden through the window:

“Look, see over there, next to the chestnut trees, that black hole where you can no longer make out anything... It's in a hole like that [285v] that I am for the soul and for the body ...Ah! yes, what darkness! But I'm at peace there."

“My good Blessed Virgin, this is what makes me want to go away! I'm really tiring the nurse and I feel like I'm hurting my little sisters by being so sick. Yes... I would like to leave! » - FROM 28.8 -

29 August

I said to him: It's very hard to suffer without any inner consolation. She answered me:

"Yes, but it's a pain without concern than mine." I am happy to suffer, since the good Lord wants it” - DE 29.8 -

30 August

I said to him: Would you be happy if you were told that you would die in a few days? Would you like that better than being warned that you will suffer more and more for months and even years?

" Oh! no, I wouldn't be happier at all. What satisfies me only is the will of the good God” - DE 30.8 -

From July 16 (forgotten)

“If the good Lord said to me: If you die now, you will have great glory. If you die at 80, your glory will be much less, but it will give me much more pleasure. Oh! so, I would not hesitate to answer: My God, I want to die at 80, because I do not seek my glory, but only your pleasure.

"The great saints have worked for the glory of the good God, but I, who am only a very small soul, work for his sole pleasure, and I would be happy to bear the greatest sufferings if it were only to do so. smile even once! » - FROM 16.7 -

31 August

“How I need to see the marvels of the sky! Nothing touches me on earth.”

“Oh! it's amazing how all my hopes have come true. When I read Saint John of the Cross, I begged the good Lord to work in me what he says, that is to say the same thing as if I were living very old; finally to consume me quickly with love, and [286v] I am granted! » - *VF str1 v6 - .

September 2st

"I especially offered my inner trial for an allied member of our family who does not have faith" "'.

" Oh! yes, I desire the sky!...Tear-

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rez the web of this sweet encounter, - *VF st1 v6 - oh my God! » - FROM 2.9 -

September 4th

He was served a little meat. She says: “I'm very happy that meat disgusts me too, because at least I don't find pleasure in it” - DE 4.9 - .

September 5st

I told her that she had suffered less while I had remained close to her.

" Oh! just as much!... much, much suffered! but it was to the Blessed Virgin that I complained” - DE 5.9 -

September 9st

“Oh! I know what suffering is!...” - DE 9.9 -

[287r] September 11

“I'm afraid I was afraid of death! But I'm not afraid after death... It's only to say to myself: What is this mysterious separation of soul and body? It was the first time I experienced this, but I immediately abandoned myself to the good Lord.

“Give me, please, my crucifix, so that I may kiss it after the act of contrition to gain the plenary indulgence in favor of the souls in purgatory. I don't give them more than that! Give me holy water now, bring me the relics of the Venerable Mother Anne of Jesus and Théophane Vénard, so that I may kiss them.

“Should I be afraid of the demon? It seems not to me, because I do everything out of obedience” - DE 11.9 -

September 13st

They brought him some violets.

"Ah!... the perfume of violets!" » - FROM 13.9 - .

Then she made a sign to me to know if she could breathe it without immortification.

September 14th

They brought her a rose. She plucked it from her crucifix with great piety and love, taking each petal to wipe her wounds.

"In the month of September - she said - 'little Thérèse' still leaves to Jesus 'the spring rose'":

"By stripping the spring rose for you, I would like to wipe away your tears!" - PN 34 -

And as the petals slipped from her bed onto the floor of the infirmary, she said:

"Pick up these petals well, my little sisters, they will serve you to please you later, don't miss any..."

“Oh! now, I have hope, my exile will be short! - PN 17 -

The doctor had told her that she would have no agony, and as she suffered more and more, she said:

"I was told, however, that I would not have agony!... But after all, I really want to have one."

- If you were made to choose whether to have it or not to have it?

- "I wouldn't choose anything!" » - FROM 14.9 -

September 15st

I said to him: When you are in heaven, your great [288r] sufferings today will seem to you very little. She replied:

" Oh! even on earth, I find that it is very little...” - DE 15.9 - .

September 20th

The doctor had praised his heroic patience.

“How can he say that I am patient! But that's lying! I keep moaning, I sigh, I shout all the time: 0 my God! Oh my God! I can't take it anymore! Have mercy! Have mercy on me! » - FROM 20.9 -

September 22th

I said to her: My poor little one! How you suffer and apparently the saints forsake you. You call them and they don't pick you up.

" Oh! I like them all the same! But they want to see how far I will push my confidence...” - DE 22.9 -

September 24st

For the anniversary of her taking the veil, I had had mass said for her. She thanked me, but as I saw her suffer so much, I said to her sadly: Ah! you see, you are no more relieved! She answered me:

“So it was for my relief [288v] that you were granted permission to have mass said?

- It's for your own good...

- My good - she resumed - is undoubtedly to suffer!...»

“Soon I will only speak the language of angels.”

Do you have the intuition of your approaching death?

“Oh! my mother! intuition! If you only knew how poor I am! I know nothing except what you know... I guess nothing except by what I see and feel. But my soul despite its darkness is in amazing peace!

You will go to heaven among the seraphim. “Oh! but, if I go there, I will not imitate them. 'All cover themselves with their wings' (*cf. Is. 6, 2) in the presence of the Sei-

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lord. I will be careful not to cover myself with my wings...” - DE 24.9 - .

September 25st

I had told him what had been said in recreation about the responsibility of those who are in charge of souls and who have lived a long time. She tells me:

“As for the little ones, they will be judged with extreme mildness (* Wis. 6, 7: according to the Vulgate)... living a very long time. If I had died at 289, if I had been in several monasteries, loaded with responsibilities, I would have died, I feel it, as small as today. And it is written that at the end the Lord will arise to save all the meek and humble of the earth' (Ps. 80, 75). He does not say to judge but to save.”

She had said to me one of those last days of great suffering:

“0 my mother, what is it like to write beautiful things about suffering! It's nothing, nothing! You have to be there to know!...”

I had retained a painful impression of these words when that day, seeming to remember what she had said to me, she looked at me in a very particular way and pronounced these words:

"I feel now that what I said and wrote is true about everything... It's true that I wanted to suffer a lot for the good Lord and it's true that I still want it."

They said to him: Ah! it's terrible what you suffer!

“No, it's not terrible. A little victim of love cannot find dreadful what her Spouse sends her...” - DE 25.9 -

[289v] September 28

“I miss the air of the earth! When will the good Lord make me look like heaven!...” - DE 28.9 -

September 29st

Vigil of his death. In the morning she seemed in agony. She had a very painful rattle and could not breathe. At noon she said to the mother prioress:

“Mother, is this agony? How am I going to die? I will never know how to die!...»

I read to him in French the office of Saint Michael the Archangel and the prayers of the dying. When it was a question of demons, she made a childish gesture as if to threaten them and exclaimed with a smile:

"Oh!!!." in a tone that meant: I'm not afraid of it!

After the doctor's visit, she said to our mother:

“Is it today, mother?.”

The mother prioress answered yes and we added: The good Lord is very happy today! She exclaimed:

[290r] “Me too!.”

“If I were to die right away, what happiness!”

In the afternoon:

“I can't take it anymore! Ah! pray for me! If you knew!...."

After matins, she clasped her hands, and in a soft, plaintive voice:

"Yes, my God - she exclaimed yes, my God, I want everything!!!."

She asked to be left alone at night, but the Mother Prioress would not consent. Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart and Sister Geneviève shared this consolation - DE 29.9 -

September 30st

Day of his precious death! (THURSDAY).

In the morning, I kept her during mass. She didn't say a word to me. She was exhausted, panting. His sufferings, I guessed, were inexpressible. For a moment she joined her hands and looking at the Blessed Virgin placed in front of her bed:

" Oh! I prayed to her with fervor! But, it is pure agony, without any admixture of consolation...”

[290v] All day long, without a moment's respite, she remained, one might say, in torment. She seemed exhausted and yet, to our surprise, she could move, sit up in bed.

“Look, my mother - she said -, what strength I have today! No! I will not die! I still have it for months. I no longer believe in death for me! I no longer believe in anything but suffering!... And tomorrow it will be even worse!... Well! so much the better! O my God!... I love the good God! 0 my good Blessed Virgin, come to my aid!

If this is agony, what is death?!!...

0 my mother, I assure you that the chalice is full to the brim!...

Yes, my God! whatever you want, but have pity on me!

My little sisters! my little sisters! Pray for me!...

My God! My God! you who are so good!!! Oh! yes, you are good! I know it...

Around 3 o'clock, she crossed her arms. [291r] The Mother Prioress placed an image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on her lap. She looked at her for a moment.

“0 my mother, present me quickly to the Blessed Virgin! Prepare me to die well.”

The mother prioress replied that having always understood and practiced humility, her preparation was made. She thought for a moment and humbly uttered these words:

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“Yes, it seems to me that I have never sought anything but the truth. Yes, I understood the humility of the heart.”

She repeated again:

“All that I wrote about my desires for suffering, oh! it's true!."

And proudly:

“I do not repent of having given myself up to The Love!”

From that moment, it seemed that she was no longer the one suffering. Several times while looking at her, I thought of the martyrs handed over to the executioners, but animated by a divine force which shone before everyone's eyes.

She repeated forcefully:

" Oh! no, I do not repent of having given myself up to Love, on the contrary!...»

A little later she says:

[291v] “I would never have believed that it was possible to suffer so much! Never! Never! I can only explain this to myself by the ardent desires I have had to save souls.”

Around 5 o'clock, I was alone with her. His face changed suddenly, I realized that the agony was beginning. Our mother came back to her. When the community entered the infirmary, they greeted all the sisters with a sweet smile. She held her crucifix and looked at it constantly.

For more than two hours, a terrible rattle tore his chest. Her face was congested, her hands purple, her feet were frozen and her whole body was shaking. Abundant sweat beaded in huge drops on his forehead and trickled down his face. She was in an ever increasing oppression and sometimes uttered little involuntary cries in order to breathe.

Her mouth seemed so dry that Sister Geneviève de Sainte Thérèse (her sister Céline), thinking of relieving her, put a small piece of ice on her lips. No one will forget the inexpressible look and the celestial smile she gave him at that moment, as if [292r] to console her and bid her a final farewell.

At 6 o'clock, when the Angelus rang, she looked up at the statue of the Blessed Virgin! Oh! How beautiful was that look again!

At 7:XNUMX a.m., the mother prioress, believing her condition to be stable, dismissed the community. And the poor little victim sighed:

" My mother! Isn't agony yet! Am I not going to die?....”

Yes, my child, answered our mother. It's agony, but the good Lord perhaps wants to prolong it for a few hours... She went on courageously:

“Well!... Come on! Come on! Oh! I would not like to suffer any less time...”

And fixing his eyes on his crucifix:

“Oh!... I love him!... My... God! I love you!!...."

After saying these words, she gently fell back, her head tilted to the right. The Mother Prioress hastily recalled the community and all witnessed her ecstasy. Her face had regained the lily complexion she had in full health, her eyes were staring up bright with peace and joy. Sister Marie of the Eucharist approached with a torch to see more closely [292v] this sublime look. In the light of this torch, there appeared no movement of his eyelids. This ecstasy lasted approximately the space of a "Credo." As soon as it was over, the Servant of God breathed her last.

After his death, she retained a sweet smile. She was ravishingly beautiful. She held her crucifix so tightly that it had to be snatched from her hands.

His limbs remained flexible until his burial on Monday, October 4, 1897.

Signatum: SISTER AGNES OF JESUS ​​rci - 30.9 -

[Response to the twenty-fifth request]:

She was buried in the city cemetery, in the Carmel compound. Until this day, his body remains in this same tomb.

[Response to the twenty-sixth request]:

I know, because I have been told [293r] and by the letters I receive, that there are people at his tomb every day and that this competition increases day by day. Obviously, I have not seen it for myself since I remain in the fence, but these facts are public.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

Since the death of the Servant of God, almost all the subjects received have entered here because of her. The first to come under these conditions is Mother Marie Ange of the Child Jesus. She took the Servant of God as a model and walked with the greatest fervor in her path of spiritual childhood. Completely devoted to her Cause, she succeeded, being Prioress, in submitting it to the Holy Church. She offered her life for her happy success, and after having shown herself, during her religious career of seven and a half years, the worthy emulator of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, she died at the age of 28, in admirable feelings of confidence. and love of God. The other subjects who came to us all took on the same ideal of perfection, striving only to follow the path of the Servant of God. Many people also came to our monastery because of the [293v] Servant of God and could not be admitted; several of them, sent by us to other Carmels, have been very successful. Through correspondence, I also noted the influence of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus on souls, to decide them to enter religious life. It is not only from the region that the subjects sent by Sister Thérèse came to us. Mother Marie Ange was from Brittany. Another came to us from Provence. Another from the Pyrenees. Two more from Brittany, one from Vendée. Among those who have desired their admission, I can cite some from Constantinople, Ireland, Portugal, and Italy. But there

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

its influence has not stopped: all kinds of souls share in it. There are those who regard her as their guardian angel and who have sensitive proofs of her continual assistance, for whom her writings are the code of perfection which serves their spiritual life, who strive to follow "her way." I have noticed this influence on mothers as well as on nuns. Where it seemed to me most admirable was on priests. I [294r] have lost count of the number of those whom the reading of the "Story of a Soul" has made pass from lukewarmness to fervor, from fervor to perfect life, and even sometimes from sin to state of grace.

[How do you know?]:

By the letters that are constantly addressed to me. I have also often received in the parlor priests whose fervor had reignited or increased through contact with Sister Thérèse, and who had so much confidence in the radiance that her virtues must have had in the monastery, that they seemed to believe that the the greatest fervor must have reigned here. Multitudes of lay people write to express the same feelings and ask for prayers with the same confidence. In 1898, our Reverend Mother Prioress (Marie de Gonzague) had the manuscript of the “Story of a Soul” printed, with the approval of the Bishop of Bayeux. At first, this book was sent to the Carmels only, to replace the circular notice that we are accustomed to sending on the death of our sisters. But it was like a spark: the Carmels lent this book, and requests poured in from all sides. At the start, [294v] I was [not] prioress, but Mother Marie de Gonzague put me in charge of shipping the books, and the least I had each day was five orders. From January 1909, Monsignor de Teil, vice-postulator, having advised us to keep an exact account, day by day, of the letters received, requests for prayers, books, pictures, souvenirs, etc., the Reverend Mother Marie Ange, then prioress, kept exactly this account book which has been continued to this day. Today, the daily average of letters has risen to 50, from all five parts of the world. To give a simple overview of the accounts kept for the books, images, memories and correspondence relating to the Servant of God, I will say that since the publication of the "Story of a Soul" until today, the total copies taken from the Life of Sister Thérèse amount to 62.815 for the complete life and 80.000 for the abridged life. The total number of copies sold is 45.715 for the complete edition and 56.405 for the abridged edition. As for images and memories, we are being asked more and [295r] more. In 12 months, that is to say from July 1909 to July 1910, we were asked for 183.348 images and 36.612 memories. During these twelve months, the total number of letters received, both from France and from abroad, is 9,741.

[Have we positively applied ourselves to disclosing this fame, etc.?]:

We multiplied the editions, the images, the memories as the requests forced us to do so. The bookseller made regular announcements of these publications; but no propaganda was engaged in.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I know from Monsieur de Meulemeester, 120, rue Washington, Brussels, who has since died, that a priest from Poland whose name I do not know, and who had the reputation in his country of being in supernatural communication with his guardian angel, had spread the rumor that Sister Thérèse's reputation for holiness was unfounded, that the book of her life was going to be put on the Index, if it had not already been done, and that the ecclesiastical authority had removed the [295v ] cross from his tomb. Monsieur de Meulemeester came to Lisieux on purpose to verify this last fact, had the cross which is still on the tomb photographed and spread this image in Poland and everywhere, as a response to this reverie.

[Answer, again, to the twenty-eighth question]:

When the “Story of a Soul” was first published (1898), most Carmels recognized in this life the expression of an exceptional virtue. Two or three Carmels, however, sent us observations that I [296r] can summarize as follows: “This young nun should not have affirmed her views on perfection in such an absolute way. Age and experience would no doubt have changed them. The Reverend Mother Prioress should not have allowed her to express them thus and still less should she not have published them herself.” I must add that since then, the nuns who spoke like this have completely changed their assessment. I know it from the letters they write to me. Another prioress, who has since died, said that in speaking of her graces, Sister Thérèse perhaps expressed herself with simplicity, but that one could also see pride there.

[Session 20: - September 3, 1910, at 8:301 a.m.]

[298r] [Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

1°. In the monastery itself, I did not notice any striking cures, but some marvelous facts. First, abundant graces of generosity and fervor were evidently obtained by our nuns, notably for intelligence and love of simplicity and humility. Secondly, all our nuns, except perhaps one or two, noticed, intermittently, in different places of the monastery, the existence of perfumes (such as incense, roses, violets, etc.) naturally inexplicable . The nuns who experienced these sensations not only did not expect them, but most were skeptical in this regard; myself, at first, I found it hard to believe, and fearing illusions, I thought it my duty as prioress to appear to pay little attention to what

WITNESS 1: Agnes of Jesus OCD

our sisters would tell me. These phenomena [298v] began immediately after the death of Sister Thérèse, and have since continued at intervals. They have been more frequent in the past two years.

[Have you noticed such smells yourself?]:

Yes, about ten times since the death of the Servant of God. But I prefer interior graces. A strange thing happened this year in the kitchen: A lay sister (Sister Jeanne-Marie of the Child Jesus) has great devotion to the Servant of God. She invokes him constantly and especially to obtain, in the course of her work, the grace to accomplish, without ever complaining, all that is asked of her, even in addition. One day, when she had already been doing some manual work for a long time, and when she felt very tired, she said to herself: "What will become of me if someone asks me something else? thing?." At the same time, our sister cook (Sister Marie Madeleine) calls her and asks her to come and clean and then fill the kitchen kettle. It is a container that holds [299r] 65 liters. Sister Jeanne Marie invokes Sister Thérèse and without complaining sets about doing what she is told. The two sisters completely empty and wipe the kettle. Sister Marie Madeleine goes to the pump, located in a neighboring apartment, and fills a first jug which contains 16 liters. Sister Jeanne-Marie carries this first jug which she pours into the kettle and comes back to get a second one. When she arrives to pour this second jug, she finds the kettle full. She called Sister Madeleine who noticed the fact.

2° As for the more or less miraculous favors obtained outside the monastery, they have become innumerable: graces of spiritual progress, conversions, healings, apparitions, etc. etc The daily correspondence, which reaches me from all points of the globe, contains the story of very diverse graces; some less important, others very prodigious. On the advice of Monsignor de Teil, vice-postulator, I carefully keep all that is sent, and, under the title "Rain of roses" (an expression borrowed from the Servant of God) I have published, with the Imprimatur of Monsignor the Bishop of Bayeux, a collection of 167 of these favours, from the year 1899 until February 25, 1910. This nomenclature was attached to the last complete edition of the “History of a soul” (Ed.299). We are asked from all sides for pieces of clothing and other objects that were used by Sister Thérèse, in order to use them to obtain cures, etc. We cannot satisfy all these requests, which are pouring in by the thousands. It would be absolutely impossible for me to relate all these cases. The simplest would be to append to the Trial, and the printed "Rain of Roses," and a handwritten copy of the principal accounts of miracles received since the end of printing.

[The judges ordered to add to the documents of the Trial the text of the printed reports entitled "Rain of roses", as well as an authentic copy of the handwritten reports sent to the prioress of Carmel, and especially, at the very least, of those contained in letters she has recently received].

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I don't see anything to add.

[The requests having been exhausted, we have come to the examination of the Articles written by the vice-postulator of the Cause. About them, the rev. mother Agnès of Jesus, prioress and witness, answered that she only knew what she had already deposited in response to the requests that had been made to her].

[Session 21: - September 5, 1910, at 8:30 a.m.]

[301v - 302r] [This concludes the examination of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Signatum: Agnes of Jesus, witness, I have thus deposed according to the truth; I ratify and confirm it.

Witness 2 - Thomas Nimmo Taylor

Mother Agnès' testimony was interrupted to allow the Scottish priest Thomas Nimmo Taylor to testify without further delay. He had, in fact, arrived in Lisieux with a group of pilgrims from Great Britain.

Born in Glasgow on December 16, 1873, to James Taylor and Rosa Nimmo at the end of the year which saw the birth of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Thomas studied theology in Paris, first at the seminary of Saint- Sulpice (1891-1896), then at the Catholic Institute (1896-1897). Ordained a priest the year of Thérèse's death (1897), he quickly learned of the Story of a Soul and immediately became a convinced apostle of this spiritual message. In 1908 he published a series of articles in a newspaper, a true biographical sketch of the Carmelite nun of Lisieux which providentially helped the Presbyterian pastor F. Grant to feel called to the Catholic Church (1911). From the start, he was a pilgrim to Lisieux on several occasions and – it seems – it was he who first launched the idea of ​​introducing the cause for the beatification of Thérèse. He spoke about it to Mother Marie de Gonzague who was not enthusiastic about it and answered her in these terms: “But in that case, how many Carmelites would have to be canonized! » (Cfr. Stéphane Joseph PIAT, art. cit. in the bibliogr. note, p. 10). And when he spoke of this project at Blackrock Carmel, Dublin, he provoked a similar reaction which he himself relates in these terms: "She (the prioress) laughed and told me that we might as well canonize all the Carmelites of his house” (f. 184r). The Trial was begun and had the success he had foreseen. Responsible for souls in Carfin (diocese of Glasgow), canon of the cathedral, he displayed great zeal to spread around him the cult of the little saint. It was knowingly that he could write towards the end of his life the article St. Teresa of the Child Jesus and Scotland (in St. Peter's Magazine 18 [1947] 61), where one sees clearly what were the main lines of one of his most cherished apostolates*.

Referring exclusively to the echoes of Thérèse's reputation for holiness and to the prodigious healing of Madame Dorans (who also came later to testify at the Trial), Thomas Taylor's deposition occupies sessions 10 to 12 of August 20-26. 1910, f. 179v 206v acts. We omit f. 190r-202v relating to the healing of Mrs. Dorans.

[Session 10: - August 20, 1910, at 8:30 a.m. and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[179v] [The witness answers the first request correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Thomas Nimmo-Taylor. I was born at Greenock, Diocese of Glasgow, (Scotland), December 16, 1873; my father was called James Taylor, originally from Saint Helens, diocese of Liverpool (England); my mother was Rose-Anne Nimmo, originally from Greenock. I am a priest; I did my ecclesiastical studies at the Saint Sulpice seminary in Paris (1891-1896), then [180r] at the Catholic Institute of Paris (1896-1897). I have a bachelor's degree in theology. I was ordained in Paris by Cardinal Richard, of holy memory, on June 12, 1897. Back in my diocese, I was curate for three years, and for 10 years I have been a professor at the major seminary of Glasgow where I teaches Holy Scripture, the History of the Church and also, when necessary, the French language.

[Correct answers from the third to the seventh question inclusive].

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I did not know the Servant of God personally. What I know of his life, I first learned around 1901 by reading the "Story of a Soul." Very touched and edified by this reading, I communicated through letters with the principal Carmelite nuns of the monastery of Lisieux who had known Sister Thérèse. Moreover, I came four times to Lisieux and then spoke in person with these same nuns about the life and virtues of the Servant of God. If I know nothing directly concerning the story of the Servant of God, I have, on the contrary, observed for myself what [180v] I could say about her reputation for holiness and the graces obtained through her intercession after her dead, especially in Great Britain and America (USA). I have collected a great deal of information on this subject, either by visual observation, or by letter correspondence, or by verbal conversations.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a very special devotion to the Servant of God. It is based on the virtues reported in his life and on his power, the effects of which I have seen. I desire, ex toto cord, the success of this Cause, for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls, by means of the way of sanctification which she taught in her writings and which she calls "her little way of confidence." I applied myself to making the Servant of God known, either by multiplying and disseminating her images, or by disseminating the book of her life, especially in Great Britain, in the English colonies and in the United States.

[181r] [Answers made from the tenth to the twenty-second questions inclusive]:

Not having known the Servant of God during her life, everything I could say about her story and her actions would be taken from the book entitled “Story of a Soul” that everyone can read.

[Response to the twenty-third request]:

I often spoke by letter and in person with the nuns of the Carmel of Lisieux, who lived with Sister Thérèse. These nuns were notably: the Reverend Mother Marie de Gonzague, Prioress; the three sisters of the Servant of God: Sister Agnès of Jesus, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, Sister Geneviève of Saint Thérèse; finally with his cousin, Sister Marie of the Eucharist. They expressed to me, on different occasions, during my “pilgrimages”, their thoughts on the holiness of the Servant of God during her life. They insisted particularly on his purity, on his tireless patience in suffering, his trust in God, his devotion to frequent communion.

[181v] [The judge asks if this judgment related to the holiness of Sister Thérèse of the E.-J. was that of the nuns in an equal and common way, and especially if Mother Marie de Gonzague who was not related to the Servant of God thought and spoke like her sisters. Answer]:

I spoke with Mother Marie de Gonzague in 1903, I remember that she seemed to me to have a different character from that of the Servant of God's sisters: she was a colder soul, less enthusiastic; she was not so much a woman. There were no exclamations in his language. I knew from the “Story of a Soul” that she had been severe towards the Servant of God during her novitiate. Despite this, her judgment was the same, basically, on the virtues and character of Sister Thérèse, she considered the Servant of God to be an extraordinary soul in terms of holiness.

[182r] [Answer to the twenty-fourth question: He says he knows nothing about it except what the "Story of a Soul" says about it].

[Response to the twenty-fifth request]:

Everyone knows that she is buried in the general cemetery of Lisieux, in the part reserved for the Carmelites.

[Response to the twenty-sixth request]:

I go on pilgrimage to her tomb every time I come to Lisieux, to ask her for graces for myself and for a large number of souls, and to thank her for the graces already obtained. I have always been accompanied on these pilgrimages, except the first time, by several priests and religious who joined in my devotion. During my last visit to the cemetery, which lasted about half an hour, I noted the presence of two priests; and several other people arrived during this time. I learned in Lisieux, as a well-known thing, that this pilgrimage to the tomb is becoming more numerous every day; a large number of priests come there, including missionaries from the Foreign Missions.

[182v] [Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

In my country, the "Story of a Soul" was translated into the English language in 1901; the publication of this book was the starting point of the Servant of God's reputation for holiness in English-speaking countries, even in America. This reputation grew slowly at first, perhaps because of the publication's relatively high price. But since October 30, 1908, following a prodigious event which occurred at the Convent of the Good Shepherd in London and which I took care to make known, the reputation of [183r] holiness of the Servant of God developed a lot, especially in Scotland. The object of this reputation is the great power of intercession of Sister Thérèse before God, from which it follows that the acts of recourse to this intercession become more and more numerous. From April 1909, a weekly Catholic newspaper (The Glasgow Observer) published a list of thanksgivings for favors received. This list continued to appear weekly and the number of insertions increased until the publisher imposed an insertion tax. At that time, the number of insertions decreased, although this list never ceased to appear. The July 16 issue contains six. In the space of three months (from April to July 1910), I counted 87 graces thus mentioned. Among the nuns and priests, the reputation of the Servant of God also relates to the heroicity of her virtues, appreciated above all from the study of the “History of her life”; Among the people of the people, this reputation has for object especially the marvelous facts. He is invoked not only to obtain temporal favours, but much to obtain conversions from indifferent Protestants and [183v] Catholics.

[Do you know this only by reading the newspaper you just mentioned?]:

I know it above all through my relations: I have a very wide correspondence on this subject. I am informed in particular by my relations with many religious houses in Glasgow and throughout England, Ireland and the United States, at least twenty establishments, Very especially among the Little Sisters of the Poor, we have a cult and a passionate confidence in “little sister Thérèse”; we turn to her for all the difficulties that arise. Every day, I receive several letters from the countries mentioned recounting the favors obtained, asking for souvenirs to be sent and testifying in all forms to the feelings of devotion that are professed with regard to the Servant of God. Several of these letters come from superiors of religious houses.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I remember two occasions [184r] ons that relate to this issue. The first looks at Blackrock Carmel in Dublin. When I spoke to the Reverend Mother Prioress of this convent about the life of Sister Thérèse, she laughed and told me that we might as well have all the Carmelites of her house canonized. It was around 1904, and, in any case, before the great devotional movement which has since developed, as I said (Previous questioning). This prioress has since died, and I know for certain that before she died she had changed her mind. I go to this Carmel every year; the current prioress, who was sub-prioress around 1904, herself testified to me of this change, caused by the knowledge of the graces obtained through the intercession of the Servant of God. The second instance in which I have heard some rather contrary observation is the following. At the Carmel of Lourdes, I spoke in recent days to an Irish nun whose name I have forgotten, but who is the only Irish woman in this house. She told me that reading the "Story of a Soul" left her suspicious. Her main motive is that, having been mistress of novices herself, she had known a novice, of Spanish origin, who said and wrote such lofty things, to the point that she herself believed herself unworthy and incapable of [184v] to direct; however, this novice left the house and did not persevere in her fervor. This Irish Carmelite had since that time mistrusted the souls of poets.

[Session 11: - August 24, 1910, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[186v] [Continued from the response to the same request]:

I had requested from His Majesty Monsignor Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, the concession of an indulgence for the reading of the English translation of the "Story of a Soul", following the example of what had been done in several dioceses of Portugal. The priest who was my intermediary first sent me a favorable promise, but as the Archbishop was delaying in actually sending me this concession, I asked the intermediary priest if he knew the reason for this delay; he replied that the Archbishop had heard that perhaps they were too hasty in this affair of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus; he had also heard that the family's part in this affair might compromise its success in Rome. Consequently, the Archbishop thought it would be safer to wait.

[187r] [Do you know if by the expression "the part taken by the family", the Archbishop implied that it was about the sisters or other relatives of the Servant of God?]:

I don't know for sure, but my impression is that he had in mind mainly the Carmelite sisters of the Servant of God.

[Do you know what the Archbishop now thinks of the Servant of God's reputation for holiness?]:

I saw very recently (last August 8) the Archbishop and I spoke with him about this affair, he showed sincere admiration for "this extraordinary soul" and promised me to write the preface to the new English edition of 'Story of a Soul', when he has read the manuscript.

[Do you personally consider that there has been any exaggeration on the part of the Carmelites of Lisieux especially in what has been done to promote this reputation for holiness?]:

Since I, who did not know the Servant of God and who am not her relative, am very interested in her Cause and work to make known her life, her virtues and the power of her intercession, it is not no wonder her Carmelite sisters are doing it wholeheartedly.

[187v] [Does your zeal for this diffusion proceed from a certain "enthusiasm", and could it not even be justly taxed with some exaggeration?]:

My enthusiasm has been maintained for eight years; it is based above all on the observation that I make of the numerous graces obtained through the intercession of Sister Thérèse and also on the conviction of her virtues which the study of her life has produced in me. During these eight years, the nuns of the Carmel of Lisieux never sought to stimulate my activity. When, three or four years ago, the images and other memories of Sister Thérèse were multiplied, at first I had a certain impression of astonishment; Since then, seeing how much these objects were desired by the faithful and the numerous graces that accompanied the use of these objects, I ceased to experience this impression. Whatever the activity of this propaganda may be, I believe that it affirms nothing concerning the virtues and the power of intercession of the Servant of God that is not entirely in conformity with the reality of the facts. Nothing is exaggerated; it would be truer to say that we rather stayed [188r] below the truth.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I have, since the death of Sister Thérèse, heard attributed to her intercession a multitude of graces, healings, conversions, etc. For the moment, I would like to relate that of these prodigious graces which seems to me the best noted and the most extraordinary. It is about the instantaneous cure of a cancerous tumor at the moment when the patient (Mrs. Dorans, from Glasgow) was about to die.

[Follows the detailed narration of the healing - f. 190r-194v, with corresponding documentation - f. 194v-202v]. -

[Session 13: - August 26, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[202v] [Can you report other graces and miracles?]:

The graces attributed in Great Britain to Sister Thérèse, spiritual or temporal graces, are innumerable. In the diocese of Glasgow especially, the Servant of God responded to unlimited trust with favors that can no longer be counted. A remarkable series of thanksgivings was published by 'The Glasgow Observer' newspaper; these testimonials of gratitude come mainly from the diocese of Glasgow, but there are also some from other dioceses, from Scotland, such as Ireland, England, the United States and even New Zealand. Since April 24, 1909, people have shown gratitude for [203r] more than 550 spiritual and temporal favors. Personal letters also tell me of a very large number of temporal or spiritual graces obtained after the invocation of the Servant of God. I will cite two or three by way of example: The Reverend Mother Provincial of the Little Sisters of the Poor for Scotland and Ireland, writes to me: "I would like to bear witness to the many graces and favors granted to me and to others. I try to make known his powerful intercession to all the people to whom I can do good. She made me return to the convent a poor nun who had left her suddenly. She obtained the conversion of several of our old men who for many years had abandoned all the duties of religion. But it is impossible for me to recount all the wonders of graces of all kinds received through her intercession.”

They also write to me that to reconcile an old man with the idea of ​​death, they gave him, at the Little Sisters of the Poor, an image of Thérèse. In a dream, he saw everything prepared for his burial, when Sister Thérèse came and, raising her hand, [203v] said that the moment of death had not yet come. Since then his fervor has grown extraordinarily. His devotion to Mary was very touching. “Don't you see this beautiful lady? he said to the Little Sister of the Poor the day before his death. He died like a saint.

I extract this story from another letter: “A poor workman went mad with religious madness. Several doctors declare this case very difficult. The illness lasting for a year without improvement, a novena was made to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus; at the end of the novena a great improvement took place and since then he has been completely cured.»

I know a very large number of analogous facts which establish in a certain way, at least, the Servant of God's reputation for miraculous intercession.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I would have to add a few details which complete and clarify my testimony on interrogation XXVII, of fa-[204r] my sanctitatis post obitum.

I have been asked in which religious houses I have seen the reputation for holiness of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Here is a more precise nomenclature of these houses:

A) Religious houses for men: first in the Major Seminary of Glasgow and especially in the superior and his colleagues. Then, at the Redemptorist scholasticate and at the rector of this house in Perth (Scotland). I have it from certain sources that Sister Thérèse is much loved at the Foreign Missions, Millhill (London), founded by Cardinal Vaughan. She has a devoted client in the abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Ampleforth, near York. Two fathers from this province with a postulant came with me on pilgrimage to Lisieux. At the Lazarist novitiate (novitiate for Great Britain), I learn from my brother, a religious of this house, that devotion to Sister Thérèse has developed: many of the students propagandize her and report that she is loved cordially in many convents and families.

[204v] [Continued from the response to the same request]:

B) Women's Religious Houses: The Provincial of the Little Sisters of the Poor (Province of Ireland, including also Scotland and part of England) has an extraordinary devotion to her. I can personally speak for four of his twelve houses; but Sister Thérèse has her clientele everywhere among these sisters who are so simple and so active. Then there are the Sisters of Mercy of Glasgow: they are very devoted to her and it was at the suggestion of a nun from this Congregation that the novena was held which obtained the healing of Mrs. Dorans. Strange thing! first, the superior did not give permission to the novices to read the life of Sister Thérèse. But later, seeing herself in serious difficulty, she promised Sister Thérèse to put her portrait in the community hall, if she came to her aid; and things being settled a few days later, she kept her promise. Permission to read "Story of a Soul" was also granted. At the Good Shepherd Sisters, in Glasgow, Liverpool, London, she has devoted clients. She is also much loved in the Carmel of Scotland; in the Carmel of Dublin (Blackrock), it is then the convents of the Franciscan ones, then, that of Our Lady, where the devotion greatly increased by the cure of Mrs. Dorans. I know from my relations with the motherhouse of the so-called Religious of Loreto (Dublin), a very prominent educational Congregation in Ireland, that Sister Thérèse is loved there and prayed to; the same for the motherhouse of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin, in York. In the United States, he is devoted to the novitiate of the Sisters of Charity of Emmitsburg; [205v] at Carmel in Philadelphia. A letter from this Carmel speaks of “the devotion to Sister Thérèse, of the rich and the poor, of the priests and the bishops”: features of this devotion are quoted. The same at the Carmel of Boston and San Francisco.

[206r] [This concludes the questioning of this witness. After reading the deeds, he completed his response to the twenty-third request as follows]:

1° I said that the Carmelite nuns of Lisieux had testified to me especially of the “purity” of Sister Thérèse. In this conversation, the word "purity" was not understood in the special and restricted sense of "chastity", it meant "moral beauty and candor of soul."

2° I learned from a conversation that I had recently with two of the Carmelites, sisters of the Servant of God (Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart and Sister Geneviève of Saint Thérèse), that the Servant of God would have had and manifested, towards the end of his life, the foresight of what was to happen to his subject after his death; in particular that one would come here in pilgrimage and that it was necessary to keep the least objects which had been with its use.

[206v] [Were the expressions "that one would come here on pilgrimage and that it was necessary to keep the smallest objects which had been for one's use" reported to you by the Carmelites in question as having been literally and strictly collected from the lips of the Servant of God]:

I thus understood it for the words “that it was necessary to keep the least objects which had been with its use”; I'm not so sure about the words "that we would come here on pilgrimage", it could be the interpretation, by his two sisters, of a sentence which would have the same meaning, but which would have been uttered in other words by the Servant of God.

[After adding these corrections, the witness confirmed his statement which he signed as follows] -

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum habeo et confirmo.

signatum: THOMAS Nimmo TAYLOR

Witness 3- Mary of the Sacred Heart

The third witness is Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart. His testimony is sober and very studied, going to the essential.

Thérèse's older sister, Marie Martin was born in Alençon on February 22, 1860. A boarder at the Visitation of Le Mans from 1868 to 1875, she was the godmother of the future saint at her baptism on January 4, 1873. Living in Lisieux with her father since November 15, 1877, she providentially met there on April 17, 1882 Fr. Almire Pichon, SJ (1843-1919) who was to become her spiritual father at the same time as the friend and director of the whole family; moreover, he remained so, even after October 4, 1884, the date of his departure for Canada. After Pauline entered the Carmel on October 2, 1882, Marie took special care of Thérèse, especially during her strange illness.

She made the vow of chastity on March 25, 1885 and entered the Carmel of Lisieux on the following October 15. Her taking of the habit took place on March 19, 1886, then her profession and her taking of the veil on May 22 and 25, 1888. Sister Thérèse had her as an “angel” during her novitiate. She exercised the charge of "provisional" from 1894 to 1933, thus dealing with food and ordering meals. Even before the canonization of her sister (1925), she contracted articular rheumatism which went on increasing and finally condemned her either to bed or to the invalid's carriage. She died on January 19, 1940.

Mary of the Sacred Heart was among those who best perceived the mystery of Thérèse's grace. She will then learn from memory the autobiographical manuscripts that make up the Story of a Soul. We owe him great gratitude because it was at his insistence that at the end of 1894 Mother Agnès commissioned Thérèse to write the memories of her childhood (manuscript A) and also because it was at her request that in September 1896 Thérèse sent him the splendid letter which constitutes the manuscript B.

In May 1897, she asked Thérèse to write for her what she thought of the Blessed Virgin. Thus was born the poem. entitled "Why I love you, O Mary" of which the Saint said a few days before her death: "My little canticle expresses all that I think and what I would preach about the Blessed Virgin if I were a priest" (f. 317v ).

Marie du Sacré-Coeur helped Mother Agnès a great deal with a view to the beatification of the future Saint. On January 21, 1908, she gave him a report requested by the bishop of the diocese, Msgr. Lemonnier, on the virtues of Sister Thérèse*.

At the Informative Trial, she testified from September 6 to 13, 1910 (sessions XXII-XXVI). On more than one point his contribution is most precious (for example illness of Thérèse as a child, apparition of the Virgin, miraculous healing, life at Les Buissonnets). Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart brings to light the most humble, simplest and most profound aspects of her sister's holiness.

His testimony occupies f 304r-334v of the Public Copy to which we refer.

[Session 22: - September 6, 1910, at 8:30 a.m.]

[304r] [The witness answers the first request correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Marie-Louise Martin, in religion Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, born in Alençon, diocese of Séez, on February 22, 1860, of the legitimate marriage of Louis-Joseph Stanislas Aloys Martin and Marie Zélie Guérin. I am a professed nun of the Order of Carmel at the monastery of Lisieux, and the elder sister and godmother of the Servant of God.

[The witness answers the third to the sixth questions correctly].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I have well purified my intention before coming to testify, I want it to be for God alone.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

Everything I wrote down for [304v] my deposition results from my personal observations. I lived with the Servant of God with our parents from her birth until my entry into Carmel in 1886 (the Servant of God was 13 and a half years old). I was again with her from her entry into Carmel (1888) until her death. I read the manuscript of her life at the very moment when she

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composed the first part addressed to Mother Agnès of Jesus and the third that she addressed to me. I only read the second part, addressed to Mother Marie de Gonzague, after the Servant of God's death. I found that she expressed her feelings and thoughts admirably in these stories, but I found in them what I already knew from having lived with her.

[What do you know of the origin of this manuscript and its state of integrity?]:

One winter evening, after matins, we were warming ourselves together with Sister Thérèse, Sister Geneviève and our Reverend Mother Prioress Agnès of Jesus. Sister Thérèse told us about two or three traits of her childhood. So I said [305r] to our Mother Prioress, Agnès of Jesus: “Is it possible that you let her write little poems to please one and all and that she does not write us anything of all her memories of childhood? You will see, he is an angel who will not stay long on earth, we will have lost all these details that are so interesting for us. Our mother prioress hesitated at first, then, at our insistence, she told the Servant of God that it would be her pleasure to give her the story of her childhood for her birthday. Sister Thérèse obeyed, and this first part of the manuscript was sent to Monsieur Guérin, our uncle. Later, Mother Agnès of Jesus, seeing Sister Thérèse very ill, persuaded Reverend Mother Marie de Gonzague, then prioress, to have Sister Thérèse write the story of her religious life, which is the second part of the manuscript. Finally, I asked him myself during his last retreat (1896) to write down for me what I called his little doctrine. She did, and we added these pages, as a third part, when we printed the “History of her life”. I am convinced that we can absolutely rely on this manuscript to know the thoughts and feelings of the Servant of God. She wrote it very simply as she meant it.

[305v] [What do you know the integrity status of this manuscript?]:

When printing this manuscript, the Reverend Mother Marie de Gonzague, prioress, wanted it to appear to have been addressed to her entirely; for that, we crossed out a few appellations and some details of family life that were too particular. It didn't change the essence of the story. Moreover, after the death of Mother Marie de Gonzague, the original text was restored.

[We ask her if she especially loves the Servant of God]:

Obviously; I wonder how someone can ask me this question. I love her because one naturally loves her sister, but more because she struck me as an angel. I very much want her to be beatified, because we will see what she wanted us to see: that we must trust in the mercy of God which is infinite and that holiness is accessible to all kinds of souls. . I think much more than that, but I don't know how to say it. I also want her beatification [306r] because she will be able to fulfill her desire to do good on earth even better, so that souls will have more confidence in her.

[Answer to the tenth request]:

The Servant of God was born on January 2, 1873. I have already given the surnames and first names of our parents (Interrog. II). Our father was born in Bordeaux and our mother in Gandelain (diocese of Séez). Our father was a jeweler, but retired from the trade; our mother, manufacturer of point d'Alençon (a kind of lace). They were domiciled in Alençon (Parish of Notre-Dame), diocese of Séez. The Servant of God was the ninth and last child of this marriage; she had four living sisters: Marie, Pauline, Léonie and Céline. Two other sisters had died (Hélène and Thérèse); two brothers were also dead (Joseph-Louis and Joseph-Jean-Baptiste). The Servant of God was called Marie-Françoise-Thérèse. Our mother took care of the early education of our little sister; but, our mother having died in 1877, when Thérèse was four and a half years old, my sister Pauline and I, who were the eldest, continued the work of her education.

[306v] [Answer to the eleventh request]:

Our parents had a reputation for being extraordinarily piety. Our mother was doing her Lent, without using the permitted mitigations. My father and my mother attended the 5 am mass every day, because they said it was the mass for the poor. They communicated frequently, more than every eight days, which was then rather exceptional. In Lisieux, my father took communion four or five times a week. My mother had a great horror of worldliness and did not want anything luxurious at home. One day reading the life of Madame Acarie (Blessed Marie of the Incarnation), our mother said, “Is she happy to have given her three daughters to the good Lord!” Our mother's character was extraordinarily energetic, lively, but without harshness, with a very sensitive and generous heart. Above all, she had a great abnegation which made her forget herself and work with great courage in order to have the means to give us a careful and Christian education. She also had in hardships, for example the [30r] death of my brothers and sisters, a fortitude that was surprising. We see, however, in his letters that his heart was broken; but his faith made him overcome everything. The dominant character of our father was a very great righteousness. He made it a point to affirm his faith, even in the face of unbelievers. When the priest came to bring Holy Viaticum to our dying mother, he wanted to

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himself to pay the Blessed Sacrament to the church, a candle in his hand. He was very charitable and completely devoted to his neighbour, never allowing anyone to speak ill of him. His whole character gave an impression of kindness. One also noticed in him a very great purity of life which was reflected in his whole person. He was extremely careful to remove from us anything that seemed to him an occasion of temptation.

[Answer to the twelfth request]:

The Servant of God was baptized on January 4, 1873, at the Church of Notre-Dame d'Alençon.

[Answer to the thirteenth request]:

[307v] Our parents raised us all in a spirit of detachment from the things of the earth. This was, it seems to me, the characteristic note of this education. Very often they reminded us of the things of eternity. The upbringing in our family was very affectionate, but by no means soft. It is quite true that our father especially loved our little sister, but he did not spoil her for that. When, after the death of our mother, we gave him lessons, our father always respected the penalties that we brought to his small failures,

[Session 23: - September 9, 1910, at 8 a.m. and 30 p.m.]

[309v] [Answer to the fourteenth request]:

When my sister Léonie left the Benedictine Abbey of Lisieux, where she had received her education, our little sister Thérèse was sent there in her place; she came home every evening; She was then 8 and a half years old. She remained at the Abbey until she was twelve and a half years old. It was there that she made her first communion on May 8, 1884 and was confirmed the following June 14. As for the character and virtues of the Servant of God in this [310r] first part of her life, here is what I can say: From the age of two, one noticed in her an intelligence beyond her age. He was a deep and very thoughtful soul; I found her too serious and too advanced for her age. When my mother died, the ceremony of Extreme Unction was deeply imprinted on her soul. She says about it: “I did not tell anyone about the feelings that filled my heart. I watched and listened in silence. - MSA 12v - It did seem extraordinary to me at the time of my mother's death. We didn't have time to deal with her and she wasn't trying to get attention either. But I was careful not to ask her what she thought so as not to further develop the deep feelings of which she speaks. There was no need to scold her when she was at fault; it was enough to tell him that it was not good, or that it hurt God; she never started again. She already had a great empire over her. She came to attend, very small, the lessons that I gave to her sister Céline, and she controlled herself enough not to say a single word, during the two hours that the lesson lasted.

[310v] She was extraordinarily frank. My mother wrote in this regard: "The little one would not lie for all the gold in the world" - CF 195 - '. She needed to accuse herself of her slightest faults; as soon as they were committed, she went to tell my mother. Around the age of five and a half, she said one day to the servant who was telling joyful little lies to entertain her: "You know very well, Victoire, that this offends God." At the age of four, she began to count her little acts of virtue and her sacrifices on a kind of rosary made expressly for the occasion. She called it: “practices.” In her games with her sisters, there was constant talk of "practices", which greatly intrigued a neighbor. His "practices" consisted of yielding to his sister in many circumstances. She made great efforts on herself for this, because her character was then very fixed. She was very pious. My mother used to tell us: “Thérèse always has a smile on her lips: she has a predestined face; she only likes to talk about the good Lord; she would not fail to say her prayers" - CF 192 -

[311r] Around the age of ten, the Servant of God was stricken with a strange illness, an illness that certainly came from the devil who, as she herself says in her manuscript, had received an external power over her. She says that during this illness she never lost her reason. In fact, I never heard her say a word that didn't make sense, and she was never delirious for a moment. But she had terrifying visions that chilled all who heard her cries of distress. Certain nails, attached to the walls of the room, suddenly appeared to her in the form of large charred fingers, and she exclaimed: "I'm afraid, I'm afraid!" His eyes, so calm and gentle, had an expression of horror impossible to describe. Another time, my father came and sat by his bed; he held his hat in his hand. Thérèse looked at him without saying a single word, because she spoke very little during this illness. Then, as always, in the blink of an eye, her expression changed. Her eyes fixed on the hat and she uttered a mournful cry: “Oh! the big black beast!” Her cries had something supernatural about them; you have to have heard them to get an idea of ​​them. One day when the doctor was present during one of these crises, he said to my father: “Science is powerless in the face of these phenomena: there is [311v] nothing to be done.” I can say that the demon even tried to kill our little sister. His bed was placed in a large al-

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cove, and at the head and the feet there was an empty space where she tried to rush. It's even happened to her several times, and I wonder how she didn't smash her head on the pavement; but she didn't even have a scratch. In the past she struck her head violently against the wood of the bed. Sometimes she still wanted to talk to me and no sound was heard.

But the most terrible crisis of all was the one she recounts in her "Life." I thought she was going to succumb to it. Seeing her exhausted in this painful struggle, I wanted to give her a drink, but she cried out in terror: "They want to poison me." It was then that I threw myself with my sisters at the feet of the Blessed Virgin. Three times I repeated the same prayer. The third time, I saw Thérèse staring at the statue of the Blessed Virgin. His gaze was irradiated and as if in ecstasy. She confided to me that she had seen the Blessed Virgin herself. This vision lasted 4 to 5 minutes, then his gaze fixed on me with tenderness. From then on, he [312r] no longer appeared to have any trace of his illness. The next day she resumed her ordinary life, and apart from one or two falls which occurred without apparent cause, while walking in the garden during the week which followed her recovery, no more accident of this kind was seen in the whole of the continuation of his life.

Thérèse made her first communion on May 8, 1884, at 11 years and 4 months. She suffered greatly from the waiting imposed on her; she could not understand this law, which seemed to her so severe, of being delayed for a year, because she was born, she said, two days too late. One day we met Monsignor Hugonin, who was going to the station: “Oh! Marie - she said do you want me to run and ask her permission to make my first communion?» I had a hard time holding her back. When I told her that in the early days of Christianity, very small children received the Holy Eucharist after their baptism, she showed great admiration: "Why then - she said to me - is it not like that anymore?. » At Christmas, seeing us go to midnight mass and her staying at home because she was too small, she still said to me: "If you wanted to take me, I would go to Communion too, I would slip [312v ] among the others, we would not notice it. Could I do this? (the Spirit p.67). And she was very sad when I told her that it was impossible. She prepared for her First Communion with extraordinary fervor, performing many acts of virtue every day, which she marked in a special little book. I had also given her a little sheet on renunciation, which she meditated on with delight. One felt that his soul aspired with all his strength to unite with Jesus; also, on the day of his first communion, it seemed to me rather to see an angel than a mortal creature. During her second communion retreat, Thérèse saw herself assailed by the disease of scruples. It was especially on the eve of his confessions that they redoubled. She came to tell me all her alleged sins. I tried to heal her by telling her that I took her sins upon me, which weren't even imperfections, and I only allowed her to blame two or three of them that I pointed out to her. She was so obedient that she followed my advice to the letter. Here is what she wrote about it: “Mary was, so to speak, indispensable to me; I only told her my scruples, and I was so obedient that my confessor never heard of my nasty illness; I was just telling him the number of sins that Mary had allowed me to confess, not one more; also I could have passed for the least scrupulous soul, despite the fact that I was one to the last degree” - MSA 304v - . She was delivered from her sorrows by prayer; it was to her brothers and sisters who had preceded her in heaven that she addressed herself, and soon peace again flooded her soul.

[Response to fourteenth request continued]:

At the boarding school of the Benedictines [304 bis-v] she had occasions of suffering. We had educated her at home and she was very advanced for her age; she found herself in a class whose pupils were much older than her. Thérèse was 8 years old and her companions were 13 and 14. As she obtained the first places, one of her companions conceived jealousy and made her undergo a little persecution which was very painful to her. She never complained about it, however, in accordance with the principle she had already adopted of never complaining; and it was only later in Carmel that we learned the cause of his sadness at that time.

[Answer to the fifteenth request]:

The Servant of God was withdrawn from boarding school around January 1886. Her sister Céline, who had been there with her previously, had finished her studies in August 1885. Our little sister returned alone to the Abbey in October. This isolation in a house, where she had already found causes for sadness, seemed a dangerous test for her health; Besides, she was in the throes of a crisis of scruples and [305 bis-r] our father saw fit, like me, who served as her mother, to keep her at home to complete her studies.

[Do you know what the mistresses of this school of Benedictines thought of the Servant of God?]:

They considered her a very intelligent and very pious student, but a little shy; they had a very great affection and much solicitude for her. They noticed that, accustomed to the intimacy of life

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family, she found it difficult to adapt to the very different environment of the boarding school.

[How did the Servant of God behave in her family?]:

She took communion four or five times a week. She would have liked to take Communion every day, but she waited for her confessor to suggest it to her, not daring to take the initiative of this request herself. Later, she said on this subject: "I did not have then the audacity that I would have now, because it was not to remain in his golden ciborium that Jesus became a host, but to find another ciborium, that of our hearts which he delights in” - MSA 48,2 - . The desire to join the Association of the Children of Mary, established at the Abbey [305bis v] of the Benedictines, made her agree, despite her reluctance, to return twice a week and for several months to the boarding school she had quits. In the meantime, I entered Carmel (October 1886), and the Servant of God stayed at home with my father and her sisters Léonie and Céline.

[Answer to the sixteenth request]:

From the age of two, the Servant of God showed desire for religious life. Around the age of 14, this vocation became so pressing for Carmel that she no longer doubted that it was a duty for her to enter it. No doubt, our parents were happy to give their children to God, and even wished it; never, however, did they exert any pressure on us in this direction. My sister Pauline (Mother Agnès of Jesus) herself raised some objections to the wishes that our young sister confided to her, in order to test her vocation. But I opposed him much more vigorously and more obstinately. My opposition was mainly motivated by the young age of our sister and the fear I had of the great sorrow that [306 bis r] would experience our father, because Thérèse was the real ray of sunshine in his life. Despite these obstacles, the Servant of God persevered in the pursuit of her plan to enter Carmel. I only knew through the story she told me in the visiting room, the obstacles she encountered with superiors and the means she took to overcome them, even going to ask the Holy Father Leo XIII l permission to enter Carmel at age 15. Moreover, she recounted all this in her manuscript.

[Answer to the seventeenth request]:

She entered the Carmel of Lisieux on April 9, 1888. She took the habit on January 10, 1889. She waited longer for it than the others, because of her young age. She took her vows on September 8, 1890. She was as delayed for her vows as she could have taken in January. This delay was the fault of the superiors, always because of his youth.

[306 bis-v] [Do you know if the superiors had any reason other than lack of age to delay profession?]:

There was no other motive than his young age. As for her dispositions, all the nuns and our Mother Prioress gave her this testimony: that she was a very fervent novice and that she had never been seen to show the smallest infidelity to the rule. She never asked for any dispensation.

[Session 24: - September 10, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[308 bis-v] [Answer to the eighteenth request]:

She successively exercised various ordinary jobs in the community, such as in the sacristy, in the linen room, in the turn, in the refectory, etc. In all these roles we saw her always dedicated to exercising charity and accomplishing her task with a great spirit of faith and constant attention to the presence of God. When Mother Agnès of Jesus was elected prioress (1893), she secretly entrusted Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus with the direction of the novices, whom she was obliged to leave in appearance to the prioress leaving office. She thus exercised this charge during the three years of priorate of Mother Agnès of Jesus. When in 1896 Mother Marie de Gonzague was re-elected prioress, she did not designate a titular novice mistress, and ordered Sister Thérèse to take care of it under her direction. [309 bis-r] Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus acquitted herself of this mission, which was so delicate and so full of difficulties, with great wisdom and great sagacity. She also brought great courage to it, not being afraid to do her duty, no matter how unfortunate it might result.

[Answer to the nineteenth request]:

She composed the manuscript of her life, of which I spoke above (Interrog. VIII). In addition, she wrote a number of letters to members of her family, poems on pious subjects and dialogues, which we call: "Pious recreations." The manuscript of his life has been edited, to which has been added, in the complete edition, a selection of his letters and his poems.

[Answer to the twentieth request]:

I consider that the life of the Servant of God is a prodigy of perfection in everything, whether in the great trials she had to endure, or in the detail of the religious virtues. It is not ordinary, indeed, to always see the same equanimity, the same smile on the lips, in the midst of the diversity [309 bis-v] of the troubles and trials of daily life. She seemed to live only on joys at the same time

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of his greatest trials, to the point that I only knew of his sufferings, for example in his great temptations against the faith, by reading his manuscript after his death. As she was constant in affability, she always showed herself equally active and devoted in the service of God, even and especially in the time of her trials.

[Response to the twenty-first request]:

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had an ardent faith which she showed from childhood through her love for the Holy Eucharist. After her First Communion, she longed only for the time when she could receive Our Lord a second time. His faith was still manifested in trials. At the time of my father's illness, she wrote to me: “Jesus came to visit us, he found us worthy to pass through the crucible of suffering. It is the Lord who has done this, it is up to us to thank him» - LT 91 - . She said that our father was doing his time in purgatory and she spent, with the permission of our mother [310 bis-r] prioress, all her savings as a young girl to have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for him. This great ordeal of our father's cerebral palsy, she put it among the days of grace of her life, by marking the precise date on an image and underlining it with these words: "Our great wealth" - MSA 86,1, 1890 - . She brought the same faith to her inner trials that she always appreciated from a supernatural point of view. She wrote to me in 111: “Perhaps you will believe that your little girl is distressed (by her aridities and her darkness). But no, on the contrary, she is happy to follow her betrothed because of his love alone, and not because of his gifts” - LTXNUMX - . She still had a great spirit of faith towards her superiors. A month or two before her death, she passed through a most painful crisis. The community doctor being on vacation, we asked our Mother Prioress to bring in Doctor La Néele, our relative. But she refused, and for a month she was a prey to the most cruel tortures. When we complained about this way of acting, this angel of peace said to us: “My little sisters, we must not murmur against the will of the good God. It is he who allows our mother not to give me relief.”

[310bis-v] I had asked Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus to write to me what I called “her little way of trust and love.” After asking permission from our mother, she did so during her last retreat, in the month of September 1896. This letter is now part of the printed manuscript, chapter XI, page 209 to 220 - MSB1,1-5,2 - . After reading these fiery pages, I told him that it was impossible for me to reach so high. It was then that she wrote me the letter of September 17, 1896, also printed in the "Story of a soul", page 351, and in which she said to me among other things: "How can you ask me if it is possible for you to love the good God as I love him? My desires for martyrdom are nothing... I feel that this is not at all what pleases God in my little soul; what pleases him is to see me love my littleness and my poverty, it is the blind hope that I have in his mercy, this is my only treasure” - LT 197 - . One day she had asked in her prayer to participate in the double love of angels and saints, as Elisha had asked for the double spirit of Elijah cf. 2 R 2, 9), she adds: “Jesus, I cannot pursue my request, [311bis-r] for fear of finding myself overwhelmed by the weight of my audacious desires. My excuse is that I am a child; children do not think about the scope of their words. However, their parents, when they are placed on the throne, when they possess immense treasures, do not hesitate to satisfy the desires of the little beings whom they cherish as much as themselves; to please them, they go crazy, they go to the point of weakness. Hey! well, I am the child of the Church, and the Church is queen, since she is your spouse, O divine King of kings, etc... O Jesus, what can I not say to all little souls, how ineffable is your condescension?... I feel that, if by impossible, you found a soul weaker, smaller than mine, you would be pleased to shower it with even greater favors if it abandoned itself with a complete trust in your infinite mercy» - MSB 0-4,1 - .

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus loved God with an ardent love and thought of him constantly. One day, I said to him: “How do you manage to always think of the good Lord?” - "It's not difficult - she replied -, we naturally think of someone we love." - "So you never lose his presence?." - " Oh! no, I believe that I have never been three minutes without [311 bis-v] thinking of him” - ?CSG, Oraison temps du Bon Dieu p.77 - . A few weeks before her death, she told me this confidence: “If the good Lord said to me: if you die immediately, you will have great glory; if you die at eighty, your glory will be much less, but it will give me much more pleasure...; then I would not hesitate to answer: My God, I want to die at the age of eighty, for I do not seek my glory but your pleasure” - DEA 16-7 - . Recalling her memories of five to six years ago, she says. "Growing up, I loved the good God more and more... I tried to please Jesus in all my actions, and I was very careful never to offend him" - MSA 15,2 - . In the letter quoted above, which she wrote to me during her last retreat, I still notice this passage: "I would like above all things, O my beloved Saviour!

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blood for you, to the last drop. The martyr! this is the dream of my youth! This dream grew with me under the cloisters of Carmel. But there again, I feel that my dream is madness, because I cannot limit myself to wishing for a kind of martyrdom. To satisfy me, I would [312 bis-r] need them all.” etc - MSB 3,1 - .

From her earliest years, Thérèse loved to give alms to the poor. Then there was a tender and respectful expression on his face; one felt that it was Our Lord whom she saw in her suffering members. At the age of 10, she asked to go and treat a poor woman who was dying and had no one to help her. She also wanted to take provisions and clothes to another laden with children, who inspired her with a very special compassion. When she could not relieve them she gave them the alms of her prayers. One day, while out for a walk with my father, she met a crippled old man and approached to give him her little coin; but the latter, not finding himself poor enough to receive alms, refused it. Then Thérèse, very sad to have humiliated the one she wanted to relieve, consoled herself by the thought that she would pray for him on the day of his first communion, having heard that on that day we obtained everything from the good God, and , five years later, she faithfully kept her resolution.

At Carmel, she preferred to seek, during recreation, the company of those who seemed the most neglected. Her companion in the novitiate was a young lay sister with a very difficult character, but Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus did not leave her for that; on the contrary, it was most often near her that she went to sit, and she used so much gentleness and kindness that she won the heart of her companion and had a very great influence over her. Her charity led her to ask to be helped, in the linen room, by a sister of [313r] character such that no one wanted her company. This sister had dark thoughts and did almost nothing. I saw her, when Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was already ill, coming to ask her for all the linen for the week that she had given her to mend, and since Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had not been able to complete her task, this sister, instead of expressing her gratitude for what she had done, being so ill, addressed her reproaches which were received as praise. This poor, unhappy sister was indeed the object of the tender compassion of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. One day when I confided to her all the fights that this sister gave me, the Servant of God said to me: “Ah! if you only knew how to forgive her, how deserving of pity she is; it's not her fault if she's badly gifted: it's like a poor clock that you have to wind up every quarter of an hour. Yes, it's also worse than that. Ah! Well, won't you pity him? Oh! how we must practice charity towards our neighbour!” There was a sister in the infirmary who exercised patience a lot, because of her many quirks. As we witnessed the boredom of keeping her company, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus told us: “How happy I would have been if someone had asked me that! It might [313v] have cost me according to nature, but it seems to me that I would have done it with so much love! because I think of what Our Lord said: I was sick and you relieved me” - DEA 20-8 - . She practiced charity in a heroic way towards the lay sister of whom she speaks in chapter X of her life. This poor sister was very abrupt and uneducated. We quivered with impatience just to touch her. Also, when I saw, during her novitiate, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus bothering herself with prayer, every day, to take her to the refectory, I admired her virtue, for she needed real courage to bear witness to her constantly a charity so sweet and so compassionate.

I often spent my recreation time in the infirmary, near the Servant of God's bed of suffering. I told her one day that with another patient it would cost me a great deal to lose recreation, whereas with her it was a great consolation for me. She resumed immediately: “Well, I would have experienced such great happiness! Since we are on earth to suffer, the more we suffer the happier we are. One practices much more charity with a person who is [314r] less sympathetic to you! Ah! how badly one knows how to arrange one's little business on earth! - DEA 28-7 - . Her charity made her forget herself in all circumstances. During the last three months of her life that she spent in the infirmary, she could not bear to be watched for a single night. Even on the eve of her death, she begged to be left alone, so as not to cause fatigue.

His charity made him desire to do good after his death. This thought worried her. In 1896 she made the novena to Saint Francis Xavier, from March 4 to 12; she said to me: “I asked for the grace to do good after my death and I am sure now of being granted, because through this novena we obtain everything we desire.” I was reading in the refectory a passage from the life of Saint Louis de Gonzague, where it is said that a patient, who sought his healing, saw a rain of roses falling on his bed, as a symbol of the grace that was to be granted to him. . "I too - she then told me during recreation - after my death I will make it rain roses" - DEA 9-6 - I have to say that during the years that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus spent in the Carmel of Lisieux, this community had to suffer from very regrettable agitations: there were oppositions of parties, struggles of characters whose principle was the annoying temperament [314v] of Mother Marie de Gonzague who, for more than 20 years, was prioress on different occasions. In this troubled environment, the Servant of God's prudence and virtue shone all the more remarkably. In the midst of this tumult, she knew how to avoid any kind of conflict and never departed from her union with God, from concern for her personal perfection, from charity for all her sisters and from the most religious respect for authority.

Love for the Holy Eucharist was one of the characteristic traits of his piety. In Carmel, her great suffering was not to take communion every day. She said, some time before her death, to Mother Marie de Gonzague, who was afraid of daily Communion: “My mother, when I am in heaven I will make you change your mind” - FROM July - . That's what happened. After the Servant of God's death, the chaplain gave us Holy Communion every day, and Mother Marie de Gonzague, instead of revolting as before, was very happy. Around the time of her First Communion, the Servant of God [315r] asked me to pray for half an hour every day. I didn't want to give it to him. So she asked me for only a quarter of an hour. I didn't allow him any more. I found her so pious and understanding in such a lofty way the things of heaven, that it frightened me, so to speak: I feared that the good Lord would take her too quickly for himself.

[Session 25: - September 12, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[317r] [The witness goes on to say about justice and its components]:

She had a tender love for the Blessed Virgin. As a child, unable to attend the exercises of the month of Mary, she had prepared a small altar, before which she prayed with great devotion. During her illness, at the age of 10, her favorite pastime was to weave garlands of daisies and forget-me-nots for her Heavenly Mother. In Carmel, the last flowers we offered to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus were cornflowers, of which she made two crowns, which she asked us to place in the hands of the Blessed Virgin and which remained there until her death. dead. It was at the feet of Notre Dame des Victoires in Paris that she saw her inner sorrows come to an end. “Oh! what I felt at her feet - she wrote - I couldn't say... I understood that she was watching over me, that I was her child; so I could only give her the name of 'Mom', because it seemed to me even more tender than that of 'Mother'" - MSA 56,2-57,1 - "When one addresses the Saints - said to me -she - they are a little late; we feel that they must go and present their request. But when [317v] I ask the Blessed Virgin for a grace, I receive immediate help.” And she would add, “Have you ever noticed that? Experience it and you will see...” - DEA p.649 - . I then asked her to write to me what she thought about the Blessed Virgin and she composed, in May 1897, her last poem in her honor. "My little canticle - she told us - expresses all that I think and what I would preach about the Blessed Virgin if I were a priest" - DEA 21-8 - This is the canticle entitled "Why I love, O Mary.” reproduced in the "Story of a soul", pages 418 - PN 54 - . From time immemorial she had a very special devotion to the Child Jesus and to the Holy Face; but this last devotion developed especially in Carmel.

His fortitude showed itself from his earliest years. When she was scolded, she never apologized. One day she received a strong reprimand from my father, in a circumstance where she was not at fault, but she did not say a single word in defense. The day my father decided to have Céline take painting lessons, [318r] he said to Thérèse, who was barely 10 years old: “And you, my little queen, do you want to learn drawing too? Would that make you happy?” Without thinking that I was going to be the cause of a big sacrifice for her, I intervened and said quickly: "It will be wasted money, because Thérèse does not have the same dispositions as Céline." As she didn't reply a word, things stopped there, and she didn't learn to draw. It was when she entered Carmel that she told us what a sacrifice it had been for her. And as I told her that she would only have had to express her desire, she answered: "Yes, but I did not want to refuse anything to the good Lord" (Primary source of these words of the Saint.)

At the time of our father's ordeal, it was Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus who sustained our courage. Seeing her so strong, we didn't even think of taking care of her. She again showed great strength in the mortifications she encountered daily. On days, for example, when dinner consisted of beans, not knowing that they hurt him, they gave him a large portion; and our mother having recommended that she eat whatever was served to her, she was sick every time. But she didn't say anything about it and only told us when she was in the infirmary. Her fortitude showed itself towards a sister, for whom she felt a great [318v] antipathy, as she says in chapter IX of her life, page 173 - MSC 13,2-14,1, XNUMX - However, she let it appear so little, that thinking on the contrary that she loved this sister very much, I had a certain feeling of jealousy, and I said to her one day: "I cannot help confiding in you a sorrow that I have... I imagine that you love my sister * * * better than me; and I don't find that fair, because finally the good Lord has made the bonds of the family. But you always receive it with such a happy air that I can't think of anything else, because you never witnessed me-

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it was such a pleasure to be with me.” She laughed heartily, but told me nothing of the impressions of antipathy that this nun gave her.

She knew how to do violence to herself in everything and had extraordinary courage. On the night of Thursday to Good Friday in the year 1896, she was seized, as she tells it herself - MSC 4,2-5,1 - with a first spitting of blood. I met her in the morning, pale and exhausted, and weary with housework. I asked her what was wrong with her, she seemed so bad to me, and offered her my services. But she simply thanked me without telling me a word about the accident that had happened to her.

[319r] In recreation she could often have found a place with us (her sisters), but she preferred to seek the company of those who exercised her charity the most. She did not lose her temper if someone said a bitter word to her. One day, when she was disposing as best she could of the wreaths that had been sent to put around Mother Geneviève's coffin, a lay sister said to her: "It is clear that these bouquets come from your family, because you put them in enough before, while those of poor you despise them” -? HA chap12 - . I wondered what Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus would say when she heard such unjust words; but she looked at this sister with the most amiable air and hastened to accede to her wish by putting the less beautiful flowers in evidence. When she was in charge of the novitiate, one day I saw a young postulant overwhelm her with reproaches, say the harshest things to her. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus kept a perfect calm, and yet I guessed the extreme violence she must have done to herself to hear such biting words with such serenity.

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus constantly practiced poverty without ever [319v] complaining. As soon as she entered the Carmel, although she was only 15 years old, she was treated without any consideration, serving her the most advanced leftovers. They said in the kitchen: "No one would eat this, let's give it to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who never refuses anything." So we saw reappearing on his plate until the end of the week, omelets or herring that had been cooked on Sunday. In the refectory she had to share with a sister, her neighbor at the table, the cider contained in a bottle so small that it hardly contained two glasses; so she did not drink, so as not to deprive her neighbour. She could have taken water from the jug, but she refrained from doing so, so that no one would notice her mortification and her act of charity. Three days before her death, while she was tortured by fever, she deprived herself of asking for water in which we put a little ice; she also refrained from asking for grapes when someone forgot to put them within reach. Seeing her look at her glass, I noticed her mortification and said to her, "Would you like some ice water?" She replied, “Oh! I really want it.” "But - I resumed - our mother [320r] has forced you to ask for everything you need, so do it out of obedience." “I ask what I need - she told me - but not what gives me pleasure; also, when I don't have grapes, I wouldn't ask for them” - DEA 27-8 - . Out of a spirit of poverty, she did not claim what was taken from her, saying that nothing belonged to her; and the gifts of intelligence, which the good Lord had given her so generously, she allowed them, so to speak, to be stolen, for in recreation, if another took advantage of her repartee, full of finesse, by repeating them as coming of her own creation, she willingly left him the honor of recreating the others, without revealing where the source came from.

[320v] Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had an angelic purity. During her illness, at the age of 10, the doctor having ordered showers, it was such a great pain for her that she begged me to abandon this treatment. About her trip to Rome she wrote: “I begged Our Lady of Victories to take away from me everything that could have tarnished my purity. I was well aware that on a trip like that to Italy, many things would be encountered capable of troubling me, especially because, not knowing evil, I was afraid to discover it” - MSA 57,1 - . She was so pure and so simple at the same time, that one could entrust her with any temptation on the subject. One felt that she would not be troubled by it.

I have never seen Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus commit the slightest disobedience. As a child, she obeyed to the letter everything that was said to her. She had a very great love for reading, and yet she stopped in the middle of the most interesting passage, when the time to interrupt her rang. In Carmel, she was of perfect [321r] obedience to the smallest points of the Rule. Thus, it is forbidden to read books or bulletins which are not for our particular use, when it would be only three words. During a preached retreat, she told me that she had accused herself of having looked at a page from a fashion journal. And as I pointed out to her that it was not forbidden to look at images, she answered me: “It is true, but the father told me that it is more perfect to deprive oneself of it. Yet - she added - seeing the vanity of the world, it rather lifted my soul to the good God. But now, when I find these engravings, I don't look at them anymore. Will you do the same?...” (First source). She confided to me that our mother prioress having allowed Mother Agnès of Jesus (her sister Pauline) to go and speak to her sometimes, it was for her the occasion of a great sacrifice, because not having received on her side Permission to reveal her private thoughts to him, she confined herself simply to hearing the confidences of the one she called "her little mother," without telling her her own.

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However, she would have had only one word to say, to adroitly obtain permission. "But - she said - one must not be given permissions that can soften the martyrdom of religious life, because then it would be a natural life without merit" - DEA 11-8 - . When she was writing [321v] and the bell rang, she stopped without finishing the word she had started. Thus, on one occasion (it was during the last weeks of her life) I wanted to finish writing something she had just said to me and which I was afraid I would forget: "It would be better, very nearly, to lose that - she told me - and do an act of regularity. If only we knew what it is!” In the last days of her life, when she was scorched by fever, I wanted to remove the sheet from her feet to cool her down, but she said to me: “Perhaps it's not allowed? "Mother Marie de Gonzague had told us in the past that even in summer it was better to keep the woolen blanket on, and Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus did not believe herself exempted by illness from practicing obedience and mortification until to heroism. She would have had only one word to say, to have that relief that all sick people take, without even thinking that permission was needed for that.

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus tried all her life to go unnoticed. She wrote to me on the eve of my profession [322r] (1888): “Pray for the weak little reed which is at the bottom of the valley. Ask that your little girl always remain a little dark grain of sand, well hidden from all eyes, that only Jesus can see her, that she becomes smaller and smaller, that she be reduced to nothing” - LT 49 - . She wrote to me in 1896: “Ah! if all weak and imperfect souls felt what the smallest of all souls feels, the soul of your little Thérèse, not a single one would despair of reaching the summit of the mountain of love..." - MSB 1,2 - . Her humility did not prevent her from recognizing the privileges of God over her soul, but she always knew how to relate everything to him. During her illness, on the evening of July 25, 1897, she said to me: “Leaning forward a little, I saw the setting sun through the window, casting its last lights on nature, and the tops of the trees seemed all golden. I said to myself then: What a difference when one stays in the shadows or when one exposes oneself to the sun of Love, then one seems completely golden... That's why I seem completely golden; in reality I am not and I would cease to be immediately if I walked away from love” - ?HA chap12 -

[Response to the twenty-second request]:

[322v] Around the age of 6, Thérèse saw, in a prophetic vision, the trial that awaited our good father. I was in a room near the one where she was, when I heard her call in a trembling voice: "Dad, dad." I understood that something supernatural was happening, because my father had been absent for several days. She tells this strange fact herself ("Story of a soul", chapter 11, pages 31 and following) - MSA 19,2-21,1 - She had seen our father walking in the garden, but as if bent over age and the head covered with a kind of veil. It was only later in Carmel that the good Lord fully enlightened us on this vision, when our father, in the last years of his life, was subjected to this painful and humiliating ordeal of cerebral palsy. It should be noted that during the first attacks of this disease, our poor father covered his head with his handkerchief, as the Servant of God had seen in this apparition of 1879, ten years before the event.

[Before the event, did the Servant of God speak in any way about the meaning of this vision?]:

She did not know its precise [323r] meaning, but she considered this vision as certainly prophetic and assured that the meaning would one day be revealed to her.

The strange illness from which the Servant of God suffered at the age of ten and a half, and which I have already reported (Interrogation XIV), ended with an apparition of the Most Blessed Virgin. Seeing her attitude and her gaze of ecstasy, I immediately understood that she was seeing the Blessed Virgin herself. This state lasted four to five minutes, then two large tears fell from her eyes, and her soft, limpid gaze rested on me with tenderness. When I was alone with her, I asked her why she had cried. She hesitated to tell me her secret, but at my insistence she ended up saying to me: "It's because I didn't see her anymore" - MSA 30,1-2 - . Four years later, when she prayed at Notre-Dame des Victoires in Paris, before her trip to Rome, she had something like a confirmation of the truth of this vision; she writes about it: “It was there that my Mother, the Virgin Mary, made me feel that it was REALLY SHE who had smiled at me and healed me” - MSA 56,2 - . Finally, the very day when Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus went down to the infirmary to die there, this same statue of the Blessed Virgin was placed there. Looking at it with love, she said to me: "Never has she seemed so beautiful to me, but today [323v] it is the statue and in the past - she added with a profound air - you know very well that it is not 'wasn't the statue' -? HA chap12 -

One day during her last illness, I felt a pain that bordered on despair, thinking that I would have to see her die, but I wept in secret and was careful not to let her see any of these feelings. Long later that same day, as I entered the infirmary without any sign of emotion, she greeted me with these words, spoken in a tone of gentle reproach: "You must not cry like those who have not of hope” - DEA 18-9 - .

A little robin came from time to time to visit him; so she protected all the birds in the garden. And one day when I wanted to set traps for blackbirds that were devouring strawberries, she said to me: "Don't hurt them, they only have life to enjoy." When I am in heaven, I promise to send you fruits if you do not destroy the little birds” - DEA 13-7 - . Now, the following year, we did indeed receive a crate of pears and a basket of strawberries: it was the superior of the Brest Hospital, whom we did not know at all, who sent them to us, thinking, saying- she, [324r] to please Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Since then, we have received them every year. I said to her one day: “If only I were the only one to suffer from your death, but how could I console Mother Agnès of Jesus?” "Don't worry, she continued - Mother Agnes of Jesus won't have time to think about her pain, because until the end of her life she will be so busy with me that she won't even be able to do everything » -? FROM July -

In the last days of her life, she had a strange forecast of what is now happening to her. She spoke to us (to her three Carmelite sisters) of these future events, which are a reality today, with that childlike simplicity and that candid humility that she always displayed when speaking to us of the favors she received from God. She tells us, among other things, that it was necessary to carefully preserve the rose petals that she plucked from her Crucifix: "Later - she said - all this will be useful to you" - DEA 14-9 - . She also alluded to the innumerable letters that were to assail us about her after her death and to the joys these letters would bring us. And even one day, she said to us with a gracious air: “My little sisters, you know very well that you are caring for a little saint! -? DES, July -

[Session 26: - September 13, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[326r] [Response to the twenty-third request]:

Generally speaking, the Servant of God, during her life, did not attract [326v] attention. His virtue consisted above all in doing ordinary things very well. However, those who observed her more attentively recognized in her a quite exceptional perfection. It was said of her when she was little: "This child has heaven in her eyes" - CF 192 - . In Carmel, his extraordinary regularity seemed to some nuns like a silent reproach and they sometimes expressed spite and jealousy. Others, on the contrary, in much larger numbers, did justice to his fervor; some said openly that this constancy of virtue was out of the ordinary. One of them, noticing the care she took to obey the smallest advice, said: “Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus is a saint.” Another, seeing how mildly she received a hurtful reproach, held her from that day forth for an exceptionally virtuous soul. Finally, our mother prioress, Marie de Gonzague, who did not flatter her, said of her: “It is not souls of this stamp that should be spared” -? HA chap.12 -

[Response to the twenty-fourth request]:

[327r] She endured, during the last three months of her life, cruel sufferings, with constant serenity and even with joy. Mother Agnès of Jesus said to her: "Perhaps you will suffer a great deal before you die?." " Oh! she replied - don't worry, I have such a great desire! » - DEA 30-5 - . I said to him another day: “And I, who asked the good Lord that you do not suffer much, this is how he answers me!” She answered me: “I asked the good Lord that the prayers that could put an obstacle to the accomplishment of his plans for me, he does not listen to them. I asked that never creatures put an obstacle to his will on me " - DEA 10-8 -

On July 13, 1897, she said to me: “If you only knew how much I make plans, how many things I will do when I am in heaven!” “So what plans are you doing? ", I said. "I will begin my mission... I will go there to help the missionaries and prevent the little savages from dying before being baptized" - DEA 13-7 - .

One day when she was in great pain, a novice came to exhaust her strength by telling her I don't know what grievance against one of her companions. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus got tired of reasoning with her in vain and was finally forced to come to reproaches. When the novice left, I said to the Servant of God: “What a fight this novice is! it should [327v] scare you to see it coming.” “A good soldier is not afraid of combat - she resumed -; didn't I say that I would die with arms in hand? » - DES 8-7 -

A few weeks before his death, thinking of the suffering that awaited him, I said to him: "What pains me is the thought of what you are going to suffer again." "I have no pain - she resumed - because the good Lord will give me the strength to bear it" - DEA 4-7 - .

In another instance she showed us how far her detachment had come. Alluding to the fact that at the time of his death his sister

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Pauline, mother Agnès of Jesus, was no longer prioress, she said: "Yes, I will be happy, I say this from the bottom of my heart, to die in the arms of our mother Marie de Gonzague, because she represents the good God; with you, my little mother, there would have been a human side, I prefer that there was only the divine” - DEA 20-7 - .

One day I said to him: “So you are not at all afraid of death?” She took a serious look and answered me: "No, not yet... but I could well be afraid of it like the others, because it is a famous passage... but I abandon myself to the good God" - DEA, 9-7 - .

[328r] My sister Geneviève said to her one day: “The angels will come to get you, oh! that we would like to see them!” "I don't think you see them - she replied - but that won't prevent them from being there... I would like to have a good death, just to please you." I asked the Blessed Virgin, I didn't ask God, because I want to let him do what he wants. Asking the Blessed Virgin isn't the same thing: she makes do with my little desires, she says them or doesn't say them, it's up to her, so as not to force the good Lord to 'answer' - DEA 4-6 -

On August 22, she was told that various people were praying for her. She made this remark on this subject: “It gave me pleasure to think that people were praying for me...; so I told God that I wanted it to be for sinners.” "So you don't want it to relieve you?" - "No", she answered - DEA 22-8 -

In his last illness, his body was extremely emaciated. But, strangely enough and which greatly astonished the doctor, his face until death did not appear altered by illness. One day when she was looking at her emaciated hands, she said: "How happy I am to see myself destroying myself!" It becomes a skeleton, that's what I like” - DEA 8-7 - . We told her my sisters and I how happy we would be if her body was preserved, [328v] she replied: “You will only find a small skeleton of me: we only found that of Saint Louis de Gonzague. »

When she had received Extreme Unction, with feelings of joy and peace, she expressed her happiness that the priest had told her that her soul now resembled that of a child after baptism.

She suffered extremely in the last day (September 30, 1897). She was panting and in so much pain that we dared not leave her. She said, "If this is agony, what is death?" She seemed abandoned by heaven and earth; his abandonment made us think of that of Our Lord on the Cross. " Oh! my poor little mother - she said - I assure you that the chalice is full to the brim! Yes, my God, as much as you want, but have pity on me... No, I would never have believed that one could suffer so much. Oh! it is indeed pure suffering, because there is no consolation, not one!... It is because of my desire to save souls.” In the evening, she said to our mother: “Mother, prepare me to die well.” A few moments before her death, [329r] Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus clutching her Crucifix painfully pronounced these words: “Oh! I love him!... my God... I love you! These were his last words. She was then delighted by a celestial vision which reminded me of the one I had witnessed in her childhood, when at the age of 10 she was healed by the apparition of the Blessed Virgin. During this ecstasy, a sister placed a torch close to her eyes, but her gaze remained just as limpid, staring with an inexpressible peace at the object which delighted her. This ecstasy lasted a few minutes, then she lowered her eyes and breathed her last.

[Answer to the twenty-fifth request].-

She was buried on October 4, in the part of the public cemetery of Lisieux which is reserved for the Carmelites. There is nothing extraordinary to report about his burial. I have learned and it is notorious besides that on September 6 of this present year 1910, the remains of Sister Thérèse were exhumed by the order and under the presidency of the Bishop. They were put in a lead coffin and buried again [329v] a short distance from the original place.

[Response to the twenty-sixth request]:

The competition for the Servant of God's tomb continues to grow.

[How do you know?]:

Although we do not leave the enclosure, we know it only too well, because a large number of these pilgrims also come to the parlor and insist with the tourières to be received by one or other of the Servant of God's sisters. , which obviously we refuse to grant. [330r] Among these pilgrims, there are a large number of priests and many ask to say mass in the chapel of the monastery. Besides, this competition is notorious and all the public can testify to it.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

I know about it, what everyone knows: that the Servant of God's reputation for holiness spread throughout the world. I have as guarantor the correspondence, every day more loaded which arrives to us at Carmel, to ask for prayers and to give thanks. These letters, which come from all over the world, come from some simple and uneducated people, many others from people

WITNESS 3: Mary of the Sacred Heart OCD

distinguished by their lights and their situation. At the moment, we receive about sixty letters every day. It cannot properly be said that the Carmel instituted propaganda to divulge this reputation for holiness. No sooner had the first edition of the "Story of a Soul" been given to the public than we were literally assailed with requests for images, memories, etc. It is to respond to these requests that we have made the publications known today.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

[330v] I haven't heard of anything like that.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

We have whole boxes of letters recounting graces received and more or less prodigious facts due to the intercession of the Servant of God. A part of these relations was published at the end of the "Story of a soul" (1910 edition) - ?HA Rains of roses - Several of these facts seem to me particularly remarkable (healings, etc.), but the people who have been the object of it are better informed to bear witness to it. Some prodigious facts have happened, to my knowledge, in our monastery itself. On the evening of Friday, October 1, the day after her death, Sister Marie de Saint Joseph, towards whom Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had practiced great charity during her life, found her cell perfumed with such a perfume of violets that She thought someone had put a bouquet in her cell and looked everywhere to find it. Almost all the nuns of this community have moreover smelled [331r] mysterious perfumes on various occasions; I myself have experienced it four or five times. For me, as for the other sisters, these impressions occur when we are not thinking about them at all. Besides, I don't myself. I was not at all preoccupied with these phenomena to which I attach less importance than to an interior grace. A lay novice (Sister Jeanne-Marie) who has great confidence in Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, told her one day that she had a lot of work and fatigue: "Dear little sister, help me, I pray.” In the meantime, the sister cook arrives, who had to fill a completely empty boiler with water. The novice who had climbed the top of a ladder to clean the tiles said to herself: “Ah! I'm going to let her do it, I have too much work to do." Then reviving her courage, she descends from her ladder, and, after cleaning and wiping the boiler, she begins by pouring a first jug of water into it. It took four to fill it. She goes to get the second pitcher, and when she is about to pour it, she finds the boiler completely full.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I don't see anything to add to my testimony,

[331v] [Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

I have filed as above according to the truth; I ratify and confirm it.

signatum: MARY OF THE SACRED HEART rci

Witness 4 - Geneviève de Sainte Thérèse

Lively and very spontaneous, rich in details, the deposition of Céline - then Sister Geneviève of Sainte Thérèse - is, after that of Mother Agnès, the most extensive of all the Ordinary Informative Trial.

Céline Martin was born in Alençon on April 28, 1869. She studied at the Benedictine Abbey of Lisieux and finished them in 1885 after Thérèse joined her there in 1881. She began in 1887 under the direction of Father Almire Pichon who was to direct his life. That year, in the month of May, Mr. Martin had a first attack of cerebral congestion which marked the beginning of his long martyrdom. Generously accepting Thérèse's entry into the Carmel, Céline therefore remained alone with her father from April 9, 1888 and was truly his protective angel. She knew many hardships, she could make her way in the world, but in 1889 she made the vow of chastity which she then renewed from year to year, nourishing an ever-growing desire to enter one day, too, in Carmel. She entered it in fact on September 14, 1894, less than two months after the death of Monsieur Martin, who died at La Musse (Eure) on the previous July 29.

She first received in religion the name of Marie de la Sainte-Face, but became Geneviève de Sainte Thérèse on the day of her taking of the habit on February 5, 1895, in memory of the venerable founder of the monastery of Lisieux who died on December 5. 1891.

She did her novitiate under the guidance of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus who strongly guided her and, with the permission of Mother Agnès, associated her with her act of offering to merciful love, two days after June 9, 1895. Céline made her profession on February 24, 1896 and received the veil on the following March 17, the day on which her cousin Marie Guérin received the habit also at the Carmel of Lisieux, under the name of Marie of the Eucharist. Shortly after, Sister Thérèse was overcome by the illness that was to kill her and Mother Marie de Gonzague gave her Sister Geneviève as a second nurse, which made her a privileged witness to the Saint's last days.

Luckily Céline entered the Carmel with her camera, because of no saint we have as many authentic photographs as of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, photos of which together constitute, on her plan, a testimony of the more valuable *.

Céline composed with mother Agnès the Small Catechism of the Act of Offering to Merciful Love of which she was the main author, then she prepared for years A free of Blessed Thérèse of the Child Jesus according to her writings and the eyewitnesses of her life (Lisieux, 1923), which went through many editions and was translated into the main languages. She gave a revised edition in 1946. She finally published Advice and memories in 1952.

Still restrained by a mentality irreducibly opposed to many critical demands, she nevertheless collaborated in the edition of Thérèse's letters given in 1948 by Monsignor Combes. It was to her that Mother Agnès entrusted, before her death, the task of granting the desire so often manifested by the friends of the Saint, that of possessing her texts themselves in their original tenor: "After my death I charge you to do so in my name,” Mother Agnès had told her. This was the meticulous work carried out to a very good end in 1956 by Fr. François de Sainte Marie, OCD, whose photocopied edition of the Autobiographical Manuscripts is, as such, definitive.

Céline provided first-hand documentation to Father Piat for his Histoire d'une famille (Lisieux 1946) and also wrote, in memory of her parents, Le père de Sainte Thérèse de l'Enfant-Jésus (1953) and La mother of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (1954). In 1957, she had the joy of testifying at the process of beatification and canonization of each of them **.

Sister Geneviève of Sainte Thérèse died in full consciousness, after long suffering, on February 25, 1959.

She testified at the Trial during sessions XXVII-XXXV on September 14-28, 1910, f.. 333v-415v of our Public Copy.

[Session 27: - September 14, 1910, at 9 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon] -

[333v] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Marie Céline Martin, born in Alençon, Saint Pierre parish, diocese of Séez, on April 28, 1869, from the legitimate marriage of Louis-Joseph-Aloys-Stanislas Martin, jeweler, and Marie Zélie Guérin, point d 'Alencon. I am therefore the sister of the Servant of God, older than her by three years and eight months. I am a professed nun of the Carmel of Lisieux, and my religious name is Sister Geneviève de Sainte Thérèse.

[The witness answers regularly and correctly from the third to the sixth request inclusive].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I love my little sister very much, but I testify freely and I feel that I would say the same things if she were not my sister. My only intention in coming to testify is to obey the Holy Church which asks me to do so.

[334r] [Answer to the eighth request]:

I was only separated from her for six years, that is, from her entry into Carmel (1888) until my entry (September 1894). Apart from this interval, I lived with her, either in the family during her childhood, or in Carmel from 1894 until her death.

In our childhood years, Thérèse and I were inseparable. We considered our older sisters (Marie and Pauline) as our mothers; Thérèse and I, who were much younger, considered each other more like sisters. What I will submit is above all the fruit of my personal observations. I have read, it is true, the History of his life; but this reading really taught me nothing new; at most, she reminded me of particularities that I would have forgotten.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I desire the success of this Cause, because it seems desirable to me to see on the altars a soul that has sanctified itself in a common way, without anything extraordinary or prodigious, and that I foresee the good that can result from his examples and his best-known doctrine. I don't believe that family [334v] affection determines me in this; I believe that she deserved this honor and that is why I wish her trial success. Which doesn't prevent me from being very happy, all the same, to be the sister of the Servant of God.

[Answer to the tenth request]:

Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin was born on January 2, 1873, in Alençon, diocese of Séez, parish of Notre Dame, at half past eleven in the evening. I have given above the names of his father and his mother. My father had then left his jewelry business, he no longer lived in rue du Pont-Neuf, parish of Saint Pierre, where I was born, but rue Saint Blaise, parish of Notre Dame. Our mother continued to have lace made. At that time, the situation of our family, without being rich, was easy. My father was born in Bordeaux on August 22, 1823, so he was 50 when Thérèse was born. My mother was born in Gandelain (Orne), on December 23, 1831. We were nine children after the birth of Thérèse, but of these nine four had died. The survivors at this time (1873) were therefore: 1° Marie, who was 13 years old; [335r] 2° Pauline, 12 years old; 3° Léonie, 10 years old; 4° Céline, aged 3 years and eight months; 5° Thérèse, who had just been born. Thérèse was nursed by her mother for a few weeks, but a most serious weakening which put her life in danger forced her to be entrusted to a more vigorous nurse after two months. She stayed a year with this nurse, a very honest woman, and was taken back by my mother in March 1874.

[Answer to the eleventh request]:

What struck me in the character of my parents, it is the release of all the things of the ground. Life at home was simple and patriarchal; they avoided the turmoil of worldly relations and tended to remain alone with the family. Eternal life was my parents' overriding concern. My mother wrote in a letter that I copied: "I wanted to have many children, in order to raise them for heaven" - CF 192 - . When my little brothers and sisters died, her spirit of faith made her so energetic and she was so consoled at the thought that these little angels were in heaven, that people said [335v] around her: there is no need to pity Madame Martin, she is not sorry for the death of her children. My father and my mother went to the earliest mass every day. They communicated as often as they could. Both of them fasted and abstained all Lent and said that the sweeteners that were beginning to be introduced were not made for good Christians. My father was admirably charitable towards his neighbor and never said the slightest ill. He excused all his faults and did not allow anyone to criticize him. Above all, he had a great veneration for all priests. It was said of him that he was a saint.

[Answer to the twelfth request]:

The Servant of God was baptized in Alençon, in the church of Notre Dame, on January 4, 1873, 36 hours after her birth. Although this delay was not very long, it was very painful for our mother. She had her elder sister Marie as godmother.

[336r] [Answer to the thirteenth request]:

The Servant of God was raised by my mother until the age of four and a half. Then our mother died, and our older sisters, Marie, who was 17, and Pauline, who was 16, found themselves in charge of raising us. After my mother's death, our father left Alençon and came with his family to Lisieux where my mother's brother, Monsieur Guérin, was. Our aunt Madame Guérin and our two cousins, her children, were to form a family environment for us. Our father loved his children very much. He had a maternal tenderness for us. On our side, we had for him an affectionate veneration which resembled a cult. He had very special caresses for Therese, whom he called "his little queen", but we found it quite natural and we weren't jealous. Besides, we felt that deep down our father loved us all equally. Therese, for her part, did not avail herself of this special affection.

[Answer to the fourteenth request]:

Before my mother's death, Thérèse was a child full of spirit, lively, [336v] expansive, naturally proud and stubborn, when however the question of displeasing the baby Jesus was not at stake; for from that time, as she herself admits, she took great care to please him in all her actions and never to offend him. With a nature such as hers, unchecked, she could, as she herself says, run to her eternal doom; but the love of good, united with her extraordinary force of will, sufficed to preserve her from evil. I have seen her at such a tender age practicing acts of heroic virtue; she knew how to overcome herself perfectly, having already acquired an absolute empire over all her actions.

Since my mother's death, Therese's happy character had changed. She was only cheerful in our company at Les Buissonnets (our house in Lisieux). Everywhere else she was excessively shy; and the other little girls, finding her clumsy in their games, despised her. She lent herself to it, however, with a good grace, without, however, succeeding in pleasing them. She then suffered a great deal from the indelicate procedures of which she was the object. From then on, she liked to hide, not to be seen, sincerely believing herself to be inferior to others. She first studied at home, under the direction of Pauline, whom she called [337r] “her little mother.” At the age of eight and a half (October 1881), she entered the Benedictine nuns of Lisieux as a half-boarder, where I was already myself. The change of direction was very painful for her and especially the need to be in the midst of children who had neither the same tastes nor the same aspirations as her. She was very successful in her studies, although she didn't memorize very easily, but she retained the meaning of things very well. She was in a class of students all older than her and yet won all the prizes, which made her the object of jealousy. One of them, aged 14, not very intelligent, made him pay for his success with all sorts of mischief. As I was in a different class than Thérèse, I was not a witness to these persecutions. Thérèse, for her part, contented herself with crying in silence, without saying a word to me, because she knew very well that I would have put things in order, and she preferred to suffer in secret, first for God's sake, then to avoid to others occasions of pain. She did not confide it to me until much later; then I understood why his time at boarding school had been so cruel to him.

[337v] [Response to fourteenth request continued]:

She was very fond of studying, especially sacred history, ecclesiastical history; she would have liked the catechism because this book spoke of the good God, but the way in which it had to be recited, word for word, cost her heroic efforts. However, she succeeds perfectly. His grades were always very good. When sometimes she had an exceptionally lower mark, the poor little girl was inconsolable, because, at that time, she was not settled in peace, and worried about everything; in this circumstance, [338r] she could not bear the thought that our father would have one less joy in the evening by listening to his notes. In the religious instruction classes, she never missed an answer, so much so that Father Domin, chaplain of the boarding school, called her: "her little doctor" - MSA 37,2 - She resolved indeed, with great precision, the most embarrassing questions for a child of her age. Her reasoning and her judgment never deceived her, and the precocity that had been noticed in her early childhood was becoming more pronounced, especially when it was a question of the sky. Around the age of 10 and a half she suffered from a strange illness which ended with an apparition of the Blessed Virgin and a miraculous cure. As the court invites me to do, I will take up the detailed account of this event later. If Thérèse did well in her studies, she was also the wisest. She was part of the Association of Holy Angels, into which only model children entered. It was with great care that she prepared for her first communion, offering Jesus a whole sheaf of sacrifices each day. Every evening, she received intimate [338v] instructions from Mary, our eldest sister, and her heart, at this school, opened up to the love of suffering. She made her first communion on May 8, 1884. As she returned from the holy table, I saw her all in tears: her face and all her appearance reflected peace and the most intimate union with Jesus. She received the sacrament of Confirmation on June 14 of the same year. The few days that preceded were particularly etched in his memory. Thérèse, usually so calm, was no longer the same: a sort of enthusiasm and intoxication pierced through her appearance. One day during her preparatory retreat when I expressed to her my astonishment at seeing her in these dispositions, she explained to me what she understood of the virtue of this sacrament, of the taking possession of her whole being by the Spirit of love. There was such vehemence in her words, such a flame in her gaze that I myself, completely imbued with a completely supernatural impression, left her deeply moved. This fact struck my memory so much that I can still see her gesture, her attitude, the place she occupied and this memory will never be erased from my mind.

[Answer to the fifteenth request]:

[339r] During her second communion retreat (May 1885) the Servant of God was attacked by the terrible disease of scruples; she suffered from it to such an extent that they were forced to withdraw her pension at the age of 13. Besides, I had just left the Abbey, having completed my studies, and the constraint of living alone, in an environment that was not hers, combined with her inner trials, gave us serious fears for her health. She therefore continued her studies at home, taking lessons from a teacher. It was at this time that she made the great sacrifice of asking to return twice a week to the Abbey to be received as a "child of Mary." This determination cost her extremely, it is she who says it, because she had not been happy in boarding school, the reason for it had been "the contact with dissipated pupils, not wanting to observe the rule" - MSA 37,1 - and that, by her own admission, had made her very unhappy. “Oh! it was good for the Blessed Virgin alone that I came to the Abbey - she writes -, sometimes I felt very alone, as in the days of my life as a boarder” - MSA 41,1 -

Eighteen months before her First Communion, our Sister Pauline, whom she called “her little mother”, left us to enter [339v] Carmel. This ordeal had a painful effect on Thérèse's heart. Four years later, a new ordeal was added to the pain caused by her scruples. Our eldest sister, Marie, left us in her turn to also enter Carmel (October 1886). Since Pauline's departure, Marie had become Thérèse's indispensable confidante, so this separation put the climax to her pain. No longer knowing where to look for help on earth, she confidently invoked our little brothers and sisters who had preceded us to heaven, and she found herself suddenly and completely delivered from her interior sorrows. She confided it to me to encourage me to pray to them in my turn on difficult occasions. At Christmas, 1886, there came a noticeable change in the state of his soul. To fully understand his character and dispositions, it is important to consider them, as if by contrast, before and after this date:

l°) Before Christmas 1886. From the age of four and a half, that is to say from the death of my mother until Christmas 1886, that is to say until the age of 14, Thérèse went through a period of obscurity. There was a sort of veil thrown over the qualities with which the Lord had bestowed on her. Her mistresses recognized her intelligence, but [340r] in the world she was considered incapable and clumsy. What justified this opinion was above all her excessive timidity which made her hesitant and paralyzed her in all things. My uncle, Monsieur Guérin, said that his education had been cut short and his education incomplete. It is true that she lent herself to disadvantageous interpretations, saying almost nothing and always letting others speak. Contrary to appearances, his life was strewn with trials from his childhood. She suffered a real martyrdom of the heart and a lot in her body. She had almost continual headaches; but the extreme sensitivity of her heart and the delicacy of her feelings were still the most abundant source of her sufferings. She bore it all, without ever complaining, but she was saddened by it. It is important to note that even in this period of her life she was really strong at heart, despite the apparent weakness produced by her extreme sensitivity. This remarkable strength appears to me in that her sadness has never diverted her from the least of her duties. For my part, I never noticed in her, even during this period, a deviation of character, a lively word, a weakness [340v]lance of virtue: her mortification was constant and in the smallest things. . It seems to me that she missed no opportunity to offer sacrifices to God. She herself admits of this fidelity in the midst of the ordeal, because she told me one day, to encourage me during my novitiate, that until the age of 14 she practiced virtue without feeling it. sweetness. And, on her deathbed, she told us - "Since the age of three, I have never refused anything to God." She considered the trials of this period of her life as a particular way of God who wanted to form her in humility: "I needed this austere formation all the more - she wrote - because I would not have been insensitive to praise” - MSA 38,1 - The most notable fault of the Servant of God at that time was her excessive sensitivity: she cried at the slightest pain and when she was consoled for her pain, she was crying from having cried. She herself recognizes that this state was a great weakness, and she calls "her conversion" - MSA 45,1 - the sudden change that took place in her on Christmas night 1886, and from then on made her appear extraordinarily mistress of herself and courageous.

2° After Christmas 1886. Thérèse recounts in the “History of her soul” (pages 74, 75), - MSA 44,2 -

the circumstances of the change that took place in her that Christmas night. I witnessed this sudden change and thought I was in the middle of a dream when, for the first time, I saw her completely overcome a grief which before would have desolated her and cheer up my father with a charming grace. This change was decisive; never again, thereafter, was she dominated by the impressions of her sensibility. This transformation was not limited to this possession of herself, but we saw, at the same time, her soul flourish and practice the practices of zeal and charity. She dreamed of the salvation of souls and devoted herself with ardor and generosity to the conversion of sinners. In a short time the good Lord had led Thérèse beyond the narrow circle in which she lived. Freed from her scruples, her excessive sensitivity, her mind developed; she was seized with an extreme desire to know. But these desires for science did not captivate [341v] her completely, because her heart was delivered to God. Spiritual books were his daily food; she knew word for word the Imitation of Jesus Christ. Communion and daily attendance at Holy Mass were his delight. Jesus was the director of his soul. Our two older sisters, Marie and Pauline, having entered Carmel, Thérèse and I became more and more intimate. Every evening, at the windows of the belvedere, we communicated our thoughts and devisions on eternity... These words of Saint John of the Cross: "Suffer, Lord, and be despised!" - MSA 73,2 - often came back to our lips and inflamed our hearts. Contempt seemed to us to have the only charms on this earth, and suffering to be the only good worthy of envy.

[Session 28: - September 15, 1910, at 8:30 a.m.]

[343v] [Answer to the sixteenth request]:

I had become Thérèse's only confidante, so she could not hide from me the desire she had to enter Carmel. Her attraction to religious life had manifested itself from her earliest childhood. Not only did she repeat that she wanted to be a nun, but she dreamed of a hermit's life and sometimes isolated herself in a corner of her room behind the curtains of her bed, to converse with God. She was then 7 or 8 years old. Later, at age 14, after what she calls “her conversion”, religious life appeared to her above all as a means of saving souls. She even thought, for that, of becoming [344r] a nun of the foreign missions; but the hope of saving more souls by mortification and self-sacrifice decided her to shut herself up in Carmel. The Servant of God herself confided to me the reason for this determination: it was to suffer more and thereby win more souls to Jesus. She believed that it is harder for nature to work without ever seeing the fruit of its labors, to work without encouragement, without distractions of any kind, than the hardest work among all is that which one undertakes on oneself. -even, to manage to overcome. Also, this life of death, more lucrative than all the others for the salvation of souls, was the one she wanted to embrace, wishing, as she says herself, "to become a prisoner as soon as possible, in order to give souls the beauties of heaven” - MSA 67,2 - . Finally, on entering Carmel, his very special purpose was to pray for the priests and to immolate himself for the needs of the Holy Church. She called this kind of apostolate wholesaling, since through the head she reached the limbs. So she loudly declared her personal intention in the canonical examination which preceded her profession: "I have come - she said - to save souls and above all to pray [344v] for priests" - MSA 69,2 - . This answer is special to her, each one answers what she wants in this circumstance.

[Was it under the influence of her sisters who were already nuns that the Servant of God was drawn to the Carmelite monastery?]:

This thought never occurred to me. The good Lord was able to use this circumstance to lead us where he wanted, but Thérèse's determination, like mine later, was entirely spontaneous. It should also be noted, on this subject, that if our mother Agnes of Jesus (Pauline) was quite favorable to this project, our elder sister (Marie of the Sacred Heart) was on the contrary very opposed to it.

[Do you know what influence her spiritual director had on the Servant of God in the decision she made to enter Carmel?]:

It did not, strictly speaking, have a spiritual director. She saw so clearly what she had to do, that she didn't feel the need to ask. The execution of this project was not without great difficulties. As our thoughts were the same, I promised him [345r] to help him with all my might. She then opened up about her project to our good father. This process cost my little sister a lot. All day, at his request, I joined my prayers to his, for the good result of these negotiations. The success was complete; but it was not the same on the side of our uncle, Monsieur Guérin, who refused his membership, saying that it would be a public scandal, a unique case in all of France, if a 15-year-old child entered the Caramel. However, after a few weeks spent in anguish, Thérèse, through prayers and suffering, got our uncle to suddenly change his mind and give his consent. Thérèse saw in this success as the compensation brought by God for these three days of anguish during which, she said, “I felt alone, finding no consolation, either on earth or in heaven; the good Lord seemed to have abandoned me” - MSA 51,1 - . The opposition of Monsieur Delatroëtte, superior of the Carmel, was more difficult to bend; so difficult that she had to enter the convent without having succeeded in overcoming it. She tried, however; I accompanied him with my father to the Abbé Delatroëtte. I admired how Thérèse, so shy by nature [345v], dared to explain herself and develop the reasons that made her want to enter Carmel immediately. But she had to withdraw on a definite “no”. My father then took her to Bayeux. She recounts this new attempt in her manuscript (pages 88 and following) - MSA 53,2-55,2 - The Bishop's response having been evasive, and subject to the consent of Monsieur Delatroëtte, Thérèse believed that everything was lost for its cause. So she decided to take advantage of her next trip to Rome to ask the Holy Father for the desired permission. Throughout this journey, she never lost sight of what had become her main objective. Received in audience by the Holy Father on Sunday, November 20, 1887 with pilgrims from the dioceses of Coutances, Bayeux and Nantes, she overcame her natural shyness to present her request. The Holy Father replied that she would enter Carmel if God wanted it. The evasiveness of this response caused Thérèse great grief, but she bore it with calm and abandon, convinced that she had done everything in her power to respond to the call of the Divine Master. Back in Lisieux, she resumed her entreaties to the bishop, who finally gave his consent [346r] on December 28, 1887. As soon as this authorization had been obtained, she would have liked to enter the Carmel without delay. However, he was forced to postpone this entry until after Lent 1888. The main reason for this delay was undoubtedly to spare the superior, Mr. Delatroëtte, who persisted in his opposition. This last wait was particularly painful for the Servant of God. The demon, who no doubt wanted to discourage her, suggested thoughts of relaxation in her spiritual life. Far from listening to him, the Servant of God led a serious and mortified life during these last months. The mortifications consisted in rendering small services without making them worthwhile, in holding back a word of rejoinder, in breaking one's will. The practice of these sacrifices made her grow, she says, in abandonment, humility and other virtues.

[Session 29: - September 19, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[348r] [Response to sixteenth request continued]:

Thérèse entered the Carmel on April 9, 1888 and left me alone with our father. This separation was a huge sacrifice for everyone, because she loved her father more than anything in the world. However, she separated from us, without shedding tears. When this separation was taking place, Monsieur Delatroëtte, superior, said: “You can sing your Te Deum; but at this moment I am only the delegate of the Bishop; if you have any disappointments, it won't be me to blame."

[348v] [Answer to the seventeenth request]:

From her entry into Carmel (1888) until the day I entered it myself (September 1894), finding myself separated from the Servant of God, I have hardly any more personal observations to make. However, I saw her in the parlor every week, as well as my other Carmelite sisters. I learned in these conversations that the little sister had a lot to suffer in her novitiate. My sister Pauline especially (Mother Agnès of Jesus) told me how sad she was to see our little sister badly cared for, exposed to the contradiction of many, and scolded right and wrong. Therese then, with an angelic air, consoled her, assured her that she was not unhappy, that she had enough to live on. I can still see her with her pale complexion, but with the air so holy of joy in suffering for the good Lord. From these conversations in the visiting room, it emerged that the main causes of these trials were: 2° an almost uninterrupted state of dryness in prayer; 349nd, the indiscretion of some nuns who abused her heroic patience; Seeing her so sweet, never complaining, we passed all the leftover food to this child who should have been strengthened; several times, she only had [3r] on her plate a few heads of herring or remnants reheated for several days in a row; 1894° the rather defective government of the community by the Reverend Mother Marie de Gonzague, whose unstable and bizarre character made the nuns suffer a great deal. Everything was left to the whim of the moment; a good thing did not last long and it was only by dint of diplomacy and finesse that one managed to enjoy such a situation for a few weeks. (sic) When I myself entered Carmel (8), this information was confirmed to me by the accounts of the nuns. She made her profession on September 1890, 24, and I was present at her taking of the veil on September XNUMX of the same year.

[Answer to the eighteenth request]:

When I entered Carmel on September 14, 1894, after the death of our father, which occurred in the month of July, I found the Servant of God still among the professed novices, despite her six years of religious life. Out of humility and not to free herself from the obligations of the novitiate, she had asked to remain there. Reverend Mother Agnès de Jesus, then prioress, had given her to the novices as [349v] first companion with all the rights of a novice mistress, but not officially, because one should not walk on the Reverend Mother's broken paths Marie de Gonzague, titular mistress of novices. Having become prioress in 1896, Mother Marie de Gonzague kept in her hands all the authority of the mistress of novices. But seeing herself overwhelmed by her too many occupations, she appointed the Servant of God to be her help and make up for her if necessary; but it cannot be said that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was ever, properly speaking, mistress of novices. Because of the versatility of Mother Marie de Gonzague, Sister Thérèse did not have a moment of security in this so-called charge which was taken away from her and given back every fortnight. It was always to start over, and the Servant of God only owed to her prudence the little peace that was given to the novices. If the action of the Servant of God seemed too intense, Mother Marie de Gonzague would get angry, saying that Sister Thérèse had no right to give us advice, that she was going beyond the instructions given to her. We, the novices, had to act cunningly so as not to bring about conflict, and we had recourse to a thousand stratagems. [350r] However, in the midst of these difficulties, the work of God was being done, if not on the part of the novices, at least on the part of Sister Thérèse. I say this because Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was not spoiled in the choice of her novices; they were far from being almost perfect like those that the intercession of the Servant of God sends us today. One was wild, withdrawn and shunned her advice; another, not very intelligent, without a vocation for Carmel, exhausted the Servant of God's zeal and strength, apparently to no avail; a third so difficult to form that she only had to stay in Carmel thanks to the patience of our young mistress, etc. It was on these wastelands that she had to work. His direction was sure; she had an answer to everything. She never backed down from duty. She had no fear of taking up the fight against the faults of novices; but also she was gentle and compassionate when needed. She could not bear to have any importance attached to childish suffering. Without admitting it sometimes, everyone relished his direction, and although it was not made up of tenderness and softness, people resorted to it out of a natural need for truth. A few elders, desirous of advice for themselves, went, like Nicodemus, [350v] to find her in secret. The Servant of God confided to me that she had asked God never to be loved humanly, which happened because, although the novices loved her deeply, the affection they bore her was never an attachment. natural. What made all the strength of our young mistress was her complete release from herself: she completely forgot herself and always took care to mortify herself. She never asked a question that could satisfy her curiosity, for her maxim was that one does no good by looking for oneself.

[Answer to the nineteenth request]:

The Servant of God did not “publish” any writings, but she composed some which were published after her death. These compositions are: 1° the manuscript of his life; (2) letters addressed almost all to his sisters; (3) poems on subjects of piety; 4° dialogues or “pious recreations”, on the occasion of our community celebrations. The main writing is the "History of his life." She composed it on the order of Mother Agnes of Jesus, then prioress. She had no ulterior motives when she began her manuscript. She wrote it solely out of obedience, striving however to relate certain facts, special to each of the members of her family, in order to please everyone, by this account of the memories of her youth, Her manuscript was indeed a "memory family", exclusively intended for his sisters. This explains the family abandonment in which it was written, and also certain childish details before which his pen would have recoiled, if it had foreseen that this writing should leave the fraternal circle. She only wrote casually, during the rare free moments left to her by the Rule and her occupations with the novices. She made no drafts, writing straight from the pen, and yet her manuscript contains no erasures.

[351v] [Response to nineteenth request continued]:

When the Servant of God had finished this account of her early years which formed the first 149 pages of the "Story of a Soul" - MSA - she gave it to Mother Agnès of Jesus, then prioress, who laid it down carelessly. without thinking of reading it, thinking that it was simply a family keepsake for later. The second part of the manuscript - MSC - was composed under the priorate of Reverend Mother Marie de Gonzague; Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was already very ill (1897). At that time of her life, the Servant of God foresaw that this composition would be a means of apostolate, and, in view of the publication of this work, she gave her instructions to Mother [352r] Agnès of Jesus to remove or add, as it seems to him useful for the glory of God. In fact, Mother Agnès of Jesus did not change anything substantial in this part. The third part of the manuscript, from page 207 to page 221, was the memory of his last retreat (1896), addressed to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart - MSB -. The Servant of God therefore wrote the “Story of her soul” to three different people and at different times. After his death, the manuscript was submitted to the revision of the Reverend Premonstratensian Fathers of Mondaye (Reverend Father Godefroy Madelaine Prior and Reverend Father Norbert), who strongly encouraged us to publish it and obtained for this the "imprimatur" of Monseigneur the Bishop of Bayeux. Mother Agnès of Jesus then undertook to publish it, convinced that she would work in this to the glory of God. Its purpose was to provide this reading to the monasteries of our Order, replacing the circular letter which it is customary to send after the death of each sister. To obtain from Mother Marie de Gonzague, then prioress, the authorization to publish this book, she had to make some slight changes to the manuscript, intended to lead one to believe that the three parts which composed it had been addressed in the same way to the reverend mè-[352v ]re Marie de Gonzague, who affixed her signature. These erasures have moreover been carefully restored in their original text by Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart.

[Answer to the twentieth request]:

The Servant of God always practiced the virtues with heroism, because she distinguished herself from the most valiant by the degree and the continuity of her efforts in the practice of all the virtues. His courage never wavered. She did not practice the virtues on one occasion, nor a day, nor a month, but she persisted all her life, never failing. I have never noticed this in person to such a high degree, for no matter how firm one is, one always betrays oneself at one time or another. Also, before having learned (by reading the Articles of the Vice-Postulator) to classify the different virtues she practiced before my eyes, I grouped them all in strength, The Servant of God truly lived this what she wrote and what she taught me. Yes, to prove her love to God, I saw her "letting no small sacrifice escape, no look, no word, profiting from the smallest deeds and doing them out of love" - ​​MSB 4,1-2 -

[353r] [Response to the twenty-first request]:

The Servant of God nourished her soul with the reading of Sacred Scripture. From his childhood, the book of Imitation was also his delight; she knew it by heart. But above all what occupied him during his prayers was meditation on the Holy Gospel. She even wanted to wear this sacred book on her heart and took great pains to find the Holy Gospels published separately, to have them bound together and procure us the same happiness. She scrutinized Holy Scripture in order to "know the character of the good God." The difference in the translations distressed her: "If I had been a priest," she said, "I would have studied Hebrew and Greek thoroughly, in order to know the divine thought, such as God deigned to express it in our human language. » - DEA 4-8 - .

Everything contributed to increase his faith, even the most vulgar things, and profane objects gave him an opportunity to recall the thoughts of faith. On the occasion of the marriage of our cousin Jeanne Guérin, which happened to take place eight days after her taking of the veil, she was struck by the delicacies she lavished on her fiancé, and immediately drew this consequence: that she should not [353v] be less attentive to Jesus. She even sent me next to the letter of invitation to my cousin's wedding, a letter of invitation to her spiritual wedding: "Story of a soul", page 135 - MSA 77,2 - . The sight of beautiful nature and masterpieces of art also uplifted his soul. In her trip to Rome in particular, she did not know how to express her admiration for the beauty of the landscapes, the splendor of the buildings, the finish of the works of painting and sculpture, without forgetting the harmony of the language: "This country of Italy is very beautiful - she wrote to her cousin Marie Guérin - I would never have imagined that we would see such beautiful things» - LT 31 - . She adds in her manuscript: "Looking at all these beauties, very deep thoughts were born in my soul, it seemed to me that I already understood the greatness of God and the wonders of heaven" - MSA 58,1 -

The faith that animated his life was subjected to a severe test of temptation. She tells it herself: “History of her life.” page 158 and following - MSA 5,2-6,2 -.” These attacks were particularly aimed at the existence of heaven. She spoke of it to no one, for fear of communicating her inexpressible torment to others. However, sometimes, in our intimate colloquies, she escaped by saying to me: “If you only knew... Oh! if you [354r] spent only five minutes through the hardships I endure! » - CSG p.139 - . She opened herself up to this temptation to the confessors with whom it was given to her to converse. One of them increased her troubles by making her see the state she was in as very dangerous. In the opinion of an enlightened director, she copied the symbol and carried it constantly on her person; she wanted to write it with her blood. She told me that she had pronounced many acts of faith in order to protest against this temptation. This ordeal lasted until his death.

The Servant of God's spirit of faith showed her the divine will in all trials and endeared them to her. During our father's illness, she wrote to me (April 26, 1891) - "Jesus sent us a look of love, a look veiled in tears, and this look became for us an ocean of suffering, but also a ocean of graces and love” - LT 107 - . This spirit of faith made her see the hand of the good God, even in outwardly the most human circumstances: “God alone – she wrote to me – arranges the events of our life in exile. But we don't see him, he hides and we can only see the creatures... The creatures are degrees, instruments, but it is the hand of Jesus, which [354r] leads everything. We must see only him in everything” (Letter of 1893) - LT 128 - . What she taught me, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus put it into practice. She was very saddened by the fact that our father, contrary to our hopes, could not attend her taking of the veil. She wrote to me on this subject (September 23, 1890): “You know how much I wanted this morning to see our dear father again. Well! now I see clearly that it is God's will that he not be there. He allowed this only to test our love... Jesus wants me to be an orphan, he wants me to be alone with him alone... It is Jesus alone who has led this affair; it's him, and I recognized his touch of love” - LT 120 - .

The Servant of God always had a holy ambition for eternal goods and the conquest of holiness. No one could attenuate in his heart this desire joined to the persuasion of being answered. She hoped to arrive at holiness, not because of her merits, which she confessed not to have, but because of the infinite merits of Jesus which were "her property", she said - CSG p.41 -. She confided her desires for high holiness to a retired preacher. This confessor found her very reckless and tried [355r] to lower her claims. The time had not come when the good Lord allowed another director “to launch her with full sail on the waters of trust and love” - MSA 80,2 - . Nevertheless, she persisted in her desires and her hopes. She wrote to me in May 1890 (she was 17): “As for me, I will not tell you to aim for the seraphic holiness of Saint Thérèse, but rather to be perfect, 'as your Heavenly Father is perfect - *> Mt. 5, 48 - . Oh! Céline, our desires which touch on infinity are therefore neither dreams nor chimeras, since Jesus himself gave us this commandment” - LT 107 - . She also hoped to see all her sins blotted out by the merits of Jesus. One of the last days that she was still able to recite the Holy Office alone, finding myself with her, I saw her suddenly soften. She pointed to one of the Matins lessons and said to me: "Look at what Saint John says: My little children, I have written this to you so that you do not sin, but nevertheless if you sin, remember that you have a Mediator who is Jesus'” - *1 Jn. 2, 1 - - CSG p. ? - . As she spoke these last words, her eyes were wet with tears.

[Session 30: - September 20, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[357r] [Response to XNUMXst request continued]:

The Communion of Saints was [357v] for her a great source of hope. Seeing her so perfect and so faithful in procuring the glory of God in all things, I said to her one day: "What I envy in you are your works, I would also like to do good, to compose beautiful things, to write , paintings, etc., which make the good God loved.” “Oh! she replied - you mustn't set your heart on that. Oh! no, we shouldn't be upset about our impotence, but apply ourselves only to love... However, if we suffer too cruelly from our poverty, we must offer the works of others to the good God, that's where the benefit of the communion of Saints. Tauler says: 'If I love the good that is in my neighbor as much as he loves himself, that good is mine as well as his. By this communion, I can be rich with all the good that is in heaven and on earth, in the angels and in the saints and in all those who love God. You see - she added - you will do just as much good as me and more when, with the desire to do this good, you accomplish the most hidden work out of love, even by rendering a slight service, when it costs you” - CSG p.56 - . She believed that one should not be afraid of desiring too much, of asking [358r] too much of God: "You must say to God: I know very well that I will never be worthy of what I hope for, but I reach out your hand like a little beggar and I am sure that you will hear me fully, because you are good!» - Spirit p.145 -

Her hopes for eternal life and holiness were in the Servant of God the source of a very great detachment from all creation. She wrote to me: "I thought that we should not attach ourselves to what surrounds us, since we could be in a place other than the one where we are" - LT 65 - . One day, I expressed to him the desire that the creatures take me into account of my efforts and notice my progress. She said to me: “What vanity to want to be appreciated by twenty people who live with us! I only want to be loved in heaven, because only there everything will be perfect” - CSG p.28 - . In the difficulties of life his hope was still invincible. She hoped that God would bless her efforts, when she had done everything in her to respond to the Lord's call. During our father's illness, she raised our courage by her words and her example. She said to me then: “Life is only a dream, soon we will wake up, and what joy! The greater our sufferings, the more our glory will be infinite.” - LT 358 - Discouragement never reached his soul. Did she feel his weakness? Did dryness dwell in her heart? His fidelity to practicing the virtues only became greater. She confided to me her dispositions in a letter of September 82: "Even if it seemed to me that this fire of love had died out, I would still throw small straws on the ashes and I am sure that it would rekindle" - LT 1893 - . When she was not heard, after fervent prayers to the good God and to the saints, she thanked them all the same, saying: "I believe that they want to see how far I will push my hope" - DEA 143-7 - .

A strange contrast: at the very heart of her great temptation against the faith, which was mainly aimed at the existence of heaven, the Servant of God constantly manifested the hope of this heaven, for which she constantly expressed her desire. Having heard the doctor say that out of a hundred people affected like her, no more than two survived, she said pleasantly: "If I were to be one of those two out of a hundred, how unfortunate it would be!" '(Primary source)'. A sister said to her: "So you are not afraid of death?." “Yes - she answered - she frightens me [359r] when I see her depicted in images as a ghost; but death is not that, that idea is not true. To chase it away, I need only remember the answer from my catechism: death is the separation of the soul from the body. Hey! well, I am not afraid of a separation that will reunite me forever with the good Lord.” - DEA 1-5 - Being healthy, she said that when she wanted to realize if she was still in an equal degree of love and hope from heaven, she wondered if death had as many charms for her . A too prosperous day, a lively joy were burdensome to him, because they tended to weaken his desire for death. In a word, I can say that I never saw her waver in her hope. I never detected in her a feeling of human fear, but always that of a blind hope.

Her love for God the Father went as far as filial tenderness. For the Spirit of love, she invoked him unceasingly. As for “his Jesus”, he was everything for his heart. When she wrote, when speaking of Our [359v] Lord, she capitalized “Him”, “He”, out of respect for his adorable person. It was through Jesus that she went to God. She had a special devotion to the mystery of the Incarnation, which she devoutly celebrated every March 25. She loved to consider Jesus in her childhood; she said: “It would be nice, if I died on March 25, because [because] it was on that day that Jesus was the smallest” (SP) Her devotion to the Sacred Heart was also very deep. She believed that it was impossible to get lost with this love in your heart, and I was able to observe, in this regard, an admirable faith. She said of a certain person, whose deviations disconcerted everyone: “I tell you that the good Lord will have pity on him, because of his devotion to the Sacred Heart” (SP). And from another whose salvation was in danger: “Because of her devotion to the Sacred Heart, she will be saved, but as if through fire” (SP). During my trip to Paray-le-Monial in 1890, she wrote to me: “Pray well to the Sacred Heart; you know, I do not see the Sacred Heart like everyone else, I simply think that the Heart of my Spouse is mine alone, as mine is his alone, and I speak to him then in the solitude of this delicious heart to heart, while waiting to contemplate it face to face one day” - LT 122 -.” [360r] His devotion to the Sacred Heart had its crowning and complete fulfillment in devotion to the Holy Face. The Holy Face was for her the mirror where she saw the soul and the heart of her beloved. This Holy Face was her meditation book from which she drew the science of love, as she explains, page 120 of the "Story of a Soul" - MSA 71,1 -.

From her earliest childhood, the Servant of God showed great concern never to displease God. His vigilance went so far as to avoid not only the smallest venial sins, but the slightest imperfections. Her love provoked in her an ever more intense desire to sacrifice herself, to prove her love to the good God by works. Also, her whole life was spent "stripping the leaves of the sacrifice flowers for Jesus" - HA 12 - and she was able to bear this beautiful testimony to herself at the moment of death: “Why should death frighten me? I have never acted except for the good Lord” - CSG - . His generous love would still have liked to find its consummation in martyrdom, which was the dream of his life. All these feelings of divine love that burned her heart, she shared them with me already when we were young girls, when [360v] we talked confidentially at the windows of the belvedere of Les Buissonnets; then, in those unforgettable "parlors" - MSA 73,2 - where we talked only about God. "It is of him, of Jesus, that we are going to speak together - she wrote to me -, without him, no speech has charms for our hearts" (August 15, 1892) - LT 135 -

She had a pronounced taste for prayer; his soul found everywhere subjects to think of the good God. The advice she gave me to sing a canticle to the Beloved unceasingly in my heart, she put it into practice. One day, it was at Carmel, I asked her if she sometimes lost the sense of the presence of God; she replied simply: “Oh! no, I believe that I have never been three minutes without thinking about it” - CSG - And this despite its almost continual aridity and its ordeal against the faith. The love of the good God truly animated all his actions; she only breathed for him; thought only of him. On the partition of her cell, she had written these words with a pin: “Jesus is my only love.” Unlike other mystics who exercise themselves to perfection in order to reach love, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus took love itself as the path to perfection, and at the age of 19 she wrote to her cousin Marie [361r] Guérin: "For me, I don't know any other way to achieve perfection than love" - ​​LT 109 -

[Response to the twenty-first request continued]:

The Servant of God sang how she understood the life of love in a canticle entitled: “Living on love”, Story of a soul, page 371 - PN 17 - . There all his thoughts are expressed. She composed it in one go, while she was doing her hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. It was February 25, 1895. On June 9 of that same year, 1895, the feast day of the Most Holy Trinity, [361v] during mass, she received a signal grace, and was inwardly urged to to offer as a victim of holocaust to merciful Love. Coming out of this mass, she took me with her, in search of our mother; she seemed beside herself and didn't speak to me. Finally, having found our mother, who was then Mother Agnès of Jesus, she asked her permission to offer herself with me as a victim to merciful Love. She gave him a short explanation. Our Mother was in a hurry, she didn't seem to really understand what it was all about and allowed everything, so much did she trust in the discretion of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. It was then that she composed the act of "Donation to Love", which she has always carried on her heart (Story of a soul, page 301) - MSA 84,1 -

The charity of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus towards the poor was touching. As a very young child, she made it a point of honor to bring them alms; she looked at them with tenderness and respect, so much so that one would have thought that it was the poor man who was doing her a favour. At the Carmel, she would have liked the job of nurse, because that is where the most dedication comes in. She told me about this: [362r] “The job of nurse is the job I would like the most; I wouldn't want to ask for it, I would be afraid it would be presumption, but if they gave it to me, I would think I was very privileged” - DEA 20-8 - . As I was myself a nurse's aide, she recommended me a lot to care for the sick with love, not to do this work like any other, but to do it with care, with delicacy, as if we were really rendering this service to God himself.

When she noticed in her novices the tendency to withdraw into herself, she fought it vigorously. One day she said to me: "To withdraw into myself, that sterilizes the soul, we must hasten to run to works of charity" - CSG - . This is what the Servant of God herself did. I had just entered Carmel when a good old lay sister, Sister Saint Peter, told me in detail about the charitable care that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had for her. She added, in a solemn tone: “Such acts of virtue must not remain buried under a bushel”. The virtue of the Servant of God must have been particularly gentle, to impress in this way this rough nature, unfit to appreciate delicacies. What particularly struck her [362v] was the angelic smile with which her amiable conductor closed all her services. She liked to be of constant service and pleasure, to her own detriment. Her "silences", her Sundays (free time at Carmel, each of which is very sparing), she spent most of the time composing poems, according to the sisters' request. She never refused a single one. Her time was so taken up by these acts of charity that she could not find any for herself. His charity assumed the most diverse forms. During her illness, she allowed herself to be administered the most repugnant and repeated remedies with invincible patience, while she recognized that they were absolutely ineffective. She confided to me that she had offered God all these painful and useless cares so that they might benefit an abandoned and sick missionary, who lacked the necessary care. His charity extended to the souls in purgatory. She had performed the “heroic act” and placed in the hands of the Blessed Virgin all her daily merits so that she could apply them to these suffering souls, as well as the suffrages which would be given to her after her death.

His charity inspired him with zeal [363r] for souls. This flame was kindled in her heart at the time which she calls "her conversion" - MSA 45,1 - ", that is, on Christmas Day 1886. One Sunday, closing his book, at the end of the mass, an image of Jesus on the cross protruded a little outside the pages, leaving him to see only one of his hands, pierced and bleeding. She was as if overwhelmed by an inner feeling which made her see this blood falling to the ground, without anyone hastening to collect it, and she formed the resolution to stand at the foot of the cross, in order to receive it and to receive it. benefit poor sinners. His zeal was directed, at this time, towards a great criminal, named Pranzini, condemned to the scaffold for appalling murders. Hearing about him from the public sheets, she resolved to convert him (she was about 14 years old). To this end, she redoubled her sacrifices and confided her secret to me, begging me to help her save this soul. She had the holy sacrifice of the mass offered for her. I saw her with astonishment, contrary to her habits, trying to see the newspapers, to discover there the announcement of Pranzini's conversion. She had asked God for a sensible sign, for his simple consolation, for she had no doubts about the success of her prayer. Pranzini is indeed converted in an [363v] absolutely unexpected and significant way. Lately, I talked to Father Valadier in the visiting room, former chaplain of La Roquette (prison for those condemned to death) and successor in this office to Father Faure, who assisted Pranzini. He confirmed to me the fact of this unexpected conversion, the details of which he had learned from Father Faure himself. Pranzini, who had refused the help of religion even to the scaffold, had his hands already tied when, in a voice choked with anguish, in a cry full of repentance and faith, he exclaimed: "Monsieur Chaplain, give me the crucifix." He kissed him effusively, exchanged two words with the chaplain at the moment when he was seized by the executioner. The Servant of God called Pranzini “her child” - MSA 46,2 -.” Later, at the Carmel, when some money was made available to her for her feasts, she obtained permission from our mother prioress to use her to have a mass celebrated, and she said to me in a low voice: "It's for my child; after the tricks he played, he must need it!... I must not give it up now” - CSG -.” After this memorable victory, the zeal of the Servant of God spread like a consuming fire. She undertook the conversion [364r] of a totally impious worker, who sometimes came to work at the house. She also taught two poor little girls. It was charming to hear him speak to them of the good Lord; they listened to his instructions eagerly. Later, at Carmel, I saw her, after the workers had left, stealthily slipping medals into the lining of their clothes. Having photographed the novices, I also took her portrait, she wanted to hold in her hand a scroll on which she had written these words of our Mother Saint Teresa: "I would give a thousand lives to save a single soul" - St. Teresa of Avila Ch . of perf. Ch.1 - During her last illness, during a period of cruel suffering, she still said: "I ask the good Lord that all the prayers that are made for me, do not serve to alleviate my sufferings, but that they are all for sinners” - CSG -.” She even had the desire to work after her death for the good of souls; she confided to Mother Agnès of Jesus, in my presence, “that she wanted to spend her heaven doing good on earth” - DEA 17-7 - . Two months before her death, on July 22, 1897, as I was reading her a passage on the bliss of heaven, she interrupted me to tell me: "That is not what attracts me." "So what?" I asked again. - “Ah! it's love!

During her life as a Carmelite, she directed her intentions especially towards the sanctification of priests. In 1889, she wrote to me on July 14 (she was 16): “O my Céline, let us live for souls, let us be apostles... above all save the souls of priests: these souls should be more transparent than crystal. Alas! and how many bad priests, priests who are not holy enough. Let us pray, let us suffer for them... Céline, do you understand the cry of my heart? » - LT 0 - She repeats the same thought to me in numerous letters, from 94 and 1889, as she also repeats it in her manuscript and in her poems.

Her charity was unfailing towards those of whom she might have cause to complain. Besides, she never complained of anyone. From the time she was in boarding school, when older students jealous of her successes made her pay for them with mutinies in bad taste, she contented herself with crying silently, without telling me. In Carmel, his charity took on the same forms. If she had any preferences, it was for the poorest nuns and at recess I always saw her place herself next to those whose character was the [365r] least sympathetic to her. She asked the mother prioress to help her in a job where no one could hold because of the unhappy character of the one who directed it, and that in order to do her some good. One day, to encourage me to overcome personal antipathies, she confided to me the violence she had been doing to herself for a long time on this point. This confidence was a revelation to me, for she dominated herself to such an extent that nothing appeared of her efforts, and I was even more amazed when she told me the name of the sister who was thus the cause of her daily struggles. . Indeed, I found the Servant of God so kind, so considerate for this sister, that I would have taken her for her best friend. It seemed that when you were in the wrong, she was all the more kind, considerate and gentle, in order to heal the embittered heart she felt was aching. She wanted me to practice this behavior; but I said to him: “It's too difficult; I will never arrive! I make good resolutions, I see clearly what I have to do; then, at the first meeting, I allow myself to be conquered.” - "If you disassemble so easily - she answered me it is that you do not soften your heart in advance. When you are exasperated with someone, the way to [365v] find peace is to pray for that person and ask the good Lord to reward him for giving you the opportunity to suffer” - CSG - . During her illness, she again pointed out to me that the first nurse always took very soft linen, which she chose with exquisite attention, to relieve her a little. "You see - she said to me - we must take the same care of souls... Oh! souls, often we don't think about it and we hurt them... Several souls are sick, many are weak, all are suffering. What tenderness we should have for them! » - CSG - . She told me “that we must always treat others with charity, because very often what appears negligent in our eyes is heroic in the eyes of God.

[Session 31: - September 21, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[367v] [Continuation of the response to the twenty-first request. The promoter asks the following question: of this charity, do you know only the splendor of it? Not also some deficiency, however slight?]:

No matter how hard I look, I find no [368r] faults in it, despite my desire to be absolutely sincere. She sometimes showed severity in the conduct of the novices; but I can't really say that it was a fault. It was a holy anger that did not cause her to lose possession of herself and the peace of her soul.

[And about caution what can you say?]:

The Servant of God always practiced the virtue of prudence. She never conducted herself by first impulse, but acted after reflection. All his thoughts, his actions, his talks converged on God; if she behaved personally with consummate prudence, never wasting her strength outside the goal she wanted to achieve, she endeavored to guide her novices along the same path, teaching us to avoid the pitfalls that could delay our progress . She took as a guide in this path of prudence the Blessed Virgin whom she never ceased to admire, and to offer us as a model in her reserve with the angel, in her silence with regard to Saint Joseph, and also when in in the face of joys and sorrows she “kept all things faithfully in her heart” as we learn [368v] from the Holy Gospel - *Lk. 2,19 - .

As a very small child, she already acted with this prudence; she said few words, but she observed a lot and made mature reflections on all things. Around 1883, I was about to be 14, she was barely 10; our relations were then most familiar; we never left each other, sharing the same room. For several years she maintained absolute discretion and tactful reserve towards me on a delicate subject explained by the difference in our ages. Four or five years later, she told me about this: “I could see that there was something they wanted to hide from me; so, to please God and mortify myself, and also not to embarrass you, I didn't try to find out” - SP - .

His prudence also manifested itself in the negotiations intended to open the doors of the cloister to him at the age of 15; the circumstances were particularly difficult, as I explained previously (Interrogation XVI'). The multiple oppositions to her project were such that, without the supernatural prudence she showed, it would certainly have failed. Her great means in difficulties was prayer, she was not impatient with obstacles, was not angry, had no bitter words [369r] for those who thwarted her plans; she then turned to another side and sought other means of carrying out what she considered to be the will of God.

Strictly speaking, the Servant of God never had a soul director; as much for the affairs of her vocation as later for her intimate conduct, she allowed herself to be guided by Our Lord, but nevertheless without hurting anyone, and giving, in every meeting, the marks of the most complete deference.

[Did she intentionally refrain from consulting spiritual directors?]:

No, whenever preachers of retreats or extraordinary confessors came to the Carmel, she solicited their advice at length; but Our Lord allowed her to rarely find there the lights she sought. On this subject, she made the following application of a text from the Song of Songs. As novices asked her how one should behave in the spiritual directions, she replied: “With great simplicity, without counting too much on help which you may lack at the first moment. You would quickly be forced to say with the Bride of [369v] Songs: 'The guards took my coat off me, they hurt me; and it was only by going a little beyond them that I found the One I love!' - Ct. 5, 7; 3, 4 - . If you ask humbly and without attachment where your Beloved is, the guards will tell you. However, more often than not, you will only find Jesus after you have passed all creatures” - CSG - .

[response continued]:

The Servant of God's precocious maturity and her prudence were appreciated in Carmel, where at the age of 21 she was charged with taking care of the novices, without however giving her the title of "mistress". These difficult and abnormal circumstances brought out all the more clearly his rare prudence. Here is how she defined her role in a letter she wrote to me in July 1894: “I am a little hunting dog: it is I who run after game all day long. You know! the hunters - the mistresses of the novices and prioresses - are too tall to sink into the bushes; but a little dog has a fine nose and then it runs everywhere; so I watch closely and the hunters are not unhappy with their little dog” - LT 167 - . But her prudence showed itself not only in the way in which she knew how to avoid the pitfalls of her situation; she shone above all in the advice she gave to her novices. (I was [370r] myself then among the novices entrusted to him). The ascendancy of her direction came less from a purely human prudence than from her abnegation, her love for souls and the constant recourse she had to God. I often noticed that, during our interviews, she lifted up her heart in prayer; I also noticed that she never sought herself out. If she was very kind, she was also very firm and did absolutely nothing for us. As soon as she noticed some imperfection, she would fearlessly find the culprit, and although it cost her a lot, nothing could prevent her from doing her duty.

The doctrine she taught us was also full of wisdom; here are a few features. She told us that in community everyone should try to be self-sufficient; that it was necessary to do everything as perfectly as possible, but by conforming to custom, because sometimes an indiscreet zeal can harm oneself and others. She also said: "Since, in life, it happens that the continuity of a thing tires, it is better to embrace, in terms of practices, only what one believes to be able to carry with perseverance" - CSG - . She wrote to me in 1889, [370v]on the occasion of our family trials: “Let us see life in its true light; it is a moment between two eternities... Let us suffer in peace. I admit that this word peace seemed a bit strong to me, but the other day, thinking about it, I found the secret to suffering in peace. Whoever says 'peace' does not say 'joy', or at least 'felt joy'.

To suffer in peace, it is enough to want all that Jesus winds. Holiness does not consist in saying nice things; it does not even consist in thinking them, in feeling them; it consists in wanting to suffer” - LT 87 - . She summed up all her instructions in what she calls “her little way of spiritual childhood and total abandonment” - DEA 13-7 17-7 -.

[Can you explain at greater length what was the doctrine that the Servant of God called "my little way of spiritual childhood and total abandonment"?]:

This “spiritual childhood or total abandonment” was the essential character of his holiness. In the specific instructions she gave to each of the novices, it was always necessary to come back to this: humility, spiritual poverty, simplicity and trust in God.

The essence of his teachings was to teach us not to afflict ourselves by seeing our very weakness, and, since “charity [371r] covers the multitude of sins” - *1 P. 4, 8 - , to apply to love. She said: “It's easy to please Jesus, to delight his Heart, you just have to love him, without looking at yourself, without examining your faults too much” - LT 142 - . Her thought is expressed quite well in the sentence she said to me: “You are very little, remember that, and when you are very little, you don't have nice thoughts. God is more proud of what he is doing in your soul, of your lowliness, of your humbly accepted poverty, than he is proud of having created the millions of suns and the expanse of the heavens. - CSG - One day when she had communicated a beautiful thought to me, I showed her my regret at not having such one; she replied: "The little child takes its mother's breast, so to speak, mechanically and without sensing the usefulness of its action and yet it lives, it develops." It is true, she added, that it is good to often collect one's thoughts and to direct one's intention, but nevertheless without constraint of spirit, the good Lord divines the beautiful thoughts and the ingenious intentions that we would like to have. - “Yes - I resumed - but you, you are delicate towards the good Lord, and I am not. I would like it so much! maybe my desire replaces?.” - "Precisely - she replied -, [371v] especially if you accept the humiliation of it, and if you go so far as to rejoice in it, it will please Jesus more than if you had never lacked delicacy. . Say: My God, I thank you for not having a single delicate feeling and I look forward to seeing others” - CSG - . She often said: "You don't need to understand what the good Lord is doing in you, you are too small" - CSG - . And again: "We must not work to become saints, but to please God" - CSG - . "His little way" consisted in boasting of his infirmities, of his impotence for all good. The Gospel of the workers who had worked only one hour and who were paid as much as the others (Mt. 20, 1-16), delighted her: "Look, she said - if we abandon ourselves, if we put our trust in the good God, making all our little efforts and hoping everything from his mercy, we will be rewarded and paid as much as the greatest saints” - CSG -

[372r] [Response to the twenty-first request continued]:

He was still entering "his little way of abandonment" to see all things on the bright side, to moderate in us the eagerness in business. This total abandonment that she had constantly taught us, she herself practiced faithfully. One day, during his illness, seeing him looking very unwell, Mother Agnès of Jesus said to him: “Oh! you are saddened, my poor little one, to see that heaven is not yet for tomorrow, is it not? She resumed immediately: "My little mother, don't you know me yet?" Here, here are all my feelings expressed in one of my hymns:

For a long time yet I want to live well, Lord, if that is your wish;
in heaven I would like to follow you if it pleased you.
Love, this fire of the Fatherland, [372v] never ceases to consume me.
What does death or life do to me? Jesus, my joy is to love you” - DEA 2-8 PN45 -

One day, having read this passage from the Ecclesiasticus: “Mercy will give each his place according to the merit of his works” - * Eccli. 16, 15 - , I asked him why there was "according to the merit of his works", since Saint Paul speaks of "being justified freely by grace" - *Rom. 3, 24 - . She then explained to me with fire that if the true spirit of childhood was steeped in abandonment and trust in God, it was no less so in humility and sacrifice. "You have to - she told me - do everything that is in yourself, give without counting, practice virtue on every occasion, constantly renounce yourself, prove your love by all the delicacies and all the tenderness, in a word, produce all the good works in our power for the love of God. But, in truth, as all this is very little, it is urgent to put all one's trust in Him who alone sanctifies works, and can sanctify without works, since he draws from the children of Abraham the very stones ( Cfr. - * Mt. 3,9 - Yes, it is necessary, when we have done all that we believe we should do, to confess ourselves useless servants (Cfr. - *> Lc. 17, 10 - , hoping however that the God will give us, by [373r] grace, everything we desire. This is the "little way of childhood" - DEA 17-7 - The Servant of God was so far removed from a vague and indolent, that she had based hers on the love of the cross. She appreciated so much the laborious work of suffering, that she did not believe without it that she could live on love. She sang in her canticle:

Living on love is not setting up your tent on the top of Tabor on earth;
with Jesus it is to climb Calvary, it is to look at the cross as a treasure.
In heaven, I must live in enjoyment; then the trial will have fled without return;
but in Carmel I want in suffering to live on love! -PN17-

The Servant of God always rendered faithful worship to God and to the saints. She had a great esteem for religious exercises; very young, she loved pious ceremonies and frequenting the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist. She prepared four years in advance for her First Communion and when, a few years older than her, I received God for the first time, she looked at me with holy respect and she hardly dared to touch me. The [373v] visit to the Blessed Sacrament had always been his delight. Before entering the Abbey, that is to say before the age of 8, she went out every day with my father, and never failed to enter a church; she wouldn't have gone home without having visited God. At boarding school, she did not fail in this pious practice. Every day, at half-past one, she used her free quarter of an hour to visit God instead of having fun like most of her companions. After leaving boarding school, she attended mass every day and took communion there as often as her confessor allowed, that is to say four or five times a week. She would have liked to take communion every day, but then dared not ask. When her confessor himself added a communion to the ordinary number, she was delirious with joy. The feasts of the Church appeared to him all radiant with beauty; likewise the recitation of the divine office was his joy in Carmel; she was happy to have some obedience in the liturgical ceremonies. She edified there by her modesty and recommended that we, her novices, compose our exterior there with particular care, because of the dignity of the place; she recommended that we keep this dignity at all times [374r] out of respect for the holy angels who watch over us. Among the duties she rendered to God, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus attached particular importance to gratitude for the graces received. She said to me: “What attracts us the most grace is recognition... I have experienced it for myself, try it and you will see. I am happy with everything God gives me, and I prove it to Him in a thousand ways” - CSG -.” When I entered Carmel, I found that the good Lord ought to be indebted to me for the great sacrifice that I was making for him and I begged my dear little Thérèse to compose me, to give me courage, a canticle which would repeat all that I had left for the good Lord and would end with these words: "Remember." She did indeed compose it, but in a completely different sense from that which I had wished, for the soul there reminds Jesus of all that he has done for her: the soul is the obligated and Jesus the benefactor - PN 24 - .

The Servant of God was very fond of adorning the altars, and especially the altar where, on certain days, the Blessed Sacrament is exposed. She exercised for a long time the job of sacristan, it was edifying to see with what respect and what happiness she touched holy things, and her joy when she saw a small part[374v]that of the holy host forgotten by the priest. I witnessed on this occasion sublime scenes of piety, in particular once when she found herself in the presence of an insufficiently purified ciborium; she carried it into the tabernacle of the oratory with unspeakable devotion. She touched the corporals and the purificatories with great delicacy; it seemed to her, she told me, to touch the nappies of the Child Jesus. While preparing the mass for the following day, she liked to look at herself in the chalice and the paten; it seemed to him that the gold having reflected his image, it was on it that the divine species would rest.

She always had great confidence in and tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin. From an early age, she considered her as her mother. But her devotion increased when, at the age of 10, she was suddenly cured by the Blessed Virgin, of a disease deemed incurable by doctors. The statue in front of which she recovered her health was always dear to her. During his last illness, this statue was taken to the infirmary where it was placed in front of his bed. The Servant of God constantly recommended to Mary all her intentions and all the undertakings of her zeal. When she wanted to encourage her novices to [375r] practice the virtues, she wrote them little letters, in the name of the Blessed Virgin. The Servant of God was already very ill when she told me: "I still have something to do before I die: I have always wanted to express in a song to the Blessed Virgin everything I think of her » - CSG - . And she composed her hymn "Why I love you, oh Mary" (Story of a soul, page 418) - PN54 -.

The devotion of the Servant of God to Saint Joseph went hand in hand with her love for the Blessed Virgin. During her trip to Rome, she confided to me that she feared nothing for her purity of anything that might come before her during this trip, because she had placed herself under the protection of Saint Joseph; she then taught me to recite like her every day the prayer: “0 Saint Joseph, Father and Protector of virgins” - see: end of the Roman Breviary - . In Carmel, she prayed to him a lot to obtain greater freedom to participate in Holy Communion. The liberating decree of Leo XIII (1891), withdrawing from superiors, to give it to the sole confessor, the right to regulate communions - Trial p.152 -, filled her with joy. She was always grateful to Saint Joseph to whom she attributed this outcome.

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus honored the angels, especially her guardian [375v] angel, whose statuette she had in her bedroom as a young girl. She attributed to him her preservation from sin, as evidenced by a letter she wrote to me from Carmel on April 26, 1894 - LT> 161 - . She honored all the saints, but among them she had her favorite protectors and her friends. Among this number are its patron saints: Saint Martin, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Thérèse. She was also very fond of Saint John of the Cross, because she had particularly liked his works. Among the saints, her friends of choice were: Saint Cecilia, whom she called "the saint of abandonment" - LT 161 - Blessed Joan of Arc, Blessed Théophane Vénard, because, she said, "it is a very simple little saint who loved the Blessed Virgin very much, who also loved his family very much, and above all because he lived in loving abandonment to God” - HA 12 - . Finally, she honored the Holy Innocents, in whom she saw a model of the virtues of Christian childhood.

[Session 32:-September 22, 1910, at 8:30 a.m. and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[377v]. [Answer to the twenty-first question continued: the virtue of strength, etc.]:

Trials were not lacking for the Servant of God, and she had many opportunities to show the generosity of her courage. The most poignant of these ordeals was our father's brain disease. Other less profound sorrows came to him from the roughness of character of certain people around him. The constancy of his amenity to these people testifies in another way to the heroicity of his fortitude. Finally, she was also exceptionally courageous [378r] to endure, without ever diminishing her fervor, a whole life of aridity and inner trials to which was added, at the end of her life, a very painful temptation against the faith.

I can also now give some details on the way the Servant of God behaved in these various circumstances which I witnessed. As a child, she already showed by her actions this empire over herself; at that age when children's troubles take on gigantic proportions, she, although sensitive to excess, knew how to dominate them in order to console others. She never complained of her childish troubles, which she always endured in silence. It was with surprising energy that she conducted all the steps that were to secure her entry into Carmel at the age of 15. It took heroism to overcome his timidity on this occasion. She said, speaking of her trip to Bayeux to present her request to the Bishop: “Oh! what it cost me to make this journey! The good Lord had to grant me a very special grace, so that I could overcome my great timidity... It is also quite true that love never finds impossibility, because it believes itself to be everything possible [378v] and everything permitted” - MSA 53,2 - . But her courage was mainly surprising in the step she dared to take with the Holy Father. “This day - she writes - I desired it and feared it at the same time; it was on him that my vocation depended. What I suffered before the hearing, God alone knows, with my dear Céline who was there” - MSA 62,2 - . “I don't know how I will go about talking to the Pope - she wrote to her aunt -. Truly, if God didn't take care of everything, I don't know what I would do” - LT 32 - . She showed herself to be courageous and intrepid in presenting her request, despite the opposition of Monsieur Révérony, vicar general of Bayeux. But she was even more heroic when, sorry for the vague answer that the Holy Father had given her: "You will enter if the good God wills it" - MSA 63,2 - she abandoned herself peacefully in the arms of Jesus. She wrote that very day to her sister: “I am the little ball of the Child Jesus; if he wants to break his toy, he is quite free; yes, I want everything he wants” - LT 36 -

His strength was still very evident in the painful ordeal of our father's illness. It was she who constantly supported us with her invincible abandonment to God. She wrote to me in February 1889: “What a privilege Jesus is doing us by sending us [379r] such great pain. Ah! Eternity will not be long enough to thank him! He fills us with his favors, as he filled the greatest saints. Why such a great predilection? It is a secret that Jesus will reveal to us in our homeland, the day he wipes all the tears from our eyes (Rev. 21,4)... Ah! Dear little sister, far from complaining to Jesus about the cross he sends us, I cannot understand the infinite love that led him to treat us like this... Our dear father must be well loved by Jesus to have thus to suffer; but don't you think that the misfortune that strikes him is quite the complement of his good life? I feel that I am telling you real madness, but it does not matter, I still think many other things about the love of Jesus, which are perhaps much stronger than what I am telling you” - LT 82 -

She was also strong in her religious life, which met with more than one trial from its beginning, for to the inner trials of dryness and abandonment were added the severity or the incapacity of the nuns in charge of her first formation. She was poorly cared for in food and rest and treated harshly by her mother prioress. Her mistress of novices was a holy [379v] nun, but without discernment. Suddenly, for example, she made her rest for no reason for a fortnight in a row, when she had forgotten her for several weeks; and the mother prioress, not seeing the novice at morning prayer, got carried away and scolded the poor child, who did not know whom to obey. However, in the midst of these various tribulations, the Servant of God never ceased to show herself always equal to herself. Her strength also shone in her ordeal against the faith, of which she spoke to no one, so as not to communicate her temptation to us. She underwent this ordeal without the slightest movement of discouragement appearing in her. It was again without fail that she worked to correct herself from her natural inclinations, for she would have been very lively had she not succeeded in conquering herself. When the Servant of God speaks in her manuscript of the sacrifices she made at the age of 15, she says "that she worked to break her will, always ready to impose herself" - MSA 68,2 -. Now, she was so successful in conquering herself that I, who always lived with her in the greatest intimacy, never noticed this "tendency to impose herself" of which she speaks. [380r] It was constantly in society and in Carmel that she practiced holding back a word of rejoinder, rendering small services without showing them off, accomplishing work for which she had no taste. overcome his natural antipathies. We, her novices, disturbed her at times and at mishaps, we bothered her, we asked her indiscreet questions. Never, for my part, have I seen her answer me in the slightest abrupt way; she was always calm and gentle. On all occasions, she only took help and relief from what was offered to her, without any advance on her part. She had just spat blood on Good Friday 1896, after having spent her Lent in all the rigor of Carmel. She was left that day to fast on bread and water and attend to the tiring work of cleaning; she manifested joy that no one took notice of her. She was not exempted from common work (laundry and others) until the last period of her illness. Burning with fever, she would go to the laundry, go to the clothes line, her back or chest torn by unhealed blisters. I can still see her, after a session with the doctor, where they had just given her more than 500 points of fire on her side (it was me who [have] counted them), getting into her cell and taking his rest on his hard mattress; for in those days they did not yet give mattresses, even temporarily, to the sick who had not gone down to the infirmary. His fortitude was even greater in the last days of his life. To sum up, there is a fact that I have always noticed in the life of the Servant of God, it is that the divine Master served her trial after trial, tribulation after tribulation; everything always went wrong or so little that patience and abandonment were constantly exercised.

The Servant of God was faithful in dominating the projections of passion; she was constantly calm and serene, and although she had a very lively imagination, she did not raise her head, one was always sure of finding wise and balanced advice from her. She advised me never to expose a subject of dissatisfaction to her when I was still moved. She said: “When you tell a fight, even to our mother, never do it with the aim that the [381r] sister who provoked it be warned, or that the thing you are complaining about stops; but speak with openness of heart. When you don't feel that release, and there is still even a spark of passion in your heart, it is more perfect to be silent and wait for your soul to be pacified, because often s 'discussing it only makes things worse' - CSG - She always practiced this opinion for her personal conduct, and she was never seen running to our mother in the heat of a fight; she was still waiting to be a mistress herself. I noticed that she did not tell me of her struggles to practice charity towards the sister whose character was not sympathetic to her, until the victory was complete; for she considered, as I have just said, that one weakens when one discusses difficulties on the very field of combat. Moreover, she acted in the same way from her childhood, when she confided to me her sorrows as a boarder only once she had left the Abbey.

The practice of mortification was always familiar to the Servant of God. She took the last place on all occasions and took what was the least [381v] convenient, both when traveling and at home. As a child, she had acquired the habit of not letting small occasions for mortifying herself escape; for example, she interrupted her readings at even the most exciting passage, as soon as the time to stop had come. Later, she applied herself with ardor to special studies of history and natural sciences: "I employed there - she says - only a certain number of hours which I did not want to exceed, in order to mortify my excessive desire to know” - MSA 47,1 - One day, when my father announced to me that he was going to make me learn drawing, having asked Thérèse if it would also please her, she refrained from answering, because Mary intervened in the opposite direction. And yet, she wanted to. She told me later that she still wondered how she had had the strength to keep quiet.

In Carmel, her habits of mortification extended to all things, I noticed that she never asked for news; if she saw a group somewhere, and the Mother Prioress seemed to be telling something interesting, she was careful not to go that way. In the refectory, the Servant of God accepted, without ever complaining, that she was [382r] served with leftover food. She never leaned on her back; did not cross his feet; always stood straight. She didn't want us to sit crooked, even to relax; nothing reminiscent of worldly convenience and ease. Unless it was really necessary, she didn't wipe her sweat, because she said that was to admit that we were too hot and a way of letting people know. About the instruments of penitence, I told him that the instinct of self-preservation caused one to naturally avoid many movements when one carried them, and that one stiffened under discipline so as to suffer less. She looked at me stunned and went on: “I don't think it's worth doing things by halves, I take discipline to hurt myself and I want it to hurt me as much as possible. .. » - CSG - "'. She told me that sometimes it hurt her so much, that tears came to her eyes, but that she tried feelings of her heart, which was so joyful to suffer in union with her Beloved, to save souls to him. As to the instruments of penance permitted outside the Rule, she said that her devotion would have been to wear [382v] days that are not days of discipline. She acts like this as long as it is permitted. In winter, despite the many frostbites which swelled her hands considerably, I rarely saw her keep them hidden. it was freezing cold, and we were without fire, I noticed that she had her hands all uncovered and spread out. On his knees, I made him the reflection, because that exasperated me; but she contented herself with smiling with a little mischievous air; I saw that she was exposing them to the cold on purpose.

[Answer to the twenty-first request continued: temperance and mortification]:

The Servant [383r] of God was no less mortified in her mind and in her heart than in her senses. She deprived herself of everything that could have given her satisfaction. While Mother Agnès of Jesus (her dear Pauline, her little mother) was prioress, she let her turn of direction pass by our mother, in order to deprive herself through mortification of the consolation that she found there. I was really surprised at his detachment. She spoke to me as "her novice", because she had the permission and the duty to do so, but I often noticed that she refrained from opening up with me about what concerned her personally. According to the prayer she had made when taking the direction of the novices, they never attached themselves to her humanly. I noticed that each of us, although loving her very much, had never been tempted to have for her that mad and thoughtless affection which sometimes develops in young and deluded hearts. If she acted with this spirit of mortification towards me, "the little companion of her childhood" - MSA 6,2 -, I know that she still practiced it with more rigor for "her little mother" (mother Agnès of Jesus) , because the permission given for it was more restricted. At the taking of the habit [383v] of our cousin Marie Guérin (Sister Marie of the Eucharist), the community accompanying her to the gate to hand her over to her family, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus stood at away, and did not appear. A sister meeting her said to her: “So go too to see your family!” But she didn't. It should be noted that the visiting rooms being under construction, it had been a year since we had seen our parents. As I later reproached her for having been the only one to miss the appointment, she told me that she had deprived herself of it to mortify herself, adding that her (sic) sacrifice had cost her a lot. About this mortification of the heart, she said to us (to us her three Carmelite sisters) towards the end of her life: "When I am gone, be careful not to lead family life", to tell you nothing parlors without permission and even then only ask permission when it will be useful and not amusing things” - DEA 3-8 - . The Servant of God's obedience appeared in her from her earliest childhood. I don't remember having seen her murmur or delay in carrying out an order received, either at home or in boarding school. You had to pay great attention to what was said in front of her, [384r] because an advice became an order to her, and she followed it not just for a day, or a fortnight, but until the end of her life. So it was in Carmel, where circumstances were, in his time, very favorable to the heroic exercise of obedience. Our poor mother Marie de Gonzague made, according to the whim of the moment, a host of recommendations which, for the majority of the sisters, were nullified after a few days and which she herself forgot to have made. These recommendations therefore fell by themselves, except for Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. I surprised her going around to go to such and such a place, retracing her steps to close a door that everyone left open: it was because six months or two years before, our mother had made an observation on this subject. ; she had remained for her an oracle. She did not consider whether it was with reason or without foundation, nor whether the thing recommended had been maintained: the mother prioress had said it once, that was enough for her to make it an obligation until death. She obeyed each of the sisters, going right and left according to each one's desire, without ever appearing the shadow of an annoyance. One evening, during her illness, the community having gone [384v] to the oratory of the Sacred Heart to sing a canticle there, she painfully followed the community and was obliged to sit down during the singing. A sister called her, telling her to come and sing; she rose immediately and joined the choir. After the meeting, very unhappy, because I was a nurse, I asked him who had inspired him with this too blind obedience in my opinion. She replied simply “that she had got into the habit of obeying everyone out of a spirit of faith” - CSG - .

Three years after profession, the novices leave the novitiate, and taking the rank of the other sisters are no longer held to the same requirements; thus the novices ask for their general permissions every week, while the others only ask for them every month. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus could have, with her 9 years of religious life, freed herself from these ties, but she was careful not to do so and subjected herself, until the end of her life, to stricter requirements. of the novitiate. What sacrifices did his principle of blind obedience cause him to make during his long illness? [385r] because we often made her suffer, believing that we were relieving her, and she suffered without ever asking for what we thought we should prescribe to her. One day when she had been ordered to say out of obedience what could relieve her, as she was burning with fever, she asked the first nurse who was then at her side, to remove a blanket from her. This very old and somewhat deaf sister realized that she was cold, and gathering all the blankets she could find, covered her over her head. When I returned, I found her in this state, dripping with sweat. She told me "that she had accepted everything in a spirit of obedience and that the sister, seeing that she took everything she gave her with a smile, never tired of bringing new blankets" - Source première - She judged people by their obedience to superiors and works by their subordination to authority. On one particular occasion, she had been given a pious pamphlet which made a lot of noise and which, in reality, did not displease her, she even had veneration for the author. But having learned that this author had said a somewhat rebellious word to a bishop, she no longer wanted to hear about him, any more than about his works.

[385v] The Servant of God pushed the practice of poverty to extreme limits, and this virtue did not take root in her without effort. She says in her manuscript "that she was happy to have neat things for her use and to find at hand what she needed." -MSA 74,1 - ''. With her nature as an artist, it was indeed natural that she would have preferred things in good taste and not deteriorated. I noticed it one day when I had made an irreparable stain on her hourglass, because I noticed the effort she made to agree to keep it that way and to show nothing of the sacrifice that I imposed on her without wanting to. Another time, a tincture had been passed over a small table for his use; it happened that the insufficiently dry feet made several stains on the floor of his cell; not having been able to make them disappear, I realized that it was a real sacrifice for him to put up with them. Yet it is with this love of beauty that she managed to choose for her use the ugliest and most worn objects. When they didn't have that stamp, she knew how to give it to them. His work basket, beginning to come apart, a sister lined it with a strip of old velvet found in the attic. Although in a great hurry, Sister Thérèse undid the work and [386r] put the velvet inside out, so that it was poorer and uglier. Being in the lingerie, her workmate gave her to tie the work on her knees a pin which had a head imitating a pearl. She no sooner had it in her possession than she broke off the little white head, leaving only a rough pin. A novice having rubbed linseed oil on the furniture in her own cell, she had him wash it immediately with a brush. The Servant of God carefully rejected convenience. Throughout her religious life she had a small lamp whose mechanism no longer worked, so that to raise or lower the wick she had to use a pin. But it seemed so natural to see her giving herself this trouble with perfect good grace, that one allowed oneself to be persuaded that she preferred these objects to others. Doubtless the good Lord allowed it thus to give her the opportunity to deserve, because we should have thought that it would have been more pleasant for her to possess a lamp like those of all the other sisters. She paid no attention to her dresses fitting well; the uglier and more worn it was, the happier she was. She confided to me that to save time, which she always used for others, she did not copy for herself [386v] the poems she had composed, although she would very much have liked to have a copy. To sum up these ideas on poverty, I will relate a piece of advice she gave me towards the end of her life: “I would like – I said to her one day – that this image which belonged to you remain with me, after your death. » “Oh! - she replied - you still have desires!... When I'm with the good Lord, don't ask for any of my stuff, just take what you'll be given; to do otherwise would be not to be stripped of everything; instead of bringing you joy, it would make you unhappy.

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus always took extreme care to keep intact the beautiful virtue of chastity. She told me that she always acted alone with the same reserve as if she had been in someone's presence. However, she was not scrupulous. His upright and perspicacious mind had made him know all things, and everything was beautiful to his clear gaze. Also, she didn't know what a bad thought was, her whole heart was pure. She praised God for all her works and found them all marked with the stamp of divine purity (I am speaking here of her moods since [387r] the age of 14, because I did not know in what way consisted of her childish scruples).

[Session 33: - September 23, 1910, at 8:30 a.m. and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[389v] [Answer to the twenty-first question continues: chastity, humility, etc.]:

[390r] At the beginning of her trip to Rome, she recommended her purity to Saint Joseph, and nothing ever managed to disturb her from all that came under our gaze in museums and elsewhere. She told me that when she was small "she was ashamed of her body" - DEA 30-7 - and that only one thing consoled her for having one, it was that Jesus had not disdained to take one. similar to ours. From Carmel she wrote me several letters in which she extols the beautiful virtue of purity; she often speaks to me of the "white lily" which signified virginity; she brought out its immaculate beauty in comparison with the "yellow lily" - LT 57 -, which in our common language signified marriage. When all my sisters had entered religion and I remained alone in the world with our father, she felt a quite maternal solicitude for my soul and suffered greatly knowing that I was exposed to dangers which had been unknown to her. Indeed, at the time when I remained alone in the world, I was obliged by propriety to follow the current of the milieu in which I lived. She was always worried about me; but above all on a certain day when she learned that I had to attend a party where I would have to dance. She wept, she told me, as she had never wept and asked me to go to the visiting room to give me her [390v] recommendations. As I found that she was a little over the top, because we couldn't make a fool of ourselves, she seemed indignant and said to me forcefully: "You, the spouse of Jesus (I had taken a vow of chastity), you want to make a pact with the century, giving yourself up to dangerous pleasures? » - CSG - . I was amazed and defeated, I took the indicated resolution and held it at the cost of many troubles. The Servant of God cherished holy purity to such an extent that when she took the habit, when she was given a reliquary to carry on her henceforth, she only chose relics of virgins, discarding all the others, even the relics of the saints she loved the most. It was she who pointed this out to me by showing me her reliquary. She also confided to me one day that she had never experienced any temptations against chastity.

The Servant of God always practiced humility. As a child, at the age when one so desires to grow up, she expressed the desire to remain very small in stature. Later, on her deathbed, she considered with joy that despite her nine years of religion, she had always been in the novitiate, not being part of the chapter and always considered as "a little one." Based on a certain ignorance of various manual works, [391r] the Servant of God believed us to be superior to her; she looked with a holy envy (the envy to do good) at the beautiful miniatures and the poems written by Mother Agnes of Jesus; she admired my picture compositions, and one day during prayer, when she was looking at a painting that I had just sent, representing the adoration of the Shepherds, she made the sacrifice to God of seeing herself incapable; after which she shed a very vivid light on the benefit of the communion of Saints which makes us all partakers of the works of one another in proportion to our desires. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was so aware of her weakness that she was convinced that, without the very special help of God, she would not have achieved her salvation: "With a nature like mine - she wrote - if I had been brought up by parents without virtue, I would have become very wicked and perhaps lost myself. But Jesus watched over his little bride; he wanted everything to turn out for his good, even his faults which, repressed early, helped him to grow in perfection” - MSA 8,2 - .

This preservation, to which she attributed her virtue, seemed to her to be the equivalent of a veritable remission. So she wrote to me in July 1891: “If Jesus says of Madeleine that he loves more to whom more has been given - *Lc. 7, 47 - ), we can say it with [391v] even more reason when Jesus forgave sins in advance” - LT 130 - . All the sins that are committed on earth and from which she had been preserved seemed to her to be forgiven her in advance, because she felt capable of succumbing to them.

During our trip to Rome, she noticed that a young traveler had an affectionate complaisance towards her. When we were alone, she said to me: “Oh! How high time Jesus rescued me from the poisonous breath of the world, for I feel that easily my heart would be taken in by affection, and where others perish I too would perish, for we are not stronger than one. than the others” - SP - . She will write, on this subject, in her manuscript: "I therefore have no merit in not having given myself up to the love of creatures, since I was only preserved from it by the great mercy of the good God" - MSA 38,2 - "'. For the Servant of God, humility consisted in seeking oblivion rather than expressing the contempt she felt for herself. "To find something hidden - writes to me - she August 2, 1893 - we must hide ourselves, - Cant. Spir. str 1 - our life must therefore be a mystery, we must resemble Jesus, like Jesus whose face was hidden - *Is. , 53 - .Do you want to learn something that will serve you? says the Imitation, love to be ignored and reckoned for nothing'" - Imit.liv.3ch 1-2 and LT 3 - .It's about humility [146r] on which his "little childhood way" is based. In fact, feeling weak and incapable of anything good, not seeing herself "capable - as she said - to climb the rough staircase of perfection", - MSC 392 - she threw herself into the arms of the good God and makes his home there.

For her personal conduct, not only did the Servant of God constantly put a good face to humiliations, but she humiliated herself, always taking the last place, obeying everyone, remaining silent when she was not questioned; she was humble in the smallest things. Here are some of the words she taught me about humility: “Sometimes we find ourselves wanting the shiny. So let us rank ourselves humbly among the imperfect, consider ourselves 'little souls' that God must support at all times; as soon as he sees us fully convinced of our nothingness, he stretches out his hand to us; if we still want to try to do something great, even under the pretext of zeal, the good Jesus leaves us alone, but as soon as I said: My foot has faltered, your mercy, Lord, has strengthened me”, - *Ps. 93, 18 - - CSG - . She writes to me another time: “Perhaps you will believe that I do what I say; Oh! no, I am not always faithful, but I never get discouraged; I abandon myself in the arms of Jesus; [392v] the little dewdrop sinks further into the chalice of the 'Flower of the Fields' (Ct. 2, 1), and there it finds all it has lost and much more” - LT 143 - . "Yes - she says elsewhere - it is enough to humble oneself, to bear one's imperfections with gentleness: this is true holiness" - CSG - . “If, in falling, there should be no offense against God, one should do it on purpose, in order to humble oneself.” - Source pr. -

[Did the Servant of God sometimes mention the privileges she was going to receive from God?]:

I have heard it said, but very vaguely, that some had spoken in this regard of the Servant of God's lack of humility; but I do not believe this judgment possible, except for those who read only very superficially the life and writings of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. For it is impossible to observe her with any attention, without recognizing that she was all humility and that she never speaks of the graces she received, except to publish with great simplicity the mercies of God upon her soul, or to express his gratitude, or for the edification of others. It seems to me that the candor with which she sometimes speaks of the blessings of God in her is precisely [393r] the expression of a very perfect humility.

[Response to the twenty-second request]:

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was a very simple soul and sanctified herself by ordinary means. There are, however, some facts in his life where the intervention of the supernatural seems more remarkable. At the age of a few weeks, she was healed by the invocation of Saint Joseph, when she was about to die of the bowel disease which had kidnapped our two little brothers and the two doctors who were treating her no longer had of hope. At the age of 10, she was instantly cured [393v] by the Blessed Virgin of a very serious and very strange illness. As she regained her health, she was blessed with a vision from the Queen of Heaven. This healing is told very exactly on pages 48 and 49 of the "Story of a soul" - MSA 30,1-2 -. I have witnessed all the phases of this illness and its sudden cure. Here are the details that I can relate: In this extraordinary illness, I seemed to recognize the action of the demon: such was my feeling and that which I heard expressed around me. I then witnessed frightening scenes: she was banging her head against the wood of her bed as if to kill herself (it was a large, very high bed); she stood up on her bed, and putting her head in front of her feet, she performed a certain trick which, several times, threw her brutally to the ground over the balustrade of her bed; the apartment was paved and she never hurt herself. One day I heard my uncle, Monsieur Guérin, a man of science and faith, say that she would not be cured by human means. He who had been an intern pharmacist in Paris hospitals, able to observe cases of extraordinary illnesses, said that we had never seen a similar case. He then reported that the doctor had just told him, with regard to Thérèse, that this case [394r] foiled all the calculations of science; that if these symptoms had occurred around the age of 14 or 15, he might have understood them, but that in a child of 10 they were inexplicable. However, unlike illnesses where the demon plays a role, pious objects never scared him. This illness lasted barely five months. She was suddenly and completely healed on May 10. Seeing the sudden change that took place in her attitude, and observing the expression of her gaze in this ecstasy, I had no doubt that she was then seeing the Blessed Virgin. I was so convinced of it that I don't remember making entreaties to him to make him say something that seemed obvious to me; but my sister Marie wanted him to tell what she had seen.

At the age of 15, after entering the Carmel, she was commissioned to adorn the statue of the Child Jesus which is under the cloister. One day she regretted not being able, as in the past, to harvest sheaves of wild flowers in the countryside to place them at the feet of this statue. She said to herself: "So I'll never see blueberries again, big daisies, poppies, oats, wheat!" » - CSG - . The portress of the monastery [394v] brought our mother that same day a superb rural wreath made up of all the flowers that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had wanted. The portress outside had found it resting on the edge of the window, like something offered without anyone ever knowing who had brought it. The thing is all the more strange, as at that time the Carmel of Lisieux was not known as it is now and no one brought flowers there. It is quite different today, where the people devoted to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus constantly bring flowers.

In July 1894, when she said she "enjoyed an iron health" - LT 167 - she seemed to have predicted her death. In fact, she wrote to me on July 18, 1894: “Jesus will come, he will take one of us, and the others will remain for a little while, in exile and in tears” - LT 167 - . Among the future events that it was given to her to foresee, we can cite the cerebral palsy of our good father which she saw depicted in her childhood in a prophetic vision (Story of a soul, pages 31 and 32) - MSA 19,2 .20,2-20,1 - . This vision has been realized even in the particularities of detail; she saw him, she says, "his head covered with a thick veil" - MSA 395 - . This detail is very significant, because at the beginning of his illness [XNUMXr] I noticed that my dear little father constantly wanted to veil his face. For this purpose he took his handkerchief or some other material within his reach, and placed it on his head.

The Servant of God, having suffered greatly from the deprivation of Holy Communion, predicted that after her death we would not lack "our daily bread", which was fully realized, and for 13 years there has not been only one day when we [were] deprived of it, because there was no priest to say mass for us. She had also predicted to Mother Marie de Gonzague that from heaven she would make her change her way of seeing about the infrequency of Holy Communion, which happened. Mother Marie de Gonzague indeed suddenly changed her way of acting, and the chaplains found themselves free to put us on a daily communion regimen. Many times I heard the Servant of God express, in very varied forms, her desire and her assurance of doing good after her death and describe what that good would be: that she would call souls to God by teaching them the path of trust and total abandonment. She no doubt foresaw the [395v] esteem that people would make of the objects that had belonged to her, because, with charming simplicity, she gave me the clippings of her fingernails to keep.

[Response to the twenty-third request]:

When she was little, there was in her countenance, her attitude, her walks, something celestial; our friends and the people who frequented us said so. When she was 12 to 15 years old, she went rather unnoticed; she was shy and spoke little, outside the intimacy of the family. It was evident that she was very pious, and our aunt was surprised that she knew the "Imitation of Jesus Christ" by heart. But for the rest, little thought was given to her. During her first six years of Carmel, I was separated from her since I had remained in the world with my father. I have reason to believe, from what I learned after my entry into Carmel, that during this period her simplicity and her humility caused her to pass rather unnoticed among her sisters, who held her to be a nun very assiduous in his Rule. During her last three [396r] years that I spent in Carmel with her, I noticed that some sisters, more far-sighted, paid homage to her exceptional holiness. Sister Saint Pierre, a poor cripple, wanted us to perpetuate the memory of the charity that the Servant of God had practiced towards her; she even claimed "that we would talk later about Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus" Another former sister, who has also since died, Sister Marie Emmanuel, said to me: "This child has such maturity and so much virtue that I would like her prioress, if she was not 22 years old”. Finally, two other elders were going to ask her advice in secret. But, all in all, even during her last years, she continued to lead a hidden life, the sublimity of which was better known to God than to the sisters who surrounded her.

[Response to the twenty-fourth request]:

For the details of the illness and death of the Servant of God, I know of none other than those collected with such care, day by day, by our Reverend Mother. She was writing at the same time what Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus said to those who approached her bed; she wrote it verbatim, as the dear [396v] little patient said. In addition, she collected the details of the various phases of the disease, according to the health report that Sister Marie of the Eucharist (Marie Guérin) sent to her father every day, during the course of this disease, I was then assistant in the infirmary, and, out of delicacy, I had been entrusted with the care of my dear little sister; I slept in a small cell adjoining his infirmary and I left it only for the hours of the office and some care to give to the other patients. During this time, Mother Agnes of Jesus replaced me. I can therefore certify knowingly that all the notes taken by our mother are so truthful and so complete that there is nothing to take away from them, just like nothing to add to them. Nevertheless, I will give a few traits that are more personal to me and my appreciation of certain facts already recorded.

During the year 1897, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus told me, long before she was ill, that she was expecting to die this year; here is the reason she gave me in June. When she saw herself suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis, "you see, she said to me - the good Lord is going to take me at an age when I would not have had time to be a priest... If I had could have been a priest, it would be [397r] this month of June, at this ordination, that I would have received Holy Orders. Hey! well, so that I do not regret anything, the good Lord allows me to be sick, so I could not have gone there and I would die before having exercised my ministry” - CSG - . The sacrifice of not being able to be a priest was still close to his heart. When we cut her hair during her illness, she always asked for a tonsure: she then passed her hand contently over her head. But his regret was not limited to childishness; as he was inspired by a true love of God, he inspired him with high hopes. The thought that Saint Barbara had brought Holy Communion to Saint Stanislaus Kostka thrilled her:

"Why not an angel - she told us - not a priest, but a virgin? Oh! that in heaven we will see marvels! I have the idea that those who will have desired it on earth will share in heaven the honor of the priesthood” - CSG -

But his holy audacity did not stop there. One day she said to me: "Our Lord once answered the mother of the sons of Zebedee: 'To be on my right hand and on my left is for those to whom my Father has destined it - *' Mt. 20,23, 397 - . I imagine that these places of choice refused to [10v] great saints, will be the share of [their] little children” - CSG - “'. would have lived long years in penance, as long as there remains to me a breath of life, I would fear to damn myself. She resumed immediately: "I cannot share this fear, I am too small to damn myself, little children never damn themselves" - DEA 7-XNUMX - .

“Truly you are a saint,” I told her one day. “No - she resumed I am not a saint, I have never done the actions of saints! I am a very small soul that the good Lord has filled with graces. You will see in heaven that I speak the truth” - DEA 4-8 - . She was so convinced of her impotence that our Father Superior came to see her and said to her: "Do you think you will soon go to heaven?" But no, your crown is not finished; you are just getting started! “, she answered with an angelic air: “O my Father, it is very true, I did not make my crown, but it is the good God who made it”" - DEA 0-9 - . And as we asked her if she had always been faithful to divine graces, she simply replied: “Yes, since the age of three, I have refused nothing to the good God” - CSG - . His desire to go to heaven was calm and serene, based as it was on the desire to do God's will in everything. In this regard, she said to Sister Marie of the Eucharist: “If someone told me that I was going to be cured, don't think [398r] that I would be caught, I would be just as happy as dying.” She wrote: “I don't mind being sick all my life, if it pleases God, and I even consent to my life being very long; the only grace I desire is that it be broken by love” - MSC 8,1-2 - . She was indifferent to everything. One day when we had discussed in her presence the purchase of the new cemetery, she said to me: “My place doesn't matter to me; that we are anywhere what does it matter? There are many missionaries who are in the stomachs of cannibals, and the martyrs had indeed as a cemetery the bodies of ferocious animals” - CSG - . And when someone said to her: “Perhaps you will die on the day of such and such a feast”, she resumed: “I do not need to choose a feast day to die; the day of my death will be the greatest of all feast days for me” - CSG - . She wanted nothing out of the ordinary, both spiritually and temporally. As I said to her: “You loved the good Lord very much, he will do wonders for you, we will find your body without corruption”, she left with an accent of sadness, as if my reflection had pained her: “Oh! no, not that marvel, that would be going out of my way of humility; 'little souls' must not be able to envy me; so expect to find only a skeleton of me” - DEA 8-7 - She [398v] retained even in her last illness childlike and graceful manners which made her company very pleasant. Everyone wanted to see it and hear it. She rejoiced in death and watched with pleasure the preparations that they would have liked to hide from her. So she asked to see the crate of lilies which had just arrived to adorn the parade bed; she looked at them with pleasure, saying. " It's for me! - CSG - She couldn't believe it, she was so happy. To satisfy her, the purchase of the new cemetery was settled in front of her, in anticipation of her approaching death. One evening, as it was feared that she would not make it through the night, they had brought to the apartment adjoining the infirmary a blessed candle and the stoup with a bottle brush; she suspected it and asked that these objects be placed so that she could see them. She looked at them with an air of complacency, then she described to us all that would happen after her death, she happily reviewed all the details of her burial and shared them in joyful terms, which made us laugh when we wanted to cry. Yes, it was not us who encouraged her, but she who cheered us up. One day she suddenly exclaimed, “When I think I am dying in a bed! I would have liked to die in an arena! - DEA4-8 - When hemorrhages occurred, she rejoiced, thinking that she was shedding her blood for the good Lord: "It could not be otherwise - she said - and I knew very well that I I would have the consolation of seeing my blood shed, since I am dying a martyr of love.

The Servant of God was far from being led by the path of consolation. After one of her communions, she told us: “It's as if we had put two little children together, and the little children say nothing to each other; however, I said something to him, but he didn't answer me: no doubt he was asleep! » - Other Words July - His ordeal against the faith did not diminish on the threshold of eternity, on the contrary; the veil grew thicker and thicker. To his intimate sufferings were added horrible physical sufferings. The chest disease followed a particularly painful phase, to which must be added the lack of help. At the time of serious complications when tuberculosis won the intestines, bringing gangrene, she was deprived of doctors for a month. With this, his extreme thinness brought sores; she suffered from real tortures that we could not relieve.

In this abyss of ills, [399v] she turned to heaven, but received no relief from it. As I expressed my surprise to her, she said: “It is true, when I pray to heaven to come to my rescue, often it is then that I am the most abandoned!” Then, after a moment of silence, she resumed: "But I am not discouraged, I turn to the good God, to all the saints, and I thank them all the same: I believe that they want to see how far I will push my hope... No, it is not in vain that the word of - * Job (13, 15 - - entered my heart: 'Even if God kills me, I will still hope in him!'. I confess it, I was a long time before establishing myself at this degree of abandonment; now I am there; the Lord took me and placed me there " - DEA 7-7 - However one day , after a crisis of great suffering, we saw her suddenly soften; she had an angelic expression. Wanting to know the cause, we questioned her; she was too moved to answer us. In the evening she gave me this note: "0 my God, how sweet you are for the little victim of your merciful Love! Even now that you add external suffering to the trials of my soul, I cannot say: 'The anguish of death surrounded me - *Ps. 17,5 - , but I cry out in my gratitude: 'I have gone down into [400r] the valley of the shadow of death, yet I fear no evil, because you are with me, Lord - *Ps . 22,4 - (To my beloved little sister Geneviève de Sainte Thérèse) August 3, 1897” - LT 262 - . She implored our prayers so that the good Lord gives her strength until the end. One September morning, the last of her life, she begged me in these terms: “Oh! pray to the Blessed Virgin, my little sister Geneviève, I would pray to her so much if you were sick; yourself, you dare not ask! » - DEA 23-8 - . On August 21, in the excess of her suffering, she moaned and breathed with difficulty, saying as if mechanically with each breath: “I suffer! I am suffering! which seemed to help him breathe; she says to me: “Every time I say: I suffer, you will answer: So much the better! This is what I would like to say to complete my thought, but I do not have the strength. - DEG 21-8 -

[Session 34-.- September 27, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[402r] [Response to twenty-fourth request continued]:

In the midst of her sufferings, the Servant of God always maintained the same serenity. One day when [I] saw her smile, I asked her why and she replied: "It's because I feel a very sharp pain in my side, I've got into the habit of welcoming suffering » - CSG - . Although often the visits she received from one or the other were importunate, she never showed [402v] the slightest annoyance. She didn't ask for any relief either, and took what we were willing to give her. At night, she only rang me at the last extremity; she was waiting for me to come on my own, and the last night she spent on earth, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart and I watching over her, despite her entreaties to rest as usual, in an adjoining room, we having dozed off after giving her something to drink, she remained, holding her small glass in her hand, until one of us awoke.

His peace was unalterable; and, although she was personally involved in certain very painful scenes that our poor mother Marie de Gonzague made, she never murmured, and it was she who by her gentleness and her humility circumvented all difficulties. The Blessed Virgin was his gentle star. One day, staring at her statue, she said: “I can no longer look at the Blessed Virgin without crying! -? ? - . And later, it was September 8, having asked to see again the image of Our Lady of Victories, where she had pasted the little flower that my father gave her when he allowed her to enter Carmel and which she speaks on page 83 (Story of a soul) - MSA 50,2 - , she wrote on the [403r] back, with a trembling hand: "O Mary, if I were the queen of heaven and you were Thérèse, I would like to be Thérèse, so that you could be the Queen of Heaven” -? ? - . These were the last lines she traced here below.

She often caressed her crucifix with flowers, and when it was at rest, she attached a little flower to it, and as soon as it withered a little, she replaced it with another; but did not want to suffer from faded flowers. Already when she was healthy and they were throwing roses at the crucifix in the courtyard, she took great care in peeling the petals, so as to sow only very fresh ones under the footsteps of Jesus. One day when I saw her taking great care to touch the crown of thorns and the nails of her crucifix, I said to her: "What are you doing there?" So with an air of astonishment at being surprised, she said to me: "I'm unnailing him... and I'm removing his crown of thorns..." - CSG - . One of the last nights, I found her with her hands joined and her eyes fixed on the sky: "What are you doing like this - I said to her - you should try to sleep." - “I can't - she replied -, so I pray....” - “And what are you saying to Jesus? - "I don't say anything to him, I love him" - CSG - .

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus did not suffer external attacks from the demon; [403v] however, a few weeks before his death, I witnessed a strange sight. One morning when I woke up, I found her quite distressed; she seemed to be the prey to a forced and painful struggle; she said to me: “Something mysterious happened last night. The good Lord asked me to suffer for you, I accepted it; immediately my sufferings were doubled. You know that I suffered especially from all the right side, the left took itself immediately and with an almost intolerable intensity. Then I felt the sensitive action of the demon who does not want me to suffer for you. He holds me as with an iron hand, he prevents me from taking the smallest relief, so that I despair: I suffer for you, and the demon does not want!...” - CSG - . Strongly impressed, I lit a blessed candle, and soon after the demon fled, never to return. I can never express what I felt when I heard those words; the little patient was pale and disfigured by pain and anguish; I felt that we were surrounded by the supernatural.

On the day of her death, in the middle of the afternoon, she felt strange pains in all her limbs. Then placing one of her arms on the shoulder of Mother Agnès de [404r] Jesus, she gave me the other to support and remained like that for a few moments. At that moment, 3 o'clock struck... and we couldn't help feeling a certain emotion. What was she thinking then? It reminded us of the striking image of Jesus on the cross, and this coincidence seemed to me full of mysteries... The agony began immediately; it was long and terrible; we heard him repeat: “Oh! it is indeed pure suffering, because there is no consolation; no, not one! 0 my god!!! Yet I love the good God!... O my good Blessed Virgin, come to my aid!... If this is agony, what is death?... 0 my mother, I assure you that the vase is full to the brim... Yes, my God, as much as you like... But have pity on me!... No, I would never have believed that we could suffer so much... never, never! Tomorrow will be even worse! Finally, so much the better! » - DEA 0-30 - . The words of the poor little martyr were broken and heartrending, but always stamped with the greatest resignation. Our mother then called the community. Sister Thérèse welcomed him with a gracious smile; then clutching her crucifix in her hands, she seemed to give herself up [9v] entirely to suffering, but said no more. His breathing was gasping; a cold sweat bathed her face, her clothes, even the pillows and the blankets were impregnated with it, she was shaking...

During her illness, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus told us: “My little sisters, you must not be upset if, when I die, my last look is for one of you and not for the other, I don't know what I'll do, it's what the good Lord wills. If he leaves me free, this last memory will be for our mother (Mother Marie de Gonzague) because she is my prioress” - DEA 20-7 - She repeated these words to us only a few days before her death. Now, on the evening of her death, during her agony, just a few moments before dying, I was doing her a slight favor, so giving me a delicious smile, she fixed me with a long and penetrating gaze. The community, which was present, trembled. Then, Therese looking for our mother, looked down at her, but her gaze had resumed its usual expression. A few moments later, our mother, believing that the agony could be prolonged, dismissed the community. The patient angelica, then turning to our mother, [405r] asked her: “Mother, isn’t this agony, am I not going to die?” And, upon our mother's reply that she could go on longer, she said in a soft, plaintive voice: “Well! let's... let's go... Oh! I would not like to suffer less!” Then, looking at his crucifix: “Oh!... I love him!... My God, I... love you...!!! » - DEA 30-9 - .

These were his last words. No sooner had she pronounced them than, to our great surprise, she suddenly sank down, her head tilted to the right. But suddenly she sat up, as if called by a mysterious voice, she opened her eyes and gazed at them irradiated a little above the statue of the Blessed Virgin; the gaze continued for a few minutes, the time to slowly recite a creed. Often since then I have sought to analyze this ecstasy, to understand this gaze which was not only a gaze of bliss. Indeed, one could still read there a great astonishment and in his attitude an assurance full of nobility. I thought we had witnessed his judgment. On the one hand, she had, as the Holy Gospel says, "been found worthy to appear standing before the Son of Man" (Lk 21:36), and on the other, she saw that the generosity with which she to be fulfilled, infinitely surpassed his immense desires; for, to this expression [405v] of indescribable astonishment, was added another. she seemed unable to bear the sight of so much love, like someone who undergoes an assault several times renewed, who wants to fight and who in his weakness remains the happy vanquished. It was too much, she closed her eyes and breathed her last... It was Thursday, September 30, 1897, it was 7 o'clock in the evening.

[Response to the twenty-fifth request]:

I know from everything I have heard here that the body of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was publicly buried in the cemetery of Lisieux and that her tomb occupied the first place in the newly acquired concession for the Carmel. I also saw photographs representing this tomb in this place. His funeral was modest and presented nothing particularly remarkable. I also learned that on September 6 of this year, the remains of the Servant of God were exhumed, in the presence of the Bishop and a large audience, and that they were placed in a new coffin which was buried in a place near the previous one.

[406r] [Response to the twenty-sixth request]:

I have not been to the cemetery myself because of the fence, but I know from the many testimonies that we are told about it in Carmel, that the tomb of the Servant of God gradually became a place of pilgrimage. Many priests come there. After the exhumation of September 6, the wooden cross which was placed on the first tomb was brought back to the Carmel. This cross was literally covered with inscriptions made by pilgrims and expressing invocations and thanksgiving. The number of pilgrims seems to increase day by day.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

The edifying death of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, her ecstasy at the moment of appearing before God made a strong impression on the sisters of the community, on those who had appreciated her the least during her life, one of them, Sister Saint Vincent de Paul (died in 1905). This lay sister who had so often upset her with her pungent words, and who had even said loud enough to be heard by the Servant of God: "What can we say about Sister Thérèse? of the Child Jesus after his [406v] death?” - HA 12 - , this one therefore, immediately after the death of Sister Thérèse, requested the cessation of a cerebral anemia which had afflicted her for a long time. Then resting her head on the feet of the angelic child, she asked her forgiveness for her offenses, and said that she had since obtained her complete cure. Then, she never tired of picking up scraps of photographs representing the Servant of God everywhere, and that immediately after Sister Thérèse's death, before her outside reputation had, so to speak, influenced the ideas. I know these details from Sister Saint Vincent herself, who did not hide these feelings and shared them with all the sisters.

Sister Saint Jean de la Croix (died September 3, 1906), one of the older sisters who had sometimes asked the Servant of God for advice, composed and wrote this prayer which she always kept in one of her books of office: “My little sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, I thank the Heart of Jesus for all the graces it has showered on you. I beg you to associate me on earth with the love you have for him in heaven. Pray to the seraph who must have pierced your heart with the arrow of divine love to please do in me what he did in you.”

I learned through Mother [407r] Marie de Gonzague, who told me about it, of a grace that this Reverend Mother Prioress received in front of a portrait of Thérèse as a child. This grace must have been very lively, for our poor mother could not look at the picture without crying. I witnessed this very often renewed emotion, and she then said to me: “Only I can know what I owe her... Oh! what she said to me!... All that she reproached me for!... but so gently!...» Often the good mother took up this image again, and, in the last days of her life, she improved very noticeably under the gentle impulse of Sister Thérèse. The Servant of God's reputation for holiness has therefore spread in our monastery; all the sisters without exception pray to her, recommend their families to her, and rejoice at the news of her prodigies which we receive every day and which our mother shares with us at recess.

As soon as the life of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had been read by a few people, it was like a spark that lit the fire everywhere, and it would have been impossible for us, even if we wanted to, to stop her progress. To meet the demands, it was necessary to multiply the editions. [407v] They followed one another without interruption, or rather there was necessarily an interruption, because they were not printing fast enough to meet the demands. The seventy-fifth thousand is being printed at this moment. This book is not one you read only once; but once you've read it, you can't part with it: “I'll take it back to my book - one of my friends wrote to me and not just once, but ten, but twenty; there is enough to nourish my soul for a long time.” This appreciation has been repeated to us a hundred times. Just a few days ago, a letter from Constantinople told us that "The Story of a Soul" having been loaned to Monsignor Sardi, His Grace had already read it three times since the month of July. Under such conditions, the work was known in the five parts of the world, and translation requests were made to us for the different countries. Letters of approval from bishops or high personages then seemed very complimentary. Those of the Dutch and Portuguese editions are particularly noteworthy.

Souvenirs of the Servant of God were requested from the start. We must have sent these souvenirs by the thousands, and I, who have custody of the objects that belonged to Sister Thérèse, am surprised to see that sheets, bed curtains, [408r] clothes have already gone, cut into tiny little pieces. In almost all the letters we have received since the appearance of the "Story of a Soul" (1898), the desire is expressed to see the Cause introduced and brought to a speedy end. We also often express the reason for this sympathy, which places Sister Thérèse in a special sphere of veneration. "What I like in the life of this Carmelite - we are told - is that she is a pleasant saint, a saint who can be imitated, a saint who does not discourage you with an ecstatic or sullen air. .” This is indeed the general impression, translated in a thousand forms; We are grateful to the Servant of God for having been able to cover the cross with flowers smiling at suffering, and for having reminded us by her example of the childhood life so praised by Our Lord. Many simple souls feel drawn to this path of love and trust and the example of Sister Thérèse encourages them to enter it without fear. The letters we receive very often express these attractions and encouragements. Several communities admit to being transformed by this "spirit of childhood", and it is hoped on all sides that its glorification will come to sanction "this path of abandonment and pettiness". Among these simple souls, there are not only people without culture, but [408v] scholars and doctors. Reverend Father Pichon, SJ, wrote to me on May 11, 1909: “Yes, God wants to glorify his humble little bride. After that, how not to strive to become little children? That's what I'm working on at 66."

This thought that the glorification of Sister Thérèse would be an encouragement to holiness, arouses her apostles everywhere; the priests, in particular, are especially devoted to him. Reverend Father Flamérion, SJ, who runs a spiritual retreat house for priests near Paris, gave us touching examples. In the seminaries Sister Thérèse is well known and loved. Many priests and religious take her as a "sister" or associate of their priesthood. We have had several visits here from bishops or abbots asking to see the cell of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. It was with pious veneration that they knelt before the statue of the Blessed Virgin who smiled at him, that they were led to all the places sanctified by her presence. We had to give up showing, to the people who asked us to bring them to the gate, the objects that had belonged to the Servant of God. Requests for prayers are made in such great numbers in the Carmel that visits to the parlor [409r] and correspondence have become extremely burdensome. We had to withdraw as much as possible from this movement, Mother Agnès of Jesus, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart and me, because being the sisters of the Servant of God, there would no longer be any possible religious life for us.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I have heard nothing serious against this reputation for holiness. At the beginning, some Carmels held themselves in defiance, thinking that perhaps the affection of her sisters exaggerated the merits of the Servant of God. But these impressions quickly disappeared in the face of reflection and the testimony of facts.

[409v] [Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I can mention to answer this question: 1° several extraordinary favors which are personal to me; 2° others who happened to some of our sisters; 3° the reputation of extraordinary graces and miracles which has spread throughout the world since the death of the Servant of God.

XNUMX° The first months following the death of the Servant of God, I received great interior lights often accompanied by tangible graces. The most important, if not by the sensitive sign, at least by the intensity of the interior graces, took place in the month of October 1897, only fifteen days after the death of my dear sister. It was the eve of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin; I was doing the Way of the Cross under the cloister. Suddenly, I saw like a flame that seemed to come from the depths of the sky. At the same moment, I felt a supernatural impression and I exclaimed: "It's Thérèse"; the inner grace far exceeded what I could express. It is one of the greatest graces I have received. In the space [410r] of a flash, I had the answer to the difficulties that had so often saddened my heart. All my vain preoccupations vanished; Thérèse's “little way” of trust, abandonment, humility and childhood spirit was explained to me and became luminous to my soul. One day when a sister had taken from me an object that I needed, I was about to ask her for it with some vivacity, when I distinctly heard these words: “Very humbly!.” I had recognized Thérèse's voice, and my heart was immediately transformed and inclined to humility. In the month of June 1908, I was on a long retreat for the anniversary of my profession, and I had once again given myself up to The Love, wondering however how I would know that I had finally given myself up completely. In the morning, around 4 o'clock, I was awakened by the sound of words; someone was whispering in my ear: “One only surrenders to Love as much as one surrenders to suffering.” I had no doubt that this voice was that of the Servant of God, and these words brought great light to my soul; I understood that this more or less complete donation was not a general act, but a work of every day and every moment. [410v] At the end of 1908, the time seemed to have come for the Servant of God to manifest herself in a more general way. We heard of perfumes, by means of which she made her presence known. I don't know why I rebelled against this kind of demonstration; I called it rude, because it pleasantly struck the senses; Finally, I concluded that I did not believe it. One evening, towards the end of November, returning to our cell, which is the same one occupied by Sister Thérèse, I found the oratory which precedes this cell perfumed with the perfume of roses. I was seized; but this first shock passed, I still remained incredulous and said to myself: "Now we perfume everything, it may well be a letter impregnated with odor, although I knew there was none in the place, and without examination I left the apartment; but turning from the stairs, quite a distance from the cell, I felt something like a breath composed of the perfume of roses. So I believed and wanted to thank my Thérèse, but everything vanished immediately. Similar phenomena have occurred to me about fifteen times over the past two years. It should be noted that these phenomena of perfumes did not occur during the 11 years which [411r] followed the death of the Servant of God, but only since 1908. Apart from two or three circumstances, where the smell lasted a very noticeable time, I noticed that the perfumes vanished as soon as I understood that it was Sister Thérèse. They have always underlined a particular fact, or have been sent to me to comfort me in moments of sorrow.

2° Regarding perfumes, a rather curious thing happened which I witnessed. After Sister Thérèse's exhumation (September 6, 1910), we were told of a board that had come off the head of the coffin, but it had not been brought back from the cemetery. A few days after the ceremony, on Thursday, September 15, our Reverend Mother sent one of the tourières to glean the remains of wood that might remain, recommending that she look for this plank. The portress lives well, put aside, in a hedge, a plank resembling the one we were looking for. She took it away without being quite sure of the identity of this fragment. The portress of the monastery [411v.] received this piece of wood suspiciously and laid it carelessly on a table. A sister (Sister Marie de la Trinité) came to get a package and was totally unaware of the presence of this board.

She was seized by a strong smell of incense and then seeing the piece of wood, she said to herself: "Of course, it's coffin." Two other nuns (Sister Marie of the Child Jesus and Sister Thérèse of the Eucharist) perceived the same perfumes; but neither our reverend mother nor I, although aware of what was going on, perceived anything, either far or near. As I was responsible for keeping the boards brought back from the old coffin, I compared this piece of wood with the authentic boards and it seemed absolutely identical to me. After this examination, I had no doubt that the lost board had been found. Our tourière sisters have since learned that a workman had looked for this plank which he himself had concealed, with a view to recovering it, in the brushwood where it had been found. Finally, Doctor La Néele, who had taken part as an expert in the exhumation, perfectly recognized this board as being the one that had fallen from the head of the coffin. Several of the nuns of the monastery have been favored by more or less [412r] exceptional graces which they have testified to us. Besides the phenomena of perfumes, naturally inexplicable, which almost all of them have experienced, the most remarkable facts, to my knowledge, are the healing of a furunculosis from which our sister Marie Madeleine du Saint Sacrement suffered. This healing took place during a novena to Sister Thérèse, and by the application of a veil which it was believed, without being absolutely sure, to have been worn by the Servant of God and which it was proposed to discern by this AVERAGE. The other fact, very surprising, happened in favor of our sister Jeanne Marie. An empty reservoir, which she intended to fill out of charity, although she was very tired and with the thought of imitating the virtues of the Servant of God, this reservoir therefore found itself filled instantly, even though she was not there. had still poured only a quarter of the desired quantity.

3° As for the reputation of miracles outside our monastery, it extends throughout the whole world, and I know it by what I hear every day reading the correspondence which is addressed to us on this subject and which relates a multitude of graces, either interior graces or healings, which have occurred in the five parts of the world. Several beneficiaries of these prodigious graces [412v] came to tell us about them in the visiting room. A certain number of these marvelous facts have been printed in a pamphlet called "Rain of Roses"; but many have taken place since this publication. Not a day goes by without the mail of 60 to 90 letters relating to the Servant of God bringing the story of several very remarkable spiritual or temporal graces. To comply with the instructions given to us, I collect in a hidden place in the monastery, without exposing them to the public, the ex-votos brought by the pilgrims. I thus picked up 26 marble plaques, recalling the graces obtained through the intercession of the Servant of God. A quantity of lace, jewelry, paintings, statuettes, and objects of all kinds are also brought, given out of gratitude; several of these objects have no other value than the intention which caused them to be offered, but they testify none the less to the sentiment of the faithful. I will also point out as a remarkable fact that the great apostolic desires of the Servant of God seem to have come true in an astonishing way. Sister Thérèse had said that “as soon as she returned to the Homeland, she would have all the little children [413r] under her domination, that she would go to the missions to help the missionaries, that she would have the little ones baptized and the older ones converted” - DEA 17-7 - . However, the years immediately following his death, that is to say in 1898-1899, the statistics of the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, of Mary Immaculate and several others, recorded a number of baptisms and conversions extraordinarily higher than previous years. We read in the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith (n. 425, July 1899, page 313). “The year 1898 will be called in the Annals of our Society, the year of great blessings from God. Indeed, the number of adults baptized during this fiscal year rose to the almost incredible figure of 72.700. Never, in the 235 years that our Company has existed, have we recorded such a result. The zeal and activity of the evangelical workers are not enough to explain it; it must be attributed to a breath of the Holy Spirit which passed over some of our missions and determined there an irresistible impulse of the pagans towards our holy religion. In November 1899, the same Annals says: "The crown of angels which went to swell the celestial ranks, reached almost the double of last year." What is remarkable is that all the mission[413v]sion reviews find the same result.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I don't think I omitted anything from what I had to testify.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests].

[Session 35:- September 28, 1910, at 8:301 a.m.]

[415v] [This concludes the examination of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

I thus deposited according to the truth, I ratify it and confirm it.

Signatum: SISTER GENEVIEVE OF SAINT THERESE rci

Witness 5 - Elijah of the Mother of Mercy

The fifth witness did not know Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Her deposition refers to the fame of holiness that she knew immediately after her death. He was well informed.

Born in Savona on December 13, 1845, Father Elie de la Mère de Miséricorde (Jérôme Lanaro) was one of the most characteristic figures of Italian missionary Carmel at the end of the 1862th century. When he was young, he went to America and then returned to Italy to enlist in Garibaldi's troops, but this did not last long and in 9 he entered the Discalced Carmelites in Concesa (Milan), making his profession on September 1863, 1867. Still a student of theology, he left for India in 7 and was ordained there on March 1868, 1846. Missionary for thirty years in Mangalore and Quilon (Malabar), he displayed a tireless zeal there, dealing in particular with nuns, whether active or contemplative. . He knew in Calicut and Mangalore the Servant of God Mary of Jesus the Crucified Baouardy (1878-1899) and, questioned about her during the informative trial in Jerusalem, he gave answers of great wisdom and prudence in this delicate case. and complex. Called back to Italy, he was secretary to the general for several years starting in 1915, which gave him knowledge of several provinces of the Order. He was then appointed master of students in Milan, then sent to Mount Carmel where he was the vicar in 20. He died there on February 1920, XNUMX.

We will note with particular interest what he reports from the Servant of God, Father Raphaël de Saint-Joseph Kalinowski (1835-1907), first in defiance of the Story of a Soul, then a convinced apostle of the doctrine of the Servant of God, who sent to the Carmel of Lisieux on October 9, 1902 a letter entitled “Reparation” (f. 443r) *.

Father Elie deposed on October 28-31, 1910, during sessions 37-39, f. 443r-454r of our Public Copy.

[Session 37: - October 28, 1910, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[434r] [The witness responds regularly and correctly to the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Jérôme-Vincent Lanaro, born in Savona, province of Genoa, Italy, on December 13, 1845, of Vincent Lanaro, originally from Savona, and Catherine Minetto, originally from Castel Vecchio, province of Albenga, Italy, I am professed religious of the Discalced Carmelites of the province of Lombardy; My religious name is Father Elijah of the Mother of Mercy, from the monastery of Concesa, [434v] near Trezzo d'Adda, province of Milan. I was rector of a seminary and professor of dogmatic and moral theology at Mangalore, in our Indian mission, in 1867 and 1868. I was an apostolic missionary in the East Indies for 31 years. I have since been secretary to two successive generals of our Order: the Reverend Fathers Bernardin de Sainte Thérèse [d'Avila] and Raynault Marie de Saint Just (1898-1906).

[The witness answers the third to the sixth questions correctly].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I testify simply for the glory of God and by the desire that our sister Thérèse can be beatified if the Holy Church deems it appropriate. The glory of our Order is not indifferent to me, but it is in no way a determining reason for my deposition.

[Response to eighth and ninth requests]:

The first time I heard [435r] of the Servant of God Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face was in 1899, when Reverend Mother Agnès of Jesus, on behalf of Reverend Mother Marie de Gonzague, Prioress of Lisieux, sent a copy of the "Story of a Soul" to our very Reverend Father General Bernardin de Sainte Thérèse [d'Avila], whose secretary I had been at that time for a year, that is to say, from July 10, 1898, the day of my arrival in Rome on my return from the East Indies. Our Very Reverend Father General, as soon as he received the aforesaid History, instructed me to write, in his name, to the Reverend Mother Prioress to thank her for this sending, which I did after a few days. And it was while reading this admirable and ravishing autobiography of Sister Thérèse, or to put it better, while devouring it with my eyes, that I felt enamored with such enthusiasm for this, hitherto unknown, little sister, whom from then on I conceived the most tender devotion for the Servant of God, and the certainty that one day very soon she would have been beatified by the Church. This devotion from the first moment, far from dying out in me, has only grown every day during these eleven years, because of the graces and wonders that have occurred all over the world, in this lapse of time, [ 435v] to the invocation of the Servant of God; and the knowledge of these facts came to me from time to time communicated by the Carmel of Lisieux, with which I was in intermittent correspondence.

But more than the wonders and the graces granted to others, my devotion to our angelic sister has increased by the interior graces that I myself experience each time I open her book at random, and read a few pages and often even just a few lines. I feel my soul immediately better and almost always, at this delicious reading, soft tears of love and contrition flow silently from my eyes. Also, seeing what spiritual good produced in my soul such devotion, I have always been interested in the Servant of God, either by speaking with other people, when the opportunity arose, of her life so simple and so naive, and so heroic at the same time; or of his wonders and graces obtained through his intercession, as I came to know them; or by distributing her images, relics or souvenirs that I asked for from the Mother Prioress of Lisieux and that the good [436r] Mother Agnès was kind enough to send me several times.

[Answer from the tenth to the twentieth request]:

Not having known the Servant of God personally, I could not report anything from her "curriculum vitae", nor from her practices of virtues that would be anything other than a personal commentary on what I read in her autobiography "History of a soul."

[At the twenty-first question, the witness responds on the subject of “prudence”]:

Not having to testify to the particular facts of the life of the Servant of God, I would very much like to be able to speak about the theoretical asceticism practiced by Sister Thérèse, an asceticism which shines with new brilliance in the "History of a soul", but I do not feel I am a competent judge in this matter. Only I dare to say in truth that I love everything that Sister Thérèse loves, and I admire the sublime ease with which this amiable little sister leads us to love the good God and the fervor with which she encourages us by her examples to to follow the path of heaven, that path which has been so successful for her, she said, and which consists in entrusting ourselves totally to the filial abandonment of God, in the arms of [436v] merciful Love. Everything she says when she talks about her little path of spiritual childhood, very straight and completely new; of the invention of the Elevator which must raise her to heaven, because being very small, the good Jesus will bend down to take her in his arms which are this newly invented “Elevator”; when she speaks of the constant practice of breaking her will in all things, and of rendering a thousand little services to her sisters, especially to those towards whom one has less sympathy; to always want to be not only resigned, but united to the will of God and to want to carry the cross joyfully and love suffering with passion; and when, finally, she asks our venerable Anne of Jesus, in her mysterious dream, "if God asks nothing of her other than her poor little actions and her desires, and if he is satisfied with her", and receives from the venerable the consoling answer that "the good Lord asks nothing more of her, and that he is happy, very happy..." - MSB 2,1-2 - . All this seems to me to be a celestial language and a very sure doctrine, and at the same time within everyone's reach, although to put it into constant practice, as our lovely angelic sister did, one must have a heroic virtue. [437r] However, it is always a great advantage to walk towards perfection to be able to give oneself the illusion that one can do what the saints have done. However, by reading the "Story of a Soul", we end up loving Sister Thérèse passionately and believing that we can easily imitate her in the exercise of her virtues, and we thank God for having given us such a loving model of holiness. Moreover, to judge the beauty of Sister Thérèse's doctrine, it would suffice to read the last pages she wrote of chapter XI of the "Story of a Soul", to believe her a cherub who speaks of the divine. love and ignites those who listen to it.

[Answer to the twenty-second to twenty-fifth questions inclusive]:

I know nothing more than what is recorded in the story of his life.

[Response to the twenty-sixth request]:

I visited the tomb of the Servant of God in the public cemetery of Lisieux during my visit to this city on October 24th. I made this visit in order to pray for myself and for the people who had entrusted me [437v] with this. Seeing only two ladies praying in front of this tomb, I asked my guide how it was that there were so few people that day, when I had heard that pilgrims came there many. The guide replied that it was an inconvenient hour, dinner time (indeed, on returning we rang the Angelus at noon in town), but that there were always people. Having met the caretaker of the cemetery on the way, whom I wanted to see to make sure of the attendance of the people at this venerated tomb, I stopped him on the way and asked him if the tomb "of the little saint of Lisieux" was frequented, and he answered me with conviction: "I am not a bigot, but I am a Christian believer and I believe that she does the graces that are asked of her, since we pray to her and we come to his tomb. My son (he was with him in the car) during the holidays leads pilgrims to his tomb every day, and when he is not there, it is my daughter who accompanies them; on average, fifty come a day.” This testimony of a good man, although my guide told me that he does not practice, seemed to me worthy of remark. I can also note that the tomb [438r] is covered with flowers that are often replaced, because the pilgrims take them away out of devotion. The cross surmounting the tomb is covered with inscriptions and invocations.

[Session 38 - October 29, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[442r] [Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

During the 8 years that I lived in Rome in my capacity as secretary to the two generals of my Order, our very Reverend Father Bernardin de Sainte Thérèse and our very Reverend Father Raynauld Marie de Saint Just, currently Archbishop of Reggio Calabria, with whom , in addition to a part of Italy, I visited [442v] together our convents in Austria, Poland, Hungary, Bavaria, Spain, Mount Carmel and the stations of our mission in Syria, I could have noted with precision much information which would have been very useful to me at this time. Unfortunately, being far from imagining that one day I could have had the chance to be chosen as a witness to testify at the current trial of the Servant of God, I did not think during these past years of taking timely notes on what I have heard relating to our angelic sister. However, I can testify that many times, in many places, especially among our Carmelite fathers and sisters, I have had the opportunity to speak and to hear speak of the "Story of a soul", and of the great confidence inspired by the amiable and easy and yet so heroic holiness of our charming little sister, whom the good God seems to have sent in these modern times to attract all upright and simple hearts to the highest supernatural. As for specifying some particular facts relating to the Servant of God, here are my recollections:

l° In 1904, being in Krakow [443r] with our Father General Raynauld Marie, and chatting with the Carmelites of Lobzowska Street, a Carmelite who spoke French, or the venerable Father Raphaël of Saint Joseph, I cannot say which of the two, told me speaking of the sacristine sister, Sister Marie of the Child Jesus that “she was crazy for her little sister Thérèse and that she obtained from the Servant of God the rain and the sun at her will.” All the Carmelites of Lobzowska were equally enthusiastic about Sister Thérèse. This venerable Father Raphael, Vicar Provincial of Poland, accompanied us always and everywhere, for about a month and a half, to Krakow, Przemysl, Leopol, Czerna and Wadowice. It was he who wrote to the Reverend Mother of Lisieux the letter of October 9, 1902, which is on page 3 of the "Rain of Roses", of the 60th thousand of the "Story of a Soul", n . VIII p.3 *.

2° In Tripoli in Syria, where I stayed 6 months, our fathers were delighted with our angelic sister; and one day the very Reverend Father Joseph of the Virgin, superior of the Carmelite mission in Syria and vicar provincial, telling me that he was being asked to build a station halfway from Tripoli to Bicherry (Lebanon), I proposed to him to build a chapel there with [443v] an altar to be dedicated to the Servant of God when she would be beatified, and that was agreed.

3° Last year, in July 1909, passing through Piacenza (Piacenza), I told the parlor of the Carmelites of this city about the marvels of the "Rain of roses." Then, the mother prioress and her daughters begged me to provide them with some memories and images of our little miracle worker. I wrote for this to my good mother Agnès, prioress of Lisieux, who sent it as requested. This shipment got lost on the way, and this loss gave rise to a beautiful miracle, as is related in his History (60th thousand, page 59 of the “Rain of Roses”, n. CXX)3. The Reverend Mother Prioress of Plaisance, Mother Thérèse-Louise du Très-Saint Sacrement, who has just been re-elected and confirmed for the third time in a row in her office with a dispensation from Rome, wrote to me again recently: "We will pray for all the intentions of your reverence in order to show you our gratitude for having put us in contact with the Carmelites of Lisieux... They sent us several times images and memories of the angelic Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus... We like to hope that this dear spouse of Jesus will obtain for us the graces requested, graces which I also wish for your reverence, etc.

[444r] 4° Some time before Lent in the year 1910, I had received from my good mother Agnès de Lisieux several small images of the “Little Flower of Jesus”, as we like to call our angelic Sister Thérèse in England. Immediately, I distributed them to the novices and the lay brothers of our convent of Concesa, as well as to the reverend father master, who was stripped of them immediately by other people.

5° As proof of the devotion we have in our fathers towards Sister Thérèse, we have just decided in Milan to leave a medallion in white in the arch of the apse to paint the image of Sister Thérèse in fresco more later when she will be beatified. This arch is entirely covered with medallions representing the saints of Carmel. A chapel of this new church of Corpus Domini, which is being finished in Milan, will be similarly dedicated later to the Blessed, when Sister Thérèse, as we all hope, will receive this title from the Church. Provisionally, the chapel will remain without a holder.

[Did a certain industrious zeal contribute to the spread of this fame of holiness?]:

No, this reputation develops spontaneously by reading his life. [444v] As for the multiplication of editions of this life, it is in no way the effect of propaganda; but one is forced to print new specimens by the spontaneous instance of the requests which are made of them.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

One day, a few years ago (around 1905), I was in the parlor of the Carmelites of Trévoux, exiled in Rome, with the whole community, then the Reverend Mother Prioress, who died piously a few years ago , or the ex-prioress, Mother Marie Louise (I don't remember which of the two), speaking to me about the "Story of a Soul." said something to me that showed that he didn't like this book too much. I don't remember the precise words now, only I had the idea that this "History" was considered by my interlocutor as "unmanly"; the fact is that this unique discordant note, which I heard among all the eulogies heard before and after this circumstance, pained me, for I am very fond of the Carmel of Trévoux exiled in Rome, being a very fervent Carmel and very uplifting. However, having to come to testify before this venerable tribunal, [445r] I wanted to make sure which of the two mothers had pronounced this unenthusiastic assessment. And here is the answer that the reverend mother sub-prioress who is called Thérèse of Jesus has just given me. She writes to me in Italian, that's why I translate the original:

"Our Reverend Mother Prioress asks me to answer your letter immediately... Our dear Mother Marie-Louise told our Reverend Mother Prioress that she certainly could not say anything about our little saint, because she never fully read Sister Thérèse's life; and she adds that she experiences great joy, thinking that she will be glorified. We do not remember what our dear mother Mary of Jesus said in the parlor, but what is certain is that now, in heaven, she rejoices to see how the Lord uses innocent life of Sister Thérèse for doing so much good on earth. The Lord wants that in this century, where there is no longer this true simplicity, the simple life full of kindness of this angelic "little Flower", be a proof of the love that his divine Majesty bears to souls who, as the Lord said, have become little children. Long live our beloved little sister and saint [445v].»

[Response to the twenty-eighth request continued]:

I just remembered one thing: about a month ago, Father Franco, aged 43, read or heard read in the refectory of our novitiate in Concesa, near Trezzo d'Adda, the "History of a soul "; and afterwards, in recreation, criticized this life as too childish, and did not find much in the holiness of our sister Thérèse; but a few weeks later, a few days before my departure for Lisieux, when he himself read one evening in the refectory this same life, the passage [446r] where the little saint recounts that being in the laundry room, she received quietly without moving from place the dirty water that one of the sisters threw in his face while washing handkerchiefs, so afterwards, during recreation, Father Franco retracted his first appreciation, and said that truly it required heroic virtue to bear in silence and patiently such actions, and became a great admirer of Sister Thérèse; and this is what I have noticed during these 11 years that I have known Sister Thérèse: all those who carefully read the “Story of a Soul”, become admirers of the Servant of God.

[Answer to request XXIX]

I know that every day numerous letters arrive at the Carmel of Lisieux, recounting exceptional graces and extraordinary events, attributed to the intercession of Sister Thérèse. During the two days I spent in Lisieux this week, I saw firsthand that the mail for a single day consisted of around 80 letters. The Reverend Mother Prioress communicated to me several times, and at various times, some of these relations. [446v] Here are some facts that I witnessed more directly:

45° Towards the middle of July of this year, I met at the church Miss Teresita Morali, about 447 years old, director of the Asile Crespi and prioress of the sisters of our secular Third Order, established in our church of Granted. She invited me to visit a dormitory where the workers of the Crespi establishment lived. Seeing the “Story of a Soul” on a table in the house, we took the opportunity to talk about the little saint. Then this pious young lady earnestly asked me for a souvenir of Sister Thérèse. I promised her and gave her the next day a small envelope containing the hair of the Servant of God, asking her to pray for me. A few days later, she sent me a letter, the original of which I show to the court. I extract from it the following passage, always which I translate from Italian: “I do not know yet, my reverend father, if our holy darling has granted me (for what you desire); but I know very well that that same day I was oppressed to have to do something that gave me a lot of pain for many reasons. And before you gave me the [30r] relic, I had prayed to Our Lord if it was his will to deliver me from this nightmare. Shortly after, I said the same prayer, clutching the holy relic to my heart. A few minutes had just passed when I was called, and I received contrary orders, and precisely as I wanted them. Imagine my astonishment at this change and how much I thanked her!... Pray also for me, so that I try in all things to always do the will of God, and quite simply to please him alone. To love God and to make him loved was the sole aim of our saint. If she obtained such a great grace for me, I would have nothing more to desire. Bless, father, the last of your sisters: Teresita Morali, 6-10-XNUMX.”

2° During the carnival of this year 1910, after I had distributed to the novices and to the brothers of our convent of Concesa small images of our Sister Thérèse, it happened that Brother Romée, our cook, saw in the church a certain Mr. Carlino Presezzi, merchant of Trezzo, well known to all of us, who wept bitterly. Brother Romée learned from the sacristan that he was crying like this, because his brother Ange's only daughter, aged about a year and a half, was dying of double pneumonia [447v], with 41° and 3 lines of fever. Carlino came for us to recommend his little niece to the Blessed Virgin. Ange Presezzi, father of the dying child, had previously lost another girl of that age to the same disease; that is why now he was inconsolable. As soon as Carlino asked for the prayers of our brothers, to obtain from the Blessed Virgin the healing of his niece, the aforesaid brother Romée exclaimed: “It is not to the Blessed Virgin that we must address ourselves; let us pray to our little Blessed, whose images we received yesterday, she will give us grace.” Then he said to Carlino: "Go home, be easy, your niece will be healed." On this, Brother Romée with all the other lay brothers recited 7 Pater and 7 Ave to Sister Thérèse for the healing of the dying child. After some time, (Trezzo is away from here about 15 minutes) Carlino returned hastily very happy saying that the child was cured, and he wanted to lead brother Romée and the brothers to his house to rejoice them. and show them what the whole family called a miracle. The next day, however, the child fell ill again, but in a fortnight she was definitely cured, and so far she is doing wonderfully. However, the Presezzi, who had asked that we pray to the [448r] Blessed Virgin, attributed the grace obtained to the Mother of God, but our brothers are quite convinced that it was through the intercession of Sister Thérèse that they obtained this cure which even the doctor of Trezzo called a miracle. On October 10, I wanted to go to the Presezzi's, in Trezzo, to make sure of the story of Brother Romée and his confreres, and I noted by the testimony of the widow Presezzi and her daughter Thérèse, aged about 22 years, that the thing is as I have just told, and they authorized me to publish their name.

3° On the morning of October 25, 1910, before noon, one of the tourières of the Carmel of Lisieux, where I was, came to tell me that a lady from Canada, with her child, wanted to see me. I went to the sisters' parlor, and this lady, a doctor's wife, told me that she had come from Paris on purpose to visit the tomb of Sister Thérèse, because her child, aged 6 and a half, had been cured. of a wound in the leg, after a novena made to "his little saint", as the child called Sister Thérèse. The mother told me that her son had been tuberculous until the age of 4, with a wound on his foot, so bad that they wanted to amputate it, which did not happen [448v] because that Saint Anne miraculously healed this first wound. However, after two and a half years, a new wound formed on his leg. For three weeks, this evil worsened. Seeing this, the mother very recently wanted to join her husband in Paris, where he had preceded her, and take her child to him; but in the meantime. she made her son begin a novena to little sister Thérèse, and at the end of the novena, he was completely cured. This lady told me again that she had already received many graces from Sister Thérèse, especially a very great spiritual grace, and that now, on her return to Canada, she wanted to become Sister Thérèse's apostle. On the evening of this visit, I received a letter from the Reverend Mother Prioress, who told me the following: “I hope to see you again before your trip to Bayeux, my Reverend Father. However, if you cannot come to the parlor before your departure, I want to tell you what the good Canadian lady brought me back from her pilgrimage to our dear grave. Her child did not want to go back from there. He said to a gentleman who was in the cemetery: “When I am dead, I want to be buried with my little saint.” And as his mother told him that he would not be brought back [449r] from Canada if he died, he resumed: “Well, I will be buried with her anyway, they will put her image with me and I will hold it in my hands, then it will be the same.” He wanted to write his name on the cross of the tomb, and asked there for the grace to make his first communion well, in order to be a priest one day. To this story, I allow myself to make a reflection: if the healing of the wound in the leg of this child does honor to Sister Thérèse, the admirable enthusiasm of this child of 6 and a half years, whom I saw, for her “little saint” and her request for the grace to make her first communion well in order to be a priest one day, these are spiritual miracles of Sister Thérèse, which are worth many others.

4° I still want to add to what I have just said, that I read on page 45 of the "Rain of roses", annexed to the "Story of a soul" (60th thousand, already quoted above top), document number LXXXIX, letter from the Reverend Mother Prioress of the Carmel of Mangalore (East Indies), dated June 7, 1909, and sent to the Carmel of Lisieux with the relation of Sister Marie du Calvaire, who was cured of a pneumonia complicated by liver disease and kidney disease. Perhaps, it will not be without interest [449v] to say that I knew this Carmel of Mangalore very well, because it was I who went in 1870 from Calicut where I was at that time to the Beypoor station, to receive the very Reverend Mother Elie, who came from Pau, with her other daughters to go to found in Mangalore, where I lived near them for more than a year. Thus, I can testify that this Carmel was then very fervent and very venerated in this city. Since then, I have always heard about it with the same praise.

5° I want to transmit to the tribunal a letter from the Reverend Father Ferdinand Fabre, Carmelite of Paris, addressed to the Reverend Mother Prioress of Lisieux, in which he recounts a recent grace that the Servant of God obtained for the salvation of a soul. I am delivering this letter to the court. Here is the essential passage: "Paris, October 25, 1910, rue de la Pompe, 82... You are not unaware, my reverend mother, that in Paris there is great confidence in the Servant of God, Sister Thérèse, and that the favors obtained are numerous. Here is one which was pointed out to me in a patient at Passy whom I visited a few weeks ago. Monsieur Brossard, annuitant, rue de la Pompe, 15 (or 17), had fallen seriously ill. His condition caused the greatest [450r] concern, and he stubbornly refused to receive the priest who wanted to confess him and administer the last rites to him. So we began a novena of prayers to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. Before the end of the novena, the patient willingly received a visit from the priest; he confessed and received in full knowledge the sacrament of Extreme Unction. Accept etc. Signed: F. FERDINAND.”

[Session 39: - October 31, 1910, at 8 a.m.]

[452r] [Continuation of the response to the twenty-ninth request]:

6° I was an apostolic missionary in the East Indies, from 1867 to 1898; now, while during a first period (from 1867 to 1885 inclusive) my ministry had been of ordinary fruitfulness, I was very struck by the extraordinary success obtained by my efforts in the conversion of pagans and Protestants, from 1886 until my departure in 1898. From that time, without knowing Sister Thérèse at all, I always had the thought that I was indebted for these unexpected successes to some Carmelite, ignored in some Carmel of Europe, who prayed for me without knowing it; and I remember very well having expressed this conviction in a letter addressed several years before 1898 (I do not remember the precise date) to the very Reverend Father Alphonse a Mater Dolorosa, current zealous supporter of our Malabar missions, then residing in Ypres and now in Bruges. This letter must be printed among several of mine which this father, without my knowledge, had printed in a review in Belgium. Now, when later in Rome I read the "Story of a Soul", seeing the apostolic zeal [452v] with which our dear sister was devoured, and the love she had especially for the missionaries , also noticing that she herself dated this expansion of the zeal of souls in her heart to 1886, the idea occurred to me that it was she, the ignored Carmelite who prayed for me, and obtained the conversions that her poor brother Elijah had then the consolation to do among infidels and Protestants, This thought has contributed much in me to love our dear apostolic sister so much; and I can affirm that she was also a source of my devotion to the Servant of God.

7° I did not think I had to report in my deposition a last fact which happened in Lisieux; but I have been scrupled to say everything and I report it for what it is worth. The very day of my arrival in Lisieux on October 24, 1910, entering the monastery of Carmel, with the benevolent authorization of His Majesty the Bishop of Bayeux, to visit the memories of Sister Thérèse; kissing the pen and pencil she was using, I exclaimed spontaneously: “Oh! it smells good!” It was because I had smelled a very good sweet smell escaping from the box where the pen [453r] and the pencil were attached, a smell similar to that of sandalwood (sandanam), very well known to me in Indies. This same sweet smell of sandalwood, I smelled it while kissing other objects which belonged to our darling angel, but not all of them, because I remember very well not having smelled anything while kissing the coat and the veil of Sister Therese. However, the sisters present felt nothing then, except for the smell of mold; they assured me that nothing had been put in these caskets and these fabrics which could produce this smell; they thought it was a miraculous smell that I smelled. I didn't want to file this at all, because it could well be my "fantasy" that made me think I smelled this smell; however, when I kissed the pen and the pencil, which were the first objects which exhaled this odor of sandalwood, I was in no way thinking of a miraculous odor, and at least for these first objects the "fantasy" could not take place there, and for that, I have decided to expose this fact naively, although I believe myself very unworthy of the favor that the little saint was good enough to do me; unless it was a trick of the devil that he wanted to tempt me with vanity and make me believe that Sister Therese, whom I love so much, caresses me, and thus makes fun of me; but " non nobis, Domine, non nobis, [453v] sed nomini tuo da glory. In te, Domine, speravi, non confundar in aeternum - *Ps. 113; 1th 30 - .

[Before going to the veneration of the objects that were used by the Servant of God, had you heard of the perfumes emanating from these clothes, etc., in an extraordinary way?]:

Someone had written to me about it in a letter, at least a year old; but I was not thinking about it at all when I began to venerate these memories, it was truly by surprise and without reflection that I spontaneously exclaimed: “How good it smells!” If the idea had come to me of an extraordinary phenomenon, I would certainly have refrained from saying anything in front of the sisters, and I would have kept the impression I felt hidden.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I don't see anything to change or add to my answers.

Witness 6 - Lucien-Victor Dumaine

The sixth witness is Lucien-Victor Dumaine, vicar general of the diocese of Sées.

Born in Tinchebray (Orne) on September 8, 1842, he was ordained a priest at Sées on June 15, 1867. First appointed curate at La Lande-Patry in 1868, then at Notre-Dame d'Alençon, it was there that he baptized Thérèse Martin on January 4, 1873. He had a very special regard for Monsieur Martin and his friendship for his family did not cease when he left for Lisieux. Successively pastor of Tourouvre and Montsort, then archpriest of the cathedral of Sées, he also became vicar general in 1899.

Learned and pious, devoted to religious historical research at the regional level, he took care with predilection of the soldiers with whom he had been in contact during the war of 1870 and of which he became the chaplain. He died in Sées on September 25, 1926, after the canonization of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus (VT October 1961, pp.36-40). Above all, Abbé Dumaine was able to testify to the family environment of the Martins in Alençon, and also to Thérèse's reputation for holiness in the diocese of Sées.

His deposition took place on November 25, 1910, during the 40th session, f. 457r-464v of our Public Copy.

[Session 40: - November 25, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[457v] [The witness correctly answers the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Dumaine Lucien-Victor; I am 68 years old, having [458r] been born in Tinchebray, diocese of Séez, on September 8, 1842. I am titular canon of the cathedral basilica of Séez and honorary vicar general of his Grandeur the bishop of Séez, after having was titular vicar general from March 1899 to January 1910.

[The witness correctly answers the third to the sixth questions inclusive].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I am moved to bear this witness by the desire for the glory of God and by the very special affection I have for the Servant of God, whom I myself baptized.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

1° Being curate at Notre-Dame d'Alençon (June 1868 to June 1876), I knew the family of the Servant of God intimately, with whom I maintained regular relations; I confessed several of the members of this family and I had the happiness of baptizing the Servant of God myself. These relations continued until the departure [458v] of Monsieur Martin and his children for Lisieux, after the death of Madame Martin.

2° Since this departure, I have had no more direct contact with this family.

3° When the Servant of God's reputation for holiness spread after her death, I learned what concerned her by attentively reading the book entitled "Story of a Soul." Moreover, I got in touch with the Carmel of Lisieux, and I was kept informed by the prioress and the nuns of everything that was happening concerning the Servant of God.

4° I have received a mission from His Majesty the Bishop of Séez to expose to the court what affects the reputation of holiness and miracles of Sister Thérèse in the diocese of Séez. I am well informed of this by my many contacts with the clergy and the faithful of the diocese and by the careful observation that I have made of the state of minds on this subject.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I very much desire the success of this Cause for the glory of God, for the honor of the two dioceses of Séez and Bayeux and for the general good of souls who, I am [459r] convinced, will obtain very precious graces through the invocation of the Servant of God.

[Answer to the tenth request]:

The Servant of God was born in Alençon, Notre-Dame parish, on January 2, 1873. Her father, Mr. Louis Martin, had lived until around 1871 in the parish of Saint Pierre de Montsort, in Alençon, where he practiced the profession of goldsmith. -watchmaker. He had acquired a very honorable position and a fairly good fortune. He left the business and came to live in rue Saint Blaise, Notre Dame parish. This is where the Servant of God was born. His mother, Mrs. Martin, née Guérin, to occupy her leisure devoted herself to the manufacture of lace, known as point d'Alençon. Monsieur and Madame Martin had already had eight children before Thérèse was born. Many of these children had died in infancy. I knew the survivors very well: Marie, Pauline, Léonie and Céline. I estimate that when Thérèse was born, her older sisters could have been around 12 and 13 years old. The Servant of God was first fed and brought up by her mother; but the child having fallen ill, she was put to nurse at Semallé, near Alencon. She recovered her health there and returned to the family. Madame [459v] Martin devoted herself to the education of this child, until her premature death which happened when Thérèse was about four and a half years old. Her older sisters, Marie and Pauline, then took care of raising their younger sister. Shortly after Madame Martin's death, Monsieur Martin retired to Lisieux; for my part, I was appointed in 1878 to another post and I lost sight of this family a little.

[Answer to the eleventh request]:

Monsieur Martin got married rather late. His reputation for piety and the fervor of his Christian life led the country to believe that he had taken a vow of celibacy. His religious practices were very accentuated. He went to church a great deal, attended Mass even on weekdays, took Communion frequently (at that time especially) and belonged to the Association for monthly Nocturnal Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. His character, grave and a little melancholy on the outside, was gentle and playful in the intimacy. He liked to spend his leisure time fishing, often in the company of his parish priest, and he usually sent the produce of his catch to the [460r]nuns of Saint Clare of Alençon. He knew how to show himself beneficent in the use of his fortune and enjoyed general esteem: he was held to be a perfectly honest man. I knew Madame Martin less. She was reserved ('and housekeeper'). She was very pious and very good. The union was remarkable in this family, either between the spouses, or between the parents and the children.

[Answer to the twelfth request]:

I baptized her myself on Saturday January 4, 1873, towards evening, in the church of Notre-Dame d'Alençon, as evidenced by the act of baptism which since the death of the Servant of God has been photographed and spread to the public. At the request of the Vice-Postulator, I have apostilled in these terms the copy of the act of baptism which he proposes to submit to the Process: "I bless God for having done me the favor of opening by holy baptism the vestibule of heaven to the future little Carmelite saint of Lisieux; I am pleased to bear particular witness to the profoundly Christian and good environment in which she was born and grew up. Signed: LUCIEN DUMAINE, Vicar General of Séez (September 1909). Cum sigil."

[460v] [Answer to the thirteenth request]:

My cordial relations with the various members of the Martin family during the years that I spent in Alençon enabled me to observe well the dress and habits of parents and children. These young girls were, from an early age, trained in a very serious and very fervent piety. Their attitude testified to me that their human and Christian education was very well conducted.

[Answer from the fourteenth to the nineteenth questions inclusive]:

I don't know anything about these points, except what is related in "Story of a Soul."

[Answer to the twentieth request]:

If I judge of his life by the careful reading I have made of his autobiography, I cannot help feeling that his virtue is quite out of the ordinary. His great simplicity, his profound abnegation, his constant mortification and his extraordinary love of God seem to me to surpass what is noticed even in deeply Christian souls.

[461r] [What do you think of the genre and the truth of the “Story of a Soul” and therefore of what this writing tells us about the Servant of God, from her childhood to her death?]:

My conviction is that this book was really written before God and that it is of perfect sincerity. I know that there have sometimes been traces of a certain sentimentality in it, at least according to the opinion of many. But these details seemed to me quite negligible in the presence of this set of positive acts which constitute his life and bear witness to the seriousness of his virtues.

[Answer to the twenty-first to twenty-fourth questions inclusive]:

Knowing these details only indirectly by reading his life, I believe that my testimony on these questions would not be of very great interest in a trial where there must be a lot of face-to-face testimony.

[Response to the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth requests]:

I went to the Lisieux cemetery last year (November 15, 1909). As soon as I arrived, the keeper of the [461v] cemetery said to me of his own accord: “I know very well why you are coming: it is for the little saint, take the alley on the left, etc..” I found the tomb decorated with flowers and various objects of piety attesting to the frequency and confidence of visitors. I knew full well that since that date, and also prior to my pilgrimage, the support of the people is considerable and regular. I have as proof of this the communications which were made to me on this subject orally and in writing, not only by the Carmel of Lisieux, but by the very people who went to the tomb at various times. These concordant accounts have been told to me, not only by simple and uneducated people, but also by serious and well-informed people, even by venerable and dignified priests, among others by Canon Guesdon, former archpriest of Séez Cathedral and former professor at the Séez Major Seminary for about 30 years.

[462r] [Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

Since the death of the Servant of God and the dissemination of the "Story of a Soul", I have, on many occasions, and in all the regions of the diocese of Séez, noted the unanimity in the conviction of her holiness. heroic. I can say that everywhere I encountered the confidence of the faithful and priests, expressed in prayers, in the veneration of his images and his memories. Frequently I have been asked to intervene to obtain from Carmel some of these objects. If, as I will say later, I have sometimes heard some restriction on the advisability of such and such a means used to make it better known, never to my knowledge has there been any doubt on the substance of the question. , that is to say on [462v] the heroic nature of his virtues.

[The promoter of the faith asks if such a reputation for holiness does not proceed from an exaggerated and inconsiderate admiration. Witness response]:

I can say that on the whole it is not so. Among the people who have shown me their admiration and their confidence, there are many particularly educated and balanced whose judgment rests on a considered and impartial appreciation of the facts. It does not seem indifferent to me on this subject to note that in the many communities of the diocese, there is not one that I did not find fully convinced of the holiness of this young Carmelite. However, all those who have experience of the life of the communities know that a certain emulation easily reigns between them and guarantees the value of their testimony in favor of the members of foreign communities. I can mention among other learned and prudent persons who affirm the heroicity of Sister Thérèse's life: 2° all my brother canons of the cathedral of Séez; 463° the three parish priests of Alençon (Notre-Dame, [3r] Saint Pierre and Saint Léonard); 4° Monsieur the Archpriest of Argentan, who formerly knew the family well, being vicar of Saint Pierre de Montsort, parish where Monsieur Martin then lived; 5° the archpriest of Mortagne, former parish priest of Saint Léonard d'Alençon; 6° the most reverend Abbot of La Grande Trappe; XNUMX° the superior of the Major Seminary of Séez who, while having some reservations about the "sentimentality" element, which he finds in the "Story of a Soul", admits without hesitation the heroicity of the virtues of Servant of God.

[Does not this reputation for holiness owe its growth and its diffusion to some industrious zeal of his family?]:

The distribution of the "Story of a Soul" and of the images and memories of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus undoubtedly contributed to making her better known, but I do not think that is what 'one could call a dummy advertisement. Very often I noticed that the already acquired conviction of Sister Thérèse's holiness made someone desire the possession of these objects or the reading of the detailed account of her life. I myself sometimes distributed some of these memories or copies of the life which had not been given [463v] by the Carmel of Lisieux, but I can affirm that the Carmelite nuns never asked me to actively employ in this dissemination in which I only collaborated with discretion.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I have never heard anyone formulate a contrary appreciation for the merits of the Servant of God's reputation for holiness. In only a few cases, and very few in number, have I heard criticisms made concerning the form given to the dissemination of his story and his memories; it was thought that there was "too much noise" about his memory. The two or three people I have heard speak thus are good and recommendable, but I think that in this case their appreciation did not come from a well-considered judgment; it was rather what is called "a conversational subject" or "an impression."

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I have observed on many occasions that the veneration and trust of the faithful [464r] in the Servant of God implied not only the conviction of her holiness, but also the conviction that, through her prayers, she obtained prodigious graces, in great number and very varied in their object. We have faith in the words she said one day: “I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth” - DEA 17-7 - . Consequently, he is invoked from all sides to obtain healings, conversions, the solution of temporal and spiritual difficulties, etc. I have heard tell indirectly of several favors obtained through her intercession and of which the story was told to the Reverend Mother Prioress of the Carmel of Lisieux. I personally knew a lady who was herself the object of one of these favors that she told me about (this is Miss Louise Alexandre, aged about 50 and living in Saint Front de Collière): “I suffered from a serious eye condition, which the doctor had observed and treated. While praying at the tomb of Sister Thérèse, I was suddenly and absolutely cured.” A detailed report of this fact was sent by Mademoiselle Alexandre to the Reverend Mother Prioress of Lisieux, and I, who knew this young lady very well, did not hesitate to attest, at the bottom of this document, that this very Christian person is very honorable. , sensible and trustworthy.

[464v] [Response to the thirtieth request]:

I don't see anything to change in my statement.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. -- This concludes the examination of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signatum: LUCIEN DUMAINE, canonicus, vicarius generalis sagiensis.

Witness 7 - Sister Françoise-Thérèse Martin

Sober and simple, clearly revealing Thérèse's entirely evangelical spirit even before her entry into the Carmel, such is the deposition of her sister Léonie, in religion Sister Françoise-Thérèse Martin, professed of the Visitation.

Third child of the family, Léonie was born in Alençon (Orne) on June 3, 1863. She was always a subject of concern and torment for everyone because of her weak and sickly nature, but she had a very good heart. She began laborious studies with the Sisters of Providence of Alençon, joined her sisters Marie and Pauline in 1871 at the Visitation of Le Mans where she remained only a few months, unable to adapt to the discipline, returned in 1871 with the Sisters of Alençon and attempted a new attempt at Le Mans in January 1874 in order to prepare for first communion, but was already back in Alençon on the following July 6. His mother echoes her concerns about him in her letters. However, she wrote on May 10, 1877 that she began to have hope for the future of this difficult child and took her on a pilgrimage to Lourdes the following month in order to implore the mercy of Our Lady for each of them. Madame Martin died on the following August 28, while Léonie, who at first rediscovered the ups and downs of her hypersensitive character, was then to improve little by little.

A boarder with the Benedictines of Lisieux in 1878-1881, she began her postulancy with the Poor Clares of Alençon on October 7, 1886, but left them on December 16. She then made a first attempt at the Visitation of Caen: entered on July 1887, 6, she left on January 1888, 8. Thérèse followed the adventures of a vocation so tormented in Carmel and on September 1890, 24, during the of her profession, she implored the Lord for her sister the grace to return to the Visitation. Léonie returned to the monastery of Caen on July 1893, 6, but admitted to the novitiate on April 1894, 20, she did not persevere and her uncle Isidore Guérin welcomed her to his home in Lisieux on July 1895, XNUMX.

Therese did not despair, however, and before dying told Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart: “After my death, I will have her return to the Visitation and she will persevere there.”

This prophecy came true: Léonie was again received at the Visitation of Caen on January 29, 1899 to become Sister Françoise-Thérèse there, finally make profession there on July 2, 1900 and remain there for a little over forty years.

She lived there at the school of Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the more her sister was known and glorified, the more the Visitandine hid herself, repeating: “Noblesse oblige; I come from a family of saints; I must not make a stain.” She experienced a genuine spiritual ascent. His health began to decline in 1927: frequent illnesses, rheumatic and arthritic pains. She died on June 16, 1941*.

To testify at the informative trial she had to go to Bayeux. She was received there by the Benedictines of the Blessed Sacrament where she gave her testimony during sessions XLI-XLIV, November 29-30 and December 1-2, 1910, fr. 470v-504r from our Public Copy.

[Session 41: - November 29, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[470v] [The witness answers the first question exactly].

[471r] [Response to second request]:

My name is Marie-Léonie Martin, in religion sister Françoise-Thérèse, professed of the monastery of the Visitation of Caen, born in Alençon, parish of Saint Pierre de Montsort (diocese of Séez), on June 3, 1863, of Louis-Joseph- Stanislas-Aloys Martin, and Marie-Zélie Guérin; I am the sister, by nature, of the Servant of God.

[The witness answers exactly from the third to the sixth questions inclusive].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

Although I love my little sister very much, I am aware that I only testify for the glory of God and according to the truth. This affection in no way blinds me to what concerns the Servant of God.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

From the birth of the Servant of God until her entry into Carmel, I lived with her with our parents for about two thirds of that time. The other third is taken up by the absences I made at various intervals, either for my education as a boarder at Le Mans and Lisieux, or to prepare for my definitive entry into religion. I also learned some details from

Witness 7: Françoise-Thérèse Martin

his life through conversations or letters with the members of our family, and in particular with my three sisters (Marie, Pauline and Céline), Carmelites in Lisieux. I also received personal letters to me written by the Servant of God. I do not remember having drawn my information outside this circle of the family. Finally, reading the “Story of a Soul” also helped me prepare for my deposition. She reminded me of many lines that I had forgotten and whose perfect accuracy I recognized on reading. This reading even revealed to me many details of the life of his soul, not only for the periods of his life when we were separated, but even for the years when we lived together. Thérèse was indeed, from then on, a very interior soul, and because of my relatively young age, she opened up less with me than with our older sisters, who served as her mother.

[472r] [What do you think of the objectivity of “Story of a Soul”? Isn't there perhaps some element of imagination here?]:

I am quite sure that all of this is true. Thérèse was a very sincere soul with the simplicity of a child. Assuredly in her book, as indeed in the letters she wrote to me, there is only the true expression of her thoughts.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I desire this beatification, because I believe that it will contribute to glorify God and to inspire souls with the love of God. But if the Holy Church did not judge it appropriate to propose this beatification, I would find that there is only to adhere in peace to the judgment of the Holy Church, because that is what is best and I would certainly prefer it to the glorification of our little sister.

[Answer to the tenth request]:

The Servant of God was born on January 2, 1873, in Alençon, Notre-Dame parish. It was during the New Year's vacation, and I was at home with my other sisters. She was the ninth and [472v] last child of our parents. She is the only one born in the parish of Notre Dame. All the other children were born in the parish of Saint Pierre. My father had a jewelry business in the parish of Saint Pierre. Around 1871, as far as I remember, he gave this house to his nephew and we went to live in Notre Dame parish, a house that belonged to my maternal grandparents. Of the 9 children who made up our family, 4 died very young, two little boys and two little girls. After the birth of Thérèse we were therefore five children, all of whom were to enter religion later: Marie, the eldest, then aged 13, then Pauline, then me Léonie, finally Céline and Thérèse. My father had succeeded in his business; after he sold it, he helped my mother in the business of Point d'Alençon, and the situation of our family was then that of "well-to-do merchants." Thérèse's first education was provided by our mother who, unfortunately, was taken away from us too soon: she died when Thérèse was four and a half years old. After the death of our mother, Thérèse and her younger sisters were brought up by our elder sisters under the supervision of our father. This [473r] education took place in Lisieux, where our father came to live after the death of our mother, in order to be closer to our aunt and our uncle Monsieur and Madame Guérin.

[Answer to the eleventh request]:

Our family was what is called a patriarchal family. Our parents who, in their youth, had both thought of the religious life, kept in their marriage a very fervent practice of the Christian life. My father made it a rule to absolutely close his jewelry store on Sundays, and this despite the contrary practice of other traders in this specialty, and despite the entreaties of his friends, who pointed out to him that he was thus losing the practice of walkers. who buy preferably on Sundays. He was, moreover, quite devoted to religious practices and willingly sought the company of ecclesiastics, and out of respect for the priesthood he greeted all the priests, even foreigners, whom he met. Our mother was very pious and had joined the Third Order of Saint Francis, and she applied herself, in the education of her children, to forming them in the practices of piety and the thoughts [473v] of the faith.

[Answer to the twelfth request]:

The Servant of God was baptized on January 4, I believe, in the church of Notre Dame d'Alençon by Father Dumaine, then vicar of the parish, and since then vicar general of the Bishop of Séez. His godfather was a young man of about 14, the son of a friend of my father, and he has since died; his name was M. Boule; her godmother was our eldest sister Marie,

[Answer to the thirteenth request]:

The education of the eldest children took place, for the most part, in religious boarding schools, either at Providence d'Alençon, or especially at the Visitation of Le Mans for my eldest sisters Marie and Pauline, and at the Benedictines of Lisieux for Celine and for me. At home, the education given to us by our parents was good and affectionate, but attentive and careful: "we were not spoiled." As for Thérèse, it is indisputable that she was on the part of our father and even [474r] on the part of mother, during the few years that she lived, the object of a very special affection. But we weren't jealous. On the contrary, we too had a special affection for our little sister. She was the "Benjamin" of the whole family. She was such a lovely child! For her part, Therese in no way abused this particular affection, she was as obedient and even more so than all of us, and I never noticed that she had any attitude of superiority towards us.

WITNESS 7: Francoise-Therese Martin

[Answer to the fourteenth request]:

In Lisieux, the first instruction [474v] was given to our little sister by her older sisters Marie and Pauline. During this time, I myself was a boarder with the Benedictine nuns of Lisieux. I left this establishment at the end of the school year 1881 (August); and the following October, my little sister Thérèse was sent to this school in my place as a half-boarder. So she came back every evening to the house of "Buissonnets", our family's residence. She remained in this establishment for four years; she made her first communion there in 1884 and was confirmed there the same year. During her stay at the “Abbaye” (house of the Benedictines), my sister Thérèse suffered constantly from moral pain. From a young age she was very thoughtful and meditative and she suffered from the contrast that existed between her state of mind and the environment of the pension, so different from the family environment of Les Buissonnets. On the other hand, her elder sister Pauline, who served as her mother, entered the Carmel in 1882, when Thérèse was nine and a half years old, and this separation was very painful to her; and I am led to believe that the grief she felt at this contributed something to the serious illness which struck her the following year. Finally, after her first com-[475r]munion she was assailed by a crisis of scruples which added to her other trials. I must remark that in the midst of her physical and moral sufferings she was never revolted or worried. She cried easily, especially since the death of our mother, but never offered the slightest resistance or the slightest murmur to what was asked of her. It seems appropriate to me to note that this extreme sensitivity was determined in her by the shock which the death of our mother caused her. I have in fact noticed myself a sudden contrast between the playfulness which was the characteristic of her nature before this mourning and the usual state of excessive sensitivity which followed and which she managed to dominate only later by dint of virtue.

The disease, which I spoke about above, deserves to be told here in some detail. It began with violent headaches, which broke out almost immediately after Pauline's departure for Carmel (October 1882). At the end of March 1883, the illness declared itself by attacks of delirium and convulsions. The evil, as if by a providential disposition, ceased for 24 hours the day Pauline took the habit in Carmel. Therese was the only one to affirm that she was able to attend this ceremony; [475v] me and my family fought vigorously against this idea which seemed unrealizable to us. It came true, however, and during the few hours that we spent in Carmel, Thérèse was perfectly calm and showed herself to be very affectionate and caressing for “her little mother” who had become Sister Agnès of Jesus. This good day over, the illness resumed immediately and lasted without remission until May 10, the day of her miraculous recovery. His attacks followed one another almost without remission. They appeared to us as almost continuous bouts of delirious fear, often accompanied by great disorderly movements. She uttered terrible cries, her eyes terrified and her features contracted painfully. The nails driven into the wall took on horrible shapes in her eyes, which terrified her. Often she did not recognize her own; one evening especially, she was horribly terrified at the approach of our father holding his hat in his hand; this object seemed to him to be a horrible beast. When convulsive attacks broke out, she wanted to throw herself over the railing of her bed, and we had to hold her down. One Sunday, I was left alone to look after her during high mass. Seeing her very calm, I ventured to leave her for a few moments. [476r] When I got back to her, I found her lying on the pavement; she had jumped over the head of her bed and fallen between the bed and the wall. She could have killed herself or seriously injured herself; but, thank God, she didn't even have a scratch. She wrote - MSA 28,2 - 'that during this illness she had not lost consciousness of what was going on around her. I only knew about this particularity through this testimony that it bears of itself. If she had not said so, we would have thought, judging by appearances, that her delirium was almost complete and almost continual. On May 10, 1883, she had a crisis perhaps more violent than the others; she did not recognize her sister Marie who was holding her in her arms. This heartbreaking state, which no artifice of our affection could put an end to, plunged us into desolation. It was then that Mary and I fell on our knees at the feet of a statue of the Blessed Virgin, our hearts filled with hope, conjuring our celestial Mother to heal our little sister. Suddenly Thérèse found herself in perfect calm, looking at the statue with a smiling look, her features rested and in full possession of her faculties: she was perfectly cured.

[Did the Servant of God again have some symptoms of this illness?]:

The doctor who had treated this disease, without any success moreover, by hydrotherapy, had recommended to us after the cure to avoid violent emotions with the patient. In the month which followed the cure, it happened to me twice to upset her, quite wrongly. She then fell and remained lying for a short space of time (several minutes), with a state of rigidity of the limbs and the trunk which ceased by itself. He did not then produce a delirious state as during his illness, nor violent movements. These two phenomena were the only ones that occurred. Afterwards, there never appeared traces of this evil again.

WITNESS 7: Francoise-Therese Martin

[Session 42: - November 30, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[481v] [Continuation of the response to the fourteenth request]:

After her recovery, Thérèse returned to the Benedictine Abbey. She made her first communion there on May 8, 1884, being eleven and a half years old. The regulations then in force stipulated that to be admitted to the first communion in the year, it was necessary to be 10 years old on January 1st. Therese, who was born on January 2, found herself expelled for a whole year. She had expressed the desire to take communion at a very young age. I remember that at the time of Céline's first communion, Thérèse, who was [482r] only 7 years old, was eager to attend the preparatory lessons that Céline received from our older sisters. Sometimes they sent her to play, saying she was too young. It was then only by expressing deep regret that she resigned herself to leaving. Each year, the period of the first communions renewed his vehement desires. I remember a touching feature on this subject. Thérèse was, I believe, in her ninth year. Passing in a street of the city, in company of her sisters, she saw Monsignor the bishop who went himself to the station. She then said to us: "If I were going to ask His Grace for permission to make my First Communion next year?" Because, it's very hard to be delayed for a year for being born on January 1! - SP - I became very aware of the anguish that then gripped his heart. We dissuaded her from this step by representing to her that propriety did not permit it; that moreover his request would be rejected. But I am not afraid to affirm that the Servant of God would have been perfectly capable of making her First Communion even well before the age of 2, given her precocious piety and her intelligence already so enlightened on divine things. At last the longed-for day arrived; on May 7, 8, she made her first communion. She lived and breathed only for Jesus-[1884v]Host, who had ravished her soul. She was starving for the bread of the angels and a few days later (May 482) I saw her radiant with happiness making her second communion between our revered father and Mary our elder sister, now a Carmelite under the name of Mary of the Sacred Heart. My Carmelite sisters shared with me a note, written by the hand of the Servant of God on a small notebook and containing the resolutions for her first communion. They are designed as follows:

1° I will never be discouraged.

2° I will say a Remember every day.

3° I will try to humble my pride. - Notes">pride - Retreat Notes, May 1885 -

She completely followed these resolutions, because what makes her distinctive character is this strength of soul which has always prevented her from becoming discouraged, throwing her into total abandonment and blind trust. She received the sacrament of Confirmation at the Benedictine Abbey on June 14 of the same year, a Saturday. I was better than any other in a position to judge, in this circumstance, of her recollection and her attitude which was more angelic than human; having had the honor of being her Confirmation Godmother [483r] I followed her step by step to the altar, holding my hand on her shoulder. You could see that she was deeply penetrated by the great mystery that was about to be accomplished in her soul. Usually at this age, the child does not understand the full scope of this sacrament, receives it very lightly. Therese, on the contrary, was totally absorbed in the love that was already consuming her. I had difficulty in containing my emotion, accompanying this darling child to the altar.

[Answer to the fifteenth request]:

After the renewal of his first communion (May 1885), our father decided that it was good to keep Thérèse at home. This was done after the end of the school year (August 1885). This departure from the pension of the Benedictines was not solicited by the mistresses of this Institution; on the contrary, she would very much have liked to keep our dear sister. But the precarious state of his health, tested by frequent indispositions, was the decisive reason for the decision that my father took: this delicate flower could only flourish within the family. After he left the boarding school, he was made to take lessons in town several times a week, to complete his education. [483v] His mistress held him in high esteem and was very proud of him. She perfected herself, especially in the sciences, by reading, which she loved passionately. Even as a child, his serious and thoughtful mind found no sweeter enjoyment than in books.

At that time, Thérèse, being constantly at home, was truly the joy of the family. Even the servants were very fond of him, because everything about him breathed peace, kindness and condescension. She always forgot herself to please everyone; to put happiness in all hearts, that was his element. His equanimity was so simple and seemed so natural, that one might have thought that nothing cost him in his perpetual renunciations. She was friendly and gracious, we felt comfortable with her. Everything about him attracted hearts. Pride and vanity had no hold on this innocent soul. She was very pretty, but only she seemed to ignore it; at that time when we lived together in the house, I never saw her look at herself in a mirror. She was very careful not to humiliate or sadden anyone. I noticed it very especially in a [484r] circumstance which is quite personal to me. Although I was then 23 years old, I was very behind in spelling and studies, having always had great difficulty in learning. Thérèse, then 10 years younger than me, went to great lengths to fill in these gaps in my education. I admired, in this circumstance, the delicacy with which she rendered me this service without humiliating me and her unfailing patience. She was very spiritual and

WITNESS 7: Francoise-Therese Martin

very cheerful; she had a special aptitude for counterfeiting the tone of voice and mannerisms of others, but never, to my knowledge, did this little amusement degenerate into mockery and give rise to the slightest disregard for charity: she knew s stop on time, with perfect tact.

The little children delighted Thérèse's pure heart. I will never forget her angelic smile and the caresses she lavished on them, especially on poor children; these had her preferences, and she lost no opportunity of speaking to them of the good Lord, placing herself within their reach with aptness and charming grace. It should be noted that the negligent or dirty dress of these poor children never diminished in any way the caresses and the manifestations of his love for them; as [484v] moreover she loved beautiful things and she herself was very clean and neat in her dress, this search for the poor could only proceed from a solid virtue.

Because of her young age, my sisters did not always take her to church, quite a distance from Les Buissonnets, despite the great desire she had to attend all the religious ceremonies, especially the exercises of the month of Mary, which took place in the evening. She took Communion as often as she was allowed, at least every week, and she would have liked to be allowed to take Communion more often, and even, I believe, every day. Her great desire to be enrolled in the Congregation of the Children of Mary, established in the Benedictine Abbey, decided her to go twice a week to spend an afternoon at the boarding house. On this condition she was granted membership in this association.

[485r] [Response to the sixteenth request]:

I don't remember that the Servant of God made me a confidant of her plans for religious life; I also said that she poured out less with me than with my older sisters who were like her mothers, and than with Celine who was almost her age. But the announcement of his plan to enter the Carmel did not surprise me at all. It was not difficult to foresee, by her attitude and her virtues, that she was made for religious life.

[Do you know if the presence of her sisters Pauline and Marie at the Carmel of Lisieux had any influence on the vocation of the Servant of God?]:

I do not believe that; she thought only of loving God. If Pauline and Marie had not been in Lisieux, she would still have entered the Carmel. Moreover, in addition to my own observations, several details recounted in her "Life" [485v] bear witness to the purity of her intentions, such as when she says that if not for Carmel, she would have gone to a "refuge" and would be hidden among the "repentant girls" -? CSG - I was at home on the day of Pentecost 1887, when she confided in my father of her desire to enter Carmel, but she did not tell me, and I did not notice anything. During his trip to Bayeux and Rome, I was in religion, at the monastery of the Visitation of Caen, and I only learned of these events through letters written at that time and since by reading his "Life .”

[Answer to the seventeenth request]:

I witnessed the departure of my little sister for the Carmel. My definitive entry into the Visitation did not take place until 1899, after two attempts, one of six months in 1887, and the other of about two years in 1893-1895. So when Thérèse said goodbye to us, I had returned home after my first stay in 1887. I was singularly struck by her fortitude in this circumstance. Only she was calm. Silent tears only spoke of the pain she felt at leaving our father whom she loved so much and whose old age she consoled. I told him to think carefully before entering religion, adding that my experience of it had shown me that this life required a lot of sacrifices and that it should not be undertaken lightly. The answer she gave me and the expression on her face made me understand that she expected all the sacrifices and that she accepted them with joy. At the entrance to Carmel, she knelt at the feet of our incomparable father to receive his blessing; but he, as far as I remember, would only give it to her on his knees. God alone could measure the extent of his sacrifice, but for this great and generous Christian, knowing the holy will of God and doing it were the same thing.

In the years that followed until my second entry into the Visitation (1893), I quite often went to the Carmel parlor to visit my three sisters. I went back there again after my second return from the Visitation (1895-1899). In these interviews, I saw for myself the virtues of our younger sister and I heard from the mouths of my elder sisters the account of various traits which bear witness to the same fervor and which are found in the account of his life." Among other details, I was very [486v] edified by his great regularity. The Carmelites have a half-hour hourglass for parlors. She was so faithful that the last grain of sand passed, she greeted us graciously, closed the gate and the curtain, then slipped away without remission. When she came with my other sisters, this true nun always left first. Even in the visiting room, her humility kept her small and hidden. She willingly remained silent when my other sisters were there, and this profound humility of the Servant of God was all the more remarkable as she possessed to a high degree all the gifts of mind and heart.

[Answer to the eighteenth request]:

I learned from my conversations in the Carmel parlor that the Servant of God had in some way exercised the role of director of the novitiate. She did not receive the official title, but she was left among the novices even after her novitiate.

WITNESS 7: Francoise-Therese Martin

ended so that she might serve others as a model of a perfect nun. Being their eldest sister, she could exert on them an influence of good advice and the Reverend Mother Prioress ended up entrusting her in fact, [487r] if not in title, with the functions of director.

[Answer to the nineteenth request]:

My sister Pauline (Mother Agnès of Jesus), told me one day in the parlor, when she was prior, that she had felt driven by an interior impulse to order Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus to write down the story of her life, but that she had to compose it only to be entrusted to her alone. I know that Thérèse carried out this order and that, on her deathbed, she was still writing in pencil to complete this manuscript. But I never had access to these notebooks held by Reverend Mother Agnes of Jesus. I only knew them by reading the “Story of a Soul.” The study of this book taught me many details of his life that I did not know. I knew she was very virtuous, but, not living with her, and moreover having never penetrated much before into her intimacy, I did not suspect that her heroism rose to this degree. However, I have no doubts about the absolute veracity of this relationship.

[Session 43: - December 1, 1910, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[489r] [Response to the twentieth request]:

The virtue of the Servant of God was not manifested by extraordinary actions. At home, everything was simple and natural [489v] and she avoided standing out. So the heroic nature of his life could easily pass unnoticed. But on reflection, and remembering his habits and actions, it seems certain to me that, even before his entry into religion, his piety and above all his equanimity and his attention to pleasing presupposed a constant generosity and delicacy. of conscience above what one encounters in young girls, even very Christian ones. My visits to the Carmel parlor and the letters I received from her after her entry into religion showed me that she had been raised to a very high degree of perfection. What is more remarkable is that this sublimity of virtue manifested itself in her at a relatively very young age, since she was then only 15 or 16 years old,

[Answer to the Twenty-first Request: A. De fide [Faith]]:

His spirit of faith made him view all things from a supernatural point of view. The letters she wrote to me speak only of God and she always assesses the events in them from the point of view of faith. On the occasion [490r] of our father's death, she wrote to me (August 20, 1894): "I think of you more than ever, since our dear father went to heaven... Papa's death does not strikes me not as death, but as real life. I find him after 6 years of absence, I feel him around me looking at me and protecting me. Dear little sister, are we not even more united now that we look to the heavens to discover there a father and a mother who have offered us to Jesus?... Soon their desires will be fulfilled, and all the children whom the good God gave them, will be united to him forever” - LT 170 - . On April 11, 1896, she wrote to me: "I have nothing to offer you for your feast, not even an image, but I am wrong, tomorrow I will offer you the divine reality, Jesus-Host, your Spouse and mine... Dear little sister, how sweet it is for all five of us to be able to name Jesus 'Our Beloved'!. But what will it be when we see him in heaven!... Then we will understand the price of suffering; like Jesus we will say again: 'It was truly necessary that suffering should try us and bring us to glory' (cf. Lk. 24, 26). My darling little sister... [490v] I love you a thousand times more tenderly than ordinary sisters love each other, since I can love you with the Heart of our celestial Spouse; it is in him that we live the same life” - LT 186 - '. These letters are not for her the effect of an exceptional surge of fervor: they manifest the constant state of her soul.

B.[Hope and trust in God]:

What I can do best to express the dispositions of her soul is to quote passages from the letters she writes to me and in which she portrays herself much better than I could do. The thought of heaven was familiar to him. On May 20, 1894, she wrote to me: “I cannot, dear little sister, tell you all I would like; my heart cannot translate its feelings with the cold language of the earth, but one day, in heaven, in our beautiful homeland, I will look at you and in my eyes you will see everything I would like to say to you, because silence is the language happy inhabitants of heaven. In the meantime, we must win the fatherland of heaven, we must suffer, we must fight” - LT 163 -. In January 1895: “The year which has just passed has been very fruitful [491r] for heaven: our dear father has seen what the eye of man cannot contemplate... our turn will also come. .. Oh! how sweet it is to think that we are sailing towards the eternal shore!... Dear little sister, don't you agree with me that the departure of our beloved father has brought us closer to heaven? More than half of the family now enjoys the sight of God, and the five exiles from the earth will soon fly away to their homeland” - LT 173 - . I know from reading his History that he was not lacking in inner sorrows, but his trust in Jesus was unshakable and made him bear everything with the greatest calm and perfect equality. This quiet abandon even seems characteristic of his inner life. She expressed it this way in a letter she wrote to me on July 12, 1896: "If you only knew how happy I am to see you in such a good mood!... I am not surprised that the thought of death be gentle, since you don't hold

WITNESS 7: Francoise-Therese Martin

nothing on earth. I assure you that the good Lord is much better than you think. He is satisfied with a look, a sigh of love... For me, I find perfection very easy to achieve, because I have understood [491v] that you just have to take Jesus by the heart... In the time of the law of fear, before the coming of Our Lord, the prophet Isaiah was already saying, speaking in the name of the King of heaven: 'Can a mother forget her child? Hey! Well, even if a mother forgets her child, I will never forget you - *Is. 49, 15 - ... What a lovely promise! Ah! we who live in the law of love, how fear the one who allows himself to be chained by a hair that flies on our neck! - * Cant. 4, 9 - let us know how to hold him prisoner, this God who becomes the beggar of our love. By telling us that it is a hair that can perform this miracle, he shows us that the smallest actions, performed out of love, are those which charm his heart... Ah! if it were necessary to do great things, how much would we be to pity! But how happy we are, since Jesus allows himself to be carried away by the little ones” - LT 191 -

C. [Love of God]:

I have previously mentioned the great desire she had to unite herself to God through Holy Communion. To live for God, to avoid what displeases him and to seize opportunities to please him, was the object of his continual preoccupations. She wrote to me in April 1895: [492r] “I have only one desire, that of doing the will of God. You may remember that I used to like to call myself 'Jesus' little toy'; even now I am happy to be; only I thought that the Divine Child had many other souls filled with sublime virtues who called themselves 'his playthings'; so I thought they were his 'beautiful toys' and that my poor soul was just a worthless 'little toy'. To console myself, I thought to myself that children often have more fun with 'little toys' which they can leave or take, break or fuck at their whim than with others of greater value than they hardly dare to touch. So, I rejoiced to be poor; I wanted to become more so each day, so that each day Jesus would take more pleasure in playing with me” - LT 176 - . The Servant of God used her efforts to win souls for Jesus, by the offering of daily sacrifices: "I am delighted to see that you do not miss small sacrifices - she wrote to me in 1896 - and above all in thinking that you know how to take advantage of it, not only for yourself, but also for souls. It is so sweet to help Jesus with our light sacrifices, to help him save the souls he has redeemed at the price of his blood [492v] and who are only waiting for our help so as not to fall into the abyss” - LT 191 - .

D. [Love of neighbour]:

I have already reported that Thérèse, as a child, loved and sought out the poor. She was very happy that our father usually entrusted her with the distribution of alms. She reserved for the poor, instead of using it for her petty pleasures, the money that was given to her and that she kept in a piggy bank. I witnessed his constant charity with a very sickly cousin in her childhood. Therese, although still quite small, and younger than her cousin by about three years, liked to distract her, amusing her very willingly, without being put off by her whims and her boring moods caused by illness. The Servant of God showed on these painful, often repeated occasions, an admirable self-forgetfulness and patience well above her age. Once, while playing, Thérèse called her aunt (Madame Guérin) by the name of “mother.” Her little cousin quickly resumed that her mother was not that of Therese who no longer had a mother. The Servant of God, hearing this, could not hold back her tears, but made no reply [493r], did not get angry at all and continued to show her little cousin the same affectionate solicitude. This same cousin was later formed in religious life by Thérèse herself. She indeed became Sister Marie of the Eucharist at the Carmel of Lisieux, where she died in a holy way in 1905. I could note many other traits of her charity, but they are reported exactly in the “Story of a Soul.”

A. [Cardinal virtues. About caution]:

Her prudence showed itself above all [493v] in the excellence of the advice she gave to souls to guide them in the way of God. Many have noticed with what penetration and what accuracy she used in every way the thoughts and texts of Sacred Scripture and the Imitation of Jesus Christ. To show the wisdom of her direction, I will quote the following passage from a letter she wrote to me on May 22, 1894. Alluding to the name of Thérèse, which I bear in religion, which was also hers, she says: “Which of the Thereses will be the most fervent? The one who will be the most humble, the most united to Jesus, the most faithful to do all her actions out of love. Ah! let us pray for each other in order to be equally faithful. Wound Jesus with our eye and with one hair - *cf. Cant. 4, 9 - , that is to say, by the greatest thing and by the smallest. Let us not deny him the slightest sacrifice. Everything is so great in religion. Picking up a pin for love can convert a soul. What a mystery! Ah! it is Jesus alone who can give such a price to our actions, so let us love him with all our might” - LT 164 -

B. [Justice and its components]:

Her religious attitude in prayer, her respect and her love for [494r] religious manifestations were remarkable from the years of her childhood, when I lived more particularly with her. There was nothing affected

WITNESS 7: Francoise-Therese Martin

in her attitude, but one enjoyed seeing this young soul so imbued with the presence of God, her little hands tightly joined, kneeling straight and motionless, either at the church she loved so much, or in the evening near our revered father whose attitude during prayer deeply edified us. I am powerless to describe his happiness. The first time our Thérèse went to midnight mass, she could have been eight years old, at the most. The mystery of a God, a little child, lying in a manger for our love, captivated his innocent and pure heart. I can still see her beautiful face take on a celestial expression, contemplating Jesus in his manger. At Corpus Christi processions, Thérèse, who was part of the children's troupe, was the wisest and the most collected. It was the same in church, during the longest services. The good young lady in charge of looking after the little girls in the chapel where the children were gathered could not tire of admiring her. She spoke to my sisters and me about it several times in the most complimentary terms. There is no doubt that in Carmel his [494v] religious spirit gave the same examples of edification that my Carmelite sisters witnessed more than I did.

C.[Strength]:

I noticed that Thérèse in her childhood never asked, as most children do, for sweets capable of flattering her taste. She showed herself to be very courageous in the sufferings which she never failed. Later, she opened her soul to me in her letters and told me all the esteem that should be given to suffering, and this is indeed how she envisaged it for herself, as she showed it to me. , in particular, on the occasion of the death of our father, as I explained when speaking of his spirit of faith. In August 1893, she wrote to me: “I know, dear little sister, that sacrifices do not fail to accompany your joy. Without them, would religious life be meritorious? No, isn't it? On the contrary, it is the small crosses that are all our joy: they are more ordinary than the large ones, and prepare the heart to receive them when it is the will of our good Master” - LT 148 - . In January 1895, she wrote to me: “I rejoice in seeing how much the good God [495r] loves you and fills you with his graces. He finds you worthy of suffering for his love, and this is the greatest proof of tenderness he can give you, for it is suffering that makes us like him. - LT 173 -

D. [Temperance]:

My little sister was sweet, very affectionate, even cuddly, always trying to please at her own expense. I never saw her get angry or show the slightest impatience. Even in her early childhood, I don't remember seeing her angry, but she was sometimes a bit stubborn then. This defect, moreover, disappeared very quickly, and at Les Buissonnets she was very obedient.

[Additional virtues and religious vows].

She had a very high regard for the vows of religion and especially the vow of chastity. Convinced that she was of my religious vocation, she showed herself to be very worried about the vicissitudes which brought me back several times from the cloister to the world. She would then reprove me for the slightest traces of worldliness which seemed to her to be able to compromise my religious future. It was a very great joy to her when at last all her sisters [495v] belonged to the divine Spouse. It is true that I did not enter the Visitation definitively until after her death, but she knew beforehand that I had taken a vow of chastity. She wrote to me in 1893 (November 5): “How good our Lord has been to our family! He did not allow any mortal to become the husband of any of us! - LT 151 - . And on April 28, 1895: “Oh! as I understand that the delay of your profession must be a test for you; but it is such a great grace that the more time one has to prepare for it, the more also one must rejoice” - LT 176 - . December 27, 1893- “We read in the refectory the life of Saint Chantal... I see there the intimate union that has always existed between the Visitation and the Carmel. It makes me bless God for having chosen these two Orders for our family. The Blessed Virgin is truly our Mother, since our monasteries are particularly dedicated to her” - LT 154 -

[Humility]:

Even in the world, the Servant of God faithfully avoided showing off and putting herself forward. She was unaware of the great qualities of soul and body with which God had [496r] endowed her. She does say in her notes that her nature was proud; but she dominated it so well that if she hadn't written it, I think I would still have ignored it. In Carmel, this practice of humility was one of the main objects of his efforts. She wrote to me (December 27, 1893): “Dear little sister, do not forget to pray for me during the month of the dear little Jesus; ask him that I always remain small, very small! - LT 154 - . And in 1895 (April 28): “Jesus wants no one to help me (in my task) except him. So, with his help, I will set to work, work with ardor... The creatures will not see my efforts which will be hidden in my heart. Trying to make myself forgotten, I would like no other gaze than that of Jesus. It doesn't matter if I appear poor and devoid of spirit and talent... I want to put into practice the advice of Imitation: 'Let this one boast of one thing, that one of another, for you, put your joy on me only in contempt of yourself, in my will and my glory - Imit.lv 3 ch 49 - - or else: 'Do you want to learn something that will serve you? Love to be ignored and counted for nothing.” - Imit. Liv1,ch2-3 - Thinking all this, I felt a great peace in my soul "I felt [496v] that it was truth and peace" - LT 176 -

WITNESS 7: Francoise-Therese Martin

[Response to the twenty-second request]:

I did not personally witness any marvelous events during the Servant of God's life, and she did not confide in me about them. I was absent from the house, being a boarder with the Benedictines, when she had this prophetic vision of our father's last illness. I learned from reading her Life that the Servant of God had experienced marvelous transports of love on several occasions. Finally, my Carmelite sisters told me that they knew that a Benedictine nun from the convent of Lisieux had received from the Servant of God, at the beginning of the year 1888, this prophetic response, concerning my future: "You must not to worry about the failures of Léonie for her entry into religion. After my death, she will enter the Visitation, she will succeed and take my name and that of Saint Francis de Sales” - .Source pr. - This prediction has come true to the letter. I don't know the name of this Benedictine nun, but I think it would be easy to shed light on this fact by an investigation in Lisieux.

[497r] [Response to the twenty-third request]:

I have often heard friends express their admiration for the "heavenly air" of Thérèse as a child. Later, her simplicity made her go unnoticed. Nevertheless, I can attest that our superior, Mother Marie de Sales, reading the letters that my sister Thérèse wrote to me from Carmel, said that it was extraordinary that a nun so young could conceive such lofty thoughts. She was in awe and said so to the community and to the novitiate.

[Session 44: - December 2, 1910, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[499r] [Response to the twenty-fourth request]:

I was in Lisieux during his last illness and his death; but from July 1897 I no longer saw her in the visiting room: her condition kept her in the infirmary, which I could not enter. I heard about it from my sisters. In the last interview, around June 1897, as I could not hold back my tears at the presentiment of her approaching end, she made me understand that there was no reason to be sad. Two letters from her contain an admirable expression of her dispositions in the face of death. In one, of July 12, 1896, she said to me: “You ask me for news of my health. Well! my dear little sister, I don't cough at all anymore, are you happy?... That won't prevent the good Lord from taking me when he wants, since I'm doing all my best to be a very small child: I don't I [499v] have no preparations to make. Jesus himself will have to pay all the expenses of the journey and the entrance fee to heaven” - LT 191 - . The other letter is very precious to me, it's the last one she wrote on her deathbed. It is dated July 17, 1897, and written in pencil: “Jesus!. My dear Léonie, I am very happy to still be able to talk to you; a few days ago I no longer thought I had this consolation on earth; but the good Lord seems to want to prolong my exile a little. I don't worry about it, because I wouldn't want to enter heaven a minute sooner by my own will. The only happiness on earth is to strive to always find delicious the portion that Jesus gives us. Yours is very beautiful, my dear little sister: if you want to be a saint, it will be easy for you, since deep in your heart the world means nothing to you. You can therefore, like us, take care of the only necessary thing, that is to say, that while giving yourself up with devotion to external works, your goal is only one: to please Jesus, to unite yourself more intimately with him. You want me in heaven to pray for you [500r] the Sacred Heart; be sure that I will not forget to give him your errands and to claim all that will be necessary for you to become a great saint. A Dieu, my darling sister, I would like the thought of my entry into heaven to fill you with joy, since I will be able to love you even more. Your little sister, THERESE OF THE CHILD JESUS” - LT 257 -

[Response to the twenty-fifth request]:

She died on September 30, 1897. She was exposed, according to custom, at the gate of the choir. During this time, the faithful came in large numbers to touch rosaries and other objects. I saw her myself in her coffin and she seemed to me remarkably beautiful. The burial, which I attended, took place in the cemetery of Lisieux, in a very deep grave, in the land granted to the Carmelites. She was the first to be buried in this new concession. I didn't notice anything extraordinary in this ceremony except the great meditation of the crowd.

[Response to the twenty-sixth request]:

During the 18 months that I [500v] still spent in the world after his death, I went many times to his tomb; but I did not notice that there was at that time a competition of pilgrims. Since then, being in the cloister, I have not been able to return to the cemetery. But I know, from the letters of my sisters and from the reports that have been made to me at the parlor of the Visitation, that it is well known that the assistance of pilgrims has been established gradually and that it is very considerable.

WITNESS 7: Francoise-Therese Martin

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

I don't receive nearly as many letters as my Carmelite sisters. However, I receive a certain number of them from France and also from abroad (Portugal, Italy, England, etc., etc.), and all these letters bear witness to the Servant of God's renown for holiness. Many of these letters come from nuns of our Order of the Visitation, and testify that in all our monasteries there is great devotion to Sister Thérèse. This is not surprising, because the spirit of his piety is very much ours and that of our holy founder, Saint Francis de Sales. Several of these letters also come from people living in the world and expressing the same feelings. [501r] In our monastery in Caen, Sister Thérèse is the object of boundless admiration and trust. Our very honored mother superior, and also the one who was superior before her, have the greatest esteem for the holiness of the Servant of God. One of our sisters (Sister Marie-Pauline, Visitandine) told me that she obtained from Sister Thérèse's intercession everything she asked of her. At the monastery, we almost continuously make novenas to the Servant of God, at the request of the faithful.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I haven't heard anything to that effect, outside of our monastery. Among us, several of my sisters, from our house in Caen, felt in the first years that followed the publication of the “Story of a Soul” that there was an element of enthusiasm in all this. But since then, we have seen the sequence of events and noted the graces obtained, we have completely reversed this impression, and today we all think the opposite, unanimously.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

[501v] I witnessed the marvelous healing of our Sister Marie-Bénigne on July 2, 1909. ”, where it bears the number C. The same relation is reported in the “Articles” of the vice-postulator, n. 136. I myself encouraged the patient to turn to the Servant of God with a novena. I felt compelled to ask our mother's permission to have the patient take one of the rose petals that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had plucked from her crucifix; and giving her to drink the water in which this petal had been soaked, I invoked the Servant of God with great insistence and fervor, telling her: "You cannot refuse me this healing, because it is today the silver wedding of our mistress of novices and the anniversary of my profession. And I was so sure of being answered, that I recited the praise and Glory Patri, even before having noticed the miracle. As related in the "Rain of Roses" and in the "Articles", the young novice Sister Marie-Bénigne was then suddenly cured of a very serious stomach ulcer, which caused very frequent vomiting of blood, and made any food impossible. [502r] It is true that immediately afterwards, the patient drank milk in quantity and without any inconvenience. According to the text printed in the "Rain of Roses" and in the "Articles", the patient would have eaten, the day after her recovery, an omelette, peas, salad, etc. The fact is that she asked for it, and probably nothing bad would have happened. But the doctor cautioned against it, and it was not until about five to six days later that she gradually resumed the community diet. It would perhaps be useful to review the actual text of his handwritten deposition, which must be kept at Carmel. Our very honored mother keeps the original doctor's certificate in Caen, and if the court deems it useful, it will obtain from our reverend mother that she send it to be attached to my deposition. I know one of our lay sisters (Sister Louise Eugénie) who, during a novena made with confidence, was cured of gastric discomfort that the doctor had been treating without success for at least six weeks. Generally speaking, in our community we trust that the intercession of the Servant of God is powerful in obtaining exceptional graces for the soul or the body, and we invoke her constantly. I know, from the relations in the parlor [502v] and from letters, that this trust is shared by many of the faithful; that she is considered one of the most powerful “thaumaturges” and that she is invoked as such, not only in France, but in various countries throughout the world. I can point out, in particular, that we saw, in the visiting room, a child of ten, suddenly cured last Pentecost in Lisieux of a tuberculous affection of the bones, which had kept him immobilized in an appliance for three years. This family, who now live in Caen, came in their entirety (father, mother and four children) and told us the story of this miracle. The non-practicing father and mother were converted as a result of these events. I think others will be able to give the court a more direct and accurate account of this miracle. I am going to report in all simplicity a fact that is personal to me. I no longer know the exact date, but it was, I believe, in the winter of 1900-1901. That evening, I attended matins, sadness and boredom in my soul, a kind of disgust had taken hold of me, and under this painful pressure, I very cowardly recited the divine office. When suddenly, faster than lightning, a luminous form appeared on our Book of Hours. I was [503r] dazzled by it, but felt no fear. It was only a moment later that I fully realized that it was a hand that I had seen. All the lights of the earth cannot be compared to it, so beautiful was that hand. "It's my good angel coming to call me to order," I thought at first. "No, no - I said to myself afterwards - my angel has no hands: it can only be my little Thérèse." Be that as it may, I firmly believe that it is indeed she, for I was perfectly consoled: a delicious peace flooded my soul. How many times since that visit from heaven have I wanted to see that blessed and cherished hand again; but, to my great regret, I never saw her again. About two or three months ago, as I was addressing her to be freed from a scruple, I opened a copy of the book of the Imitation which had belonged to her.

WITNESS 7: Francoise-Therese Martin

[503v] [Response to the thirtieth request]:

I would like to add two forgotten details. The first refers to his love of the Holy Eucharist (Interrog. XXI, C. De charitate in Deum); I learned in the parlor of Carmel from an account by my sisters, contemporary with the event, that the Servant of God having noticed one day, in the exercise of her function as sacristan, that a parcel of the Holy Host was remaining on the corporal, she showed extraordinary joy in having thus in her possession the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. The second forgotten detail relates to the virtue of humility. My sisters reported to me in the same way in the parlor, which she endured, with great gentleness and without seeming angry, a very humiliating remark made to her by a nun. As [504r] the Servant of God, arranging flowers on a coffin, left aside certain flowers which did not seem to her to produce a good effect, this nun said to her: "You would find a way to place these flowers if they were sent by your family." To which the Servant of God replied, without any bitterness: "Since it pleases you, I will put them as you wish" - HA 12 -

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows].

I have thus deposed according to the truth; I ratify and confirm it.

Signature. Sister FRANÇOISE-THÉRÈSE MARTIN, of the Visitation Sainte Marie, DSB

Witness 8 - Mary Joseph of the Cross

Marcelline Huse.

Despite its brevity, the testimony of the eighth witness is important for illustrating and confirming many details concerning Thérèse Martin's childhood and adolescence.

Born to Norbert Husé and Françoise Baubier in Saint-Samson (Mayenne), diocese of Laval, on July 19, 1866, Marcelline-Anne entered the service of Isidore Guérin, Thérèse's uncle, on March 15, 1880, before her fourteenth birthday. who had two daughters, Jeanne and Marie. Thérèse was then in her eighth year. Marcelline thus had frequent contact with the latter, which was specially entrusted to her at the same time as Céline during the travels and absences of Mr. Martin and his eldest daughters.

Marcelline left the Guérin house only to enter the Benedictines of the Blessed Sacrament of Bayeux, under the name of Sister Marie-Joseph de la Croix. She made her profession there on August 10, 1892, lived there in complete humility in the wake of Sister Thérèse and died on December 26, 1935, after a long and painful illness *(Annals 1938,53-56).

Before entering the Benedictines in 1889, Marcelline visited the Carmel with Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus who gave her a precious exhortation. For her profession the following year, on September 8, the saint received a letter from Marcelline addressing her best wishes and replied to her on the 28th of the same month.

Sister Marie-Joseph de la Croix testified during the XLV-XLVIII sessions on December 12-15, 1910, in the parlor of her monastery, fr. 5I0r-524v from our Public Copy.

WITNESS 8: Marie-Joseph de la Croix OSB

[Session 45: - December 12, 1910, at 9 a.m.]

[510r] [The witness answers the first question correctly.

[Response to second request]:

My name is Marcelline-Anne Husé, born in Saint-Samson, diocese of Laval, on July 19, 1866, of the legitimate marriage of Norbert Husé and Françoise Barbier. I was once a servant in the family of the Servant of God; I am now, for 21 years, a converse nun in the Benedictine monastery of the Most Holy Sacrament of Bayeux, under the name of Sister Marie-Joseph de la Croix.

[The witness correctly answers the third to the sixth questions inclusive.

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I come to testify to obey the Holy Church which asks me to do so through the court. I am completely free to tell the whole truth as I know it, and that is my intention.

[510v] [Response to the eighth request]:

In 1880 when I was 13 years old, I entered the home of Monsieur Guérin, uncle of the Servant of God, to be a servant and nanny. The Servant of God was then 7 years old; she had already been in Lisieux for two or three years. She came to her uncle's every day and I then took care of her, like her little cousins, Monsieur Guérin's daughters, Jeanne and Marie. I was involved in their life and their games. I remained in this condition and in these almost daily relationships until 1889, that is to say a year after the Servant of God entered Carmel. On this date, I left Monsieur Guérin's house to enter religion in Bayeux. I will mainly draw from my personal memories what I will have to say in court. Reading the “Story of a Soul” only confirmed my observations.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a very special affection for the Servant of God because I [511r] already loved her very much in the world, and I love her even more now. But this is not what will prevent me from saying what is just and true in the matter of his beatification. I desire with all my heart her beatification, because she well deserves it. Although I lived with her very familiarly, it is with all my heart that I pray to her, and I will pray to her more and more.

[Answer to the tenth request]:

I know she was born in Alencon; that his mother, Monsieur Guérin's sister, had died before Monsieur Martin came to Lisieux. The Servant of God had four sisters whom I knew as well as herself; she was the youngest of all.

[Answer to the eleventh request]:

Mr. Martin was esteemed in Lisieux as an “old patriarch” and as a saint. I witnessed the fervor of his Christian practices. He attended the six o'clock mass every day with his eldest daughters. He was a member of the Association for the Nocturnal Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament [511v] like, moreover, Monsieur Guérin, his brother-in-law; he also belonged to the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul for the visitation of the poor.

[Answer to the twelfth request]:

I don't know anything special about this.

[Answer to the thirteenth request]:

Mr. Martin was an excellent father, and he raised all his children with great care, all of whom he loved very much. The Servant of God, whom he called his "little queen", being the youngest, was the object of a special affection on his part, but which took nothing away from the seriousness of his education. He would not have tolerated her lacking in anything. Without being severe, he brought up all his children faithful to all their duties. I don't know if little Thérèse, who was so simple, noticed that she was more loved, for in this family there was a great union of hearts; in any case, she was not "a spoiled child" and she did not avail herself of this preference. His sisters were in no way jealous of him, because they loved [512r] their little sister so much!

[Answer to the fourteenth request]:

The Servant of God was first educated by Mademoiselle Pauline, her second sister, whom she called “her little mother” and who could have been about 18 years old. When, in 1882, Mademoiselle Pauline entered the Carmel, it was Mademoiselle Marie who served as mother to the Servant of God. In 1881, a year after her arrival with Monsieur Guérin, little Thérèse attended, as a half-boarder, the educational center of the Benedictine nuns of Lisieux. I was then responsible for accompanying her on the way at the same time as Mesdemoiselles Guérin , her younger cousins. When she was alone with me on this trip or at home, she showed herself to be very affectionate and very trusting and willingly confided in me. These intimate conversations naturally bore on matters of piety. She was, for her age, exceptionally intelligent and thoughtful. I remember in particular how, even before her first communion, hearing workers blaspheme, she explained to me, to excuse them, that one must not judge from the bottom of souls, that these people had received much less grace than us, and that they were more unfortunate [512] than guilty. She was very cheerful and very outgoing in her family and with us. You could see that she was compensating herself for the constraint imposed on her by the middle of the pension. She had great esteem and affection for the nuns, her mistresses; but on the side of her companions she felt a kind of embarrassment, because they were not interested, like the members of her family, in the usual outpourings of her soul. Besides, we could only suspect this suffering, for she accused no one and never complained. At the Abbey she obtained the best grades in her classes. She found no pleasure in the noisy games of children of her age. His great pleasure was to pick flowers, and to isolate himself in the garden or in the countryside "to play solitaire." She loved nature and the song of birds.

[Session 46: - December 13, 1910, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[514v] [Continuation of the response to the fourteenth request]:

During the Easter holidays of 1883, Mr. Martin having gone to Paris with his eldest daughters, Misses Marie and Léonie, left the two youngest, Misses Céline and Thérèse, to us to look after them. Mademoiselle Pauline had entered Carmel the previous October. This separation had been very painful for the Servant of God and she had conceived, I believe, a sadness that she tried to contain and which undoubtedly caused, [515r] at least partially, the illness that suddenly broke out. at that time. After a conversation with her uncle Monsieur Guérin, she was seized with a nervous tremor which was followed by attacks of fright and hallucinations which repeated themselves several times each day. In the intervals, she was very weak and could not be left alone. It seems to me that she kept her consciousness, even during the crises; and, the crisis over, she retained the memory of what had happened. She kept telling us, however, that she would attend her sister Pauline's taking of the habit, which was to take place a few days later. In fact, against all expectations, and while the crises had repeated the day before with the same intensity, she was very well at the time of the ceremony, in which she took part full of enthusiasm and joy. She seemed cured then. She returned to Les Buissonnets, to her father's house, where the attacks began again the next day. From that moment I saw her only in a few visits that I paid her from time to time. But I had news of her every day, for her aunt Madame Guérin never failed to go and see her. I knew that the doctors found the illness of this child strange, that the energetic treatments they employed brought no improvement. [515v] The evil seemed rather to be getting worse. I was associated with the very ardent prayers of her sisters. Suddenly, on Sunday, May 10, someone came to Monsieur Guérin's to tell us that Mademoiselle Thérèse was cured. In fact, the very next day, she came to see us herself, and there remained no other traces of her illness than a certain weakening which disappeared very quickly. At that time, no one in the entourage doubted that this healing was a miracle of the Most Blessed Virgin, as it was also believed that this illness was not purely natural. I did not know at that time that there had been an apparition of the Most Blessed Virgin.

The Servant of God made her first communion on May 8, 1884 at the Benedictine Abbey. She was eleven years old. But for a long time already she appreciated and desired the Holy Eucharist. I particularly noticed this when observing his attitude and his conversations during the first communion of his sister Céline (1881) and his cousin Marie Guérin (1882). I also noticed his regret at not accompanying his father and his sisters to the holy table on the feast day. As her First Communion approached, I observed very well the attention she took to prepare for it and in particular the habitual practice of small [516r] renunciations, for which she sought opportunities. I also have the impression that on the day of her First Communion she was more imbued with the grandeur of this action than children of her age usually are.

[Answer to the fifteenth request]:

Around the age of 13, the Servant of God suffered from frequent headaches in her health, and her father thought it appropriate to withdraw her from boarding school. I have never heard that this departure had any other cause than the state of his health. I saw in the “Story of a Soul” that the Servant of God had been tested at that time by scruples; but she did not confide in me then; I only noticed that she was less expansive and more reserved towards me. Back in her father's house, she received private lessons to complete her education. Our relations were no longer as frequent as when she came to Monsieur Guérin's every day. I noticed, however, at that time, her great piety, her particularly recollected attitude while attending mass and services, her fervor when she approached the holy table, which she did, at least, every Sunday [516v] and probably also on weekdays; but during the week I was not, like on Sundays, present at her communions.

[Answer from the sixteenth to the nineteenth questions]:

I don't know anything specific about these points.

[Answer to the twentieth request]:

In the very time that I spent with her, I already had this very clear conviction that her virtue went far beyond what one notices in young girls, even very pious ones. I couldn't explain myself better, but he was a soul apart, an elite soul who didn't look like the others. I never found the occasion to make the slightest reproach to him. People ask me what I think of its faults: I'm really embarrassed to find any. Perhaps one could say that she was very sensitive and impressionable, but she controlled her nature so well that she never showed any signs of impatience; sometimes a certain blush showed the effort she was making to control herself.

[517r] Response to the twenty-first request]:

Even before her First Communion, the Servant of God showed a great spirit of faith and religion towards the real presence. Appointed with other children to throw flowers at the procession of the Blessed Sacrament, she was careful to throw her rose petals high, "so - she said - that they would caress Jesus" - MSA 17,1 - . The assistants then noticed his piety and his angelic air, and I heard them several times express their admiration. I also noticed his delicate charity towards his neighbour. The first time she was introduced to me at Monsieur Guérin's, she was seven years old. He had been told that I was sad to have left my mother; she then took it upon herself to console me with all sorts of marks of affection. On walks, she was radiant when she was sent to bring alms to the poor. A little later, when she was about 14, she visited and catechized poor little girls. I have taken her several times to these families. I then witnessed her joy and the gratitude that these children had for her. Shortly after her first communion [517v], when she was about 12 years old, she spoke to me of the good God, telling me that he was good for those who loved him, and how he loved us in particular. As I did not feel all that love, and complained about it, saying that I did not love it that way, she explained to me that love is not in the feeling but in the practice of virtue, and that we should always try to please God in our slightest actions without trying to attract attention.

[Session 47: - December 14, 1910, at 8 a.m. 30]

[519v] [Continuation of the response to the twenty-first request]:

A feature of her charity towards her neighbour, of which I have kept a special memory, is that even before her first communion she spent herself in acts of charity with her little cousin Marie Guérin, who was always ill. What acts of patience did she perform with her! Although three years younger than her, she surrounded her with charming care, yielding to all her whims, dissipating the boredom and sadness caused by illness, teaching her to live in "solitary life" and inviting her to practice virtue. All of this bore fruit, since later on Mademoiselle Marie went to join her in Carmel, where the Servant of God became her novice mistress. When Mademoiselle Thérèse was still a very small child, she asked to reserve for the poor the cakes and delicacies [520r] that were given to her.

I kept a precise memory of his devotion to the Blessed Virgin; she was from ten to twelve years old; we were going to spend the month of May at Trouville, by the sea. The house was far from the Notre Dame des Victoires church. However, we usually went there every evening for the exercises of the month of Mary. If sometimes we hesitated to go there because of the distance, or for some impediment, Therese insisted and the fatigue of the day was never a reason for her to omit this long journey. It was his happiness to go to morning mass in this church consecrated to the Blessed Virgin; the cold, the bad weather could not deter him. His love for the Blessed Virgin was also noticed at the time of his reception as a child of Mary; because to get there she had to make real sacrifices, returning to the Abbey which she had left and where she no longer found any companions.

Her prudence showed itself in the wisdom of her advice and in her idea of ​​holiness. Even before entering Carmel, and shortly after her First Communion, she already understood the price of sacrifice. One day, I told him how much I find[520v] his good and perfect uncle and especially his aunt, that she was a saint:

“It's true - she told me - but one day she will be much more so, because she suffers and will always suffer; but this suffering, united with the love of the good God whom she loves so much, will make her grow in perfection” '. Later, in the first year following his entry into Carmel, I confided to him my plan to enter religion. Again she gave me the best advice. The last recommendation she made to me in the parlor of the Carmel was this: “My little Marcelline, we must always truly love the good God, and to prove our love to him, make all the sacrifices he asks of us. Don't worry, I'll pray for you. Love the good God well, so as not to fear him too much: he is so good! Remember also to pray for those who do not love him, so that we convert many souls”

Regarding her temperance, I noticed that when we were together at the Chalet Colomb, at Trouville, and we lived in greater intimacy, she would accept any food at the table, and if she showed a preference, was for what was lower.

[521r] [Answer to the twenty-second to twenty-sixth questions]:

I don't know anything very specific about these points, because I left the Servant of God shortly after she entered Carmel, and since that time I myself have lived in the cloister at Bayeux.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

Our community gives a great deal of veneration to little Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus: we all love her very much; she obtained several intimate graces from some of our sisters. Several novenas have been requested of us in her honor by people in the world, and many others ask us to pray her for their intentions. As for his reputation for holiness abroad, it is notorious and I know it from the stories which are told on all sides.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

[521v] I have never heard anything asserted either against the reputation of holiness of the Servant of God, or against the steps taken to spread knowledge of her life. Several people knowing that I had known her particularly, asked me if the account of her life expressed the truth well, and I always answered in conscience that it was perfectly exact.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I had strongly recommended to the Servant of God the conversion of my brother-in-law, who had lived for a long time far from all religious practices; I had sent him a relic of the Servant of God. He was converted on his deathbed and died very Christianly two years ago. I remain convinced that the prayers of the Servant of God contributed to this return to God.

[Session 48: - December 15, 1910, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[523v] [Continuation of the response to the twenty-ninth request]:

I learned by a letter from my brother and by the verbal account of Mademoiselle Aimée Roger, residing in Lisieux, an eyewitness, that Madame Poirier, born Berthe Chopin, residing near Ambrières, diocese of Laval, and niece of my brother, suffered for two years from a serious internal illness, the nature of which I cannot specify. During this illness, the doctors [524r] had pronounced several times that the illness was hopeless. Now, on the advice that I made her give, she invoked Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, of whom I had sent her a relic (fragment of cloth). Lately, against all expectations, she went to Lisieux to see my brother who was very surprised by this trip, since the patient could hardly, some time before, go from one apartment to another. She came to pray at the tomb of the Servant of God and thank her for her healing. I have heard or read of a multitude of other favors, but I have not directly witnessed them.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I would like to add a few details to my testimony on the fifteenth Interrogation concerning the conduct of the Servant of God during the period following her leaving the boarding house of the Benedictines.

I can affirm in all truth that since her first communion I have seen Mademoiselle Thérèse grow in grace and virtue in a very extraordinary way; her love for the good God and her desire for sacrifice alone made her [524v] undertake all the steps she took regarding her vocation and overcome all the obstacles she encountered in order to realize it. For the rest, one felt that it was a soul that lived continually in the presence of the good God, for if one spoke to him about toilets and other things of the same kind, one could not talk to him about it for long; but if I spoke to him of pious things, his soul immediately opened up and his heart poured out with happiness.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

I have filed as above according to the truth, I ratify and confirm it.

Signed: Sister MARIE-JOSEPH DE LA CROIX, rel. ind.

Witness 9 - Adolphe Roulland, MEP

His first missionary brother, Sister Thérèse, received him on October 15, 1895, on the feast of Saint Thérèse of Avila. It was Maurice Barthélemy Bellière (1874-1907) future White Father. But she was to have a second, Adolphe-Jean-Louis-Eugène Roulland, who became the ninth witness in the Informative Ordinary Trial.

Fr. Roulland was born in Cahagnolles (Calvados) on October 13, 1870. Entering the Foreign Missions of Paris and preparing for the priesthood, he felt the need for the help of the prayers of a cloistered nun for his future apostolate. It was through Fr. Norbert, of the Prémontrés de Mondaye, that he contacted the Carmel of Lisieux for this purpose. Mother Marie de Gonzague did not hesitate to choose Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. “She's the best of the good ones,” she confided to Father Roulland before her priestly ordination (June 28, 1896). He met Sister Thérèse on July 3 on the occasion of one of his first masses celebrated at the Carmel. On the correspondence which they exchanged thereafter, discretion was kept with regard to the community. The news that was communicated came, it was said, from the "Missionary of our mother." Mother Marie de Gonzague testified to a great breadth of vision. During the last months of her life, Thérèse wrote seven times to Fr. Roulland. From this mail, a note was lost because, given as a sign of blessing to a small Chinese child during her illness, it was not taken from her at her burial. The prioress sent the father a photograph of Thérèse on the back of which she had marked the main dates of her life and the missionary sent her portrait which Mother Marie de Gonzague authorized Thérèse to keep in the cell, portrait accompanied by a sheet on which the father had also written for his "sister" the list of the most significant events of her life. Thérèse who carried her Gospel on her heart had slipped there the souvenir image of the priestly ordination of her “brother”, on which he had written: “Here below, we work together, in heaven we will share the reward”; likewise Fr. Roulland carried with him an image painted by Sister Thérèse, which represented a Heart letting drops of blood fall on Sut-Chuen, the Father's mission in China, with this invocation by the hand of the saint: "0 Blood of Jesus, water our mission. Bring forth the elect” (August 20, 1896). Every day the father called Thérèse to mass and recited the prayer she had asked him to make: "My God, set my sister ablaze with your love", a prayer which, at the request of the saint, became this after her dead: “My God, allow my sister to make you still loved” (cf. f. 532r).

In a letter that Fr. Roulland sent to her from Shanghai between August 24 and 26, 1896, Sister Thérèse was struck to read this among the most important events in the life of her spiritual brother: “Vocation saved by N.-D. . de la Délivrande: September 8, 1890.” It was precisely the day of his profession at Carmel, when “saying an eternal farewell to the world, his sole aim was to save souls, especially the souls of apostles. Of Jesus, her divine Spouse, she particularly asked for an apostolic soul; not being able to be a priest, she wanted a priest in her place to receive the graces of the Lord, to have the same aspirations, the same desires as her”, as she wrote to the father on November 1, 1896 - LT 201 - (Letter 178, p. 348). Remember that the poem-prayer “To Our Lady of Victories, Queen of Virgins, Apostles and Martyrs” was written on July 16, 1896, for Father Roulland.

In 1909, after a few years of missionary life in China, the father was called back to Paris as director of the seminary in rue du Bac, also fulfilling the functions of bursar in 1913. Without putting himself personally forward, he was an ever more convinced apostle of Thérèse of Lisieux and of her act of offering to merciful love. In 1922, after a year spent in Rome, he was put in charge of the brothers' novitiate at Dormans (Marne), where he died on June 12, 1934 (VT3-1953).

He deposited on January 19, 1911, during the XLIX session, f. 528r-540r of our Public Copy.

[Session 49- - January 19, 1911, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[528r] [528v] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Adolphe-Jean-Louis-Eugène Roulland, born in Cahagnolles, diocese of Bayeux, on October 13, 1870, of Eugène Roulland and Marie Ledresseur. I am a priest, member of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris; I was a missionary in Su-tchuen from the year 1896 to the year 1909. Since June 1909 I have resided at our house in Paris, rue du Bac, 128, where I exercise the functions of procurator of the Society of the Missions Foreign.

WITNESS 9: Adolphe Roulland MEP

[The witness correctly answers the third to the sixth questions inclusive].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I give my testimony moved by the sole feeling of the glory of God and the love of the truth.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

[529r] Here are the circumstances in which I met the Servant of God. In 1896, at the time of receiving priestly ordination and going on a mission, I had the thought of requesting the special prayers of a Carmelite nun who would thus be spiritually associated with my apostolate. For this I spoke to the Reverend Mother Prioress of the Carmel of Lisieux, who designated Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus for this purpose. I didn't know her before. Before leaving for the missions, I came to Lisieux in July 1896. I celebrated Holy Mass at Carmel and for half a day I had several interviews with the Servant of God. From then on, we maintained a correspondence of letters which continued until the Servant of God's death, that is to say for a year. I received from her in this interval about eight letters. I also used for my testimony what I heard from various missionaries of our Society. I did not use her “History written by itself” to prepare my testimony; I only use my personal information.

[Response to the ninth request]:

[529v] I no doubt desire the success of this Cause, because the knowledge I have acquired of the Servant of God's dispositions has inspired me with a deep devotion to her, and because this beatification will allow her to better realize this what she set out to do, namely to do good and save souls.

[Answer from the tenth to the nineteenth questions]:

I don't know anything in particular about the "curriculum vitae" of the Servant of God.

[Response to the twentieth and twenty-first request]:

I had the good fortune to know Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus through our correspondence from June 23, 1896 until her death, and I believe that her letters give off such a scent of virtue that, to testify in her favour, I cannot do better than to quote them:

Self-distrust - Trust in God. - In her letter of June 23, 1896, she wrote to me: "I am sure that my celestial Spouse will make up for my weak merits (on which I do not rely in any way) and that he will fulfill the desires of my soul by fertilizing your apostolate” - LT 189 - “How pitiful you would be - she wrote to me [530r] on November 1, 1896 - if Jesus did not support the arms of your Moses! - LT 201 - . And on the date of May 9, 1897: “I know that one must be very pure to appear before the God of all holiness; but I also know that the Lord is infinitely just, and it is this justice which frightens so many souls, which is the subject of my joy and my confidence. To be just is not only to exercise severity to punish the guilty. it is still recognizing right intentions and rewarding virtue. I hope as much for the justice of the good God as for his mercy: it is because he is just that he is compassionate and full of gentleness, slow to punish and abundant in mercy, because he knows our fragility; he remembers that we are only dust, fragility; as a father has tenderness for his children, so the Lord has compassion on us - *Ps. 102nd 8. 14. 13 - . This is what I think of the justice of God; my way is all of trust and love; I do not understand the souls who are afraid of such a tender friend. - LT 226 -

Faithfulness to the voice of God. - She is one of those strong souls who cost nothing to obey the voice of God; here, moreover, is how she tells me of her entry into Carmel. The Lord had deigned to ask her for her heart from the cradle [530v], if I may express myself in this way - LT 201 of November 1, 1896: - "Christmas night 1886, the night of my conversion - she said -, Jesus deigned to bring me out of the diapers and the imperfections of childhood. He transformed me in such a way that I no longer recognized myself. Without this change, I would have had to stay many more years in the world. Saint Thérèse said to her daughters: 'I want you to be women in nothing, but in everything you equal strong men.. Saint Thérèse - CH; de Perf., ch 8 - would not have wanted to recognize me as her child, if the Lord had not clothed me with his divine strength, if he had not himself armed me for war . I sincerely sympathize with his pain (young girl I had spoken to him about) knowing from experience how bitter it is not to be able to respond immediately to God's call. I hope she doesn't have to go to Rome like me. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and that only the violent take it away. It was the same for me from the kingdom of Carmel. Before being the prisoner of Jesus, I had to travel far to snatch the prison that I preferred to all the palaces on earth. Speaking to me about the Father Superior who refused to receive her, she wrote to me: “His conduct [531r] was prudent, and I have no doubt that by testing me he was accomplishing the will of God, who wanted to make me conquer the fortress of Carmel at the point of the sword” - LT 201 -

WITNESS 9: Adolphe Roulland MEP

Rest in the will of God. - This acquiescence to the will of God is so great in her that it is there that she finds the only rest, the only path to perfection: “May the will of God be done! - she wrote to me on November 1896, 201 -: it is only there that rest can be found; apart from this loving will, we would do nothing neither for Jesus nor for souls” - LT 19 - '. And on March 1897, 221: “I don't worry about the future; I am sure that the good Lord will do his will, it is the only grace that I desire” - LT 9 - '. Finally on May 1897, 226: “Sometimes, when I read certain spiritual treatises where perfection is shown through a thousand obstacles, surrounded by a host of illusions, my poor little mind gets tired very quickly. I close the learned book which breaks my head and dries up my heart and I take the Holy Scriptures. Then everything seems luminous to me: a single word reveals infinite horizons to my soul; perfection seems easy to me, I see that it suffices to recognize one's nothingness and to abandon oneself like a child in the arms of the good God” - LT XNUMX - .

Love of God and souls. - God and souls! these are the great affections of Sister Thérèse of the Child [531v] Jesus. Speaking to me of a favor received by her, she adds: “How Jesus delights in fulfilling the desires of souls who love only him! - LT 189 - . The love of souls above all returns constantly to her pen, this love which made her apostolic union so agreeable to her: "I shall be truly happy - she wrote to me on June 23, 1896 - to work with you for the salvation of souls, it is for this purpose that I became a Carmelite; Unable to be a missionary of action, I wanted to be one through love and penance. At your first Mass - she continues - ask Jesus for me to kindle me with the fire of his love, so that I can then help to kindle it in hearts” - LT 189 - . And she herself, before my departure for the missions, determined me to make this request for her every morning at the Holy Sacrifice: “My God, allow Sister Thérèse to make you loved by souls” - LT 189 and 221 - . In her letter of November 1, 1896, she returns again to this goal of her entry into Carmel: “On September 8, 1890, a little Carmelite woman became the wife of the King of Heaven, saying an eternal farewell to the world; his only goal was to save souls, especially the souls of apostles” - LT 201 - . On March 19, 1897, she wrote to me: “I really hope that, if I leave e-[532r]xile, you will not forget your promise to pray for me. I don't want you to ask God to deliver me from the flames of purgatory. Saint Thérèse said to her daughters when they wanted to pray for her: 'What does it matter to me to remain until the end of the world in purgatory, if by my prayers I save a single soul' - Ch. of perf. Ch3 - . This word finds an echo in my heart; I would like to save souls and forget myself for them. I would like to save some even after my death; also, I would be happy if you would say then, instead of my little prayer that you are making and which will be forever fulfilled: My God, allow my sister to make you still loved”. And on July 14, 1897: “I will be much more useful to you in heaven than on earth... You will thank the Lord for giving me the means to help you more effectively in your apostolic works. I intend not to remain inactive in heaven; my desire is to work again for the Church and souls; I ask the good Lord and I'm sure he will answer me. Are not the angels continually occupied with us, never ceasing to see the divine Face, to get lost in the shoreless ocean of love? Why wouldn't Jesus allow me to imitate them? - LT 254 - .

Love of suffering. - “On this earth where everything is changing - she wrote to me on May 9, 1897 - only one thing remains stable: it is the behavior of the King of heaven with regard to his friends; since he raised the banner of the cross, it is in his shadow that all must fight and win the victory” - LT 226 -. To this conduct of the King of Heaven, Sister Thérèse asked only to submit; his letters are still the testimony of his love of sufferings and trials, as well as of his peace in the midst of tribulations. I have already quoted this sublime application (letter of March 19, 1897) that she made of the word of Saint Thérèse, choosing to remain in purgatory until the end of the world to save a single soul. Here are other passages in which the same love of the cross is revealed: “I would even like - she wrote to me on July 30, 1896 - that my brother always have consolations and I trials; it may be selfish, [533r] but no, since my only weapon is love and suffering” - LT 193 - . And on March 19, 1897: “I would be very happy to work and suffer a long time for Jesus, so I ask him to be content in me, that is to say, to pay no attention to my desires, either to 'to love while suffering, or to go and enjoy him in heaven' - LT 221 - . Then, on July 14, 1897: “You see that if I leave the field of battle already, it is not with the selfish desire to rest: the thought of eternal beatitude barely thrills my heart; suffering has long since become my heaven here below and I really find it difficult to conceive how I could acclimatize myself in a country where joy reigns without any mixture of sadness. Jesus will have to transform my soul and give it the capacity to enjoy” - LT 254 - .

Unlimited trust in God, deep distrust of oneself, conformity and total abandonment to the divine will, love of God and the salvation of souls, and to achieve this goal, acceptance of perpetual suffering: are these not the characteristics of a heroic virtue and need I say that the simplicity, the humility with which she writes, is for me, although I have not lived near her, the guarantee that she was truly impregnated with these lofty sentiments and that she followed them in all her conduct?

WITNESS 9: Adolphe Roulland MEP

[533v] [Response to the twenty-second request]:

I don't know anything about this.

[Response to the twenty-third request]:

When the Reverend Marie de Gonzague, prioress of the Carmel of Lisieux, appointed Sister Thérèse to be associated spiritually with my apostolate, she said to me: “She is the best of my maids.” Having always been away on a mission, I did not have the opportunity to know better what people thought of her during her life.

[Answer to the twenty-fourth to twenty-sixth questions]:

I don't know anything special about these points.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

During the very time that I was on mission, and shortly after the Servant of God's death, I noticed that she was invoked by several of my confreres as a powerful helper in their work. Since then, having had to travel, either in my mis[534r]sion, or in other countries that I crossed to return to France, I had the happiness of seeing in many places Sister Thérèse known, loved and invoked. The missionaries put themselves under his protection. Monsieur Deronin, having to found a community of Chinese virgins at Chung-King (Sutchuen), placed himself and his work under the protection of Sister Thérèse, and his community made great progress. Mr. Arlas, missionary in Chentu (China), recalls with joy his pilgrimage to the tomb of Sister Thérèse, on which, he writes to me, he placed some verses written by him, verses in which he expresses his admiration for the virtues of Sister Thérèse, and asks her for her protection. Messrs. Holhann and Guénan, from Hong Kong, have the same feelings. Monsieur Ferlay, from Siam, spoke to me in person about the good that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had done him. Mr. Vial, from Yunnan, sending me a letter to be sent to the Carmel of Lisieux, said to me: "Now her thoughts never leave me, and I absolutely want to love Jesus like her." Sister Thérèse, he says, saved him, he asks her [to] transform him. Mr. Nassoy, missionary in India, writes to me: “Personally, I have a deep devotion for Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, because through her God has given me great graces. I have done everything possible to make her known in India and I have only one desire, which is to [534v] work as far as possible for her glorification.” He promises me other information which has not yet reached me. I add that our young outgoing missionaries know the life of Sister Thérèse, that they love her and invoke her; and many come to his tomb before going on a mission, to commend their ministry to him. The distance that separates France from our missions is great and our colleagues are belatedly aware of this Trial, which explains why I have only a few testimonies. But this little is enough to prove that Sister Thérèse reached her goal: to save and sanctify the souls of apostles. Its beneficent influence does not radiate only in Normandy and in France (of which I often receive testimonies in Paris), but it extends to the most distant countries. In France, I had the opportunity to receive several confidences which showed me that the invocation of Sister Thérèse is particularly effective in developing great fervor in the communities. I consider that this reputation for holiness is independent of the wide circulation given in recent times to the various publications (brochures, pictures, etc.) concerning Sister Thérèse.

[535r] [Response to the twenty-eighth request]:

I have heard a few remarks made on the timeliness of the very numerous publications relating to Sister Thérèse, but I have never heard any criticism concerning the Servant of God's reputation for holiness.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

The favors I obtained through the intercession of the Servant of God are further proof to me that she practiced the virtues to a high degree, and that the Lord, who loved to test her, rewarded her generously, even from this life, granting it its requests. Without wishing to insist on the favors of a spiritual order which I am convinced of having obtained through her intercession, I am pleased to acknowledge that I am quite indebted to her for my vocation as a missionary: "On September 8, 1890 - wrote to me -elle in 1896 on November 1 - your vocation as a missionary was saved by Mary the Queen of the Apostles and Martyrs: on that same day, a little Carmelite woman became the wife of the King of heaven. His sole aim was to save [535v] souls, especially the souls of apostles. Of Jesus, her divine Spouse, she particularly asked for an apostolic soul; not being able to be a priest, she wanted a priest in her place to receive the graces of the Lord, to have the same aspirations, the same desires as her. You know the unworthy Carmelite who made this prayer. Don't you agree with me that our union, confirmed on the day of your priestly ordination, began on September 8? I thought I would meet only in heaven the apostle whom I had asked of Jesus; this beloved Saviour, lifting a little the mysterious veil which hides the secrets of eternity, deigned to give me from exile the consolation of knowing the brother of my soul, of working with him for the salvation of the poor infidels” - LT 201 - . Here is a temporal favor that I also attribute to him. On a mission, during a persecution, nearly 200 women and virgins took refuge with me. Now the bandits, taking advantage of my absence, were preparing to swoop down on my residence. As they set off, they make a final plea to their gods, setting off firecrackers in their honor. One of these guns set fire to their gunpowder: the detonation blew up the bonzerie, killed or burned a good number of [536r] bandits; the rest of the able-bodied escape on all sides. The alarm is given; my Christians are saved before knowing the danger. I did not doubt for a moment the protection of Sister Thérèse who had promised to watch over me and my Christians, and to whom I daily recommended the affairs of my mission. These facts happened around 1904.

WITNESS 9: Adolphe Roulland MEP

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I don't think I forgot anything.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests.]

[Session 50: - January 20, 1911, at 9 a.m.]

[540r]

[This concludes the examination of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signature: AD. ROULLAND

Witness 10 - Almire Pichon, SJ

The tenth witness of the Ordinary Trial is Father Pichon, of the Society of Jesus.

Born in Carrouges (Orne) on February 3, 1843, Almire-Théophile-Augustin Pichon entered the Company on October 30, 1863 and was ordained a priest on September 8, 1873. Doctor of theology, he taught philosophy for many years and then devoted himself progressively in the ministry, in particular that of the preaching of retreats.

He was in Lisieux on April 17, 1882 for a retreat at the Lambert factory. Marie Martin wanted to meet him. He was later the spiritual director and, according to Mr. Martin's expression, he also became that of the whole family. It was, to tell the truth, Marie and Céline who benefited the most. (Father Pichon even thought of this one for the foundation of an Institute that he was planning in Canada).

It was in Alençon that Thérèse met him for the first time in 1883. She wrote to him the following year on the occasion of his first communion and received a response which was a source of joy to her - MSA>, f. 34v - . The father left for Canada in 1885 and remained there until 1886. Thérèse saw him again in Carmel on March 18, 1887 on the occasion of taking the habit of Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, and, in all probability, the October 15 following, on the feast of Saint Teresa of Avila. The father gave the speech of taking the veil of Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart on May 23, 1888 and also gave a community retreat on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the monastery. It was on May 28, the last day of this retreat, that Thérèse had the opportunity to open up to him in the confessional and the father said to the young postulant, at the end of her general confession: “In the presence of the good God, of the Blessed Virgin and of all the Saints, I declare that you have never committed a single mortal sin” (MA “A”, f. 70r). This solemn affirmation was a great consolation for the saint as she explains it before adding: "The good father said to me again these words which were gently engraved in my heart: 'My child, may Our Lord be always your Superior and your Novice Master'. He was, in fact, and also 'my Director'...”, specifies Thérèse who adds a little further on: “I said that Jesus had been 'my Director'. When I entered Carmel, I got to know the person who was to use it for me, but no sooner had he admitted me to the number of his children than he left for exile... So I had known him only for to be deprived of it immediately... Reduced to receiving one letter from him a year, out of the 12 that I wrote to him, my heart quickly turned to the Director of Directors and it was he who instructed me in this science hidden from scholars and to the wise whom he deigns to reveal to the least..." - MSA 71,1 - ..

WITNESS 10: Almire PICHON SJ

Father Pichon left for Canada on November 3, 1888, only to return to France in 1907. Exercising a most active apostolate (during his life he gave 1015 retreats) and, moreover, suffering from eyes, he further reduced his correspondence. The father wrote to Sister Thérèse a little more than once a year: she received, in fact, sixteen letters from 1888 to 1897. There are also two others: one intended for the four Martin sisters and the The other addressed to Sister Thérèse personally, but written a few days after her death, still unknown to the father.

How many letters did Sister Thérèse write to Fr. Pichon? Monsignor Combes affirms that at the rate of twelve per year there were indeed a total of one hundred and eleven to one hundred and twelve (A. PICHON, Retraite, Rome, 1967, p. 12). But the Carmel of Lisieux sees things differently:

“In total, a minimum of 48 letters, with an additional margin whose evaluation is too hypothetical for any figure to be advanced. It can be taken for certain that the Jesuit's eye ailments prompted the charitable Thérèse to reduce her correspondence” (Vie Thérésienne, 1968, p. 137).

It is infinitely regrettable that none of the saint's letters to Father Pichon have been preserved. Think, for example, of this confidence of Thérèse about the one she sent him in July or August 1897: “My whole soul was there.” This letter was a commentary on Psalm 22, “The Lord is my Shepherd” (cf. Letters, p. 434). -?

Let us quote these words pronounced by the Saint on July 4, 1897: “I am very grateful to Fr. Alexis, he has done me a lot of good. Father Pichon treated me too much like a child; however he also did me good by telling me that I have not committed a mortal sin» - DEA 4-7-1897 - .

Father Pichon, who remained increasingly in contact with the Carmel of Lisieux, died in Paris on November 15, 1919 *(VT 1967 and 1968). He gave his testimony on January 25 and 26, 1911, during sessions 51-52, f. 543v-553r of our Public Copy.

[Session 51: - January 25, 1911, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[543v][The witness responds correctly to the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Almire-Théophile-Augustin Pichon, born in Carrouges, diocese of Séez, on February 3, 1843, from the legitimate marriage of Jean-Baptiste Pichon and Augustine Anger. I am a priest, professed of the Society of Jesus. I taught philosophy in our secondary establishments in France and at our scholasticate in Laval. I was then a missionary for 21 years in Canada.

[544r] [Do you have any degree in sacred sciences?]:

I am a doctor of theology.

[Response to third request]:

I do not believe that I am moved in my deposition by any human consideration. I loved this child very much, in whom I recognized a very privileged soul before God; but I can affirm that this sentiment cannot in any way vitiate my judgment of him.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

Around 1880 or 1881 I came to Lisieux to preach a retreat at the Lambert factory. Mademoiselle Marie Martin, eldest sister of the Servant of God, came to talk to me about matters of her conscience, and on this occasion I established relations with the whole family that have never ceased. I was in frequent correspondence with all the children; several times I was received at Les Buissonnets (Mr. Martin's residence) and [544v] I also received several visits from one and the other in Paris and elsewhere. On several occasions I was confessor and adviser to the Servant of God. I did not use the book “Story of a Soul” for my testimony; I only appealed to my personal memories.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I pray to God with all my heart for the success of this Cause, because I believe that his glory is involved in it.

[To the tenth question, he replies that he knows nothing except what is reported in the Story of the Servant of God].

[Answer to the eleventh request]:

I did not know the Servant of God's mother; it was said in the family that she was a saint. As for Mr. Martin, he seemed to me to be a very fervent and very supernatural Christian. He saw everything from God's point of view; he looked like a monk lost in the world. The family environment in which the Servant of God grew up was imbued with faith and piety. [545r]

WITNESS 10: Almire PICHON SJ

[Response to the twelfth and thirteenth requests]:

I don't know anything special about these points.

[Answer to the fourteenth request]:

It is to my knowledge that the Servant of God was brought up in her family without any social association. His sisters, who served as his mother, brought him up with great care and delicacy; she therefore received a most Christian education.

[Answer to the fifteenth request]:

What struck me most about this child was her simplicity, her ingenuity and her innocence. She was much loved by her father and her sisters, without my seeing any weakness on their part. But what is particularly remarkable in a child of this age is that she brought absolutely nothing to herself and forgot herself entirely, not availing herself of any of her advantages. She was shy and reserved; never put himself forward.

[545v] [Answer to the sixteenth request]:

I heard that she thought of religious life very early on. Besides, it was enough to observe her a little to judge clearly that this young girl was not made for the world, but that God had marked his stamp on her. Put in contact with what the world has most seductive, she never felt attracted by these pleasures of fortune or rank. I know all this from the letters she wrote to me and also from the conversations I had with her, precisely in the two years preceding her entry into Carmel. She consulted me on the matter of her vocation and I wholeheartedly supported her efforts to enter from the age of 15.

[Answer to the seventeenth request]:

At the beginning of his novitiate, I gave a retreat at the Carmel of Lisieux. In the relations of management that I had with her then, I was particularly struck by the fact that, contrary to appearances, the good Lord did not lavish on her the sweetness of an affective piety, but exercised her in a solid virtue in the leading through droughts, privations and inner trials. These ordeals were never [546r] betrayed by a sad and preoccupied exterior, she endured them with an unalterable serenity and equanimity.

[To the eighteenth question he replies that he knows nothing more than what is reported in the book of his "Life"].

[Answer to the nineteenth request]:

I read the “Story of a soul” or her biography written by herself. I can attest that this story is the most naive and truest expression of his moral physiognomy. In 1900 I met Father de Causans, superior of our residence in Rouen, an excellent judge in spiritual matters. He told me in his own words, speaking of this book: "After the works of Saint Thérèse and Saint John of the Cross, I know nothing more beautiful."

[Answer to the twentieth request]:

This child seemed to me absolutely exceptionally virtuous, especially from the point of view of humility and forgetfulness of herself, relating everything to God. I have never been able to detect in her the slightest weakness, the slightest discouragement, the slightest weakening of the will in the practice of perfection.

[Response to the twenty-first request]:

Having been absent from France since the end of 1888, I could not give on the detail of his virtues any other appreciation than that mentioned in my previous answers,

[To the twenty-second question he replies that he does not know anything].

[Response to the twenty-third to twenty-sixth requests].

I don't know anything special.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

On this point I can give special testimony: 21° for Canada, where I lived for 2 years. - XNUMX° for Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and Italy, which I have just visited while giving retreats.

547° As for Canada, I can attest that the Life of Sister Thérèse is better known and appreciated there than in France; not only all religious communities, but all pious [XNUMXr] educated people and the clergy, read and reread this book. It is a special feature of this biography that it has itself read over five, six, and seven times, and always with new profit; what gives so much charm to this reading is the perfume of virtue that emanates from this life and the influence it exerts on the soul to encourage it to advance in perfection by this "little way of abandonment" so accessible to all people of good will. Another significant fact is the very large number of religious vocations that the study of this life has given birth to: that young nuns have said to me: “It was Sister Thérèse who attracted me to the cloister! »

2° For Austria and the other countries of Europe mentioned above, I have noticed the marvelous radiance of this little soul, whose reputation for holiness is in all hearts, even among people in the world. About the causes of this absolutely extraordinary diffusion of the reputation of holiness and the supernatural influence of the Servant of God, I would say that it seems to me inexplicable without an exceptional intervention of the good Lord. The booksellers undoubtedly worked to spread the book, but they rather followed than produced the training of the public; no advertisement can explain the attraction of souls for this biography.

WITNESS 10: Almire PICHON SJ

[Session 52: - January 26, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30]

[551r] [Response to the twenty-eighth request]:

I have never heard, in the midst of so much praise, but one discordant voice. A nun, who is now dead, believed that Sister Thérèse's piety was childish and entirely superficial. But I would say that this testimony is rather to the honor of Sister Thérèse, because this nun whom I knew well was steeped in rationalism and human sense; she was well known in her community as devoid of supernatural sense. This nun belonged to the so-called [551v] community of “Jesus-Mary” in Fall-River (United States, Mass.).

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I read the report published by the Carmel of Lisieux under the title “Rain of roses”, which contains numerous letters reporting the extraordinary favors attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God. What I can personally certify relates to three points: 1 "I have known in Canada and in Europe a number of religious and secular people who believe they owe the Servant of God signal favours, temporal graces, but above all spiritual ones. 2° I know, in different communities of France and America, a good number of young nuns (at least twenty) who attribute to her the grace of their vocation; some even confided to me that this vocational grace had been preceded for them by a true conversion, after years of wandering in the world, and that this change was solely due to the reading of the Life of Sister Thérèse . 3° I am deeply convinced that I owe the Servant of God a double cure which the [552r] doctors have told me is medically inexplicable: XNUMX° following a broken leg, he had established a permanent state of congestion, which had lasted for nearly three years. The doctors had told me that an injury occurring to this leg would be very serious and would not heal. Now, this accident happened to me in 1908; a very profuse suppuration set in, and for seven weeks several physicians endeavored in vain to arrest the ever-increasing progress of this ulceration, which had become several centimeters deep. On January 2, 1909, the doctor forced me to take to bed without leaving me any hope of recovery. I then recommended myself to Sister Thérèse, and on the fifth day the wound was completely healed, without a trace of suppuration, and I was then able to start saying Holy Mass again, to the great astonishment of the doctor who had ordered no remedy other than the bed. . 2° On August 28, 1909, I was struck down in the middle of a retreat that I was preaching to the Augustinian nuns, rue de la Santé, in Paris, by an infectious broncho-pneumonia consecutive to a clogging of the intestines; and the crisis was so violent that three doctors declared that death would follow in a few hours, and advised to give me Extreme Unction, which was done. I had recourse to Sister Thérèse and the nuns who cared for me united with me. I told her [552v] naively to show herself obedient in heaven as she was on earth. I also told her that if it was the glory of God, she obtained for me a simple and rapid cure, but without a too striking miracle, which is a difficult burden to bear. Now on the sixth or seventh day I said mass.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I would like to add two details that relate to her life as a young girl in the world: XNUMX° I was struck by her always simple, serene and unanswerable obedience. I have never seen her object, argue or simply hesitate before an order, advice, or even a desire from her father or her sisters; I have always admired the ease, the charming grace with which she renounced herself to bend to everything and everyone in family life.

2° This now famous phrase "I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth", I [553r] remember that she addressed it to me, textually, on several occasions, when she was still in the world -? ? ? - . His accent struck me and intrigued me. More than once I was on the point of asking her the meaning she attached to these words; unfortunately I was restrained by an exaggerated discretion.

Regarding her "spiritual way or direction" (Interrogation XXI, de prudentia), three things above all seemed to me to be salient: I° Her spirit of faith: from childhood she was used to seeing God in everything, to recognizing or his permission down to the smallest things. 2° Her spirit of trust and love: in the most painful trials she saw only pledges of God's love. His heart was always ready to bless God with everything. Far from misrecognizing through a sad humility the gifts of God in her, the bent of her heart led her to confess them in order to thank God for them. 3. His worship for suffering and the cross, a worship composed of esteem and love, which were well above his age.

WITNESS 10: Almire PICHON SJ

[553v] [Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposited, ratum habeo and confirmed.

Signed: A. PICHON, SJ

Witness 11 - Jean-Auguste Valadier

Born in Paris on October 20, 1851, Jean-Auguste Valadier, priest of the diocese of Paris, was successively vicar at Nogent-sur-Marne and Neuilly-sur-Seine (1876-1887), then chaplain to the Blind Sisters of Saint-Paul , and at the same time, in charge of assisting prisoners sentenced to death in La Roquette prison (1889-1899). Pastor of the parish of Notre-Dame-des-Vertus in Aubervilliers (1899-1909), he was then named canon of Notre-Dame de Paris. He died on October 24, 1915.

He did not know Thérèse, but he is able to speak of his reputation for holiness and gives interesting details on the execution of Pranzini, assisted on August 31, 1887 by Abbé Faure, his predecessor at La Roquette.

The witness testified on February 3, 1911, during the 53rd session, f. 557r-561r of our Public Copy.

[Session 53: - February 3, 1911, at 8 a.m.]

[557r] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Jean-Auguste Valadier, born in Paris on October 20, 1851, of the legitimate marriage of Jean-Baptiste Valadier and Julie Périgault; I am a priest; I was first curate in the parishes of Nogent-sur-Marne and Neuilly-sur-Seine (diocese of Paris) (1876-1887). Then, I was chaplain of the Blind Sisters of Saint Paul, and concurrently chaplain of the prison of La Roquette, responsible in this capacity for assisting those condemned to death during their execution. I exercised this last function from 1889 to 1899. [557v] Then, I was pastor of the parish of Notre-Dame-des-Vertus d'Aubervilliers, diocese of Paris, until 1909, and since that time I am a canon of the Insignia Metropolitan Church of Paris.

WITNESS 11: Jean-Auguste Valadier

[The witness correctly answers the third to the sixth questions inclusive].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I am happy, by coming to testify, to contribute to the glorification of the Servant of God; this intention is entirely supernatural, and I am moved by no human motive.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I did not know the Servant of God personally, and I could say nothing about it except what is known to everyone. My testimony will relate only to two or three particular facts of which I have been more specially informed and I will explain, by relating them, how they came to my knowledge.

[Response to the ninth request]:

Yes, I have a real devotion for the Servant of [558r] God; I invoke him, and in my sermons I willingly cite his examples. I think it desirable that his Cause should succeed, for the glory of God and the good of souls, because I have observed that his influence is particularly salutary and attractive.

[From the tenth to the fourteenth request inclusive he replies that he does not know anything].

[Answer to the fifteenth request]:

It is here that I can bring some precision concerning the episode of the execution of the assassin Pranzini (August 31, 1887), to which episode the Servant of God alludes in the "History of her life" (chapter V, page 77, edition in 8', 1910) - MSA 45,2-46,1 - . The Servant of God says that she had asked Our Lord to give her a sign that her prayers for the conversion of this criminal had been answered. She adds that this sign was given to her and that she recognized it in the fact reported by a newspaper that Pranzini had seized at the last moment a crucifix presented to her by the chaplain, etc. Now, this chaplain was Father Faure, my predecessor in the function [558v] of chaplain to the condemned. I liked to talk with him about our common ministry, for which God gave me a great attraction. In 1890, when I didn't know Sister Thérèse at all, Father Faure told me himself about Pranzini's last moments. From this interview I had retained the impression that until the last moment Pranzini had refused any religious act; I have even, in private conversations, expressed this feeling. But, in reading these last few days the Printed Memoirs of Monsieur Faure (Souvenirs de la Roquette, in-12, Paris, sd, pages 142 and following), I found details there which show that Pranzini at least willingly conversed and more and more intimately with the chaplain in his cell. Whatever this detail may be, the fact of Pranzini's last gesture was told to me in the greatest detail by the chaplain himself who had assisted him. He could not “grab” the crucifix, as reported in the newspaper read by the Servant of God, since the condemned, at that time, had their arms tied behind their backs; but what is perhaps even more striking is that Pranzini himself demanded with the most energetic insistence the crucifix which the chaplain presented to him and which he kissed with transport on several occasions.

[559r] [From the sixteenth to the twenty-fifth questions inclusively, he replies that he does not know anything].

[Response to the twenty-sixth request]:

I visited the tomb of the Servant of God, in the cemetery of Lisieux, around September 1910. During the approximately three-quarters of an hour that I spent in the cemetery, five or six people came to pray at the tomb. The caretaker, with whom I spoke for a moment, told me that the crowd was usually much larger and that his little daughter was constantly busy leading pilgrims to the Servant of God's tomb. I collected several small papers and pictures that pilgrims had placed at the foot of the cross which is on the tomb. These papers contained formulas of invocations and thanksgivings. On one of them, a young girl attested to having been cured of a sore knee by the application of a poultice made with earth taken from the grave. A few days later, I returned to the cemetery in the company of a lady of my acquaintance. We saw coming to the cemetery[559v]tière a family composed of five or (sic) six people. This family asked with great fervor for the healing of a little girl who was made to kneel and pray at the tomb.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

I hear talk from all sides of the holiness of the Servant of God and the graces attributed to her.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I have never heard the slightest blame expressed concerning the Servant of God. Rather, she arouses universal sympathy and a kind of enthusiasm in those who study her life.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I myself feel great confidence in the intercession of Sister Thérèse and a powerful attraction to invoke her. When I visited his tomb last year, I felt moved to do this act with particular fervor. For this, I confessed at the tomb itself to a colleague who was with me, and I implored [560r] insistently the help of the Servant of God to obtain a grace that I particularly wanted. I can also give this testimony that the invocation of Sister Thérèse has produced a change, which I do not hesitate to say marvelous, in the character and interior dispositions of a person whose conscience I direct. Finally, I am going to communicate to the court a letter which similarly attests to the effectiveness of the Servant of God's prayers:

WITNESS 11: Jean-Auguste Valadier

“Paris, February 2, 1911.

Canon,

How grateful I am to you for introducing me to the Life of Little Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Nothing has captivated me more than this reading, to the point that I identify with it. She is always present in my mind, I feel the need to consult her on everything; it has become indispensable to me; his name comes to my mind to obtain a favour, a grace, etc.; it helps me to pray to Jesus to always reach out his hand to me. Having felt such constant effects of her protection, I feel the need to make her known, by spreading her 'Life'... I feel she is so powerful with God! For my part, I obtained many graces of which [560v] I can mention the following few features. Suffering a few months ago painfully from the foot, following a fall, the disease seemed worrying enough to me to seek the advice of a doctor who did not hide from me that an operation could become necessary. Very affected by this prospect, I put, without saying a word, on the sick foot a small relic of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. The next day I noticed a very real improvement: the part of the diseased bone, which was very sensitive the day before, had become painless, I could even walk, and since then I have never felt anything. A second time I was able to put the Servant of God's credit to the test in connection with a very delicate family affair that was very difficult to settle. Not knowing what to do, I put the matter in the hands of Sister Thérèse, asking her to find the solution herself. Thanks to an unexpected turnaround in the dispositions of the people with whom I had to deal, the matter was resolved to my liking, and I can only attribute its success to the intervention of Sister Thérèse. I could go on ad infinitum if I wanted to enumerate for you all the graces received, the consolations obtained, the situations resolved, as well as the complete tranquility that [561r] I feel in immersing myself in reading the ' Vie' of this angel, but I confine myself to certifying the above, not wishing to abuse, etc.

Signed: COMTESSE DE LOUVENCOURT, 94, rue de Courcelles, Paris.”

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I'm not aware of having forgotten anything.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signed: A. VALADIER.

Witness 12 - Jean-Jules Raoul Auriault, SJ

Born in Brie (diocese of Poitiers) on February 19, 1855, Jean-Jules Raoul Auriault entered the Society of Jesus when still young. Doctor of theology and licentiate in canon law, he was professor of theology at the Catholic Institute of Paris for more than twenty years. He devoted himself at the same time to the ministry of retreats, which led him on many occasions to the Carmel of Lisieux. He did not know the Servant of God, but his testimony is based on the reports made by people who knew her, the Carmelites of Lisieux more particularly, and is divided into three points: 1. Character of Thérèse's holiness, as revealed in his writings; 2. Reputation for holiness of the Servant of God and her truly universal supernatural influence, 3. Remarkable suitability of this influence with the needs of souls in our time.

Basically, it's a study (f. 568r), and very interesting. This is a first doctrinal synthesis of the Teresian message, which highlights its correspondence with the needs of our time. The witness also speaks of the reputation for holiness of Thérèse and cites Fr. Longhaye among the personalities particularly attracted by the figure and the writings of the young Carmelite.

Fr. Auriault deposited on February 7, 1911, during the 54th session, f. 566v-572v from our Public Copy.

[Session 54: - February 7, 1919 at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[566v] [The witness correctly answers the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Jean-Jules-Raoul Auriault, born in Bric, diocese of Poitiers, on February 19, 1855, from the legitimate marriage of Jean Auriault and Madeleine Cador. I am a professed priest of the Society of Jesus, doctor of theology, licentiate in canon law. I was professor of dogmatic theology at the Catholic University of Paris from 1886 to 1905. Since then, I have been an honorary professor and devote myself [567r] to the work of the ministry in Paris.

[The witness answers the third request correctly].

[Answer to fourth request]:

I was cited four or five times before the criminal investigating judge, as a member of an unauthorized Congregation; these cases ended in a dismissal.

[The witness correctly answers the fifth and sixth requests].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I am giving this testimony for the glory of God and I have no human motive that can influence my judgment in this matter.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I did not know the Servant of God personally, and I never had direct contact with her. My testimony [567v] will be based on reports given to me by people who knew her, especially by the Carmelites of Lisieux. On the other hand, I made a very careful study of the "History of her life" written by herself.

[What do you think of the genre and the truth of this writing?]:

I have no doubt that this writing expresses, in the truest way, the life and intimate dispositions of the Servant of God. It is indeed composed with an obvious and very remarkable simplicity and spontaneity.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I desire and hope for the success of this Cause, because I believe that it is in the order of Providence, and that this beatification will exert a very effective influence on souls to encourage them and bring them to perfection.

[Answer from the tenth to the nineteenth questions]:

I don't know anything very special about the events that signaled the life of [568r] the Servant of God; my study and my appreciations relate rather to the character of his holiness as revealed in his writings.

[Response to the twentieth and twenty-first request]:

What governs the features of the holiness of Thérèse of the Child Jesus is the special "mission" she received to provoke in the world of souls a movement of generous trust in the merciful love of God, and to pave the way for evangelical simplicity and childhood. Hence it is that in her the natural and supernatural gifts harmonize to give her a divine transparency and make her capable of marvelously reflecting the beauty and goodness of God. Whence the filial sentiment which marks his relationship with the heavenly Father, a sentiment which always grows and blossoms: a) in a growing need with age, to become ever smaller and more childish vis-à-vis God, which drives her with a remarkable devotion to Mary and to the Child Jesus; b) this will be for her the reason for her humility which is so true and joyful; c) from there again comes a confidence which germinates [568v] with a rare intensity and goes as far as audacity; she has that "faith that moves mountains" (1 Cr. 13, 2); d) from there also a freedom, an uprightness, a sincerity which give him a face of any beauty and constitute a superhuman attraction to him; e) by this very special grace to which she corresponded perfectly, she arrives at this excellent love which makes her desire, to seek suffering as her best good, to covet "the martyrdom of the heart and of the body" - MSA 76, bis -, another John of the Cross (“ pati et contemni pro te ”), and leads her to that habitual state of charity in which she burns in a veritable holocaust for souls, and suffers that fire of zeal which makes her comparable to a Saint Francis Xavier and a Saint Thérèse. It is there that she truly reaches the particular point of her grace, which makes her fit for her mission; where, convinced more than ever of her smallness and her nothingness, she authorizes herself to stay "in the heart of her Mother the Church and to radiate from there by love, through all her members throughout the whole world - MSB 3,2 - . This is the reason for which, by a trait that is unique to her, she accentuates her [569r] vocation and affirms that her mission will begin above all at her death, and that she “will spend her heaven doing good on earth”. - DEA 17-7 - . As therefore the facts confirm the prophecy, it happens that God appears in a prodigious way in this young virgin!

[Answer to the twenty-second to twenty-fourth questions]:

I don't know anything specific about these issues.

[Response to the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth questions]:

I have been five or (sic) six times on a pilgrimage to his tomb, in the cemetery of the town of Lisieux. I personally felt there a special devotional attraction for the Servant of God and I received interior graces that I attribute in a certain way to her intercession. I also noticed, especially during my last visits, that groups of pilgrims followed one another there, and that, once among others in the month of November 1910, despite very bad weather. The attitude of these pilgrims was meditative; you could clearly see that people came there to pray and not out of curiosity.

[569v] [Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

I see through my very numerous and very varied relationships, either with people in the world or with religious communities, that the Servant of God's reputation for holiness and her supernatural influence are truly universal. Very educated and very serious people admire the heroism of this virtue and are influenced by its examples. Among the fathers of our Society, this reputation for holiness is widespread. I know some of the most educated and experienced who never tire of rereading and meditating on the life of Sister Thérèse; so it is with the Reverend Father Longhaye, well known to all for his science and his balance. Our young fathers are being dragged down his "way of abandonment" in large numbers.

[Doesn't this “spiritual way” lead a bit to quietism?]:

Any danger of quietism is abundantly averted by the generous love of humiliations and sufferings, as also by the very active zeal which are an essential part of the spirituality of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

[570r] [Do you know the cause of this reputation for holiness? some industrious zeal contributed to its spread?]:

I believe that this great diffusion of Sister Thérèse's reputation for holiness is the effect of divine intervention which carried out the mission given to the Servant of God to inspire souls to holiness. The means of propaganda aimed at the dissemination of her writings and her memories seem to me rather the consequence than the cause of this attraction of the faithful to the Servant of God.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I have heard nothing serious which was contrary to this reputation for holiness.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I know a very considerable number of people of all walks of life who constantly invoke the Servant of God and multiply novenas in her honor to obtain graces, either temporal or above all spiritual. It should be noted, according to the reports what have some of these [570v] people done to me, that the action of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus is exercised in a particular way on souls to make them better. She scarcely grants temporal graces without accompanying them with an interior influence of sanctification. When the temporal graces requested are not obtained, it is rare that spiritual graces do not compensate; and I have often noticed that in this case the solicitors do not complain. Here is a particular case: An elderly person and a serious Christian asked, at the Servant of God's tomb, for the healing of his deafness. She writes to me: "What have I brought back from this pilgrimage, my father?... the deep impression that in the way of holiness one must suffer and much... that the souls whom God calls to perfection are the most experienced... that suffering is even a mark of predestination... Reading the life of Sister Thérèse, until now I had only been struck by the simplicity of her life of love of God ... But there, in front of this tomb, I suddenly felt that she had only reached this degree of love through many unknown sufferings... I felt as if illuminated by a new light , showing me the life of immolation, that of all the saints, especially that of Our Lord, [571r] I understood that suffering was not to be feared, that it was a striking proof of the love of God for us, and I felt like a desire, I would say more, a need to set off on this path: these are my impressions of Lisieux.

One of the fathers of our residence, aged 74, said to me: “I certainly owe Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus a special grace: I had [no] devotion to the Sacred Heart; I asked him for it and got it right away.” This religious is a good preacher and a man full of sense. As I have said, the facts confirm in a striking manner the prophecy by which she promised to "spend her heaven doing good on earth", and this young virgin makes her influence felt everywhere: 1° by her writings , 2° by miracles and numerous conversions, 3° by the effective appeal of "little souls" to the "way of abandonment and spiritual childhood." This influence seems to me to have remarkable agreement with the needs of souls in our time.

If the mission received results in a new type of Christian perfection, [571v] it appears how effective her action must be on our current generations: a) in an era of heavy materialism, she is an angelic being who opens the sky and raises hearts. Especially since by her holy death, she seems to have won a miraculous survival in our midst, and like a function of helpful sister vis-à-vis the “travellers” of this earth; b) against discouragement and the temptations of despair which too often invade souls immersed in an atmosphere of incredulity, she creates a reaction of trust by her way of filial abandonment to God our Father: “ Imitators of the estote sicut filii charissimi - *Eph. 5, 1 -; c) by emphasizing the spirit of evangelical humility, it destroys the illusion of nature which forms the basis of Americanism, a “system” depreciating the so-called passive virtues; d) in a general way, it overthrows the pride that counts on itself and misunderstands the power of grace; e) it clarifies the atmosphere of souls, bringing the method of perfection back to its essential principles, clears the way of all that unnecessarily encumbers it and leads the people of the cloister and of the world to find [572r] easy the yoke of Lord and light his burden - *Mt. 11, 30 -; f) by the dogmatic realism of her piety and her active relationship with God, Our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, Saint Joseph, the Saints, the Church, the Pope, the Bishop, the Priest, the Souls, she confuses nominalism modernist error and guarantees minds against a lying transformism that destroys the personality of God and the historicity of the mysteries we believe.

[Response to the twenty-ninth request continued]:

g) She is in her place at this boundary between two eras, sent by God [572v] to continue the demonstration of the supernatural which is being affirmed by the Vatican, by Lourdes, by Joan of Arc and to open a new era, under which, against the prestigious diabolical operations, it will take prodigious manifestations of divine holiness. It is indeed in the law of Providence that for such great effects a weak child, a simple virgin, should be chosen: " Infirma mundi elegit Deus, ut confundat fortia - * 1 Cr. 1, 27 - ;c) it should be added that by her earthly origin, the family environment in which she was born and grew up, the holiness of Thérèse honors the Christian family, shows the ideal achieved by Christianity and brings out the connection that there is between Christian perfection and religious perfection. It removes the idea of ​​separation; it establishes the idea of ​​union between the cloister and the family restored by Jesus Christ.

[Response to XNUMXth request continued]:

I said everything I knew.

[573r] [Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in responding to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signed: J. AURIAULT, SJ

Witness 13 - Sister Thérèse Of Saint-Augustin

The thirteenth witness is Sister Thérèse De Saint-Augustin. Julie-Marie-Elisa Leroyer was born in La Cressionnière (diocese of Bayeux) on September 5, 1856. Entered the Carmel of Lisieux on May 1, 1875, she received the habit there under the name of Sister Thérèse of Saint-Augustin on the following October 15 and made her profession on May 1, 1877. She always devoted herself in a humble and serene manner and was a sacristan for many years. Shortly after the Servant of God's death she wrote a manuscript entitled “Memories of a holy friendship” (cf. Last interviews, 1, pp. 786-788, 840). Thus she noted the joy with which Thérèse welcomed her each time she went down to visit her in the infirmary.

Sister Thérèse of Saint-Augustin died on July 22, 1929. Her testimony is enriching for a more detailed knowledge of the Saint. "I affirm - specifies the witness - that all the words that I will quote in my deposition as having been said to me by Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus are exact" (f. 580r). The sister deposed on February 14 and 15, 1911 during sessions 55-56, f. 577r-592r of our Public Copy.

WITNESS 13: Thérèse of Saint-Augustin OCD

[Session 55: - February 14, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[577r] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Julie-Marie-Elisa Leroyer, in religion Sister Thérèse of Saint-Augustin, born in La Cressonnière (diocese of Bayeux) on September 5, 1856 from the legitimate marriage of Louis Leroyer and Elisa Valentin. I am a professed nun of the Order of Carmelites, of the monastery of Lisieux, where I made my profession in 1877.

[The witness answers regularly and correctly from the third to the sixth request inclusive].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I am not animated by human feelings in this matter, I only want to testify to the truth by [577v] telling the virtues that I saw the Servant of God practicing during her stay among us.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I knew the Servant of God from her entry into our monastery in 1888 until her death in 1897. During this time I always lived close to her and in a certain intimacy. I will make little use, in this deposition, of what I have heard said of the Servant of God by our Reverend Mother and our other sisters, nor will I make much use of the "Story of a Soul" written by her. -even. My entire testimony will be based on my personal recollections.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I very much desire the beatification of the Servant of God because I believe that, when the Church will have officially recognized her holiness, many souls will be attracted to imitate her virtues and to follow “her little way” which, I believe. easily leads to spiritual progress and perfection.

[Answer from the tenth to the sixteenth questions]:

[578r] I know nothing personally of the Servant of God's early years until she entered our monastery.

[Answer to the seventeenth request]:

When in the month of April 1888 the Servant of God crossed the door of our cloister, I was very struck by her recollection, the expression of her gaze and her serious attitude, while performing this act.

[Answer to the eighteenth request]:

In addition to several jobs in the community, such as sacristan, laundry, etc., Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus exercised a ministry of advice and direction with the novices. Being myself professed at that time, I had no occasion to take advantage of his advice. What I observed of her life as a Carmelite I will say when speaking of her virtues.

[Answer to the nineteenth request]:

I was not aware of the composition of his writings. I only learned of her account of her [578v] life after her death. I knew, like all our sisters, that she composed poems and hymns for the feasts of the monastery.

[Answer to the twentieth request]:

I think I know what "heroic virtues" means. It means: to practice perfection without failure. This goes beyond what we usually see, even among very fervent nuns who always have a few moments of weakness. I noticed that there was, on the contrary, in the Servant of God an always equal fervor, especially in fidelity in the smallest things.

[Response to the twenty-first request]:

I. ON FAITH. - Holy Communion was the delight of the Servant of God. What has she not endured not to be deprived of it? It is known to all the sisters, her contemporaries, that in the last year of her life, when her health was already badly affected, that after nights of insomnia and suffering, she got up to attend a morning mass, even during the winter, in the most severe cold. [579r] She suffered greatly from being deprived of daily communion, which at that time was not customary in our monastery. Speaking to one of her sisters of the pain she felt at this deprivation, she added: “It will not always be so; there will come a time when we will perhaps have Father Hodierne as chaplain, and he will give us communion every day” -? ? - . It was to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart that the Servant of God made this remark, and Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart reported it to me herself before the death of the Servant of God. “But why - Sister Thérèse was asked - do you think of Father Hodierne to be our chaplain? nothing predicts it.” "Yes, I hope he will come - she resumed - and we will be very happy with him" - SP - . At the time when Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus spoke thus, the health of Father Youf, our chaplain, did not give rise to serious concern; nothing foretold his death, which happened several years later. Sister Thérèse's presentiment about Father Hodierne came true. Appointed chaplain on October 15, 1897, he took as the text of his first instruction these words: “Come and eat my bread” (Prov. 9, 5). [579v] It was an invitation to daily communion, which he was happy to grant us without anyone having yet expressed his desire for it.

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had a remarkable taste for Sacred Scripture. The Holy Gospel especially delighted her. She wore it night and day on her heart. She was also very fond of the Imitation of Jesus Christ, which she had learned by heart when she was in the world. She had great respect for the word of God, and would not have allowed herself the slightest criticism of mediocre preaching. She tenderly cherished the Blessed Virgin. When the statue that smiled at her during her illness was brought to the monastery, none of the sisters could take it away; all found it too heavy. “She is not too heavy for me”, - SP - said the Servant of God '; and with an elan which admirably depicted the sentiments of her heart, she seized the statue and carried it easily to the oratory destined for her.

II. - ON HOPE. - We can say that the conversation of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was in heaven; his mind was [580r] continually occupied with it, and his heart ceaselessly yearned for the possession of the sovereign good. How many times has she spoken to me of her desire to die! His eyes beamed with happiness when we broached this subject. There was nothing but cause for joy and hope in the anticipation of his death. I affirm that all the words that I will quote in my deposition as having been said to me by Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus are exact. In the month of April 1895, she confided to me: "I will die soon." I am not telling you that it will be in a few months, but in two or three years; I feel, from everything that is happening in my soul, that my exile is about to end.” At the time when Sister Thérèse spoke thus, she enjoyed perfect health. She hovered above the things of the earth; nothing seemed capable of captivating his heart for a single moment; nothing troubled her. “I cannot understand, she said to me, why we are so sorry to see our sisters die, since we must all go to heaven and find ourselves there.” It was only the love she could give to God that made her desire heaven; his personal interest was completely set aside; his crown did not worry him [580v]; she said to me "leave it to God."

III. - ON CHARITY. - What dominated in Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was the love of God; to die of love was his dream; but "to die of love - she said - one must live of love." So she tried every day to develop that love which she wanted to the highest degree. To love God like a seraph, to be consumed in the devouring flames of pure love without feeling them, so that the sacrifice of herself might be more complete, such was her ambition. So she simply admitted that she was not for a second without thinking of the good Lord. This habitual thought of God was reflected in his features. One of our sisters was so struck by it that she said this to me during recess: “Look at Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, doesn't one say that she comes from heaven? She looks like an angel." Talking about Our Lord made him happy. What joy when she met a soul echoing her own!

What care to avoid the slightest imperfections, anything that could have felt lukewarm or soft in the service of God! What eagerness to seek out [581r], on the contrary, anything that could please Our Lord! She was eager to take every opportunity to make small sacrifices. During her illness, I told her that she suffered a lot, but that the good Lord would reward her greatly for it:. “No, no - she answered me - not for the reward, but to please the good Lord”. - DEI, p.788 -

His trust in Providence knew no decline. We talked about religious persecution, the consequences it could have for our community, possible exile. " What do you think? ", I said. “To continue my religious life - she replied - I will go to the end of the world; but I am a baby, I abandon myself, I will go where the good Lord wills” - DE I, p.788 - . "How unhappy I would be - she told me during her illness - if I were not abandoned to the will of God!" Today, the doctor says I'm lost; tomorrow I'm better. That this alternative would be tiring, but all this does not touch my soul and does not disturb its peace: I abandon myself » - DE I-23.6, p.444 - '. As I expressed my fears to her that she suffered a great deal: “Oh! don't worry about that - she told me - the good Lord [581v] won't give me more than I can bear” - DE I, p.788 - .

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had an ardent zeal for the salvation of souls. "My great devotion - she told me - is to pray for sinners and pure souls." His zeal was mainly aimed at the sanctification of priests and missionaries. His desire for martyrdom was extreme. I noticed it on every occasion. During her illness, she let out this complaint which expressed so well her regret at not having been able to pick this so much desired palm: “You are happier than me: I am going to heaven, but perhaps you will have the grace of martyrdom. »

[582r] [Response to XNUMXst request continued]:

The charity of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus extended to all the sisters; no partiality in his way of acting. She gave affection and devotion to all, rendering service to each in all that was in her power with perfect abnegation of herself. She was always kind, even to those who lacked delicacy towards her in their conduct. She welcomed them with the same smile, trying to please them, avoiding what could be an occasion of pain and struggle for them. Entering the Carmel at the age of fifteen, finding herself there with her sisters, one would have thought that she was looking to them for the consolations and the joys of the family; It did not happen; she wanted her sacrifice to be complete in everything. So she never showed more preference for her sisters by nature than for those who were united to her by the ties of religion. During one of the licenses in which we are allowed to speak, I made this comment to him: “I am not asking you to come with us for a moment; having your sisters, you must have very little [582v] free time.” - " Oh! don't believe that - she replied -, I don't give them more time than the others; you are all my sisters.” She had a great zeal for the relief of the souls in purgatory: “After my death - she told me - if you want to please me, offer many Stations of the Cross for me. If I don't need it, I will have the joy of giving it as a gift to the souls in purgatory."

IV. - ON CAUTION. - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had a rare prudence in the direction of the novices; she knew how to await souls, to urge them to virtue without pressing them more than they were capable of bearing. She showed them their faults with firmness, without being discouraged by the difficulties presented by certain difficult characters. The correctness of his judgment made him discern with remarkable promptness what was best and what was most perfect.

V. - ON JUSTICE. - Everything related to the worship of God was his delight. With what care did she adorn the statue of the Child Jesus entrusted to her with flowers! Preparing the nativity scene for the Christmas party filled her with [583r] joy. During her postulancy, she carried quite heavy stones for this work, for a long time and very far; she was indefatigable when it came to proving her love to Our Lord. How many roses she plucked on the Calvary of our courtyard and on the feet of her crucifix when illness kept her nailed to her bed of pain! Until her strength was exhausted, she wanted to give Our Lord this testimony of love. She had a great devotion to Saint Joseph and Saint John of the Cross. She wanted us to honor particularly the patron saints of baptism and religious life, the protectors of the year and of each month; she said that being responsible for watching over us, they had a right to our gratitude. If it was a question of honoring the saints who shed their blood for Our Lord, she did so with extraordinary ardor. On July 17, 1894, on the occasion of the centenary of the Blessed Carmelites of Compiègne, this Carmel, wanting to hold a celebration in their honor, asked the Carmel of Lisieux to contribute to it. We were both commissioned to make banners for the decoration of their chapel. I witnessed the zeal, the devotion she [583v] showed in this circumstance. She was not possessed of joy: “What happiness - she said to me - if we had the same fate! what Grace!."

VI. - ON STRENGTH. - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus accepted with patience, gentleness and humility the humiliations and reprimands that the mother prioress did not spare her. Even when they were addressed to her with too much severity, she never apologized. One day, she was seized during the meal by a rather violent fit of coughing. The Mother Prioress, tired of listening to her, said to her quite quickly: "Come out, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus!..." I was struck by the calm with which she accepted this unpleasant apostrophe. During her father's illness, she was a subject of great edification, by the heroic courage she showed in this circumstance. She confided in me which surprised me strangely: “If you only knew - she said to me - in what darkness I am plunged. I don't believe in eternal life; it seems to me that after this mortal life, there is nothing; everything has disappeared for me, I only have love left» - DE/I, p.788, note - '. She spoke of this [584r] state of mind as a temptation. However, her soul usually seemed calm and serene; she was thought to be inundated with consolation, so easily did she practice virtue. Having heard one of our sisters make this comment: "Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus has no merit in practicing virtue, she has never had any fights", I wanted to know from the very mouth of the one which was thus judged, if such a supposition were true. Our privacy allowing me, I asked her if she had had any fights during the course of her religious life. This was two months before his death: “Oh! if I had any! - she replied -. I had an awkward nature; it did not appear; but me, I felt it well; I can assure you that I have not been a single day without suffering, not a single one! » - DE/I, p.788 - . It was especially during his illness that one could admire his strength in suffering. Fearing more severe pain for her, I spoke to her of the prayers I would make to ask the good Lord to ease them: "No, no - she told me quickly - we must let Him do it" - DE/I, p. 788 - .

VII. - ON TEMPERANCE. - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus practiced interior mortification with [584v] great care. When her sisters went to the visiting room, if she was not present there, she did not inquire about the subject of their conversation, which would nevertheless have interested her greatly. When her sister was prioress, the Servant of God never went to speak to her during the great silence. She had a very religious bearing, walking slowly, in a very collected way.

VIII. - ON OBEDIENCE. - A simple recommendation was for the Servant of God an order which she always carried out; it was useless to repeat it to him. His obedience was heroic, I mean without any failure. She had been given a recommendation in order to relieve her. Quite the opposite happened; but she was careful not to speak of it and did exactly as she had been told, although it was for her a suffering that was renewed each time. She even obeyed the sisters who had no right to command her.

IX. - ON POVERTY. - During her postulancy and part of her religious life, she had near her in the refectory a [585r] sister who took almost everything for herself, without worrying about her neighbour. The Servant of God never reflected on this and deprived herself of what was necessary. However, a long time later, she was obliged to speak about it because of her employment and for a motive of charity for this sister.

X. - ON HUMILITY. - In one of the visits I made to her during her last illness, I found her with a most radiant face. I asked her what could make her so happy: “I have just had a great happiness - she replied -, I am going to entrust it to you. I received a visit from one of our sisters: “If you only knew, she said to me, how unloved and unappreciated you are! I also heard, a few days ago, a sister say to another: 'I don't know why so much is said about Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, she does nothing remarkable; we do not see him practicing virtue; one cannot even say that she is a good nun!' (I know that sister said that in a bad mood). " Oh! - added the Servant of God - to hear it said on my deathbed that I am not a good nun, what joy! nothing could please me more! » [585v] I spoke to her about the glory she would have in heaven: « No, she said to me - it will not be what you think; the good Lord has always granted my desires, and I asked him to be a little nothing. When a gardener makes a bouquet, there is always a small empty space between the magnificent flowers that compose it; to fill it and give it a graceful shape, he puts moss in it. This is what I will be in heaven, a little sprig of moss among the beautiful flowers of God.”

[Response to the twenty-second request]:

I have never heard of extraordinary phenomena happening to the Servant of God during her life.

[Response to the twenty-third request]:

During the Servant of God's life in the monastery, I heard various opinions expressed about her. Those of the nuns who knew her better, and especially the novices under her direction, admired the sublimity of her virtue. For others, it went unnoticed, because, I believe, of its simplicity. Finally, a few expressed rather unfavorable judgments. Thus some accused him [586r] of coldness and pride. It is, in my opinion, because she spoke little and remained collected and reserved. Perhaps also, the fact of the presence of four sisters in the community aroused some instincts of opposition or jealousy. But I can affirm that since the death of the Servant of God, those of these opponents who are still living have completely changed their minds.

[What did you think then of the character of the Servant of God]:

I always considered her, even during her life, as a charming child and an excellent nun. So I didn't really have to change my mind about him. I admit, however, that her great modesty and the extreme care she took to hide her virtues under the guise of a common and very simple life prevented me from noticing then many of the acts of perfection that I have known since.

[Response to the twenty-fourth request]:

I was present at the time of his death and I was very struck by a phenomenon [586v] which seemed extraordinary to me. After her head had – ie – bowed and when we believed her to be dead, she raised her head completely, opened her eyes and held her gaze fixed upwards for quite an appreciable space of time and with an expression so profound that I could not continue to look at her, so great was my emotion.

[Answer to the twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth questions]:

I learned from the visits I received in the parlor that there was an incessant crowd of faithful coming to pray at the Servant of God's tomb. I was told in particular that missionaries came there in large numbers.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

The Servant of God's reputation for holiness is universal, and I know that it could be established with evidence by means of the innumerable letters addressed from all over to our Reverend Mother Prioress, but I have not made a detailed study of this correspondence. On the other hand, the visits I receive in the visiting room are few. [587r] The people who come to see me tell me enough, however, that the Servant of God's reputation for sanctity is very extensive.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

No one has ever directly expressed to me opinions contrary to this reputation for holiness; but I heard it said in the parlor that there were a few people in the town of Lisieux, few in number, who at a certain moment accused the Carmel of making too much noise around the Servant of God and of exaggerate its merits. These criticisms were general and made no specific allegations. On the other hand, I know by the same way that these same people have now changed their minds and do full justice to the holiness of the Servant of God.

[Session 56: - February 15, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30]

[589r] [Response to the twenty-ninth request]:

Generally speaking, I know from what I am told in the parlor that many people invoke him and trust that they will obtain exceptional favors through his [589v] intercession. More specifically, I will relate three categories of facts:

1°. The Servant of God had said that as soon as she was in the Fatherland, she would go to visit the missions, and that she would work to help the missionaries in the conquest of souls. She left exile towards the end of the year 1899 [sic!] and here is the result of the apostolic work of the missionaries of rue du Bac during the following year. I was deeply struck by this coincidence as soon as we were read in the refectory of the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, and I wanted to take note of it. Here are these excerpts: “Asia. - The year 1898 will be called in our Society the year of the great blessings of God. Indeed, the number of adults baptized during this fiscal year amounted to the almost incredible figure of 77.700. Never, in the 235 years that our Company has existed, have we recorded such a result. The zeal and activity of the apostolic workers are not enough to explain it. It must be attributed to a breath of the Holy Spirit which passed over some of our missions and determined there an irresistible impulse of the pagans towards our holy Religion.

(Excerpt from the Annals of the Propagation of [590r] the Faith, July 1899).

We read in another issue of the same Annales: "In reporting to you on last year's work, we thank God for allowing us to record figures which, although still very low in comparison especially with our desires, are nevertheless more encouraging, and have reached almost double those of the previous year. The number of adult conversions exceeds that of all other years, and the catechumens... are so numerous that we have reason to expect a rich harvest. The crown of angels that went to swell the celestial ranks also exceeds that of previous years. Catholic marriages, the indispensable basis of any Christian society, are also increasing and giving the pagans the eloquent spectacle of a holy union” (Excerpt from the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, November 1899).

2°. I have learned from my own mother, Madame Veuve Leroyer, the following account: She had had the devotion to ask the Servant of God, about last year, to be like her guardian angel and to sit [590v] ter in all. Now, one day when she went to a store for her belongings, the lady who ran the store said to her spontaneously and without knowing at all my mother's special devotion: “Oh! Madam, what a delicious smell of roses you carry with you. My mother simply affirmed what was the truth, that she carried nothing with her that could produce such a scent. Another day, a person who came to visit my mother at her house, expressed the same astonishment touching an emanation of perfume of violets that nothing natural could explain either.

[What do you think of the character of your mother whose testimony you have just reported?]:

My mother is of a reluctant and very discreet character. I am sure that she had not communicated to anyone the request she had made to the Servant of God to assist her as her guardian angel. Moreover, she is very little inclined to admit extraordinary phenomena, and it is without attaching very great importance to them that she told me the story of these two facts. Madame Leroyer lives in Lisieux, where she takes care of good works and in particular of the Work of the [591r] Catechisms. It should be noted that in the two circumstances related she herself did not perceive any perfume. It happened to me twice to perceive in circumstances where nothing natural explained it, a perfume of lilac or violet. I had no presentiment then that this phenomenon could occur. Besides, I have no desire to enjoy these tangible favors, and I rather expect, from the intercession of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, hidden graces for the good of my soul.

3°. It is in this order of graces of perfection that I particularly noticed the effectiveness of the intercession of the Servant of God. There can be no doubt that his supernatural influence produces in our monastery quite exceptional fruits of spiritual progress. To tell the truth, it is a noticeable change that has taken place among us. I notice it above all: 1) in the care to be faithful in the smallest observances; 2) in the practice of the most attentive mutual charity; 3) in the promptness to obey without murmur and without hesitation, but with real joy [591v] the slightest indications of the will of our reverend mother.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I said, in answering question XXII, that I did not know of any extraordinary phenomenon that had occurred during the life of the Servant of God. I should have recalled here the extraordinary forecast of her premature death, which she expressed to me in 1895, when she was enjoying good health. I have related in detail what she told me on this subject, speaking of her hope in God (Interrog. XXI, n. 2). I always believed that was a true prophecy.

[592r] [Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in responding to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

I have filed as above according to the truth, I ratify and confirm it.

Signatum: Sister THERESE OF SAINT AUGUSTIN.

Witness 14 - Mary of the Angels and of the Sacred Heart, OCD

It is very appreciable to find here the testimony of Sister Marie of the Angels and of the Sacred Heart, mistress of Sister Thérèse novice.

Born in Montpinçon (diocese of Bayeux) on February 24, 1845, Marie-Jeanne-Julia de Chaumontel entered the Carmel of Lisieux on October 29, 1866, after overcoming, not without difficulty, the very deep affection that bound her to her family. She received the habit on March 19, 1867 and made her profession on March 25, 1868, with, as novice mistress, the venerable Mother Geneviève de Sainte-Thérèse, founder of the monastery. This guided her and comforted her in the inner struggles she had to sustain until the time of her profession. Then there was a serene peace. She received the veil on June 26, 1868, fitting herself wonderfully into the community, being a model of silence and availability (this perhaps pushed to excess). Without disdaining the most humble offices of the monastery, she was a master in sewing and embroidery. Sub-prioress from 1883 to 1886, while Mother Geneviève held the office of prioress, she was mistress of novices from 1886 to 1893. Re-elected sub-prioress in 1893 then again for three years in 1896, she was again mistress of novices the death of the Saint (1897) until 1909.

She is defined by Thérèse as "a true saint, the consummate type of the first Carmelites" - MSA 70,2 - and this was moreover the judgment of the community. Thérèse had many difficulties in opening up to her, but she succeeded afterwards and was well consoled - DEA 2.IX.2 - . When the saint began in religious life, the mother was next to her in the lingerie - DEA 13.Vll. - ). From October 1888 to October 1890 she sent him seven brief messages testifying to him of her affectionate supernatural understanding (cf. Correspondance générale, I, LC 91, p. 405; 92, p. 408; 104, p. 436; 109, P. 446; 119, p. 509; 120, p. 512; 141, p. 579). Rather distracted, easily forgetting what she had said, the mother was often an involuntary cause of suffering for Thérèse. After the death of the Saint, she personally experienced more than once the power of intercession and echoed these favors not only during the two

WITNESS 14: Mary of the Angels OCD

Trial, Ordinary and Apostolic, but in a notebook, many pages of which are entitled “Souvenirs de ma petite Thérèse” (Circular, p. 10). She died on November 24, 1924*.

In giving her testimony, the mother emphasizes, among other things, the discretion that Thérèse observed with regard to the inevitable sufferings of life together, as well as her virile detachment with regard to her three sisters, and reports words spoken by the Saint be addressed to her which without this testimony would be unknown to us.

The deposition took place on February 15-17, 1911, during sessions 57-59, f. 594r-614r of our Public Copy.

[Session 57: February 15, 1911 at 11 a.m. and at 2 o'clock. of the afternoon]

[594r] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Marie-Jeanne-Julia de Chaumontel, in religion Sister Marie of the Angels and of the Sacred Heart. I was born in Montpinçon (diocese of Bayeux) on February 1, 24 of the legitimate marriage of Amédée de Chaumontel and Elisabeth de Gaultier de Saint Basile. I am a Carmelite nun from the monastery of Lisieux, where I made my profession on March 1845, 25, where I was depositary, then mistress of novices and sub-prioress until November 1868.

[The witness answers the third to the sixth questions correctly]:

[Answer to the seventh request]:

The feelings which animate me in this deposition are of a supernatural order and nothing can vitiate my testimony.

[594v] [Answer to the eighth request]:

I knew the Servant of God when her sister Pauline (Sister Agnès of Jesus) entered Carmel in 1882. round. When she entered the Carmel in 9, I was mistress of novices, and in this capacity I was able to observe her and know her very well until 1888. On that date, I left the office of mistress of novices and I only had with the Servant of God the usual relations of nuns with each other. I mainly used my memories and my observations to prepare this testimony. I also used, to complete and clarify my memories, the book of the "History of a soul written by itself." I don't believe [1892r] that this composition is tainted with illusions: the Servant of God expresses in it very sincerely and very exactly what she felt.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I pray every day for the success of this cause of beatification. It seems to me, through all the marvels of grace whose stories reach us every day, that the glorification of the Servant of God will contribute to the exaltation of the Holy Church, to the glory of our Order, to the salvation of France and of many souls.

[Answer to the tenth to fifteenth questions]:

I do not know from my personal observations the details of the first years of the Servant of God. I only note that when she came to the parlor, between the ages of 9 and 15, to visit her sister Agnes of Jesus, then also her other sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, it was easy for me to see that this lovely little girl was a child of blessing. . When I was near her, the effect she produced on me was what the soul feels near the tabernacle. This angel exhaled an atmosphere of calm, silence, gentleness and purity which made me contemplate her with [595v] true respect.

[Answer from the sixteenth to the eighteenth questions]:

I can speak all the better of the Servant of God at that time, since when she entered our Carmel I was mistress of novices. As soon as she entered, she grew in grace and wisdom before God and before the community, by a very constant correspondence to grace. This is what explains to me the rapid ascent of this child so young towards the most eminent sanctity. Recently, a former and holy nun said to me, speaking of the novitiate of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus: “Really, we had never seen that! The Servant of God had, from her entry into Carmel, an extraordinary intuition of the sanctity of religious life and the sacrifices it imposes. She set to work with invincible courage and shrank from no obstacle. So I can assure you that if, shortly after her profession, she was equivalently placed as mistress of novices, she was so perfect in every way that she would have been equally capable of being placed at the head of our community. All I had to do, so to speak, was to instruct him in the rules and the various customs of the [596r] community. I must still affirm that during all her novitiate I had to point out no imperfection in this dear child, and that none of the novices I had during the fifteen years that I was mistress of novices equaled her. in virtues and in perfection. What I have to say about its various virtues will confirm what I am saying here.

WITNESS 14: Mary of the Angels OCD

[Answer to the nineteenth request]:

I did not know until after her death the composition she made of the Story of her Soul.

[Answer to the twentieth request]:

The heroic nature of the Christian life seems to me to consist in a constant generosity in practicing all the virtues down to the details. This perfect equality must be very rare, supposes an exceptional grace of the good God and also an exceptional correspondence to grace. I believe that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus achieved this ever-equal fidelity and exceeded in this what I have seen in the most fervent nuns.

[Response to the twenty-first request]:

[596v] 1° ON FAITH. - During her novitiate, her faith seemed remarkable to me in her respect for her mother prioress and for her mistress of novices. She ran up with the simplicity of a child to tell me the trials she was encountering on the side of our mother prioress who had for her, at times, severities which were very sensitive to her, especially since she could not grasp in this way to act of his mother prioress as the manifestation of a human feeling; but she kept that feeling to herself. I still see her running up one day and throwing herself into my arms to confide in me the brokenness of her heart, without however letting the slightest murmur escape; she saw the guidance of God on her little soul in this so painful ordeal and smiled in spite of everything. In her spiritual desolations, she still came to tell me about them cheerfully, accepting them generously so that the good Lord might in return give his consolations to the souls he could thus attract to himself. She showed heroic faith in the terrible ordeal that befell her venerable father. There were hours of terrible anguish for her. But, as she relates in the “Story of a Soul”, she surprised me one day by saying to me with a deep look towards heaven: [597r] “0 my sister, I can still suffer more” - MSA 73,1 - . Whatever the storm, his soul remained as calm as the rock beaten by the waves. She had a rare understanding of the Holy Scriptures; moreover, one can judge of it by the use she constantly makes of it in her writings. She always carried the Holy Gospel with her. In authority she saw only God; whether the ciborium was gold or copper, it was always Our Lord to whom she gave her faith, her respect, her love and her obedience. The day before her profession, her soul was upset by the demon who wanted to persuade her that she was not in her vocation. She quickly found peace by humbly confiding this temptation to me, and referring to my words as to those of God himself. In the long temptation against the faith which experienced the last year of her life, she herself says that she pronounced more acts of faith during a year than during her whole life. In this ordeal, the crucified Jesus liked to associate it with the darkness of Calvary; but her unspeakable sufferings only purified her love and made it still more ardent.

2° ON HOPE AND CONFIDENCE IN GOD. - Throughout the [597v] course of her life, the Servant of God had many trials, both interior and exterior; but her confidence in God was so unshakable that she never lost peace of soul and even joy in the midst of the most difficult trials. She shows this in a large number of different circumstances in the story of her life. I was particularly struck by her constancy in the multiple difficulties which opposed the realization of her desire to enter Carmel at the age of 15, then by the peace with which she bore the ordeal of the severities of our Reverend Mother Prioress. in the early years of her religious life. The Servant of God never lost her serenity at the height of her spiritual desolation, as also when the distressing news followed one another concerning the state of her father's health. Already before entering Carmel, it was with admirable confidence that she prayed to God for sinners, even daring to say to God about the criminal Pranzini for whom she was praying: "I am sure, O my God, that you pardon, and even if he had not confessed, I would believe that you would have touched him at the last moment." Later, they asked her how she was not discouraged in the moments [598r] of abandonment through which God made her go: "It is not in vain - she answered - that the word of Job entered my heart: Even if God killed me, I would hope in him. - *Jb 13, 15 according to the Vulgate - - DEA 7-7 - . She said again: “For a long time, my God, you have allowed me to be bold with you. Like the father of the prodigal son speaking to his eldest son, you said to me: 'All I have is yours' - *Lk. 15, 31 - . “I know - she said again - that Jesus cherishes the prodigal son; I heard his words to Saint Madeleine, to the adulterous woman, to the Samaritan woman. No! no one could frighten me, because I know what to think about his love and his mercy” - MSC 36,2 - . Shortly before her death, she said: “I am in no way afraid of the last fights, nor of the sufferings, however great they may be. The good Lord has always helped me... I count on him; I am sure that he will never abandon me” - MSA 46,1 - .

WITNESS 14: Mary of the Angels OCD

[Session 58: - February 16, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[600r][Response to XNUMXst request continued]:

3° ON CHARITY. - In addition to the numerous details reported in his life and which prove to what degree rose, from his childhood, his love of Our Lord, his ardent desire for Holy Communion, his piety in prayer and his taste for all manifestations nuns, I can relate more specifically some particularities of her religious life, of which I was a more direct witness. Everything she had to suffer in Carmel, even from her entrance, she accepted everything with love for the salvation of the souls she wanted to win for the love of God. She had a special zeal for the salvation of great sinners, including the unfortunate Father Hyacinthe, for whose conversion [600v] she offered so many prayers and sacrifices. Everything sang in his soul, as in that of Saint Cecilia, who had become his tender friend since her visit to his tomb. During her postulancy, she explained one day why Saint Cecilia had been proclaimed queen of harmony: "It was - she said because of the virginal song that the celestial Spouse made her hear in the depths of her heart" - MSA 61,2 ,17 - . Some time after leaving the novitiate, she came to see me in license and spoke to me of what the good God was doing in her, of the light she received on the life of grace in us. I was amazed by it, and it was a few days later that, presiding over the washing in the laundry room, she asked me to sing and to have the sisters present sing her magnificent canticle: "Vivre d'amour" - PN 0 - , which threw me into admiration, for can one see anything more beautiful, more lofty? All that she wrote in chapter XI of her life is the song of a seraph: "601 Jesus - she said in these lines written on her deathbed -, let me tell you that your love reaches 'to insanity. How do you expect my heart not to rush towards you in the face of this madness?... One day, I have the hope, you will take me to the hearth of love, you will finally plunge me into this burning abyss, to make me forever [5,2r] its happy victim" - MSB XNUMX -

[response continued]:

ON CHARITY TOWARDS NEIGHBOR. - Entering Carmel, the Servant of God immediately seemed to us to be full of attention for all the sisters, striving to render all the services in her power. In the novitiate, her charity was shown for one of her companions, whose faults she well understood; she gave him her little advice, strove to lead him to virtue by giving him an example of it, and, in spite of many battles she gave him, she surrounded him with tenderness, waiting until later she would could act more easily on this young soul, over whom she was to exercise a touching influence. I do not know of having ever heard her say a word against anyone, nor ever murmur when our Reverend Mother was severe towards her: she always smiled at her [601v] and had a thousand attentions for her. Later, at the time of the 1896 elections, the Reverend Mother Marie de Gonzague having been elected prioress by only a very small majority, the Servant of God, foreseeing what grief this Reverend Mother would experience, endeavored with ravishing tenderness and angelic delicacy to console her in this ordeal, and wrote her a magnificent letter which the poor mother took very well - LT 190 - The Servant of God again showed her charity by asking our mother to be a companion with a sister whose character, soured by illness, was to make her suffer a great deal. What virtue, what patience, what zeal did she not show in this difficult position! She knew how to gain influence over this poor soul by a mixture of firmness and gentleness. This sister attached herself to her as to a consoling angel. This same sister was employed with me in the sacristy; when she caused me some difficulty, I had only to entrust the matter to the Servant of God, who knew how to act on the soul of this poor sister so well that she immediately came to me and humbly asked me for forgiveness. The story of her life is filled with the traits of her attentive and always self-forgetful charity.

[602r] 4° ON PRUDENCE. - She showed caution beyond her age. Having entered our midst at the age of fifteen, she showed that she was only a child by age. From the outset, she showed a possession of herself that delighted me. Later, how prudent did she show in her behavior towards this sister, of difficult character, to whom she did so much good. When her sister Pauline (mother Agnès of Jesus) was elected prioress, this circumstance created for her a very delicate situation in front of the former prioress mother Marie de Gonzague. The Servant of God showed an astonishing discretion to avoid any occasion of offending. I often accompanied the three sisters to the parlor when their excellent uncle Monsieur Guérin came to visit them. If there was then any misunderstanding about family or other matters, these little clouds quickly disappeared under the influence of the Servant of God. She was for all an angel of peace. Did we need advice? it was to her the youngest, that her sisters addressed themselves and what she said was the word of the Gospel. In the advice she gave to souls, she liked to teach them what she called “her little way of abandonment and spiritual [602v] childhood.” This doctrine, full of simplicity, love and trust, which she left to "little souls", won her the admiration of the most eminent persons in holiness and science. A priest told me one day that he had found in reading the Servant of God's writings insights that he had been looking for in vain for a long time.

5° ON JUSTICE. - The worship of God, of the Blessed Virgin and of the Saints had a great charm for the Servant of God, even from her earliest years. At the Carmel, she spent her moments of freedom with indescribable happiness decorating and giving flowers to a statuette of the Child Jesus, the care of which was entrusted to her. At Christmas time, it was a signal joy for her to work on decorating the crib and to sing the Child-God in poems overflowing with tenderness and love. In the sacristy, what care did she take to prepare the sacred vestments and everything related to divine worship, but above all the holy ciborium and the hosts! In choir, her dignified and religious demeanor showed how deeply she was imbued with the presence of God and the grandeur of prayer and the divine office. His favorite saints were, [603r] after the Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph, our Mother Saint Thérèse, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Cecilia, Saint Agnes, Blessed Théophane Vénard and Blessed Joan of Arc. She had an extreme love for Holy Communion, and suffered from not having it every day. She had predicted that we would later have this consolation of daily communion, and this prediction has come true. In the piety of the Servant of God there is one thing that strikes me all the more because I had never seen it in our Carmel, and never heard of it in the lives of the saints: it is the role she gives to flowers. All of them had a particular language for her, revealing to her the infinite love of God and his perfections. She also used it to tell God of her own love and the feelings of her heart. In the evening, in summer, at the hour of silence, and often on holidays during recreation, she threw flowers at the Calvary in our courtyard. What delicious thoughts in his hymn entitled “Throwing Flowers” ​​- PN 34 -. This action of leaf-stripping flowers was only the image of what she was doing for Our Lord by the thousand sacrifices she imposed on herself for him in all the details of her life. [603v] Until the end, in her last illness, she stripped the leaves, to embalm her crucifix, from the roses that were brought to her to make her happy. One day when they were picking up and throwing away rose leaves that had fallen on the floor, she said, lowering her voice a little: “Oh! no, don't throw them away, they will be precious one day” - DEA 14-9 - . This statement was reported to me by our mother Agnes of Jesus and by our sister Marie du Sacré-Coeur, who were present.

Mother Agnès of Jesus said to her, one day when the community was gathered near her bed: “If you throw flowers at the community!” - " Oh! no, my little mother - she answered -, don't ask me that, please; I don't want to throw flowers at creatures. I still want it [for] the Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph, but not for other creatures” - DEA , p.791 -

[604r] [Response to XNUMXst request continued]:

6° ON FORCE. - The courage of the Servant of God appeared above all in her equanimity at the very time of her greatest physical or moral suffering. I have said in speaking of her charity with what strength of soul she bore the faults of her neighbor and the sorrows which might overtake her as a result of her father's illness and her inner trials. When illness came to nail her to the cross, she showed admirable courage in suffering. She was always gentle and smiling and only responded to pain with a celestial smile without ever sounding the slightest complaint. God permitted, in order to embellish her soul, that our so good and so devoted doctor, who came to see her often, did not think of calming her sufferings by these alleviations which science has discovered and which would have lightened her long martyrdom; she endured it to the end with heroic courage.

[604v] 7° ON TEMPERANCE. - The Servant of God was a model of mortification, but of this true mortification free from the illusions of pride and self-love. The spirit of God inspired hers from her childhood. To prepare for her entry into Carmel, she imposed a thousand little sacrifices on herself, getting used to breaking her will and rendering light services around her, since her young age did not allow her to do more. When she entered Carmel, never a complaint escaped her lips, and I don't know that during her novitiate she ever asked me for the smallest relief. The cold was excessively painful to him; but she never says a word to me about it, and I learned it only lately; she suffered from it so much, it seems, that she was dying of it. Ah! if I had known! What wouldn't I have done to fix it! So I say to myself today: What heroic virtue was that of this dear child? His mortification was summed up in these words: to suffer everything without ever complaining, neither for clothing nor for food. On this last point, what did she not have to offer God! How many times have I had a heavy heart when I saw this child so young and so frail deprived of the consideration and alleviations of diet that should [605r] have been generously accorded to her; but on the contrary, the good Lord allowed that many times he was only served leftovers or food that a strong stomach would have found difficult to support. It was the same with rest, sleep; but the dear child never said a word, so happy was she at these good opportunities to suffer. She preserved in the greatest suffering an unalterable serenity. People were surprised; later we found out the real cause: “When I suffer a lot - she said -, instead of looking sad, I respond with a smile. At first, I didn't always succeed; but now it's a habit I'm glad I picked up" - HA 12 -

She was no less admirable in dominating the inner feelings of nature. We have been able to observe on many occasions with what generosity she mortified the natural instinct which should have led her to seek the company of her three sisters, in preference to the other nuns. She had adopted precisely the opposite practice. Here are some features. After her long retirement, which had kept her separated from her sisters for eleven days, she could have requested and would have easily obtained [605v] permission to go and see them in their cell. She didn't. They at least believed that at recreation their little sister would look for them and even sit by their side, but that was not the case, so afraid was the Servant of God of giving something to nature. The fact having been told to the venerable Mother Geneviève, our holy foundress, she rebuked her very severely to test her, telling her that it was acting like a heartless child, and that this was not perfection. what religion demands. Another time, his beloved sister Agnes of Jesus was very ill. The Servant of God not going to visit her, she told her how sorry she was. Then she answered him: “But, my mother, do the other sisters come to see you?” - "No", answered Mother Agnès. " Well! - said the Servant of God, so I must deprive myself of it too”; so much did she understand what mortification of the heart religious perfection demands. On her deathbed, she said one day to this same mother Agnès: “When I die, do not believe, my little mother, that my last look will be for you; it will be for Mother Marie de Gonzague, and also for those in whom I believe the thing is useful... Don't worry about it... I only want to do supernatural things” - DEA 20-7 - . [606r] This statement was reported to me since by our Reverend Mother Agnes of Jesus herself.

8° ON POVERTY. - The Servant of God loved poverty supremely. I remember that one day I surprised her in the sacristy removing from an altar cloth the lace which was only threaded in large stitches. Gently she withdrew the thread, because she wanted, like the poor, not to lose it and then use it. How many would have cut it to go faster!, but she found there a good opportunity to practice poverty. Her poverty consisted above all in being content with what was given to her, in joyfully doing without what she did not have, in saying nothing when the objects for her use were taken from her. She considered that time was not hers either, and she never took on that of work as a consolation; it would have been too easy for her to lead a life.

9° ON CHASTITY. - In relation to everything related to this virtue, I have only one word to say about the Servant of God: she was an angel in a mortal body. Never a thoughtless word [606v] came from his lips. She would rather have thrown herself into the flames than expose herself to the slightest breath that might tarnish her baptismal innocence. Her purity was reflected in her heavenly countenance, so calm, so gentle and so dignified. She combined this so recollected exterior with a little childlike air which suited her admirably, and which exhaled a scent of candor and innocence. There was something about her that inspired respect and that seemed to say: Don't touch me. She had a modesty that struck those who met her. During the influenza epidemic, Father Youf, our chaplain, had to enter the enclosure several times to visit the sick and dying. He immediately observed this exceptional modesty and remarked on it to me in these terms: “Not one of you equals little Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus in her perfectly calm and religious demeanor.” The gardener himself, seeing her pass under our cloisters when he was working in the courtyard, recognized her despite her large veil, by her edifying outfit. He said one day, in his worker's language: “Oh! little sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. I never see her running. [607r] This angelic purity is for me the explanation of the admirable knowledge that God gave him of the Holy Scriptures. It was very true for her these words of Our Lord: “Blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God” - *Mt. 5, 8 - ,

10° ON OBEDIENCE. - The Servant of God was perfectly obedient. In the novitiate, never a reflection, but absolute docility. Not long ago, one of her companions said to me: “Do you remember what Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was like in the novitiate? When you gave us an explanation, an observation, she never said a word; she always listened to everything with deep respect.” She also never apologized when I took her back, even by mistake, as she says about the little vase broken (by another) and which made me tell her that she was totally out of order. In the early days of his postulancy, I suggested to him a thought that I believed could help him in his prayer; she endeavored to apply herself to it out of obedience, although it was a very great fatigue for her. which I didn't know until later. [607v] She loved the Holy Rule very much and nothing was more painful to her than not being able to follow it in all its observance, because of her youth. Her obedience seemed to me heroic when she submitted in silence and without uttering a complaint to the refusal of her Reverend Mother Prioress to return to discuss the affairs of her soul with the preacher of the retreat, the Reverend Father Alexis, who, however, had grasped his inner state very well and had restored peace and joy to his soul. I remember a trait, rather vulgar, which clearly shows the promptness with which she obeyed the first call. One winter day when, following the custom of the Carmelites, she had taken off her wet stockings to dry them near the stove during recreation, someone came to tell her that the bell was ringing at the sacristy. Simply putting on her rope shoes, which we call alpargates, she crosses all our cloisters bare-legged, without worrying about the imprudence she was doing in this way. How many would have said: One minute, please! But for her, it was to the very voice of God that she had to respond, and she did so without thinking about herself. [608r] In the “History of her soul”, she expresses her convictions well when she says: “How happy simple nuns are! Their only compass being the will of their superiors, they are sure never to be mistaken... But when one ceases to consult this infallible compass, the soul immediately wanders into arid paths where the water of grace soon missing. - MSC 11,1 -

1° ON HUMILITY. - The Servant of God was a true hidden violet. She made herself so small that, while noticing a celestial soul in her, she was only considered a child, she was so simple. She stood in the last place, tried to pass unnoticed, never saying her feelings unless asked. This humility, which left her in the shadows, causes our Carmel, amazed at the great things she did after her death, to say today at all times: “Ah! this little Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, so hidden, so little during her life! does she make noise now! Does she stir around the world! Who would ever have believed that? On many occasions, she had to show devotion, skill, wisdom [608v] and prudence; endowed with all the possible gifts of mind and heart, she used these treasures to glorify the good God, to render service and give pleasure to those around her; but she did this without embarrassment, without searching for herself, and with a simplicity that revealed her humility. I could cite in support of these assessments a large number of traits recounted in the "History of his life" and which have become notorious.

When I reflect on the virtues of the Servant of God, I compare her to the sky in which one always discovers more stars the more one contemplates it.

[Session 59: - February 17, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30]

[610v] [Response to the twenty-second request]:

I did not personally know of any miraculous or extraordinary events that happened during the Servant of God's life; it was only by reading the "Story of a soul" that I learned that she had once or twice experienced "transports of love" - ​​MSA 52,1 -

[Response to third request]:

I learned that even when the Servant of God was in the world, one was struck by her angelic [611r]ic air. The nephew of one of our sisters (Sister Saint-Stanislas), seeing this young girl pass by with her father, the venerable Monsieur Martin, said to his own sister, who brought her back: “Look at Mademoiselle Martin! here is an angel! Do you want me to tell you... Well! you will see that one day she will be canonized.” His First Communion companion at the Benedictine boarding school in Lisieux, Mademoiselle Delarue, said to me these days: "Nothing can render her air of purity, candor and innocence, the ingenuity of her answers, which we never would have known how to do it." At Carmel, she seemed to us an elite soul, quite remarkable for her recollection and her fidelity to duty. I don't know that any of us had a different opinion of her.

[Response to the twenty-fourth request]:

Although I rarely saw the Servant of God during her illness, so as not to tire her, I saw her enough to judge the heroism of her courage. I can affirm that it is the most beautiful death that I have seen in Carmel. His suffering increased [611v] day by day, it was a heartbreaking sight. On September 30 in the afternoon, seeing that the end was approaching, we met at his bedside. At half-past four the agony began; she thanked with a gracious smile the community that had come to assist her with their prayers. She held the crucifix in her failing hands, a cold sweat bathed her face, she trembled in all her limbs. A little before seven o'clock, as the agony seemed likely to continue still further, our Reverend Mother Prioress sent the community away, remaining alone with the Servant of God with her three sisters: Mother Agnès of Jesus, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart and Sister Sainte Geneviève. Scarcely had we had time to take a few steps when a loud ringing of the bell called us back. I came running, convinced that it was the end. Coming back to her, I saw her bow her head while looking at her crucifix. She then said, “Oh! yes, I love him... My God, I love you...” - DEA 30-9 - . Suddenly, she raised her head with a quite strange strength, and opening her eyes wide, she fixed a magnificent gaze above, above the statue of the Blessed Virgin. It seemed to us then that she saw something supernatural. [612r] I thought it must be Our Lord. Almost immediately afterwards, his head fell back on the pillow: it was all over. I will never forget that look and that beautiful death.

[Response to the twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth questions]:

Having never left the enclosure, I did not visit the Servant of God's tomb, but I know, from the stories told to me in the visiting room by members of my family or other people who come to me to visit, that this tomb is constantly visited by pilgrims of all ages and conditions. After the Servant of God's remains were transferred last September, the wooden cross which was on the first tomb was brought to our monastery. I saw this cross which is completely covered with inscriptions and formulas of invocation or thanksgiving.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

Since the death of the Servant of God, it is marvelous to see how much she has caused more and more "rage in the world." This is the expression used recently [612v] in the visiting room by a monk. She is like – ie known – in all parts of the world, in communities, seminaries and families. She helps the priests and the missionaries as daily letters come to repeat it; it converts Chinese villages, as evidenced by the letters of the missionaries. In my own family, I see every day how much she is in veneration: we pray to her, we dare to ask her for everything, and every day I receive letters from people asking for books, pictures, novenas, etc. Thousands of images are made at the monastery, and we cannot meet the demands. Letters relating to graces obtained and expressing everyone's devotion to the Servant of God arrive daily at the monastery in numbers that often exceed a hundred. Some of these letters are read to us during recreation, which come from all over the world and which establish beyond doubt the Servant of God's universal reputation for holiness.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I know of no opposition to this reputation for holiness.

[613r] [Response to the twenty-ninth request]:

The letters so numerous and from so diverse sources which establish the Servant of God's reputation for holiness also prove that everywhere the faithful have confidence in obtaining extraordinary temporal and spiritual graces through her intercession. healings, conversions, favors of all kinds. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the content of all these relations; but it would be easy to collect there multitudes of attestations of this kind. In our Carmel, we have smelled perfumes on several occasions, in circumstances which, I believe, exclude any natural explanation. I learned, two or three months ago, of an extraordinary event that happened to one of our young lay sisters, Sister Jeanne-Marie of the Child Jesus, whom I consider to be an angel of virtue and piety. . A few days after the Immaculate Conception 1910, she found herself having only a few copies of the printed seal of Monsignor Teil, vice-postulator, which she had been instructed to stick, in a way of authenticity, on the images and memories [ 613v] to ship. The sister who helped her in this work by cutting out these seals in the sheets where they are printed in groups, told her that she had no time to cut them out at this time. Sister Jeanne-Marie recommended herself to the Servant of God, and what was her surprise when, returning to her cell, she found her little box completely filled with authentic cut-outs. There were 500 of them. Inquiry was made to find out if some sister had wanted to surprise her; but not one of them had rendered him this service, which, moreover, could not have been done without the permission of our Reverend Mother, since we are forbidden to enter each other's cells. This same Sister Jeanne-Marie of the Child Jesus had already been the object of a similar favor when, last year, she found herself filled, in a marvelous way, with a reservoir of water which she had to fill herself, despite her fatigue.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I don't think I have anything to add.

[614r] [Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in responding to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

I filed as above according to the truth, I ratify and confirm it.

Signatum: Sister MARY OF THE ANGELS AND OF THE SACRED HEART.

Witness 15 - Martha of Jesus and Blessed Perboyre, OCD

Sister Marthe of Jesus, converse, was, in the novitiate, the companion and then the disciple of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

Désirée-Florence-Marthe Cauvin was born in Griverville (diocese of Evreux) on 16.Vll.1865, on the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Having quickly lost her father and her mother, she spent her childhood and adolescence in orphanages in Paris and then in Bernay, which had a profound effect on her psyche. She entered the Carmel on December 23, 1887 and took the habit on May 2, 1889. She made her profession on September 23, 1890, asking and obtaining not to leave the novitiate to remain under the direction of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

“Of a mediocre intelligence, she suffered and caused those around her to suffer unwittingly, for a spirit of contradiction which, despite real efforts, she never succeeded in entirely correcting. But, on the other hand, his frankness, his good heart and his devotion, which never counted with fatigue, finally his great piety, very often edified us” (Obituary Circular, p. 2). In his book Saint Thérèse of Lisieux discovering the way of childhood (Paris 1964), Fr. Stéphane-Joseph Piat presents Sister Marthe as follows: "Upright heart, devoted, pious, she did not lack qualities, but a too real narrow-mindedness, a brutal frankness, an instinct of aggressiveness joined to a complex of frustration which explains the deprivation of the maternal caresses, made it not very sociable. Either she became excessively attached to Mother Marie de Gonzague, of whom she made herself the servant and servant, to Thérèse herself, who reprimanded her tenderly, or she shut herself up in a sulky melancholy, even if it meant explode into biting protrusions. It was she who, for lack of judgment, served the saint the dried out remains, she also who charitably invited her, and without success, to come and warm herself in the kitchen. She feared her and admired her altogether, putting her to the test by her sarcasm, her silence or her untimely visits, loving her enough to implore and obtain permission to stay with her in the novitiate. Ungrateful ground if ever there was one, the person concerned is the first to admit it … ”

(c. 7, p. 171).

It is of Sister Marthe that Thérèse thinks when she speaks of the novitiate companion with whom she was allowed to have “from time to time little spiritual conversations” - MSC, f. 20v - and which Jesus gave her to shed light on her faults, in particular the too natural affection she had for Mother Marie de Gonzague (ib., 20v-21v).

It was again to please Sister Marthe that Sister Thérèse made her annual private retreat with her for three years, endeavoring to mark sacrifices and practices with virtue each day, in the personal and complicated manner of the humble lay converse (who was to testify at the Apostolic Process).

Sister Thérèse sent her a few notes which show us how much she knew how to take her and understand her even in her darkest moments. It was for her that she wrote on July 16, 1897, as a birthday present, the Prayer for Obtaining Humility (HA, pp. 307-308).

During the last years of her life, Sister Martha of Jesus experienced a spiritual transformation that the months of suffering preceding her end made even deeper and more visible. She died on September 4, 1916*.

The witness testified on February 17-18, 1911, during sessions 60-61, f. 616r-632v of our Public Copy.

[Session 60: - February 17, 1911, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[616r] [The witness correctly answers the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Désirée Florence Cauvin, in religion Sister Marthe of Jesus and Blessed Perboyre. I was born in Giverville (diocese of Evreux) on July 16, 1865 from the legitimate marriage of Alphonse Cauvin and Augustine Pitray. I am a lay nun from the Carmel of Lisieux, where I entered as a postulant in 1887 and where I made my profession [616v] in 1890, on September 23.

[The witness answers the third to the sixth questions correctly].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I have prayed to the good Lord not to offend him in the way I am going to give my testimony. Although I love the Servant of God very much, I would rather say nothing in her favor than miss the truth.

WITNESS 15: Martha of Jesus OCD

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I entered Carmel only three months before the Servant of God, so I was her companion in the novitiate. From then on, I became attached to her very intimately, because of her virtues and the good she did for my soul. This special intimacy united us until his death. I will only use my personal recollections in my testimony.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I love Sister Thérèse of [617r] the Child Jesus very much because of her virtue and the good she has done for my soul. I pray a lot for his beatification which, I believe, will glorify God and do good to souls.

[Answer from the tenth to the sixteenth questions]:

I don't know anything about the Servant of God before she entered Carmel.

[Answer to the seventeenth request]:

The Servant of God entered the Carmel of Lisieux in April 1888. She took the habit there on January 10, 1889. We did our novitiate together. She made her profession on September 8, 1890. The deadline for her profession exceeded the ordinary time, because, because of her young age, our superior, Father Delatroëtte, imposed this deadline. As soon as the Servant of God entered our midst, I noticed that she was no ordinary soul. Seeing her so perfect, I found it hard to understand so much perfection in such a young sister. What struck me most about her was [617v] her humility, her religious spirit and her mortification.

[Answer to the eighteenth request]:

From her first years of religious life, the virtue of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus gave her great influence over her companions in the novitiate. All the novices, like myself, felt the need to receive his advice, his encouragement and to follow his advice. Our mother prioress having given general permission to communicate on this subject with the Servant of God, the result was that, in fact, we were dealing with Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus as with a real mistress of novices. In 1896, Mother Marie de Gonzague, who had become prioress, entrusted her entirely with the task of forming the novices, although she did not give her the title of this function. The Servant of God wanted to stay in the novitiate, out of humility, even after the regular period of her novitiate was over. I myself lived there with her until 1895, and even after that date I never stopped seeking the opinions of the Servant of God. The character of his leadership was strong leadership; she was extremely vigilant and very insightful in noticing our shortcomings and reprimanding us. She did it with great zeal and never sought the consolations that a less exacting zeal might have afforded her. She loved us all equally, but with a very supernatural, very strong and disinterested affection.

[Answer to the nineteenth request]:

I had clearly noticed that, in the last days of her life, the Servant of God was writing something intimate, but I did not know exactly what it was, or under what conditions she was composing this writing. I received from her a few little notes in which she exhorted me to fervor. I believe that she must also have written similar ones for other sisters.

[Answer to the twentieth request]:

I don't know if I'm saying this correctly, but I believe that a heroic virtue is a virtue that is not petty, that is out of the ordinary, that is sublime. The virtue of the Servant of God has always seemed so to me. It was precisely because [618v] her holiness was not ordinary that I felt invincibly drawn to her.

[Response to the twenty-first request]:

ON FAITH. - I have always noticed in Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus a great spirit of faith. She saw only the good God in all things and in all people. It was thus especially that she considered her superiors and practiced absolute obedience towards them.

ON THE LOVE OF GOD. - One could not approach Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus without being embalmed and penetrated by the presence of God. She had a way of speaking about spiritual things that one never tired of listening to. She was so imbued with what she was saying that one felt a flame that was constantly devouring and consuming her. Everything about her called for respect; one felt on approaching her that her soul was always united to the good God and that she never lost his presence. In the choir, she edified me a great deal by her humble, modest, and collected demeanor; she seemed totally absorbed and lost in God. [619r] She said to me one day: “I have only one desire, that of becoming a great saint, because that is the only truth on earth. I am fully resolved to set myself to work with courage; I don't want to refuse Jesus anything of the many sacrifices he asks of me, to hand over my soul to him so that he can possess it completely and do with me what he wants. This work will not be done without suffering, I know it well; but what a joy to suffer for the one you love » - Source pre. - .

WITNESS 15: Martha of Jesus OCD

[Session 61: - February 18, 1911, at 8 a.m. and at 30 a.m. of the afternoon]

[621r][Response to XNUMXst request continued]:

ON GOD'S LOVE (continued). - Nothing of earthly things interested him; everything was indifferent to him, except what concerned the glory of God and souls. One day she said to me: “For your love to be truly pure and disinterested, there must be no sharing, but Jesus must possess it entirely. If you give it to the creature, what do you claim to receive from it? perhaps some mark of affection: but what disappointments await you afterwards... whereas if you attach yourself to Jesus, you are sure to find true happiness, because he is a faithful friend who never changes.»

ON CHARITY ON NEXT. When a sister needed the Servant of God to do her a favor and she came to disturb her at any time of the day, she was sure of always being well received: never [621v] Sister Thérèse of the 'Child Jesus did not show any annoyance at being disturbed. She was always ready to please, sometimes at great sacrifice. When she found herself unable to give what was asked of her, she excused herself so kindly that people went away as satisfied as if she had granted the request. She said to me one day: “You must never refuse anything to anyone, even if it would cost us a lot of trouble. Remember that it is Jesus who is asking you for this little service; as then you will return it with eagerness, and with a face always amiable!»

In her great charity, she always excused those who could hurt her, judging their intentions well. The attentions of her charity were directed in a special way to the sisters who could give her some cause for trouble. One day I asked her this question: “How come you are always smiling when my sister *** talks to you? yet it has nothing that can attract you, since it always makes you suffer.” She replied: “That's precisely why I love him and show him so much affection; how would I prove my love to Jesus if I acted otherwise with those who [622r] make me suffer?.» A lay postulant accused the Servant of God and myself of having approached our mother prioress to have her expelled from the monastery, which was completely false. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus said to me: “Let us pray a lot for her, show her a lot of affection and render her service. Thus, she will have no more pain and will see that she was wrong.

But I must bear very special and personal testimony to the methods the Servant of God used towards me. She was for me of a kindness and a charity which cannot be expressed; it is only in heaven that we will know all the good that she has done me and how far she has pushed her devotion towards me. However, I made her suffer a lot because of my difficult character; but I can say in all truth that she always retained the same gentleness, the same equanimity of character; I would rather say that the more I made her suffer, the more I seemed to see her redouble her kindness and attention. She never pushed me away, despite the frequency of my visits; I never noticed the slightest annoyance in receiving me. His admirable virtues caused me to love him very much; sometimes, however, I felt a little jealous of her, and because she reproached me for my faults, I [622v] sometimes got angry; so I walked away from her and didn't want to talk to her anymore. But in her great charity, she always sought me out to do good to my soul, and, by her gentleness, she always managed to win me over. One day when I was unhappy, I said things to her that must have hurt her a great deal; but she did not show it and spoke to me calmly and kindly, imploring me earnestly to help her in a certain task. I complied with his request, but whispering, because it bothered me a lot. The idea then occurred to me to see how far she could push patience, and to exercise her virtue, I affected not to respond to what she said to me; but I could not succeed in overcoming his gentleness and I ended by asking his forgiveness for my conduct. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus never reproached me, said no mortifying words to me, and while showing me my faults, she encouraged me to be gentler when it came to rendering service. I couldn't believe the charity with which she treated me. Very often I wondered what interest she could find in taking an interest in a poor little lay sister. However, I cannot [623r] say how great was the devotion she had for my soul.

ON CAUTION. - The Servant of God's prudence seemed very great to me, especially in the way she formed the novices. Generally speaking, I can say that she studied with particular care what the good Lord asked of each of us; his attention was always on the alert to observe the slightest faults. Sometimes I was surprised that she saw it so clearly; nothing escaped him. She resumed very gently, but also with great firmness; she never gave in to our faults or went back on something said. At all costs he had to do what she said and work to overcome his nature. But I must bear special witness to the prudence with which she directed me personally. Although she was eight years younger than me, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was always my support, my consoling angel and my guide in my temptations and in the difficulties that I had to go through. Seeing that the advice she gave me did me so much good, our mother prioress allowed me, during the time of my retreat, to spend recreation with her. She knew so well how to elevate my soul towards divine things! [623v] Nothing earthly interfered with our conversations; they were all from heaven; she spoke to me only of the love of Jesus and of the souls she wanted to save. She also confided to me her great desires for perfection and holiness. Everything she said to me was so beautiful that I was completely perfumed with the perfume of her virtue.

His zeal for me, as for the other novices, was very pure and very disinterested. She was not afraid of displeasing us and thus depriving herself of the popularity and expressions of affection which a weaker conduct might perhaps have won her in the face of our faults. Very often, if I had followed my nature, I would have avoided going in the direction of the Servant of God, knowing full well that my faults would be revealed to me, but her holiness attracted me so strongly that I went there almost in spite of Me. I am going to relate some of the advice she gave me and which show how prudent and enlightened she was in the ways of God: “The more the sacrifices cost you - she said to me - the more you should make them with joy; be vigilant so as not to let any escape; If you could know the value, in the eyes of Jesus, of a small act of renunciation, [624r] you would seek them out as the miser seeks treasures.”

WITNESS 15: Martha of Jesus OCD

During a retreat, she wrote me some advice, of which here are a few passages: “Do not be afraid to tell Jesus that you love him, even without feeling it: this is the way to force Jesus to help you... C It's a big ordeal to see everything in black, but it doesn't completely depend on you; do what you can; detach your heart from the worries of the earth and above all of creatures, then be sure that Jesus will do the rest... Together let's please Jesus, let's save souls for him by our sacrifices... Above all, let's be small, so small that everyone world can trample us under foot, without our even seeming to feel it and suffer from it" - LT 241 - She also composed several prayer formulas for me, of which here is an extract: "0 God hidden in the prison of tabernacle, it is with joy that I come to You every evening, in order to thank You for the graces You have granted me, and to implore my forgiveness for the faults that I have committed during the day that has just passed. . O Jesus, how happy I would be, if I had been very faithful; but unfortunately! often, in the evening, I am sad, because I feel that I could have responded better to your graces. If I were more united with You, [0v] more charitable for my sisters, more humble, more mortified, I would have less difficulty conversing with You in prayer. However, O my God, far from being discouraged by the sight of my miseries, I come to You with confidence, remembering that it is not those who are well who need the doctor, but the sick... I beg, O my divine Spouse, to be yourself the Repairer of my soul... Tomorrow, with the help of your grace, I will begin a new life, of which each moment will be an act of love and renunciation.” - Price 624 -

When I told her my grievances with regard to the sisters, she was careful not to agree with me or to agree with me; on the contrary, she excused those of whom I had to complain and showed me their virtue. She was also very discreet: I could confide everything to her, even my most intimate thoughts. I had nothing to fear, she never repeated a single word of it, even in her conversations with her three sisters. Finally, the wisdom of his advice, his supernatural spirit and his heroic disinterestedness in the face of duty show themselves too much in one circumstance of my life for me to omit to relate it, although the matter is delicate enough. I regard the advice she gave me [695r] then as one of the greatest graces of my religious life. It was two years after my profession; Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was not yet nineteen. She had noticed something too natural in my assiduity with our Mother Prioress Marie de Gonzague. Given the somewhat touchy disposition of Mother Marie de Gonzague with regard to the Servant of God, her intervention against these relations could bring her into great trouble. She did not hesitate, however, to do all her duty for the good of my soul. On December 8, 1892, she therefore came to fetch me before mass, saying that she needed to speak to me. So I go to her house very happy. She knew so well how to talk to me about the good Lord that I felt real joy when I was in her company. But on entering her cell I noticed that she was no longer the same: she seemed sad; she made me sit next to her, kissed me, which she never did, and showed me such great affection that I wondered what it all meant. Finally she said to me: “I have wanted to open my heart to you for a very long time; but the time had not come. Today the good Lord made me feel that I had to speak and tell you everything about you that displeases Jesus: the affection [625v] that you have for your mother prioress is too natural, it does a lot of harm to your soul, because you love it with passion, and such affections displease God: they are poison for religious souls. It is not to satisfy your nature that you have come to Carmel, but to mortify yourselves and die to yourself; if it were otherwise you would have done better to remain in the world than to come into community to lose your soul.” After hearing these and other very harsh things, which pained me a great deal, I was obliged to recognize that she was telling the truth. Then my eyes were opened and I saw how far I was from the perfection that my Carmelite vocation demanded of me. What would I have become without the protection of my angelic mistress! What also struck me in this circumstance was his perfect disinterestedness in doing good to my soul. Here is what she told me about it: "If our mother notices that you have been crying and asks you who upset you, you can, if you want, tell her everything that I have just tell you: I would rather be frowned upon by her and have her dismiss me from the monastery if [626r] she wishes, rather than fail in my duty" - MSC 20,2-21,2 - In this matter, the Servant of God only wanted my affection for our mother to be very pure; she didn't do that to keep me away from her: oh!

WITNESS 15: Martha of Jesus OCD

[Response to the twenty-first request continued]:

[626v] ON THE VIRTUE OF FORCE. - The courage of the Servant of God in the practice of virtue made me despair of being able to imitate her. For example, when she was in pain and pain, that was when she seemed happier than usual, smiling at everyone and avoiding showing her preferences. She always had the same equanimity; his character always remained calm and benevolent; in the great sufferings she endured, she never let anything show on the outside. Out of mortification, she never leaned when she was seated, even when she was most tired and could hardly drag herself; but her passionate love for suffering and mortification meant that she never complained of anything.

ON TEMPERANCE. - The Servant of God was very mortified in all things. In the kitchen, not knowing to whom to give the leftovers, they were always served to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, knowing full well that nothing was going to come back; so it was very difficult to know her tastes, what she liked or disliked. It was only during her last illness that she [627r] confessed that whenever she ate certain foods, she was ill. Her gait also indicated great mortification and great self-control. She was modest, collected, her eyes always lowered, not trying to see or know anything about what was going on around her, never worrying about what did not concern her. She never gave her opinion unless asked. Did she see several sisters talking together? she went straight on, without curiously inquiring about the subject of their conversation; and she urged us to follow the same course: "When you see several sisters talking together - she told us - do not stop there: that is not mortification." Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was above all admirably faithful to mortifying her interior affections. As novice mistress, I noticed that she never did anything to win our hearts. She loved us all very much, but with disinterestedness and without searching for herself, showing no preference for any one.

This admirable mortification of the heart manifested itself in a very remarkable way in the way in which she behaved towards her sisters according to nature, nuns [627v] of the same monastery, that is to say Mother Agnès of Jesus, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart and Sister Geneviève of Saint Thérèse. I noticed that when Mother Agnès of Jesus was prioress, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus deprived herself of going to her house. I knew that she suffered a lot from it, because she was very loving and very attached especially to this sister (Pauline) who had served as her mother; but she did this out of virtue, so as to grant nothing to nature. One day, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and I together witnessed the great pain caused to Mother Agnès of Jesus, then prioress. I said to her: “How you must suffer from the way we treat our mother, who is your own sister! "Yes, I am very sorry - she answered me because it is Jesus who is offended in authority, but I would have just as much pain, if it were another who was prioress." As for Mother Agnès of Jesus, the sufferings she endures serve to increase her merits for heaven.” So it was with her attitude towards her two other sisters. One day when we were on license, that is to say, we had permission to speak, I avoided going to see her. She asked me the reason; I told her that I wanted to leave her the consolation of spending her time with her sisters: “Oh! how sad you [628r] me - she said to me - how can you think that I enjoy talking more with my sisters than with the others? Now that I am in Carmel, I must have no preference for anyone: that does not prevent me from loving my sisters very much; but the love I have for them must be pure and disinterested.” Another day I had a strong temptation against one of her sisters; I was careful not to tell Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, for fear of causing her pain. But, what was my surprise to hear him say to me: “My sister * * * gives you many fights, she is for you a subject of suffering: why do you hide from me the temptations that you have against my sisters? Do not be afraid to tell me, I stop at nothing here below. What pains me is only the offense to God.” From that day on, I no longer hid anything from her, and I never had to regret having opened up to her, because nothing I confided to her was ever revealed. I also noticed that the Servant of God rather sought out nuns whose character could make her suffer. She even asked to be in a job with a sister precisely because she had to give her a lot of trouble.

628v] ON OBEDIENCE. - The Servant of God accomplished exactly what the superiors asked for, without ever allowing herself to reflect and without ever judging their conduct or their way of acting. During her novitiate and all her religious life, she was for me on this point, as on the others, of great edification. I had only to watch her act, to know what I should do. She was perfectly regular. At the first sound of the bell, she immediately left all work, without completing the smallest thing, even a point. Very faithful in keeping silence, she would never have allowed a word in the regular places, nor during the time of silence.

WITNESS 15: Martha of Jesus OCD

ON POVERTY. - I never saw Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus lose a moment. She was stingy with her time, always busy and finding ways to use the smallest spare moments. The alpargates (a kind of sandals used by the Carmelites) found after the Servant of God's death show how much she loved poverty. They were [629r]so worn and mended that not a sister in the community would have wanted to wear them. Also, how much I regret having burned them: one could have judged to what extent she practiced poverty, and that would serve as an example to those who did not know her and who are not obliged to believe everything that we tell them. I can say that I have never seen a nun practice poverty to such a degree of perfection. A sister told me that what had always built her up as Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was her perfect regularity in everything, her mortification and also her great spirit of poverty. She told me that the Servant of God had asked her as a grace to give her the oldest and most darned linen. Seeing that it gave him so much pleasure, she indeed gave him the most worn linen in preference. It was my sister Saint Jean Baptiste, a seamstress, who told me this detail.

ON HUMILITY. - All the Servant of God wanted was to remain in obscurity and oblivion, that no one pay attention to her and that she be considered the last of the community. The hardest, most humiliating work was the work [629v] she preferred. Alluding to my condition as a lay sister, "how I envy your fate - she said to me - you who have so many opportunities to devote yourselves, to sacrifice yourselves for the love of Jesus." When we corrected the Servant of God, she never apologized. I can say in all truth that in the novitiate, when our mistress reproached her, even undeservedly, she said nothing to justify herself. She gave me this advice one day: “To please Jesus, we must remain very humble, very little, that no one pays attention to us... Let us always remain very little children, as Our Lord desires. Did he not tell us in the Gospel - *Mk.10, 14 - that the kingdom of heaven is for little children and those like them?» One day when she seemed quite radiant after a conversation with one of our sisters, I said to her: “What could she have said to you that gives you so much joy? “It's - she replied - that she told me my truths and showed me how imperfect I am... Oh! that it gave me pleasure to tell me thus all that she thought of me; it's so good and so rare to hear your truths told. Generally, this does not please; but for me it is the subject of great joy.”

[630r] I am going to end what I have to say about her humility by quoting a few passages from a prayer she had composed for me: "I want, O Jesus, to humble myself humbly and submit my will to that of my sisters, not contradicting them in any way, and without investigating whether or not they have the right to take me back. No one, O my Beloved, had this right towards You, and yet You obeyed, not only the Blessed Virgin and Saint Joseph, but also your executioners. Now, it is in the Host that I see You putting the culmination of your annihilations... To teach me humility, You cannot lower Yourselves any further; also I want, in order to respond to your love, to wish that my sisters always put me in the last place, and indeed to persuade myself that this place is mine. I beg You, my divine Jesus, to send me a humiliation every time I try to rise above others... But, Lord, my weakness is known to You: every morning I resolve to practice humility, and in the evening I recognize that I have made many mistakes of pride. So I want, O my God, to base my hopes on You alone. Since You can do everything, deign to give birth in my soul to the virtue that I desire” - PRI 20 -

[630v] [Response to the twenty-second request]:

I had great soul pain and I was careful not to let Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus know about my suffering. I did everything to avoid meeting him; but I was sent to her to do an errand. To prevent her from noticing my suffering, I affected to appear very cheerful. But what was my surprise to hear her say, after she had observed me for a few moments: "You are upset, why don't you want to tell me?" - MSC 26,1 - . It was not the first time that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus revealed to me what was going on in my soul. On several occasions she told me things that it was impossible for her to know, if she had not been inspired by God.

[Response to the twenty-third request]:

All the novices who, like me, approached the Servant of God and knew her intimately, admired and proclaimed her high holiness. For the nuns, who observed her less, she could go unnoticed because of her hidden life.

[631r] [Response to the twenty-fourth request]:

Because of my job, I was rarely with the Servant of God during her last illness; and I only know what the sisters who stayed with her told us.

[Response to the twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth questions]:

I only know on these points what is told to us in the visiting room and what our mother tells us about it during recess.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

What our mother tells us in recreation of the letters she receives, clearly shows that the reputation of holiness of the Servant of God is spread throughout the world. I have been specially instructed to prepare small pictures on which should be attached some small souvenir of the Servant of God. I arranged 23.000 in the course of a year, and I know that we could not meet all the requests.

WITNESS 15: Martha of Jesus OCD

[631v] [At the twenty-eighth question, the witness replied that he did not know anything].

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

For several years, a lay sister (Sister Saint Vincent de Paul, since dead, around 1905) had a kind of cerebral anemia: “she could no longer think”, she often told us. Now, the very day of the death of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, she came to kiss her feet, asking him to cure her of her infirmity; which was granted to him the same day. Towards the end of October 1908, I went to the laundry, in a hurry to do an act of charity. Passing under the cloister, near the statue of the Child Jesus, I was penetrated by a very sweet smell of heliotrope. I went on my way without paying more attention to it; but on the way down, the same perfume was renewed with such force that I thought there was a quantity of these flowers. I looked in the oratory of the Child Jesus and the surrounding area, but found nothing. I then warned our mother (Mother Marie Ange) who came near the statue and felt the same impression. She attributed this prodigious fact without hesitation to Sister [632r] Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and as soon as the thought occurred to her, the delicious perfume vanished. It should be noted that it was then the first time that this phenomenon of perfumes occurred in the community. The Servant of God had been dead for eleven years, and during that time nothing like it had happened. Neither I nor anyone then thought of the possibility of these manifestations, and it never occurred to me at first to attribute them to a supernatural cause. Since then, the same thing has happened to me three or four times and also quite frequently to other of our sisters. I hear daily excerpts from the correspondence relating miraculous facts of healing, conversion, apparition, etc....

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I said everything I knew.

[632v] [Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Witness I have deposed as above, according to the truth, I ratify and confirm it.

Signatum: Sister MARTHE DE JESUS

Witness 16 - Mother Isabelle of the Sacred Heart

Mother Isabelle of the Sacred Heart did not know Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, but her testimony is of particular importance in allowing us to better appreciate the influence of the Saint in the ten years following her death.

Yvonne-Ernestine Daurelle was born in Epinac (Saône-et-Loire) on January 29, 1882. She was thinking of entering one of the Spanish Carmels founded by Saint Thérèse of Avila, when, as a result of the knowledge she had of The story of a soul, she entered the monastery of Lisieux on January 13, 1904. She received the habit on January 21, 1905 and made her profession on March 19, 1906. Having suffered greatly from trials of health as well as interior trials, she accepted them in a spirit of faith, with great courage, in a humble and generous fidelity, in the footsteps of Thérèse. Quickly charged with assisting in the novitiate, she was elected sub-prioress in 1909, then, shortly after, appointed novice mistress. She wrote the Abridged Life of Sister Thérèse which was translated into more than twenty languages; she prepared volumes III and IV of Rain of Roses (1913, 1914) and wrote The foundation of the Carmel of Lisieux and its foundress, Reverend Mother Geneviève de Sainte Thérèse (Bar-le-Duc, 1912; 2nd ed. Lisieux 1924) . Stricken with consumption, she died on July 31, 1914, after having known the joy of the Introduction of the Cause for the beatification of Thérèse (10.Vl.1914) *.

Mother Isabelle of the Sacred Heart studied and classified the voluminous correspondence concerning Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, kept in the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux. She wanted a faithful copy of this documentation to be added to the Trial. This is how letters or extracts from typed letters go from f. 652r to f. 1064r of our Public Copy. The testimony of Mother Isabelle delivers a very good summary. We have not thought it necessary to publish them in full. We will simply list them at the end of the testimony.

The witness testified on February 20 and 21, 1911, during sessions 52-53, f. 634v-650r from our Public Copy.

[Session 62: - February 20, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[634v] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Yvonne-Ernestine Daurelle, in religion Sister Marie-Thérèse Isabelle of the Sacred Heart, born in Epinac (diocese of Autun) on January 29, 1882, from the legitimate marriage of Ferdinand Daurelle and Louise Marie Marguerite Falque. I am a professed nun of the Carmel of Lisieux where I entered on January 13, 1904 and where I made my profession on March 19, 1906. I have exercised the functions of sub-prioress in the monastery since November 27, 1909.

[The witness answers the third to the sixth questions correctly].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I am not guided in this deposition by any human feeling, but only by the love of the truth and the glory [635r] of God.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I did not know the Servant of God personally. What I know about her, I learned by reading the “History of her life” and also by the oral testimony of the nuns of the monastery of Lisieux. But I do not propose to testify on these details of the life of Sister Thérèse which can be known superabundantly by direct testimonies. I have made a special study of the very numerous letters that reach the monastery each day, with a view to establishing precisely what the reputation of the Servant of God is throughout the world. I will also say what I observed of its influence in the monastery and in myself.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a very great devotion for the Servant of God. This devotion is motivated by all the good it has done to my soul and it grows by knowing the good it is doing to so many others around the world. I hope and desire [635v] the beatification of the Servant of God. I offer my prayers and my sacrifices to the good God for this. I trust that once offered to the veneration of the universal Church, Sister Thérèse is called to save a multitude of souls, to lead a multitude of others into the highest paths of divine love, and to renew the clergy whom she protects in a very special way.

[Answer from the tenth to the twenty-fifth questions]:

Not having known the Servant of God personally, either in her youth or during her stay in Carmel, I could only give indirect testimony on these points, which would bring nothing of interest to a Cause which may be illuminated by a multitude of eyewitnesses.

[Response to the twenty-sixth request]:

I learned from our port sisters, who often go to the cemetery, that the Servant of God's tomb is visited by a large number of pilgrims. The cemetery caretaker told them that, especially on Thursdays and Sundays, several hundred people [636r]sons come. I heard people who came to see me in the parlor after going to the cemetery say that the tomb of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus is constantly devastated by pilgrims who take away the flowers, and even the earth. The cross which was on the first tomb and which we have at the monastery, is entirely covered with invocations and formulas of thanksgiving. I have been told that the new cross, which has been substituted for the other for five months, is itself already loaded with similar inscriptions. We receive from abroad, with commission to place them on the tomb, a large number of notes also containing requests for various pardons. The other day an envelope came to us from England, containing about eighty of these notes, from various persons.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

I made a special study from the point of view of the Servant of God's reputation for holiness; for this, I have collected, in the many letters sent to Carmel since the Servant of God's death, the most interesting testimonies. I made a copy of these letters, distinguishing each piece by a serial number. [636v] This work results in a document to which I will refer in this deposition, and which I ask the court to include in the trial documents. The original letters which I have thus copied are preserved in the archives of our monastery, and it will be easy to collate the copy which I have made of them and to recognize their perfect accuracy.

[On the order of the judges and with the consent of the promoter of the faith, the two notaries Eucher Deslandes and Charles Marie will check whether the texts of the letters copied by Mother Marie-Thérèse Isabelle of the Sacred Heart are in all respects in conformity with the originals kept in the archives of the monastery in order to be able to verify their authenticity in writing and then add them to the file of this deposition].

[The witness continues his testimony and confirms his statements by indicating the numbers of the respective documents]:

The “Story of a Soul” was welcomed in the Carmels with general enthusiasm, not only because of the literary [637r] charm of the work, but above all because of the sanctity of the author. In the letters written on this occasion, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus is called "an angelic soul" - "a seraphic soul" - "holy soul" - "little saint" - "holy." We ask for her relics, we ask her sisters in Lisieux to pray to her, we talk about "making her novenas", we talk about the graces already obtained or that we hope to obtain through her intercession (see letters n. 1 to 4 included.).

Between the Carmel of Lisieux and most of the Carmelite monasteries, either in France or abroad, there is a very regular correspondence on the subject of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. From the side of these monasteries come unceasing requests for relics, images, books, prayers; then at the same time the account of the graces obtained, either in the monastery or outside; it describes how devotion to the Servant of God spreads in the country; there are accounts of healings, conversions that have happened outside; within the monasteries they are more generally graces of renewal in fervor for the community, and particular and completely interior graces received individually. From the letter n. 5 up to the letter n. 17 inclusive we will see excerpts which [637v] prove what I am saying. I chose a few letters among an infinity of others. The Servant of God is not only known and loved in the Carmelite convents. All the Religious Orders or Congregations of women come in turn to testify to their veneration and their love for her. Most discover particular affinities between the spirit of the Servant of God and that of their Institute; they appropriated her, affirming that she could not be the exclusive prerogative of Carmel, each saying of her: “She is my little Saint” (see letters n. 18 to 30 inclusive among so many others). Many of these institutes, like the Carmels, maintain regular relations with us, and strive to imbue themselves with the spirit of the Servant of God.

The welcome given by the Carmels and other religious communities is also found among secular people, and this from the first hour, as evidenced by the two letters n. 39 and 40. The general impression I received from reading these correspondences, and also from the visits received in the visiting room, is this: I was extremely struck [638r] by the universal confidence inspired by Sister Therese of the Child Jesus. We speak of her to people who, only the day before, were unaware of her existence and here they are who invoke her, convinced that she will come to their aid; and this in all walks of life, among the little ones, the poor and the ignorant, as well as among the rich, the grown-up and the educated. No age, no state of life escapes its conquest. Everyone loves it as if it had been made expressly for them (see letters n. 31 to 63 inclusive). Among these quotes are some from two people who knew the Servant of God during her lifetime: Madame Desrosiers (letter n. 31) and Victoire Pasquer (letter n. 44).

In the seminaries, great is also the devotion to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and she penetrated there early, as evidenced by the letters of seminarians (nos. 64 to 68) and other letters from professors (nos. 81 and 89). The aspirants to the priesthood testify that they find themselves enlightened and transformed by the Servant of God, that they understand better, by invoking her, the obligations and the holiness of the priesthood, that they pass from lukewarmness to fervour. From Nancy around 1906, the Major Seminary addressed a petition to Monsignor Amette, then Bishop of Bayeux, to ask him to submit the Cause to the Church. In the seminaries where she [638v] entered, Sister Thérèse's influence was exercised not only on a few individuals, but on all the students (see letters n. 78, 89 and 64 and 68). Finally, we can see by the set of letters n. 64 to 76, taken from among many others, how much she is known and prayed for, and how much good she does in major and minor seminaries.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request continued]:

As for the priests, the devotion inspired in them by the Servant of God is wonderful. It is certainly they whom she attracts the most and to whom she does the most good; [639r] many go so far as to have the impression of his perceptible presence around them. The help she gives them in their ministry is remarkable. The choice that I have made of a certain number of letters among many others of the same kind, will give an idea of ​​the influence that she exerts on them (see letters n. 77 to 130 inclusive.). It is of the clergy, both regular and secular, that I am speaking here, because all the Orders and Congregations of men venerate her as a saint, and very especially the Jesuits (see letters n. 84 to 87, and n. 101).

Countless religious magazines and newspapers have spoken of the astonishing holiness of the Servant of God. I quoted as a specimen an article by the Marquise d'Auray (n. 378). In finishing the preface to the new translation of the Works of Saint Teresa of Avila by the Carmelites of Paris, Monsignor Polite [sic], Bishop of Cuenca (Ecuador), expresses the desire to see the Servant of God beatified. The life of Sister Elisabeth of the Trinity, of the Carmel of Dijon, written by her mother prioress, quotes the writings of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus several times. For me, who know the writings of the Servant of God almost [639v] by heart, I find her thoughts, so to speak, on every page of Sister Elisabeth's life. This nun, dead in the odor of holiness, must have been nourished a lot by the works of the Servant of God.

In Italy, the Servant of God is very well known. Two translations have been made of the Story of his life. One of these translations is by a Carmelite nun from the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene of Pazzi in Florence. The mother prioress of this Carmel sent copies of this translation to many Italian bishops and in return received letters showing great devotion to the Servant of God. But of all these letters, the most precious is the one that the Sovereign Pontiff himself wanted to address to the mother prioress of the Carmel of Florence. Here is that letter: Suavissimum jucunditatis fructum Nobis peperit volumen, in quo lexoviensis Virginis nitent virtutes et fere spirat anima. Vere floruit quasi lilium, et dedit odorem, et fronduit in gratiam: collaudavit canticum et benedixit Dominum in operibus suis. Dilectae in Christo Filiae Aloysiae J. a Sacris Cordibus, florentini Carmeli Moderatrici, cujus pietate id Nobis affulsit solatii, caeterisque reli-[640r]giosis Feminis ejusdem disciplinae Alumnis peramanter benedicimus, hortantes insimul ne imitari pigeat quam celebrare delectat. Datum ex Aedibus Vaticanis die l° Novembris MCMX. More PP. X.»

There, as in France, it is by all states, all classes, all ages that the Servant of God is known, invoked and loved (letter n. 131-148). Remarkable healings and wonders are reported from Italy. Several of these favors have been recounted in the collection entitled "Rain of roses" and appended to the large edition of the "Story of a soul" (n. 38, 39, 40, 53, 112, 120, etc.) In Belgium, she is, I believe, almost as well known and invoked as in France, as indicated by the multitude of letters from that country, which contain mostly thanksgiving for benefits received (v. letters n. 149-184). I draw attention to the report that Reverend Father Robert, of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, wrote with the most scrupulous attention. This young religious is highly esteemed by his superiors (see letter n. 184). Healings and other graces are related in the booklet “Rain of roses” n. 12, 26, 49, 85, 102, 144. [640v] In Spain, the Carmels founded by our Mother Saint Teresa have great devotion to the Servant of God, especially the monastery of Saint Joseph of Avila, the cradle of our Order. See in the new edition of “Rain of roses” examined in this trial, the relationship of healings considered miraculous. See also the letters cited below (n. 185 to 200). Many requests related in these letters insist on the establishment of a Spanish translation of the "Story of a soul." From Portugal we receive fewer letters. I nevertheless cite several (n. 203 to 219) which establish that in this country also we appreciate the holiness of the Servant of God. The Portuguese edition, composed by Father de Santanna, a Jesuit, well known in this country for his learning and his eloquence, was indulgenced by 13 bishops or archbishops (letters n. 208 to 216). In Germany, as early as 1899 or 1900, Princess Arnulphe of Bavaria begged us for the favor of translating the life of Sister Thérèse into German; others demanded the same authorization. We can see their entreaties and how the Servant of God was already venerated in Germany, by the letters filed under n. 220 to 228. A choice [641r] made among the letters received since (n. 229 to 240) indicates that the reputation continues. Here too, graces and healings (Rain of roses n. 23, 34 and 44) ​​. In Switzerland, she is similarly known and invoked with confidence (letters n. 241 to 245 inclusive). The Polish language translation was much desired and reprinted several times (letters n. 246 to 251). In Austria-Hungary there are also reports of healings and conversions (Rain of Roses n. 1 and 8 and 78). The reputation for holiness emerges from the letters classified under n. 252 to 261. The letters from Holland attesting to the same reputation for holiness are classified under n. 262 to 269. In Engelen there is in particular a community of nuns of Our Lady of Lourdes with whom we have been in contact for several years, who let us know how the memories, images, etc., of the Servant of God are spread in this country. In Constantinople they also appreciate the holiness and power of the Servant of God (letters n. 270 to 277 inclusive.). Africa (letters n. 278 to 300 and “Rain of roses”, n. 97 and 135) . [641v] The White Fathers or Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa have a special devotion for Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. We know that the Servant of God prayed especially for one of them, the Reverend Father Bellière whom she considered her spiritual brother. I have attached under n. 356 a letter from the latter. Reverend Father Hugueny 0. P., of the Biblical School of Jerusalem, tells us in letter n. 302 the esteem he has for the Servant of God. The letters n. 301 to 306 show that the Servant of God's reputation for holiness was established in the different Carmels of the country. India (n. 307 to 314). Tonkin. China (n. 315 to 322). Japan (n. 323 to 325 inclusive.). Canada (no. 326 to 331). North America (no. 332 to 335). Central and South America (n 336 to 343). Oceania (no. 344 to 349). England. It is the country where the Servant of God is esteemed and invoked with special ardour. I said, speaking of the demonstrations that took place at the tomb of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, that we were sent [642r] from England a number of tickets containing invocations to be placed in the cemetery. I add to this testimony a selection of letters from among the large number of those we receive (n.

Finally, I added some letters from various countries.

[Session 63: - February 21, 1911, 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[644r] [Response to the twenty-ninth request]:

In the series of letters that I submitted to the tribunal to establish the reputation of holiness of the Servant of God, there is also very often mention of various graces obtained through her intercession. As for my personal observations concerning the favors obtained, I first noticed in our community a definite increase in fervor; I am convinced that it must be attributed above all to the invisible protection of the Servant of God and to the impression produced on the souls of the nuns by the marvels of which we [644v] are the confidantes. A sister who, when I entered, still shared the opinion of those who said: “What can be said of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus after her death? " etc. - HA 12 - , went to the evidence of the facts. She now showed real confidence in the intercession of the Servant of God and, not content with praying to her, again made herself her apostle among the members of her family.

[Which is the nun you just mentioned?]:

Her name is Sister Aimée of Jesus.

[response continued]:

Among my most edifying memories over which the invisible but sensitive presence of the Servant of God hovers, the death of Sister Marie of the Eucharist (Marie Guérin, first cousin of the Servant of God) occupies the first place. She was the first of the “little victims of merciful Love”, “little souls following the path of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus” who died in Carmel. One can imagine nothing more ideal, more graceful, more consoling than this death. [645r] Sister Marie of the Eucharist seemed already immersed in the peace of heaven. This death has remained in my memory as an example of the death reserved for souls who will have followed the path of spiritual childhood taught by the Servant of God. The dead after that one may not have that graceful exterior; but I have the confidence that the feelings of peace, of joy, of limitless abandonment will be found at the bottom of the heart of all the "little victims of merciful Love." In turn, in November 1909, Mother Marie Ange, our prioress, was the second “little victim” reaped by “Merciful Love.” I saw again in her the serenity of Sister Marie of the Eucharist, with something more grandiose, because Mother Marie Ange is perhaps the masterpiece of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Under his influence and walking in his "little way" she rose to the most sublime heights. I look at her like a saint. She had offered her life for the Cause of the Servant of God. She affirmed, on her deathbed, that the path in which Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had guided her was indeed the path of heaven and of holiness, that she found the proof of it in joy and peace. which flooded his soul at that supreme moment when so many just are seized with fear.

[645v] About four years ago, I was charged with taking special care of one of my companions in the novitiate, then of several others, and now, without having the title of mistress of novices, I carry out her duties. . I therefore received a few confidences from these souls, I guessed many other things that they did not tell me, and I can affirm that the Servant of God continues, from the height of heaven, to be the mistress novices of the Carmel of Lisieux. Outwardly, it is the model that is constantly presented to them; internally, it is the model that they themselves seek to reproduce. They want to be other "little Thereses." One of them received, on July 29, 1910, a truly extraordinary grace. Her name is Sister Marie of the Child Jesus. She took the habit on July 16, 1910. This child had already been dismissed, after two years of postulancy, for her poor health. However, she felt herself recovering from pneumonia which had made her seriously ill the previous year. She had a lot of pain in her back, side and chest, breathing only with great difficulty, fever and general malaise. On the night of July 28 to 29, she kept coughing and couldn't sleep for a moment. Learning that she had not slept, our mother sent her to rest on the [646r] morning of the 29th. The novice goes up to her cell, completely discouraged and saying to herself: “This time I am lost; they will send me away, or else I will fall completely ill, and I will die.” She lay down on her pallet and began to beg Mother Marie Ange to come and heal her with Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Then she fell into a kind of supernatural sleep, and she felt the Servant of God and her companion close to her, but in such a clear way that she said to herself: "If I open my eyes, I will see them .” But she doesn't dare open them. At the same time she experiences the sensation of a refreshing dew which tempers her fever, and immediately the pain she felt in her back disappears. She thinks to herself, "Maybe it's imagination, because I still have pain in my side and in my chest." She continues to pray and these two pains disappear. Meanwhile, her soul is flooded with lights and delights; it seems to her that the Servant of God is showing her all her imperfections, instructing her so well that she has never seen her interior so clearly. As a sign that all this is indeed true, she asks not to cough any more for the day, and in fact she no longer coughs. For several days, she remained under this impression of grace; and she told me several times that the lights continued [646v] to flow into her soul.

Several strange phenomena in which the very family assistance of the Servant of God manifests itself, have happened in our monastery. Sister Jean-Baptiste, about 60 years old, worked during the time of the great silence to make small sachets containing memories of Sister Thérèse. She notices that her petrol lamp is burning and is about to go out; she had indeed forgotten to fill it with gasoline. As it is forbidden for us, because of the danger of explosion, to garnish these lamps in the evening, Sister Saint Jean-Baptiste was distressed at the thought that she was not going to be able to work during this hour of free time. She invokes Sister Therese of the Child Jesus. And immediately the flame revives and lights up regularly for the entire hour. Here is another similar fact. [647r] Two lay sisters were in the kitchen, Sister Marie-Madeleine and Sister Jeanne-Marie. The cooking stove has a water tank containing four and a half jugs. Sister Marie-Madeleine had emptied this reservoir and it had to be refilled. Sister Jeanne-Marie, who was working in the next room, knowing her companion was tired, offered to do this work with her, thinking that she was imitating in this the attentive charity of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Moreover, it is her usual practice to invoke Sister Thérèse during her occupations. Before proceeding to fill the tank, she carefully drains the little water that remained, in order to thoroughly clean the tank. She then pours in what was left of the water in the jug placed near the stove. Then she goes to the pump to take a second jug that Sister Marie-Madeleine had filled. No sooner has she started to pour it than she notices that the tank is full without anyone having entered the kitchen. This fact happened in the course of the year 1910, around the time of Lent, I believe. During the same year, this same Sister Jeanne-Marie was busy preparing little souvenirs of the Servant of God on which she was to stick the authentic copy of the Vice-Postulator of the Cause. She noticed that the box containing these authentic [647v] was almost empty, and knowing that the sisters who could have cut them were very busy, she was at a loss as to how she could continue her work. According to her usual practice, whenever she finds herself in the presence of some difficulty, she asks Sister Thérèse to come to her aid and returning to her cell after a moment's absence, she finds the said box completely filled with these authentic cut-outs. . She then goes to all the sisters in the community to find out who had entered her cell and brought her this new provision, but no one had done so.

[Response to the twenty-ninth request continued]:

[648r] I received many visits in the visiting room from people who told me that they had received special graces through the intercession of the Servant of God. I point out among others: 1° A priest who came from the diocese of Nantes told me that at La Chevrolière, a locality of this diocese, where he had just preached a first communion, he had seen, among the communicants, a little girl from name of Marie Freuchet, who had been suddenly cured of coxalgia through the intercession of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. This child was in great pain and was absolutely immobilized by the disease that three doctors had tried in vain to cure. During a novena made to the Servant of God, she appeared to the child and told him that the next day she would be cured, which happened. 2° I also received in the visiting room Madame Mallière, from Trouville-sur-Mer, diocese of Bayeux, accompanied by about eight pilgrims, including her little girl aged about 11. Madame Mallière told me that her granddaughter Thérèse Mallière had been stricken, only a few days before the first solemn communion, by acute enteritis, which was to prevent her from taking part in this ceremony with her companions. Sister Thérèse is invoked; Healing occurs immediately and the child can take part [648v] in all the ceremonies throughout the day. 3° I also saw little Fauquet in the parlor, cured of phlyctenular keratitis, as reported in the "Rain of roses" appended to the 1910 edition of the "History of a soul" (no. 50) I also received in the visiting room the young Cadieu, about eleven years old, son of a railway employee in Lisieux and who now lives in Caen. This child was suddenly cured of tuberculous coxalgia with suppuration, at the intercession of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. In short, all kinds of spiritual or temporal needs, all physical or moral pains are helped or relieved by the Servant of God.

In the parlor, the former novice mistress of the Abbaye aux Bois, of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame (Paris), told me how the volume of the "Story of a Soul" diffused in their monastery a perfume at first extremely strong, which then attenuated and became localized in the first engraving representing the Servant of God as a Carmelite; this engraving remained perfumed for almost two years, and a sister who accompanied our visitor added: “The whole community has [649r] smelled it.” Of course, natural explanations had been sought and could not be found. Many facts of this kind have been reported to us in letters. Here at the Carmel of Lisieux, almost all the nuns have perceived these kinds of perfumes at one time or another, and in circumstances that do not seem to me to leave room for a natural explanation. I myself have experienced it several times when I was not thinking about it at all. These phenomena of perfumes are usually accompanied by an interior impression of graces which carry the souls to a greater fervor.

I want to end this deposition by reporting the very precious interior graces that I owe to the protection of the Servant of God. I did not know Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, but it was reading the “Story of a Soul” that brought me to the Carmel of Lisieux. I read this book at the beginning of the autumn of 1901. I was won over from the first pages by the purity and simplicity of this soul. From this reading, I keep the memory of heavenly hours, full of light, refreshment and peace. At that time, I already wanted to be a Carmelite, and I had dreamed of the monasteries in Spain founded by Saint Thérèse. This dream gave way to another: to be a Carmelite [649v] in Lisieux. It seemed to me that after the passage of such a saint, the Carmel of Lisieux must be the most fervent convent in the universe. Sister Thérèse, through her teaching based on trust in God, responded to the attraction of my soul. I took in all his words as if the Holy Spirit himself had spoken to me; she took hold of me completely and I felt inclined to follow her example in the act of "offering as a victim of holocaust to merciful Love." Devotion to the Servant of God became an essential part of my interior life. By a combination of providential circumstances, I entered the Carmel of Lisieux, despite many obstacles. Here the interior assistance of the Servant of God continues on my soul, but in another form: the time for spiritual sweetness had passed and my little sister Thérèse was training me to follow her by the way of abnegation. It is the memory of her examples that we evoked in the novitiate to form us in religious life: “Sister Thérèse - it was said - advised us to act like this in such circumstances”; or else, when I was reprehensible: "That's not how Sister Thérèse would have done it", etc. My esteem for his doctrine has always been growing. This doctrine is profound and it is not a superficial study that suffices [650r] to grasp it. But as my soul becomes more deeply imbued with it, I experience by the fruits that its doctrine is true and that its way is holy. This way and this doctrine indeed give to the soul the peace and joy bequeathed by our Lord to his apostles. They put in the heart the fraternal charity, of which Jesus Christ said: “You will be known to be my disciples if you love one another” (Jn. 13, 35). I consecrate my life to the glorification of the Servant of God, and I do not believe I can employ it in a holier and more meritorious work. The glorification of the Servant of God seems to me to be the triumph of the merciful Love of the Heart of Jesus, the solemn ratification by the Church of a spiritual doctrine capable of causing marvelous flowers of holiness to bloom, and of populating heaven with many elected officials.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I didn't omit anything.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Witness I have deposed as above, according to the truth, I ratify and confirm it.

Signature. Sister ISABELLE DU SACRÉ-COEUR, an unworthy Carmelite nun.

[652r] [Text of the copies of the letters given by the witness, Mother Isabelle of the Sacred Heart, copies of which the notaries recognized the authenticity after collation with the originals kept in the archives of the monastery]. [Here are (f.652r-1064r) these letters, presented and numbered as follows]:

1. - FRANCE - CARMELS: n. 1, Carmel of Gravigny; not. 2, Carmel of Saint-Germain-en-Laye; not. 3, Carmel of Bourges; not. 4, Carmel of Chambery; not. 5, Carmel of Pontoise; not. 6, Carmel of Meaux; not. 7, Carmel of Troyes; not. 8, Carmel of Draguignan; not. 9, Carmel of Morlaix; not. 10, Carmel of Nantes; not. 11, the same; not. 12, Carmel of Moissac, n. 13, Carmel of Angers; not. 14, of the same Carmel; not. 15, of the same Carmel; not. 16, Carmel of Oloron; not. 17, Carmel of Abbeville.

He. - FRANCE - NUNS OF VARIOUS ORDERS: n. 18, from our monastery in Le Mans; not. 119, superior general of the nuns of Saint Thomas de Villeneuve; not. 20, Mademoiselle Thérèse Durnerin,... founder of the Work of the “Friends of the Poor”; not. 21, Benedictines of Notre-Dame, Argentan; not. 22, Convent of Bon Secours, Paris; not. 23, Monastery of the Holy Heart of Mary, Marseilles; not. 24, monastery of Notre-Dame-de-Charité, Caen; not. 25, the superior general of the Augustinian nuns of the Immaculate Conception at Auteuil; not. 26, Monastery of Saint Clare of the Passion, Perpignan; not. 27, from the same monastery; not. 28, the superior of the Hospice Brézin, Garches; not. 29, superior of the Hôtel-Dieu, Congrégation de Saint-Joseph, Laval; not. 30, from our monastery (Visitation) of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

111. - FRANCE - SECULAR: nn. 31-43, 44 (this letter was written by Miss Victoire Pasquer, who for several years was maid to the Servant of God), nn. 45-63.

IV. - FRANCE - SEMINARIANS: nn. 64-78.

V. FRANCE - REGULAR AND SECULAR PRIESTS: nn. 79-130.

VI. ITALY: no. 131-148.

VII. BELGIUM: no. 149-184.

VIII. SPAIN AND ISLAND OF MALTA: nn. 185-202.

IX. - PORTUGAL: no. 203-219.

X. - GERMANY: nn. 220-240.

XI. SWITZERLAND: no. 241-245.

XII. AUSTRIA - HUNGARY: nn. 246-261.

XIII HOLLAND: nn. 262-269.

XIV TURKEY OF EUROPE: nn. 270-277.

XV. AFRICA: no. 278-300.

XIV. ASIA MINOR: nn. 301-306.

XVII. - ASIA - INDIA: nn. 307-314.

XVIII. - TONKIN - CHINA - COCHINCHINA: nn. 315-322.

XIX. - JAPAN - ASIA: nn. 323-325.

XX. - NORTH AMERICA - CANADA: nn. 326-331.

XXI. - NORTH AMERICA - UNITED STATES: nn. 332-335.

XXII. - CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA: nn. 336-343.

XXIII. OCEANIA: no. 344-349.

XXIV. VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS: nn. 350-355.

XXV. CARTHAGE: n. 356, letter from the first of the two missionary brothers mentioned in the Life of the Servant of God, B. Bellière.

XXVI. ENGLISH TRANSLATION: nn. 357-362.

XXVII. BRITISH ISLES: nn. 363-376.

XXVIII: no. 377-379.

Witness 17 - Sister Marie of the Trinity

Sister Marie de la Trinité was the favorite novice of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

Marie-Louise-Joséphine Castel was born in Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives (diocese of Bayeux) on August 12, 1874, the thirteenth of nineteen children. She was brought up in Paris and quickly thought of religious life. She entered the Carmel on the avenue de Messine, in Paris, on April 30, 1891 under the name of Agnes of Jesus and received the habit there on May 12, 1892, but had to return to the world on July 8, 1893 for reasons of health. The air of her birth proving more propitious, she requested admission to the Carmel of Lisieux where she entered as a postulant on June 16, 1894. She first bore the name of Marie-Agnès de la Sainte-Face, then became Marie de la Trinity in 1896, for the feast of the Holy Shroud.

“His very non-conformist tone, his newsboy demeanor and, above all, the unfortunate experience of a first failure - wrote Fr. Piat - surrounded him in the community with a certain halo of mistrust. For this reason, she was placed under the direction of Sister Thérèse, who took charge of her, to the point of considering her for a moment as her 'only novice'... [Thérèse's] task...was hardly. .easy. It was necessary to come to the end of a spirit too light, of a sickly emotivity, of a disconcerting mobility and vivacity. But Thérèse had perceived what a nature of this kind offered in resources for the implementation of her little doctrine. The student will not be ungrateful.” (Saint Thérèse of Lisieux discovering the way of childhood, c. 7, p. 172). Sister Thérèse will particularly love her and, as Marie de la Trinité will say during the Trials, Thérèse will confess to the novice that she personally counted the day of her profession (30.IV.1896) "among the most beautiful days of her life."

The testimony of Mary of the Trinity reveals to us in a natural and spontaneous way, how the Saint formed the novices and how she knew how to intervene with the witness in an appropriate way, in all supernatural wisdom.

The “Advice and Remembrances” which appeared for the first time in the second edition of the Story of a Soul (1899), are largely from Mary of the Trinity (cf. f. 1070v). "The bowler on the Mount of Carmel" was herself, as she was still the novice who, on Thérèse's orders, had to collect her tears in a shell each time she wanted to cry, which was not uncommon.

In the presence of Thérèse who had encouraged her, Marie de la Trinité offered herself as a victim to merciful Love on November 30, 1895, entering more and more into the confidences of the saint, who formed her to follow his way of trust and of abandonment, as she repeated to him in a note dated August 12, 1897: “May your life be all of humility and love so that soon you will come where I am going, in the arms of Jesus!” Nurse's aide, she was too young to be able to assist Thérèse in a usual way during her last illness, but she was still able to approach her frequently and thus learn from her until the end.

Positive character, gifted for calculation, she rendered a very valuable assistance when it was necessary to organize the sale of works concerning her former mistress, of whom she was the first archivist at the monastery.

During her last years, she endured a painful infirmity admirably, continuing to work within the limits of her strength. She died on January 16, 1944.

The witness testified on March 13-15, 1911, during sessions 64-66, f. 1066-1001r – ie 1101 - from our Public Copy..

[Session 64: - March 13, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1066r] [The witness correctly answers the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Marie-Louise Castel, in religion Sister Marie of the Trinity and of the Holy Face. I was born in Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives (diocese of Bayeux) on August 12, 1874, of the legitimate marriage of Victor Castel and Léontine Lecomte. I am a professed nun of the Carmel of Lisieux, which I entered on June 16, 1894 and where I made my profession on April 30, 1896.

[The witness answers the third to the sixth questions correctly].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I testify in the presence of God [1066v] and according to my conscience; I have the heart very free of any human feeling and the spirit too.

WITNESS 17: Mary of the Trinity OCD

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I knew the Servant of God personally during the last three years of her life, that is to say from my entry into the Carmel of Lisieux until 1897. Our relationship was very close, because I was told given for "angel"; his advice did me a lot of good and I sought his conversation. She, for her part, showed herself to be very good and very expansive towards me. I prepared my deposition by reflecting on the personal memories collected during these three years. Reading the “Story of a Soul” taught me very little, because the Servant of God had confided to me many details of the life of her soul.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a very great devotion for Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. This devotion is entirely motivated by his holiness. I hope and ask God for her beatification, because I trust that she will be a model for [1067r] simple souls and that she will make God better known and loved.

[Answer from the tenth to the seventeenth questions inclusive]:

I did not know the Servant of God during the years preceding her profession at Carmel.

[Answer to the eighteenth request]:

When I entered the Carmel in 1894, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had already been professed for about four years. However, at her request, she had been left in the novitiate where the requirements of the Rule are more rigorous. Mother Agnes of Jesus, who was prioress at the time, knowing that the Servant of God's advice and her examples would be very useful to me and to other novices, asked her to direct us and above all to reprove us for our shortcomings. The title of mistress of novices then belonged to Mother Marie de Gonzague, former prioress. Having again become prioress in 1896, Mother Marie de Gonzague retained for herself the title of mistress of novices and left to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus her role as assistant for the formation of novices.

[1067v] [Answer to the nineteenth request]:

I did not know, during the life of the Servant of God, that she composed, out of obedience, the “Story of her soul.” In terms of writing, I only knew the poems and the little pieces she composed for our parties. After her death, I read the "Story of a Soul" and I was struck by the perfect conformity of this writing with what she had told me and what I myself had observed from his life.

[Answer to the twentieth request]:

Not having made any studies, I could not explain well what is the heroicity of the virtues; it seems to me, however, that I understand it without knowing how to say it. It is to push the practice of virtues beyond the ordinary measure. My sincere feeling is that Sister Thérèse's holiness exceeded what is observed in even the most fervent nuns. What is said of her now, even what her own sisters say, always seems to me to fall short of what I have observed. As she reproached me for my faults, I also wanted to find [1068r] some imperfection in her to excuse me; but I never succeeded.

[Response to the twenty-first request]:

ON FAITH. - It was easy to see that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus did not lose the presence of God. It was easy to judge by the perfection and the attention that she put in all her actions. She had all the more merit in acting thus as the community being in disarray of her time, because of the regrettable government of Mother Marie de Gonzague, she could have let herself go like the others, to do things anyhow. . And very often, I thought how much she deserved the praise that we address to certain saints in the divine office: “Blessed is he who was able to transgress the law and did not do so” - *Eccli. 31, 10 - . She could not bear the slightest negligence in me. One day, among other things, seeing that the cover of our bed was put all askew, she reproached me for it, telling me that I should hardly be united with the good Lord to do things like this: "So what are you doing? you therefore in Carmel, if you do not act with an inner spirit...” - Source pre. - '. So she corrected me. But [1068v] as soon as she saw that I recognized my faults, she softened and spoke to me like a saint of the merits of faith, of the fidelity that Jesus expects from our love, after all the marks he has given us. data of his. In her relations with me during my novitiate, she never sought to attract my heart in a natural way; however, she has always possessed him completely, and I felt that the more I loved her, the more I loved God too, and if on certain days my love for her cooled, I felt my love diminish by the same amount. for God. I found it strange and did not know how to explain it to me, when one day she gave me a picture on the back of which she had written these words of Saint John of the Cross: "When the love that one bears to the creature is a wholly spiritual affection founded on God alone, as it grows the love of God also grows in our soul...” - Dark night book 1 ch IV - . I could not help believing that she had read my mind, copying me this passage so apropos. I never confided my troubles to her without reaping a great advancement for my soul: “The main cause of your sufferings, of your struggles - she told me - comes from the fact that you look at things too much from the [1069r ] land and not enough with supernatural sights. You seek your satisfactions too much in all things. And yet, do you know when you will find happiness, it is when you will no longer seek it.

His faith in his superiors, representatives of God, was remarkable. Whoever they were, she respected them and trusted them. "When you deal with them in a spirit of faith - she told me - the good Lord never allows you to be deceived." When Mother Marie de Gonzague was prioress, she did not allow me to criticize her. Sometimes I called him “the wolf”, but Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus always reproached me for it in the same spirit of faith. Meeting me one day going in the direction of our mother, she stops me and says to me: “Did you take care to recommend your direction to the good Lord? It is very important to renew one's spirit of faith at this time, to pray so that the words of our Mother Prioress may be for us the organ of God's will. If you haven't done that, you'll be wasting your time." - Source pre. -

While she was sacristine, I witnessed the spirit of faith with which she carried out her job. She spoke to me of her happiness in having, like priests, the privilege [1069v] of touching the sacred vessels; she kissed them respectfully, and made me kiss the large host which was about to be consecrated. But her happiness was at its height the day when, removing the little gilt plate from the communion table, she saw that a rather notable parcel had fallen on it. I met her under the cloister carrying her precious treasure which she carefully sheltered: "Follow me - she said to me - I am carrying Jesus." Arrived at the sacristy, she placed the plate with honor on a table, made me put in prayers beside her until the priest whom she had warned arrived. She had an ardent thirst for Holy Communion, and her greatest suffering was not being able to receive it every day. She would have preferred all the sufferings rather than omitting a single one. One day of communion, being very ill, she received from our mother prioress the order to take a remedy. Now, in that case, it was the custom here to lose communion. Faced with this decision, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus burst into tears and she pleaded her cause so skilfully with the Mother Prioress that not only did she obtain permission to take this remedy only after Mass, but only from day the practice was abolished of losing communion [1070r] in such a case.

ON HOPE. - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had made these words of Saint John of the Cross her own: "We obtain from God as much as we hope for" - St John of the Cross poem -, and she often repeated it to me. I asked him one day if our Lord was not displeased with me when he saw all my miseries. She answered me: “Reassure yourself, the one you have taken for Spouse has certainly all the desirable perfections; but, if I dare say it, he has at the same time a great infirmity, it is to be blind! and there is a science that he does not know: it is calculation... If he had to see clearly and know how to calculate, do you believe that in the presence of all our sins, he would not wouldn't make us go into nothingness? But no, his love for us makes him positively blind! See rather: if the greatest sinner on earth, repenting of his offenses at the moment of death, expires in an act of love, immediately, without calculating on the one hand the many graces that this unfortunate man has abused, on the Apart from all his crimes, he only counts his last prayer and receives him without delay in the arms of his mercy”. - HA Tips and Souvenirs -

[1070v] [Do you know why and how your attestation corresponds word for word with the text of the "Story of a soul", edition in 8°, under the title of "Advice and memories", pages 275 etc.] :

What has been inserted into the complete edition of the "History of a Soul" under this title: "Counsels and Memories", was for the most part taken from the notes which I myself wrote in 'after my memories and which I am using again today for my deposition.

[response continued]:

On one occasion, the Servant of God told me to test myself, speaking of the "little way of spirituality" she had taught me: "After my death, when you will no longer have anyone to encourage you to follow 'my little path of trust and love', you will no doubt abandon it?» “Certainly not - I replied -, I believe in it so firmly that it seems to me that if the Pope were to tell me that you were mistaken, I would not be able to believe it.” " Oh! she resumed eagerly - one would have to believe the Pope above all; but don't be afraid that he will come and tell you to change your way, I won't give him time, because if when I get to heaven I learn that I have misled you, I will obtain from the good Lord permission to come immediately [1071r]to inform you. Until then, believe that my path is sure and follow it faithfully.”

[Response to the twenty-first request continued]:

One day I asked the Servant of God how she prepared for her communions. She replied: “At the time of receiving communion, I sometimes imagine my soul in the form of a child of three or four years old who, from dint of playing, has her hair and her clothes dirty and in disorder. These misfortunes come to me while battling with souls. But soon the Virgin Mary hastens around me. She quickly took off my dirty little apron, tied my hair back up and adorned it with a [1071v] pretty ribbon or simply a little flower... and that was enough to make me graceful, to make me sit down without blushing at the feast of the angels” - HAC& S. - . “When you are ill - she told me - simply tell the mother prioress, then abandon yourself to the good God, without difficulty, whether you are treated or not. You did your duty by saying so, that's enough, the rest is none of your business, it's God's business. If he lets you lack something, it's a grace, it's because he trusts you are strong enough to suffer something for him. As I was a nurse's aide, I realized that she followed this line of conduct in everything. She would never have said she was in pain, if she hadn't been forced to. Nothing cost her more than to see that she was taken care of. She confided her condition to the good Lord, that was enough for her. “One evening - she told me - the nurse came to put a hot water bottle on my feet and iodine tincture on my chest. I was consumed by fever. While undergoing these remedies, I could not help complaining to Our Lord: 'My Jesus, I said to him, you are witness to it, I am burning and they still bring me heat and fire! Ah! if only I had half a glass of water instead!... My Jesus, your little girl is really [1072r] thirsty! But she is nevertheless happy to find the occasion to lack the necessary, in order to resemble you better and to save souls. Soon the nurse left me and I didn't count on seeing her again until the next day, when to my great surprise, she returned a few minutes later bringing a refreshing drink. Oh! how good is our Jesus! how sweet it is to confide in him” - HA 12 - . When I had family problems, she used to say to me: "Entrust them to the good Lord and don't worry about them any more: everything will turn out well for them... If you worry about them yourself, the good God will not will not worry about it, and you will deprive your parents of the graces that you would have obtained for them by your abandonment.

ON CHARITY TOWARDS GOD. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus transformed all her actions, even the most indifferent, into acts of love. She constantly urged me to do the same and she suggested that I offer myself, like her, as a victim to the merciful love of God. I often saw her shed tears as she spoke to me of Jesus' love for us and of her own desire to love Jesus and make him loved. [1072v] I upset her one day by not wanting to recognize the wrongs for which she reproached me. The bell calling us, we parted abruptly to go to a community meeting. I then began to regret my conduct, and approaching her, I said to her in a low voice: "I was very naughty just now..." I said no more to her and I saw her eyes immediately filled with tears. Looking at me with great tenderness, she said to me: “... No, I have never felt so keenly with what love Jesus receives us when we ask him for forgiveness after having offended him. If I, his poor little creature, felt so much love for you the moment you came back to me, what must happen in the heart of the good Lord when we come back to him?..." - HA c.& s. -

She had the gift of taking advantage of everything to fuel the fire of divine love in her heart. I spoke to him one day about magnetism, telling him of the extraordinary phenomena which I had witnessed. The next day, she said to me: “... Oh! how I would like to be magnetized by Jesus!... With what sweetness I gave him my will! Yes, I want him to take over my faculties, so that I no longer perform human and [1073r] personal actions, but entirely divine actions, inspired and directed by the Spirit of love” - HA c&s. -

One day, I told him that I was going to explain his “little way of love” to all my relatives and friends, and have them do his “Act of offering” so that they would go straight to heaven. " Oh! - she said to me - if so, be careful! because our little way, badly explained or badly understood, could be taken for quietism or illuminism. These words, unknown to me, surprised me and I asked him what they meant. She then spoke to me of a certain Madame Guyon who had strayed into a path of error, and she added: "Let no one believe that to follow our 'little path' is to follow a path of rest, full of sweetness and consolation. Ah! it's quite the opposite! To offer oneself as a victim to love is to offer oneself to suffering, for love lives only on sacrifice, and when one has totally surrendered oneself to love, one must expect to be sacrificed without reservation.

I cannot regret too much not having taken notes as I went along on all the light she received in her prayers and that she communicated to me in my directions for the good of my soul. It was with incredible ease that she interpreted the books of Holy Scripture. One would have said that these divine books no longer had any hidden meaning for her, so much did she know [1073v] to discover all the beauties in them. One day, she was particularly struck, during prayer, by this passage from the Song where the Bridegroom said to his beloved: "We will make you chains of gold inlaid with silver" - *Cant. 1,10 - . "What a strange thing - she said to me - one would understand that the Bridegroom would say: we will make you silver necklaces inlaid with gold, or gold necklaces inlaid with precious stones, because usually one does not enhance a price jewel with an inferior metal. Jesus gave me the key to the mystery: He made me understand that these golden necklaces were love, charity, but that these golden necklaces were pleasing to him only insofar as they were inlaid with money, that is to say, of simplicity and the spirit of childhood. Oh! - she added deeply impressed - who can say what value God attaches to simplicity, since it alone is found worthy of enhancing the brilliance of charity?» "I had wanted to be very rich - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus told me one day - in order to have the joy of sacrificing to God all the pleasures that I could have procured for myself with a good fortune. The good Lord who grants all my desires, also fulfilled this one: At the time of my profession, I learned that a company in which my father had invested a large sum, was on the point of succeeding. I cannot say how happy my heart was to be able, by offering myself to Jesus, to sacrifice to him the fortune that I could have hoped for at that moment.”

His love for God gave him an ardent zeal for the salvation of souls, particularly for the souls of priests; she offered all her merits for their sanctification and exhorted me to do the same. She called sinners "her children" and took seriously her title of "mother" to them. She loved them passionately and worked for them with tireless devotion. One laundry day, I walked leisurely to the laundry room, gazing at the flowers in the garden as I passed. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus also went there, walking quickly. She soon passed me and said, "Is this how you hurry when you have children to feed and you have to work to support them?" And dragging me: "Come on, come with me and let's hurry, because if we have fun, our children will starve" - ​​HA C.& S. - '. She still said to me: “In the past, in the world, when I woke up in the morning, I thought about what was probably going to happen to me during the day, and if I only anticipated trouble, I got up sad. Now it's just the opposite... I wake up all the more joyful and full of courage [1074v] as I foresee more opportunities to testify my love to Jesus and to earn the living of my children, the poor. sinners. Then I kiss my crucifix, lay it delicately on the pillow while I am dressing, and I say to him: "My Jesus, you have worked enough, cried enough, during the thirty-three years of your life. on this poor land! Today rest, it's my turn to fight and suffer” - HA C&S. -

In her “Act of Offering to Merciful Love”, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus asks Our Lord to always remain in her heart under the sacramental species, as in the tabernacle. Here are his words: “I know it, O my God, the more you want to give, the more you make people desire: I feel immense desires in my heart, and it is with confidence that I ask you to come and take possession of my soul. I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I wish; but Lord, are you not almighty? Stay in me as in the tabernacle, never move away from your little host...” - Pri 6 - . For me, I have the intimate conviction that it has been heard. She said on this subject: “If the good Lord inspired me to make this request to him, it is because he wants to grant it... For his 'little victims of love' the good God will make [1075r ] wonders... but they will be in faith, otherwise they could not live.” In the hymn which she composed for my profession, and which has been printed in her poems under the title "I thirst for love", there is a stanza which begins thus:

“You, the great God whom all heaven adores,
You live in me, prisoner night and day” - PN 31 12 -

A sister pointed out to her that she must have been mistaken and that something had to be said. "You live for me, etc...", but she resumed: "No, no, I said well", and she gave me a look which meant: "we understand each other".

ON CHARITY TOWARDS NEIGHBOR. - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had a very compassionate heart for the sufferings of her neighbor and showed it on all occasions. She said to me: "When I realize that one of our sisters is in pain, and that I do not have permission to speak to her, then I pray to Jesus to console her himself." She invited me to do the same, assuring me that it made Jesus very happy. I noticed more than once that in the common works, she preferred to sit next to the sisters whom she saw a little sad. Not having to speak, she smiled [1075v] affectionately at them and looked for every way to be of service to them. We had one of our sisters afflicted with the blackest melancholy (she has now returned to the world). No one could ever hold a job with her. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, taking pity on this unhappy soul, and seeing in this a magnificent opportunity to immolate herself more for the good God, conjured our mother to put her with her to help her in her job. This heroic act cost her many pains which she always bore with unfailing humility and gentleness.

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was second porter for two or three years. She had as her first job an old sister, a very good nun, but with a temperament to make an angel lose her patience, with a desperate slowness and with that a lot of quirks. One day when I had shown her impatience, she told me that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had never spoken to her like this. The Servant of God to whom I went to tell the story replied: “Oh! be very gentle with her: she is ill; then it is charity to let her believe that she is doing us good, and that gives us the opportunity to practice [1076r] patience. If you're already complaining about a few lyrics, how would you do if like me you had to listen to it all day? Hey! Well, what I do, you can do, it's very easy: you only have to soften your soul with charitable thoughts; after that we have so much peace that we no longer feel annoyance at all.

“At recreation, more perhaps than anywhere else - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus told me - we find opportunities to sanctify ourselves by practicing charity. If you want to enjoy it, don't go with the thought of recreating yourself, but with that of recreating others” - HA C&S - . To the letter she put into practice everything she told me, and I noticed in fact that she only tried to make herself agreeable to others, and she did it so pleasantly that one would have thought that she was doing it. did it for fun. When a sister was needed for a boring and tiring job, she always came forward. In the laundry, especially, she was ingenious in renouncing herself. One day I asked him which was better, to go rinse with cold water or to stay in the laundry room to wash with hot water. She replied, “Oh! it's not hard to find out! When it costs you [1076v] to go to cold water, it is a sign that it also costs others; so, go ahead; if, on the contrary, it is hot, preferably stay in the laundry room. By taking the worst places, one practices both mortification for oneself and charity for others, since one abandons the best to them. After that, I explained to myself why I saw her go to the laundry room when it was hot, and precisely in the place that has the least air. I witnessed the heroic acts of charity that she practiced with the holy nun of whom she speaks in her Life (page 172) - MSC 13,2-14,1 - and who had the talent to displease her in everything. She lavished so much consideration and affection on him that it was as if she had a special affection for her.

She wanted me to have for our sisters and particularly for our mother prioress an entirely supernatural love. On one occasion, I had seen our mother Agnes of Jesus speak in preference to one of our sisters and show her more confidence than me. I told my thoughts to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, expecting to receive sympathetic condolences, when, to my great surprise, she said to me: “Do you think you love our mother very much?” - "Certainly [1077r] - I replied - if I didn't love him, I would be indifferent to seeing him prefer others to me." - “Hey! Well, I'm going to prove you absolutely wrong: it's not our mother you love, it's yourself. When one really loves, one rejoices in the happiness of the person loved... If you loved our mother for herself, you would rejoice to see her find pleasure at your expense, and since you think that she has less more satisfaction in speaking with you than with another, you should have no pain when you seem to be neglected. As she spoke to me, I understood, for the first time, what disinterested love was, and I realized that until now I had not known how to love.

[Session 65: - March 14, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1079r][Response to XNUMXst request continued]:

ON CAUTION. - One would have said that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had the experience of years, so consummate was her prudence. However, the situation was often thorny, because of the precautions that had to be taken not to arouse the susceptibility of Mother Marie de Gonzague, and also because of certain evil spirits which then reigned in the community. [1079v] She had a just and sure answer to all my difficulties, and without hesitation she showed me clearly what I had to do to accomplish the will of God. One day, I wanted to deprive myself of Holy Communion for an infidelity of which I bitterly repented. I wrote her my resolution and here is the note she sent me: "Dear little flower of Jesus, it is enough that by the humiliation of your soul, your roots eat up the earth... you must open up or rather raise hold your corolla high so that the bread of the angels may come like divine dew to strengthen you and give you all that you lack” - LT 240 - .

At the end of a long retreat, I spoke to him of my resolutions and of the new fervor with which I was animated. But she said to me: “Take care of yourself. I've always noticed that all hell breaks loose on a soul coming out of retirement. The demons... unite to... bring us down at our first steps, in order to discourage us. Indeed, once fallen, we say: How can I keep my resolutions since right now... I have failed? If we reason like this, the demons are victorious. You must therefore, each time they knock you down, get up without astonishment and say to Jesus with humility: If they knocked me down, I [1080r] am not defeated, here I am still standing, ready to begin the process all over again. fight for your love. Then Jesus, touched by your good will, will himself be your strength.” One day, I wanted to deprive myself of prayer to devote myself to a hurried work; she said to me: “Unless there is a great need, never ask permission to miss the community exercises for any work whatsoever, that is a devotion that cannot please Jesus. True dedication is not wasting a minute and putting your all into the hours intended for work.” My excessive sensitivity made me cry often and for nothing. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus made a constant war against this impressionability, seeking all the means to make me strong and virile.

One day, I wanted to show him an act of virtue that I had practiced: “Too bad! - she told me that you did so. When you think of all the lights, of all the graces that Jesus grants you, you would have been very guilty of acting otherwise. What is that compared to what he has a right to expect from your fidelity? You should rather humble yourself for letting slip [1080v] so many opportunities to practice virtue” - HA C&S - . His repartee was a salutary lesson to me; even now it prevents me from having self-esteem when I do something good. One holiday, in the refectory, they had forgotten to give me dessert. After dinner, I went to see Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus in the infirmary, and finding my table neighbor there, I made her understand quite skilfully that I had been forgotten. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus having heard me, forced me to go and inform the sister in charge of the service, and as I begged her not to impose it on me: "No - she said to me - it will be your penance, you are not worthy of the sacrifices that the good Lord asks of you. He asked you to deprive yourself of your dessert, because it was he who allowed you to be forgotten. He thought you generous enough for this sacrifice, and you deceive his expectation by going to claim it.” I can say that his lesson bore fruit and cured me forever of the desire to start over. In the directions I had with the Servant of God, I could not help admiring her tact and delicacy. No embarrassing or curious questions, even under the pretext of doing me good. I noticed more than once the truth of what she says in her Life [1081r] (page 184): “When I speak with a novice, I take care to mortify myself; I avoid asking him questions that would satisfy my curiosity...because it seems to me that one can do no good by seeking oneself” - MSC 32v -

ON JUSTICE. - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had a special devotion to the divine office. A recommendation on which she insisted a lot, it was the good manners in the choir. She never tired of telling me that being there in the presence of the King of kings, I shouldn't allow myself the slightest letting go. And I noticed how her dress itself was irreproachable. She made as little movement as possible and did not touch her face or her clothes. “These little subjugations - she said to me - touch God extremely. He notes with pleasure that we pay attention to him and that we respect him. His devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus was very great; she constantly spoke to me of her desire to be like him. Very happy to see the same devotion in me, as well as in Sister Geneviève, my companion in the novitiate, she composed a consecration to the Holy Face for the three of us, as well as a canticle on the same subject. These two plays were printed in the complete [1081v] edition of the “Story of a Soul” (pages 304 and 375) - Pri 12 and PN 20 - . She was very fond of doing the Way of the Cross. "The soul derives so much benefit from it and the souls in purgatory so much relief - she told me - that my devotion would be, if I could, to do it every day."

His devotion to Mary was touching; she had recourse to her in all her difficulties and urged me to do the same. When I was going in the direction and I had expensive things that I hesitated to say to her, she led me in front of the miraculous statue which had smiled at her in her childhood and said to me: "It is not to me that you go and say what weighs you down, but to the Blessed Virgin. Come on, start quickly!” She listened close to me to everything I said, and when I had finished, she made me kiss Marie's hand, gave me her advice, and peace was reborn in my soul. She had a filial affection for our Mother Saint Thérèse and our Father Saint Jean de la Croix. The Works of the latter especially inflamed him with love. But, above all, it was the Holy Gospel and Holy Scripture that she quoted constantly and with such aptness that one would have said that her conversations were only the commentary on the Holy Books. [1082r] The Servant of God had a particular cult for the Holy Angels and told me that out of respect for them we should always have a dignified dress. She couldn't stand the slightest twitch on my face, like wrinkling her brow. "The face is the reflection of the soul - she told me - it must always be calm, like that of a little child who is always happy, even when you are alone, because you are constantly a spectacle before God and the Angels." All the Saints were for her the object of a particular love; she considered herself their child and liked to ask them for “their double love” - *Cfr. 2 R 2, 9 - , as she mentions in her Life (page 215) - MSB 4r - . Among them, those she loved the most were: the Saints Innocents, Saint Agnes, Saint Cecilia, Blessed Théophane Vénard and Blessed Joan of Arc; she often cited their examples to me to incite me to imitate them.

ON STRENGTH. - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was of incomparable courage; she followed her Rule until her strength was completely exhausted without the Prior Mother Marie de Gonzague paying any attention to it. Although these truths are painful to tell and [1082v] almost unbelievable, I must do so nevertheless to show her virtue and how much she suffered. We already guess many things in the book of her life, especially in this passage where she recounts the joy she felt on Good Friday 1896, when Mother Marie de Gonzague so easily allowed her to continue the austerities of Holy Week, then that she had just coughed up profuse blood for the first time (page 157) - MSC 5r - . So, this Good Friday, she fasted all day, eating like us only a piece of dry bread and drinking only water. In addition, she never stopped working on cleaning. Having seen her wash tiles, her pale, dishevelled face filled me with such compassion that I begged her to let me do her work, but she would not. In the evening, like us, she took discipline for three Miserere. This treatment succeeded so well that when she went to bed she was again spitting up blood. Since that time, she was increasingly ill, which did not detract from her usual sweetness. As I was a nurse's aide, I can't say how much I suffered from not being able to relieve her, as I would have liked. When I went, unbeknownst to her, to ask [1083r] Mother Marie de Gonzague for permission to let the Servant of God rest during Matins, she rebuffed me, saying: “Never have we seen such youth, for 'listen in his ailments as you do! In the past; we would never have missed Matins!... If Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus can't take it any longer, let her come and tell me herself!» There was no danger that the Servant of God would complain, and when I noticed her fatigue, she begged me not to talk about it: "Our mother knows very well that I am tired - she said to me. -, it is my duty to tell her everything I feel, and since she is willing to allow me to follow the community all the same, she is inspired by the good God who - wants to grant my desire not to stop and go all the way." In fact, she went on until her strength was completely exhausted. On the eve of the day when she was no longer to get up, she came again to evening recreation.

It was not only in illness that the Servant of God gave proof of her strength - no untoward event was capable of disturbing her serenity of soul. While Mother Agnès de Jesus was prioress (1893-1896), Mother Marie de Gonzague's touchy and jealous character constantly manifested itself [1083v] towards her in hurtful ways. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus did not lose her usual calm despite the painful repercussions she felt when she saw “her little mother” so unhappy. "She will certainly have the crown of martyrs in heaven - she told me - she is a saint, that is why the good Lord does not spare her." We were talking one day about the happiness of martyrs and our hope of becoming so because of religious persecution. She said to me: “As for me, I already practice suffering joyfully; for example, when we take discipline, I imagine myself being beaten by the executioners for the confession of the faith. So the more I hurt myself, the happier I look. I do the same for any other bodily pain: instead of letting my face contract in pain, I smile. Another time, she came all beaming and said to me: “Our mother has just told me about the persecution that is raging on all sides against religious communities... What joy! The good Lord is going to realize the most beautiful dream of my life!... When I think that we live in the era of the martyrs!... Ah! let us stop worrying about the little miseries of life, let us apply ourselves to bear them generously in order to deserve such [1084r] great grace!” One day when I was crying, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus told me to get used to not letting my little sufferings appear like this, adding that nothing made community life sadder than unevenness of temper. - "It's true - I told him -, from now on I will only cry with the good God..." - She resumed quickly: Cry in front of the good God! beware of doing so! You must appear sad in front of him even less than in front of the creatures. How! this good Master has only our monasteries to gladden his heart; he comes to us to rest, to forget the continual complaints of his friends in the world, for most often on earth, instead of recognizing the price of the cross, we weep and moan; and you would do like ordinary mortals!... Honestly, that's not disinterested love! It is up to us to console Jesus, it is not up to him to console us! I know it, he has such a good heart that if you cry he will wipe your tears, but then he will go away very sad, having been unable to rest his divine head in you. Jesus loves happy hearts, he loves an ever-smiling soul. When will you be able to hide your sorrows from him or tell him in song that you are happy to suffer for him? - HA C&S -

[1084v][Response to the twenty-first request continues]:

ON TEMPERANCE. - The mortification of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was very hidden and yet she practiced it continually. She followed the common life with such simplicity that she was not noticed in any way; but I, who always lived with her and received her advice, could not help admiring her in all circumstances. I have never seen her commit the smallest imperfection and I have always seen her do what she believed to be the most perfect. In the refectory, she ate everything indiscriminately, and as I was placed next to her, I was never able to notice, despite [1085r] all my attention, what she liked or did not like, or what which could hurt him. It was only shortly before her death that the nurse forced her to say what was best for her, she confessed that certain foods had always hurt her, and I had seen her eat them every time she died. it was served to him with the same indifference as any other portion. She advised me not to make mixtures that would make the food better. “We must act like poor people,” she told me... Then she told me not to lean against the wall; the tables are so close to the wall that, without extreme attention, one leans naturally. She also urged me to finish my meals with something that didn't flatter the taste. "These little nothings do not attack our health - she told me - they do not make us notice and they give our soul the advantage of not slacking off and of maintaining itself in a supernatural state." It is not necessary to repeat here what I should say on each page of this deposition, namely that the Servant of God never gave us any advice without practicing it herself very precisely.

She confessed to me that the bodily mortification [1085v] which had been the most painful for her in Carmel was having suffered from the cold: "I suffered so much from it - she told me - that I believe that it is not possible to suffer any more from it...' And it was without allowing herself the slightest relief that she had endured it. One day I had clear proof of this: I had put our alpargates to dry on a heater and had put them warm at my feet. Noticing this, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus said to me: “If I had done what you have just done, I would have thought of committing a great immortification; of what use would it be to us to have embraced an austere life if we seek to relieve ourselves in all that can make us suffer, so we must not, without an express order of obedience, withdraw ourselves from the smallest practice of mortification ... You must not even let it appear that you are cold, do not bend over while walking, do not shiver, etc....»

ON OBEDIENCE. - The Servant of God's obedience was heroic. When Mother Marie de Gonzague was prioress, she imposed a host of little regulations which she destroyed or changed according to her whims, so that often they were little taken into account. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus performed them all [1086r] scrupulously and forced me to do the same. She was of an exemplary fidelity to the smallest subjugations. It is recommended in our regulations to collect the small pieces of wood which one meets by the house, because they can be used to light the fire. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was faithful to the point of carefully picking up the small pieces of wood from the size of her pencils. Her obedience was such that our mother had to pay great attention to what she said to her, so blindly did she obey. After I took the habit, as she taught me to sit on my heels, as is customary in Carmel, she told me to do it in the way that would be most convenient for me and to change sides. when I'm tired. I tell her to teach me her method; she seemed a little embarrassed and said to me: "You mustn't follow my method, it's very special: after I took the habit, our mother told me to sit on the right side, which I always have do; I would not have allowed myself to change sides; when I find myself too tired, I relax by keeping on my knees. One day when I had a violent [1086v] headache, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus wanted me to go and tell our mother; as I opposed it, alleging that it would be a way of asking for relief, she said to me: "What would you say if they imposed on you the obligation that I had been given when I was a postulant and a novice? ? Our mistress then commanded me to tell her whenever I had a stomach ache. But this happened to me every day and this commandment was a real torture for me. When the stomach ache took hold of me, I would have preferred to receive a hundred blows from the stick, rather than go and say it; but I said it every time out of obedience. Our mistress, who no longer remembered the order she had given me, said to me: 'My poor child, you will never have the health to make the Rule, it is too hard for you!.- Or else she would ask Mother Marie de Gonzague for some remedy, who replied displeased: 'Well, that child is always complaining! We come to Carmel to suffer; if she cannot bear her pain, let her go!'. Yet I continued for a long time out of obedience to confess my stomach ailments at the risk of being fired, until finally the good Lord, taking pity on my weakness, allowed me to be relieved of the obligation to make this confession.

[1087r] ON ]POVERTY. - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus allowed only strictly indispensable objects for her use, and the uglier and poorer they were, the happier she was. She said that there was nothing sweeter than to lack the necessities, because then one can call oneself truly poor. She advised me never to buy anything before I had made sure that there was no other way, and then to choose, without hesitation, what cost the least, as the real ones do. poor. It was out of a spirit of poverty that she preferred to choose paper with close lines; in spite of the inconvenience, she wrote on all the lines, to spend less paper. It was by this same spirit of poverty that she lowered the wick of her little lamp very low, so as to receive from it only the exact amount of light she needed. Likewise, in the refectory, I noticed that if she happened to take a few too many grains of salt, instead of throwing them away, she kept them carefully under her napkin in order to use them at another meal.

ON CHASTITY. - In my intimate relationship with Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, I had the opportunity to gather a few [1087v] traits about her angelic purity. At that time, we had Father Youf as chaplain, who was suffering from cerebral anemia and could not bear to be asked for the slightest direction apart from confession. On the other hand, the character of our prioress, Mother Marie de Gonzague, hardly gave me the confidence to speak to her. In this extremity, one day when I was suffering from some trouble about purity, I decided to open up about it to the Servant of God: "I'm afraid - I said to her - that you don't understand the pains of my soul!” She smiled and said to me: "Do you believe that purity consists in ignoring evil... You can without fear entrust me with anything you want, nothing will surprise me." And after consoling me and giving me peace, she confessed to me: "There is only one thing that I have never experienced, that is what is called pleasure in this matter." This so pure soul told me on another occasion: "I always take extreme care when I am alone, either when I get up or when I go to bed, to have the reserve that I would have if I were in front of other people. . And am I not always in the presence of God and his angels? This modesty has become [1088r] so habitual to me that it would be impossible for me to act otherwise.”

ON HUMILITY. - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus continually exhorted me to become more and more humble and small. “What grace is humiliation! - she told me -; if one understood how substantial this nourishment is to the soul, one would seek it with avidity.” Very often, in recess, or elsewhere, when I said to him: “What do you think? tell me something,” she answered with an angelic expression: “What do I think?...Ah! that I would like to be unknown and counted for nothing. Let my face be hidden from every creature like that of Jesus, so that no one here below can recognize me. One day, I told him about certain procedures towards me that I found unfair. She said to me: "... It is a very just thing that they despise us, that they have a lack of regard for us, it is to treat us as we deserve." She never promoted her work, nor spoke of her difficulties. To help me accept a humiliation, she confided to me this: “If I [1088v] had not been accepted into Carmel, I would have entered a Refuge to live there, unknown and despised, in the midst of poor repentants. My happiness would have been to pass for such, I would have made myself the apostle of my companions, telling them what I think of the mercy of the good God. And when I asked her how she would have managed to hide her innocence from her confessor, she replied: "I would have told him that I had made a general confession in the world and that I was forbidden to repeat it." A former nun could not understand that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, so young, took care of the novices, and she made her feel unceremoniously the opposition she felt towards her. One day, at recess, she said bitter words to him, among other things "that she needed to direct herself more than to direct others." From afar, I carefully examined the scene: the Servant of God's air of angelic gentleness contrasted singularly with the impassioned air of her interlocutor and I heard her reply: “Ah! my sister, you are quite right, I am even more imperfect than you think. I notice that in the poems she composed for me, she always offers me [1089r] the humility of Jesus as a model, for example in this one:

“For me, on the foreign shore, what contempt did you not receive!
I want to hide on earth, to be the last for you in everything, Jesus! - PN 31 - .

On November 30, 1895, she made known to me her "Act of offering as a victim to Love" which she speaks of in her Life (page 148) - MSA 84r° -. I then showed him a great desire to imitate him. She approved my resolution, and it was decided that I would do this act the next day. But left alone and reflecting on my unworthiness, I concluded that I needed a longer preparation. So I went back to see Sister Thérèse and explained to her the reasons why I wanted to postpone my offering. Immediately her face took on an expression of great joy: «... Yes - she said to me - this act is even more important than we can imagine, but do you know the preparation that the good Lord asks of us? Well! it is to humbly acknowledge our unworthiness. Ah! since he grants you this grace, give yourself up to him without fear.” What she called “her little way of spiritual childhood” was the continual subject of our talks “The privileges of Jesus are [1089v] for the little ones” - she repeated to me. She never stopped talking about the confidence, the abandon, the simplicity, the uprightness, the humility of the little child, and always offered him to me as a model. One day when I showed her my desire to have more strength and energy to practice virtue, she resumed: "And if the good Lord wants you to be weak and helpless like a child... do you believe that you will have less of merit?... Consent then to stumble at each step, even to fall, to carry your crosses weakly, love your impotence, your soul will derive more benefit from it than if, carried by grace, you accomplished heroic actions with enthusiasm which would fill your soul with self-gratification and pride.”

A trait that I am going to relate proves that she only wrote the story of her life out of obedience. Very shortly before the time when she began this composition, I had said to her: “The story of my vocation is so interesting, that I am going to write it down so as not to forget it; by re-reading it later, it will be able to do me good.” - “Be careful not to do such a thing - she told me -; besides, you cannot do it without permission, and I advise you not to ask for it. For me, I wouldn't want to write anything about my life without a special order, [1090r] and on an order that I wouldn't have asked for. It's more humble not to write anything about yourself. The great graces of life, like those of a vocation, cannot be forgotten; they will do you more good by reviewing them in your memory than by rereading them on paper.”

[Session 66: - March 15, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1092r] [Response to the twenty-second request]:

There was one thing about Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus that particularly struck me, it was that she read what was going on in my soul. When I entered here, after spending more than two years in a Carmel in Paris, I found it hard to get used to the difference in customs; the comparison I constantly made between these two Carmels made me very unhappy. The Servant of God clearly saw that these thoughts would defeat my vocation and fought them with all her might. When I had spoken in these thoughts, I was quite sure of being taken back by her without my having said anything to her. If, on the contrary, I had rejected them, she told me of her satisfaction. Having asked her how she divined my thoughts in this way, she replied: “Here is my secret: I never make observations to you without invoking the Blessed Virgin, I ask her to inspire me with what should do you the most good. After that, I confess to you that I myself am often surprised at certain things that I tell you without thinking on my part. I only feel, in telling you them, that I am not mistaken and that Jesus is speaking to you through my mouth.”

I was suddenly and marvelously[1092v]sely consoled more than once by the power of her prayer alone. Before my profession, I found myself one day broken down with fatigue and overwhelmed with inner sorrows. In the evening, before prayer, I wanted to say a few words to her about it, but she replied: "The prayer is ringing, I don't have time to console you, moreover I clearly see that I would take a unnecessary pain, the good Lord wants you to suffer alone for the moment.” I followed her to prayer in such a state of discouragement that, for the first time, I doubted my vocation. I had been on my knees for a few minutes, overwhelmed by these sad thoughts, when suddenly without having prayed, without even having desired peace, I felt a sudden change in my soul, I understood the charms of suffering and I left prayer absolutely transformed. The next day, I told Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus what had happened, and as she seemed very moved, I wanted to know the cause. "How good God is - she said to me then -, last night you made me feel such deep pity that I did not stop at the beginning of the prayer to pray to Our Lord to change your soul and show you the price of suffering. : He answered me.”

[1093r] Before leaving her office in 1896, Mother Agnès of Jesus had to make Sister Geneviève and me make our profession, because our period of novitiate had expired. The difficulties raised then by Mother Marie de Gonzague were so great that I had to be delayed after the elections. I had a presentiment of this ordeal. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, to whom I communicated my apprehensions, urges me uselessly to make the sacrifice. One evening, I kept crying, filled with this sad thought, when suddenly my ideas changed. I imagined myself at the last day, and I saw that the good Lord would not ask me if I had made my profession before such and such, but if I had loved him very much and taken advantage of the opportunities to prove it to him. The next day, I asked the Servant of God if she had prayed for me. " Oh! yes - she replied - I felt strongly urged to do so, last night, during the silence. The hour when she had prayed so much was precisely when grace had overflowed in my heart.

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had the intuition that she would be the model for a legion of "little souls." She often expressed it with ravishing simplicity. One day I said to him: "I would like you to die during your thanksgiving after communion." " Oh! [1093v] no - she replied - that is not how I want to die, it would be an extraordinary grace that would discourage the 'little souls', because they would not be able to imitate it” - DEA 15-7 -

She spoke to me many times of her hope of "spending her heaven doing good on earth." In her last "Recreational Composition" which she wrote in January-February 1897, she put into the mouth of Saint Stanislaus Kostka the expression of her thoughts on this subject: "What pleases me most in this piece - tells me- her then - it was because I was able to express my certainty that after death one can still work on earth for the salvation of souls. Saint Stanislaus has served me admirably to express my thoughts and my inspirations on this subject.

Here is the passage copied verbatim (Saint Stanislaus addressing the Blessed Virgin who comes to announce her approaching death):

"I regret nothing on earth and yet I have a desire... a desire so great that I cannot be happy in heaven if it is not realized... 0 Mary, tell me that the blessed can still work for the salvation of souls... If I cannot work in paradise for the glory of Jesus, I prefer to remain in exile and still fight for him.

(The Blessed Virgin): [1094r] You would like to increase the glories of Jesus, your only love; for him, in the heavenly court, you will win victories... Yes, my child, the blessed can still save souls; of their love the gentle flames draw hearts to heaven.

(Saint Stanislaus): Oh! how happy I am... sweet Queen of Heaven, please, when I am near you in the Fatherland, allow me to return to earth, in order to protect holy souls, souls whose long career here -bas will complete mine... Thus by them I will be able to present to the Lord an abundant harvest of merits.

(The Blessed Virgin): Dear child, you will protect souls struggling in this world, the more their harvest will be fruitful and the more in heaven you will shine... » - RP 8 (final) - .

Another time I said to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, looking at the sky: “How happy we will be when we are up there! - "It's true - she resumed -, but for me, if I have the desire to go to heaven soon, don't think it's to rest! I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth [1094v] Until the end of the world. Only then will I enjoy and rest. If I did not firmly believe that my wish could come true, I would rather not die and live until the end of time and save more souls. She looked inspired and full of certainty as she spoke these words. Around 1895 or 1896, before composing her manuscript, the Servant of God told me, in an intimate conversation, of the prophetic view she had had, in her childhood, of the trials which signaled the last years of her father. She also told me how the Most Blessed Virgin had miraculously cured her of a strange illness, and how in this circumstance the statue of the Blessed Virgin disappeared from her eyes and was replaced by the distinct vision of the Mother of God herself.

[Response to the twenty-third request]:

During her life in Carmel, the Servant of God passed almost unnoticed in the community. Only four or five nuns, and I was one of them, penetrating further into her intimacy, realized what perfection was hidden beneath the appearance of her humility and her simplicity. [1095r] For the masses, she was considered a very regular nun, and there was nothing to reproach her for. She had to suffer from a certain feeling of jealousy that animated many nuns against this group of “four Martin sisters.” Nevertheless, even those who did not defend themselves against this feeling of antipathy, made a difference between the Servant of God and her three sisters. Mother Marie de Gonzague, being prioress, had done everything to encourage this derogation from the rules and obtain from the bishop the entry of the four sisters. The thing done, Mother Marie de Gonzague was the first to suffer from the feeling of antipathy of which I have spoken. However, she herself told me several times, interpreting well the feeling of all the others. “If there were to choose a prioress from the whole community, without hesitation I would choose Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, despite her young age. She is perfect in everything; her only fault is having her three sisters. As for the small group of those who observed him better and appreciated him without prejudice, I can summarize their impressions by setting out my own. I have always considered Sister Thérèse's holiness heroic and I did not have to modify my assessment after her death. From the beginning of 1896, when [1095v] I saw her suffering, I began to carefully collect memories of her and particularly of her hair. It was not for me or out of ordinary affection that I collected these memories, but in the conviction that they would be needed to serve as relics after his death.

[Response to the twenty-fourth request]:

No longer being a nurse when Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was put in the infirmary, I was only able to approach her rarely during her last months. I asked her one day in writing if she felt joy at the thought of her approaching death. She wrote me this note: “Do you want to know if I am happy to go to paradise? I would have a lot if I went there, but... I'm not counting on the disease, it's too slow a driver. I only count on love. Ask the good Jesus that all the prayers that are made for me serve to increase the fire that must consume me” - LT 242 - On August 12, 1897, the day I turned 23, she wrote to me in a picture, of a trembling hand: "Let your life be full of humility and love so that soon you will come where I am going...in the arms of Jesus" - LT 264 -

[1096r] After the last washing that was done in the house before her death, I went to see her; she had suffered more than usual. She said to me smiling: "I am very happy to have been so ill today, to compensate for the fatigue of washing that I was not able to share with you, as I have nothing to envy you." Seeing her so ill, I said to her one day: “Oh! how sad life is! » - « But no, life is not sad, she said -; if you said: 'exile is sad', I would understand you. We make a mistake by giving the name of life to what must end. It is only to the things of heaven, to that which must never end, that we must give this true name, and as such life is not sad, but cheerful, very cheerful” - CSM - . Three days before her death, I saw her in such a state of suffering that my heart was torn. I approached her bed, she made an effort to smile at me, and in a voice broken by suffocation she said to me: “Ah! if I didn't have faith, I could never bear so much suffering. I am surprised that there are not more among the atheists who kill themselves. Seeing her so calm and so strong in the midst of such martyrdom, I could not help but tell her that she was an angel. " Oh! no - she continued -, I am not an angel... They are [1096v] not so happy as I am!.» She wanted me to understand that they did not have the privilege of suffering for the good Lord like her.

On the day of her death, after vespers, I went to the infirmary where I found the Servant of God sustaining with invincible courage the last struggles of the most terrible agony. Her hands were all purple, she joined them in anguish and exclaimed in a voice that the excitement of violent suffering made clear and strong: "0 my God... have pity on me!... 0 Mary, come to my aid!... My God, how I suffer!... The chalice is full... full to the brim!... I will never know how to die!... » - « Courage - him says our mother -, you are nearing the end, a little longer and everything will be over.» "No, my mother, it's not over yet... I can feel it... I'm still going to suffer like this perhaps for months." - "And if it was God's will to leave you on the cross for so long, would you accept it?" With an accent of extraordinary heroism, she said: "I do not mind!." And her head fell back on the pillow with an air so calm, so resigned that we could no longer contain our tears. She was absolutely like a martyr waiting for new torments. I left the infirmary not having the courage to endure such a painful sight [1097r] any longer. I only returned there with the community for the last moments, and I witnessed her beautiful long gaze of ecstasy when she died, Thursday, September 30, 1897, at 7 o'clock in the evening.

[Response to the twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth questions]:

[1097v] I don't know anything else about his tomb and about the assistance of the faithful in the cemetery, other than what we are told about it here in letters or visits to the visiting room. It follows from these communications that the assistance of pilgrims to the tomb of the Servant of God is a public and notorious fact.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

I am amazed at the mail we receive every day at Carmel. He comes from all parts of the world. I am obliged to take cognizance of them, being in charge of collecting these letters and of sending orders for books and pictures. I will say in general that I am struck to see how the devotion one has for the Servant of God grows and spreads more each day; I note it by the number of the letters which one sees always increasing. Currently, the average is one hundred per day. Everyone has recourse to her with touching confidence, and no one is disappointed in his hope. If some find that they have not been granted as they intended, they admit that the spiritual graces they have received in exchange surpass the material graces which have been refused to them. All make wishes for his prompt glorification; many priests offer the holy sa-[1098r]crifice for this intention; in short, it is rare to see a saint so universally loved. And this love is not enthusiasm, since, instead of slowing down, it is always progressing. There are even some who didn't appreciate Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus at first, calling her out of disdain: "a child", "a little rose-water saint", but, after a closer study of his life and of his small way of childhood, they have become his warmest admirers and his most fervent friends. In the private letters that I receive from my parents and my friends, there are often thanksgivings addressed to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus for favors reported. My former director in the world, Father Charles, parish priest of Bagnolet (diocese of Paris), wrote on July 1908, XNUMX: "I do my spiritual reading in these two precious boxes: "History of a soul" and "Thoughts of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus", where one finds pearls of great value, and I draw great benefits from them for my soul. All the praise that could be made of it will always remain below the truth. We have there, perfectly exposed, the simple practice and within everyone's reach, evangelical counsels, etc....»

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

[1098v] I know of no serious opposition to this universal reputation for holiness.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

The memory of the virtues that I saw practiced by the Servant of God is always a real stimulus to me. When I want to encourage myself to do well, I have only to ask myself what she would do in my place; immediately I know the line of conduct to follow in order to act in the greatest perfection. My confidence in her is such that every day I make this prayer to the Child Jesus: "Imprint on me your graces and your childish virtues, so that on the day of my birth in heaven, the angels and the saints will recognize in your little marry the faithful image of my little sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus.” In all circumstances I have recourse to his intercession, and I note with gratitude that I have never done so in vain, not only for myself, but for all those whom I commend to him. If his power is not always manifested by temporal favors, it makes itself felt by much more precious spiritual graces.

Here are some favors that are [1099r] personal to me. For greater convenience, I had made a big pleat in our dress, securely sewn, at the point of stitching, so as not to be obliged to form this pleat each morning, when putting on our belt. A few days before the Servant of God died, I spoke to her about it; she immediately told me to unseam this fold, because it was against custom. Nevertheless, I left him still, postponing to unravel it. The day after Sister Thérèse's death, this unfortunate letter never left my mind, and I said to myself: "She sees that I still have it, and perhaps she is sorry about it?" » Finally I prayed to her: “Dear little sister, if you dislike this fold, undo it yourself, and I promise you never to do it again.” Amazing thing! The next day, I noticed that the fold no longer existed. I had a feeling of fright and at the same time of great consolation. It was a warning to me to put into practice all his advice and recommendations. On February 28, 1909, she suddenly cured me of a distended stomach that no remedy could overcome. I had suffered from it for more than two years and the pain was always getting worse. I saw the moment when necessity would compel me to abandon the austerity of the Rule. In my distress and full of faith, I anointed my stomach with the oil that [1099v] burns in front of the Virgin who smiled at the Servant of God in her childhood, begging my little sister Thérèse to have mercy me and to heal me so that I can follow the Rule. Immediately all discomfort disappeared, and this grace has been continued to me until this day, March 15, 1911.

Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus also favored me with her perfumes on different occasions: perfume of violets, especially on a day when I had just practiced an act of humility; the scent of roses, emanating one day from the cupboards where his books and pictures are kept; perfume of incense, in circumstances where I was going to do a favor for him. On September 15, 1910, I went to Le Tour around 6 o'clock in the evening to pick up a parcel that had arrived from Bar-le-Duc. On the table I saw a damp, worm-eaten board. As I approached it, to seize the package which was under the table, there escaped from this piece of wood, which I considered a scrap board, a very strong and very delicious smell of incense. The thought came to me then that it was a fragment of the coffin exhumed nine days before. I went to warn our mother prioress to make her enjoy this wonder, but she felt nothing. A knowledgeable novice recognized the smell of incense. Seeing this, our mother went to fetch another sister, but [1100r] without warning her in any way: as she approached the tower, she was struck by the same smell of incense. Our mother took this precious relic to recess to show it to the community, but our sisters felt nothing but dampness and mould, although they were warned that it was a plank from the coffin of the Servant of God. This board was in fact the one on the side of the head of the coffin which had fallen and which could not be found. Doctor La Néele, expert witness at the exhumation, to whom we showed it, recognized this fragment perfectly. It should be noted that these perfumes are not perceived at times when one would expect them more: thus the community was brought to the community, on the very day of the exhumation, the entire lid of the coffin and fragments of clothing, no one from we then did not smell any perfume coming from these objects.

I also visibly felt the help of the Servant of God in the great trials that fell on my family. She took away no suffering, no humiliation from my parents; but she obtained for them to bear these trials in a Christian way, and each one derived a great profit from it for his soul. I also attribute to the protection of the Servant of God the complete and [1100v ] much needed conversion of my youngest sister, as well as her vocation to Carmel. She wrote to me last year: “I myself cannot believe my change; I would like to live as before in the indifference that I could not. And to think that all this came after a novena to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Little by little, I loved the good Lord, and I felt loved by him; this is the whole mystery of my conversion etc....»

The letters that we receive at Carmel and that I go through every day, as I said above, are filled not only with testimonies of admiration for the holiness of the Servant of God, but a large number contain the story of temporal and spiritual graces obtained through her intercession. During the year 1909, I counted 1830 thanksgivings of this kind, coming from all countries. In 1910 and 1911, I gave up counting them, because of the intense work imposed on me by this burden of correspondence.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I am not aware of any omission or error in my testimony.

[1101r] [Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in responding to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

I filed as above according to the truth, I ratify and confirm it.

Signatum: Sister MARY OF THE TRINITY AND OF THE HOLY FACE, unworthy Carmelite nun.

Witness 18 - Sister Marie-Madeleine of the Blessed Sacrament

Sister Marie-Madeleine du Saint-Sacrement, converse, was a novice of the Saint.

Mélanie-Marie-Françoise Lebon was born in Plouguenast (diocese of Saint-Brieuc) on September 9, 1869 and had a poor and hardworking childhood. She entered the Carmel on July 22, 1892, on the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, and took her name. She received the habit on September 7, 1893 and made her profession on November 20, 1894. It was on this occasion that Sister Thérèse composed the poem Histoire d'une bergère turned queen, which was sung in recreation.

Entrusted to the Saint's care, she was a subject of concern and inconvenience to her because of her touchy and closed character, as she was for the whole community: "A secret anxiety, which her inexperience increased disproportionately, and whose she will only get rid of it late, despite all the advances of Mother Agnès - writes Fr. Piat - will make her dark, closed, wild, to the point that it will be a question of sending her back to the world. With that, intelligent, active, showing real gifts. Here again, a tough skein to sort out. Thérèse, despite her heroic efforts, was unable to win the confidence of this sister, who would humbly agree before the ecclesiastical judges: I was fleeing her. It wasn't lack of esteem, on the contrary, it was that I found her too perfect; if it had been less, it would have encouraged me. 'She divined everything that was going on in my soul', she would say again...” (Sainte Thérèse of Lisieux discovering the path of childhood, c. 7, p. 171).

Later, in 1908, through the intercession of Sister Thérèse, her leg was cured of pernicious furunculosis. She then went back to working in the kitchen with great dedication until a year before her death (January 11, 1916)*.

The witness testified on March 16, 1911 during the 67th session, f. 1103r-1110r of our Public Copy.

WITNESS 18: Mary Magdalene of the Blessed Sacrament OCD

[Session 67. - March 16, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1103r] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Mélanie-Marie-Françoise Lebon, in religion Sister Marie-Madeleine du Saint Sacrement, converse nun of the Carmel of Lisieux, born in Plouguenast (diocese of Saint-Brieuc) on September 9, 1869, from the legitimate marriage of Eugène Lebon and by Marie-Louise Bidan. I entered Carmel in July 1892, where I made my profession on November 20, 1894.

[The witness answers the third to the sixth questions correctly].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I do everything for the good Lord in this deposition and I am not influenced by any human feeling.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

[1103v] I knew Sister Thérèse from my entry into the Carmel until her death; I observed her a lot and I will relate my memories in my deposition. I read the book "Story of a Soul." What Sister Thérèse says there about herself seems to me to be completely consistent with what I observed, but I will not use this book for my testimony.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a great devotion for the Servant of God, because I feel that she obtains graces for me and that she protects me. I pray every day and I offer small sacrifices for the success of the process of his beatification.

[Answer from the tenth to the seventeenth questions]:

I don't know anything in particular about the life of the Servant of God before the date of my entry into Carmel.

[Answer to the eighteenth request]:

At the beginning of 1893, six months after my entry, Mother Agnès having become [1104r] prioress, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus became mistress of novices.

[Proponent Request: Rev. Did Mother Marie de Gonzague then have the title and did she fulfill the office of mistress of novices? Answer]:

Yes, Mother Marie de Gonzague, former prioress, had been officially named novice mistress; but it was to have peace. She could not form the novices as needed, and Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had received the unofficial mission to fill in for her as discreetly as possible in this ministry of formation. It seems to me that she had everything it took to lead and make us become saints. You could see that she did everything she said, so it inspired to imitate her. When questioned, she always thought for a moment before answering. She always arranged things so that God would be happy. His decisions were very clear and very fair. She brought a lot of zeal and disinterestedness to our training. “Whatever may happen - she said -, I will tell you the truth; I would rather be forced to leave the community than leave a soul in ignorance. If you don't want to practice virtue, [1104v] go back to the world,” she said to one of my companions - Source pre. -

[Answer to the nineteenth request]:

I knew, like all our sisters, that she composed poems for our celebrations. I did not know until after her death that she had written the "History of her life."

[Answer to the twentieth request]:

From the start of my entry into the Carmel, I noticed that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus did not resemble the other nuns. It is true that on entering the Carmel of Lisieux, I found the community in a state which gave me great disappointment. I believed that all Carmelites were saints; but little by little, I realized that there were, at that time, many very imperfect nuns; there was a notable lack of silence, regularity and above all mutual charity; there were lamentable divisions among the nuns. The direction given to the community was largely in these disorders. In such an unedifying environment, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus never [1105r] committed the slightest fault. Not only did she not imitate the imperfect nuns, but she seemed to me quite different from several who were nevertheless very edifying. His virtue was unfailing and always fervent. I even proposed to find out for myself whether it might not be possible to find her at fault, for I heard many criticisms of her account inspired by party spirit. So I examined him everywhere, in the wash, in the dishes, in the common works, in recreation; I even sometimes tried to put its regularity to the test: I was never able to find fault with it.

WITNESS 18: Mary Magdalene of the Blessed Sacrament OCD

[Response to the twenty-first request]:

FAITH. - In her great spirit of faith, the Servant of God constantly reminded us that we must see God in our mother prioress, even when she was Mother Marie de Gonzague.

CHARITY TOWARDS GOD. - One day when I was near her in her cell, she said to me in a tone that cannot be rendered: “The good Lord is not loved enough!... He is so good, however!. .. Ah! I would like to die!...” and she burst into tears. I looked at her in amazement, wondering what an extraordinary [1105v] dinary creature I found myself in, not understanding such a vehement love of God.

I remember seeing her one morning, when she was already very ill, sitting near the front choir, before the eight o'clock mass. She looked exhausted and ready to feel sick. But she stayed there anyway, because she didn't want to miss communion.

This love of God led her to an ardent zeal for souls, especially for priests. For this, she sought every opportunity to make sacrifices. She told us: “We must love to suffer for the priests. The more work, trouble, suffering of all kinds you have, the happier you should be. The good Lord will ask us to account for the priests that we could have saved by our prayers and our sacrifices and that we will not have saved, because of our infidelity and our cowardice. Let's not waste one of our little sacrifices for them."

CHARITY TOWARDS NEIGHBOR. - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus preferred to do good to those from whom she expected neither joy, nor consolation, nor tenderness. I was one of those. From the first days until her death, I never felt drawn to [1106r] her in a sensitive way. I even ran away from her. It wasn't lack of esteem, on the contrary, it was that I found her too perfect; if it had been less, that would have encouraged me. I don't think I ever made him feel any consolation for me. However, she did not abandon me for that, on the contrary she showed me a lot of kindness. When I was in pain, she contrived to distract me and cheer me up; she never stopped chasing me to do me good, but always with perfect discretion. When it was my turn to dry the dishes, she often managed to come and wash them to talk to me alone. She showed me confidence, in order to give it to me also for her.

Her charity for her neighbor was quite supernatural, as evidenced by her behavior towards her three Carmelite sisters and especially towards Mother Agnès of Jesus, whom she loved very tenderly. One day, there had just been a violent scene between our mother Agnès of Jesus and mother Marie de Gonzague, and as I was lamenting, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus said to me: "I am jubilant: the more I see our mother suffer , the happier I am. Ah!, Sister Marie-Madeleine, you don't know the price of suffering, if you only knew the good it does to one's [1106v] soul”! On occasions like the one I am talking about, she never left the community, not even for a moment, to go and comfort her sisters; it was only when they sent for her that she went out to restore peace.

JUSTICE. - She was very fond of righteousness and truth. One day, as a joke, I wanted to frighten her, and I pretended to see a big spider which she was terrified of. She corrected me and told me that merry lies do not suit nuns; that one must always be "true."

MORTIFICATION. - The Servant of God was so mortified that, when we had leftovers in the kitchen that we didn't know who to give to, we gave it to her and she ate it without complaining. She said to us (to the sisters of the white veil): “Never taste a dish unnecessarily.” She was not treated like a patient and lacked the care her condition required. However, I never heard her complain. It seemed that the more she suffered, the happier she was. She never let anything show of the sufferings of the cold and other inconveniences. She preached to us this love of suffering and said that we must anticipate sacrifice and seek mortification.

TEMPERANCE. - The Servant of God [1107r] always had the same face. I never saw her in a bad mood; I have never been able to divine in her a feeling of anger against me, although her charitable advances have never been repaid by me, owing to the timidity of which I have spoken. On her deathbed, she said to Mother Agnès of Jesus, speaking of me: "You will tell her that in heaven I will pray for her, and I will love her as much as the other novices." Besides, she wouldn't have wanted anyone to become attached to her in a natural way.

I also noticed how silent she was: I hardly remember having seen her speak, even by necessity, in the time of silence. Even when she spoke, she avoided unnecessary words. One day, in management, I told him useless things. She said to me, “We are both wasting our time; let's get out of here."

OBEDIENCE. - I noticed the constant fidelity of the Servant of God in leaving everything at the first sound of the bell, to go to the exercises.

POVERTY. - Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus constantly looked for the poorest clothes and objects; his shoes were almost always in poor condition. The nun in charge of mending them always left her twisted and very uncomfortable alpargates.

[1107v] HUMILITY. - In her humility, the Servant of God was always fairly well treated, too well sometimes. I remember that one day she reproached me because I had made her a soup just for her. As a few days later I started again in spite of her recommendation, she showed me a real pain; she was, however, very ill at that time. There was a nun in the kitchen who didn't like her and spoke of her with contempt (that nun is dead). Seeing the Servant of God coming, she said: “Look at her walking, she is not in a hurry! When will she start working? She is good for nothing!” When Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who had heard her, came in, she gave my sister a beautiful smile... without showing the slightest sorrow or the slightest resentment.

[Response to the twenty-second request]:

What increased my shyness towards the Servant of God and made me mute towards her was that I found her too enlightened: I was afraid of being guessed. Especially when I had been imperfect, I was afraid she would read my soul.

[1108r] [Response to the twenty-third request]:

The Servant of God was very generally unknown or even misunderstood in our house. Apart from a few novices who saw her very closely, no one noticed the heroic nature of her life. I said, in answering the twentieth question, that for my part, I had observed it with the greatest care, and from that time, I was convinced of the sublimity of its virtues; I knew she was in a lot of pain, without ever letting it show; that she loved God extraordinarily. What I have learned of his virtues since his death has added little to my esteem which was so high during his life. My judgment was not influenced by any natural affection, since I said that, on the contrary, I always held myself towards him in an attitude of reserve and almost defiance. Among the other nuns, about half said that she was a good little nun, very sweet, but who had nothing to suffer and whose life was rather insignificant. The rest of the community sharing the party animosities, of which I have spoken, showed themselves to be more unfavourable, saying that they were spoiled by their sisters without, however, articulating any specific reproaches.

[1108v] [Answer to the twenty-fourth to twenty-sixth questions]:

I rarely saw the Servant of God during the last months of her life. Called with the community at the time of her death, I noticed with astonishment how she raised her head when she appeared dead and gazed upwards as if surprised and delighted. I have often assisted our dying sisters and never noticed anything like it.

[Answer from the twenty-seventh to the twenty-eighth questions]:

Since the death of the Servant of God, the conviction of her holiness has become [1109r] absolutely unanimous in the monastery. Most of the sisters who held him in low esteem during his life are dead. The two or three who survived not only no longer objected, but far from finding exaggerated what was said of the Servant of God's holiness, they loved her with all their hearts and prayed to her with complete confidence. I only know from what is said in recreation what happens outside the monastery affecting the Servant of God's reputation for holiness. The unanimity that has been achieved among us on this subject seems to me to be determined by the certainty that we have all acquired of the effectiveness of his protection and of his intercession with God.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I was an immediate witness to a very singular event which happened in the kitchen in the summer of 1910. I had to fill a water tank which contained four large jugs. My sister Jeanne-Marie offered to help me. She began by completely emptying the little water that remained in the tank. At the pump, I fill a first pitcher that Sister Jeanne Marie pours into the tank. When she came to pour the second, she found the reservoir full. I am [1109v] sure of three things: 2° that the tank had been emptied, 3° that I had pumped only one pitcher, XNUMX° that the tank, which I filled twice a day, contains four pitchers . Sister Jeanne Marie told me that having a lot of work and feeling tired, she had invoked the Servant of God asking her to come to her aid.

In September 1907, I had to immobilize myself in the infirmary because of a sore leg which persisted and worsened for eight months. This ailment consisted of an uninterrupted series of abscesses or boils (35 in these eight months) with emaciation of the limb and general wasting away. In the middle of May 1908, Mother Prioress, Marie-Ange, suggested that I invoke Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus to obtain permission to resume my work in the kitchen. During a first novena, the evil rather worsened. We then began a second novena which brought complete healing. The first Sunday in June, I resumed my service, which I have not left since.

[At the thirtieth question, the witness replies that he has nothing to declare].

[1110r] [Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in responding to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

I have filed as above according to the truth, I ratify and confirm it,

Signatum: Sister MARIE-MADELEINE

Witness 19 - Claude-Marcel Weber

Born in Lorcelette, in Lorraine, on April 25, 1835, Claude-Marcel Weber was ordained a priest in Metz on April 11, 1861. During his testimony, the witness admitted to being guilty of certain faults which had brought him before the German civil court ( Lorraine was then annexed by Germany) and had resulted in him being twice suspended a divinis. But he also bears witness to his sincere conversion, to his attempt to become a Cistercian at Lérins and finally to the apostolic activity he exercised at Saint-Jean-de-Luz (diocese of Bayonne), when he received the triple grace which is the subject of his statement. He died on October 20, 1915.

The witness testified on March 22 and 23, 1911, during sessions 69-70, f. 1127r- 1141r of our Public Copy.

[Session 69: - March 22, 1911, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1127r] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[1127v] [Response to second request]:

My name is Claude Marcel Weber, born in Lorcelette, diocese of Metz, on April 25, 1835, from the legitimate marriage of Mathias Weber, owner, and Marguerite Albrecht. I am a priest, having been ordained in Metz on April 11, 1861. I exercised the ministry as vicar, then parish priest until 1873. At that time I left the ministry and after having worked for a few years as a preceptor at the education of children I lived in the patrimony of my family until 1899; at that time I did nine months of novitiate with the Cistercians of Lérins; forced by my health to give up this vocation, I spent two years in a retirement home in Dorat, diocese of Limoges; since that time I have been a regular priest in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, diocese of Bayonne, where I am approved for confession and preaching throughout the diocese.

[The witness answers the third request correctly].

[Answer to fourth request]:

Around 1884, I had to answer [1128r] before the civil courts of Germany for an accusation of immorality and, rightly or wrongly, I was sentenced to six years' imprisonment.

[Answer to the fifth request]:

I twice incurred the suspense a divinis around the year 1873, and I was absolved of this censure the following year, 1874. I confess that I was once in great wrong; I humbly confess them. But since the good Lord brought me back to him; I am in the best dispositions and in the most regular relations with my ecclesiastical superiors, as evidenced by the testimonial letters of the Bishop of Bayonne, which I present to the tribunal.

[The witness answers the sixth request correctly].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

No human motive, but only the desire to obey the Church could have determined me to come and testify, anticipating that I would have to make the confessions corresponding to questions IV and V.

[1128v] [Response to the eighth request]:

All of my testimony is based solely on my personal observations. I did not know the Servant of God, but I will testify: 2° to the outstanding graces she obtained for me; XNUMX° of the diffusion of his reputation for holiness and the power of his intercession in the south-west of France and in the north of Spain.

[Response to the ninth request]:

If I had not had a great devotion to the Servant of God, I would not have traveled so long to give my testimony. I owe her great gratitude because she miraculously restored my sight, and infinitely more precious spiritual favors. I desire his beatification, because then we will invoke him more and we will obtain, through his intercession, many graces.

[Answer from the tenth to the twenty-fourth questions]:

Until last year 1910, I was not even aware of the existence of the Servant of God: I therefore have nothing special to testify [1129r] on all these questions.

WITNESS 19: Claude-Marcel Weber

[Response to the twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth questions]:

Yesterday, March 21, my first step on disembarking from the train in Lisieux was to go to the city cemetery to show my gratitude to my celestial benefactress. It was around noon: I found, praying very fervently near the tomb, a soldier in military uniform. As I congratulated him on his piety, he told me that he had come to thank the Servant of God for having cured his mother of cancer. I also noticed on this tomb a certain number of letters and notes addressed to the Servant of God and placed on the ground among the flowers. I myself dropped off a packet which had been entrusted to me by various people from the Basque country, from where I had left to come to Lisieux.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

Saint-Jean-de-Luz where I live (diocese of Bayonne) is a summer and winter seaside resort. Many priests come there from all regions of France and Spain. Following the miraculous recovery from which I was [1129v] favored, I made it my duty to spread knowledge of the virtues and powerful intercession of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. To this end, I offered the priests images of the Servant of God, to put in their breviary. Now, almost always I was answered: “Oh! Sister Therese! we know it well; we love him and invoke him in our country.” In the vicinity of Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and throughout the arrondissement of Bayonne, the priests of the ministry take souvenirs and images of the Servant of God to the sick they visit, especially to those whose continue the conversion. As for the faithful of this region, knowing that I have been the object of special favors through the intercession of the Servant of God, they constantly ask me to pray for them in the Carmels of Lisieux. and Zarauz. The Bishop of Bayonne himself, as well as Monsignor Diharse, his vicar general, and Canon Daranatz, his secretary, are ardent apostles of devotion to Sister Thérèse: they recommend that priests invoke her above all to obtain healings. spiritual. I wanted to find out, in order to refer it to the court, the reputation of the [1130r] Servant of God in the numerous French communities exiled in Zarauz and in the province of Guipuzcoa. To this end, I visited not only the monastery of the Carmel of Zarauz (exiled from Bordeaux), but also the houses of the Visitandines, the Ursulines and several communities of men. Everywhere I gathered testimonies of an intense devotion. At the Visitation, in particular, I was assured that the memory of the Servant of God and the example of her virtues is a very effective stimulant of fervor. We want to imitate Sister Thérèse, and at the thought of the slightest failure, we fear resisting her inspirations and making ourselves unworthy of her protection.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I don't know of any opposition to the Servant of God's reputation for holiness.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

In the spring of 1900, Doctor Baradat from Cannes (Alpes-Maritimes) whom I was consulting about anemia, incidentally looking me in the eye, said to me: "Do you [1130v] know that you are threatened with a cataract? ? - "A cataract?" Me? - I replied -; but I still see fairly well for my age and no one in my family has ever been afflicted with this evil. - "Say all you want - he insisted -, you have the onset of a well-characterized cataract." I thought it was an error on the part of the doctor. However, finding myself the following September in Paris, I went to consult the distinguished oculist Abbadie, of the Boulevard Saint Germain. I was received by one of his assistants: “I don't see anything - this one told me; but come,” and he ushered me into the dark room. There, he examined my eyes carefully with the electric light. “Yes - he agreed then - you have the beginning of a cataract; but don't worry about it, it will come to you later... later... and in about ten years, when it is ripe, you will come to us and we will perform the operation for you free of charge.” “The beautiful consolation sheet! - I thought as I walked away -. Live ten years with the prospect of having your eyes butchered for free! And what will be the result? Since then I have not consulted any oculist or doctor about [1131r] my eyes, nor used any remedy. I was waiting for the cataract to be "ripe." However, the prognosis of Mr. Abbadie's help was not long in coming true. Weak at first, the disorder of my sight gradually became such that from the year 1906 I could only read and write with difficulty, even with sturdy glasses. I had a veil over my eyes and this veil thickened more and more in the following years. From the beginning of 1908, I constantly had before my eyes a mist, a fog which, in broad daylight, prevented me from recognizing my best friends at 12 paces. When dusk came, I no longer dared to venture outside for fear of bumping into passers-by, missing the sidewalk and being run over by cars. In May 1909, a passing optician, wanting to sell me glasses, made me read with his instruments, at various distances, prints with graduated characters, in turn from both eyes and from each eye separately. He ends up declaring to me "the right eye completely extinguished and the other eye very ill." He had exaggerated somewhat, because of a person placed two steps away from me, I could still see, with that single right eye, the shadow, but a vague [1131v] shadow, imprecise, shapeless, which I would not could tell if it was from a man or from what. The vision of the left eye had become so weak that on Palm Sunday 1909 I fell down the steps of the choir which I could no longer distinguish, and that in front of the whole parish. Since then, I trembled to go down the steps of the altar, which I had to grope about with my foot. In short, I was threatened with complete blindness in the near future and felt on the eve of no longer being able to recite my breviary or say holy mass. I was already contemplating with anguish the trip to Paris for the famous free operation, an operation in itself scabrous and of dubious luck.

WITNESS 19: Claude-Marcel Weber

Although a passionate apiphile, last year I had to get rid of all my dear avettes that the ever-increasing weakness of my eyesight no longer allowed me to treat. And the Reverend Mother Prioress of Zarauz had acquired some of my colonies. Now, last spring (1910), she [1132r] expressed to me the desire to have an Italian queen bee, but on the condition that I myself come and affix her to one of her native hives. I replied that I was no longer in a position to carry out such a delicate beekeeping operation and explained to him the sad state of my eyesight. Thereupon she, with her robust Carmelite faith, answered me verbatim: “Ah! but not that! Beekeepers still need you and we Carmelites especially. Since prayer is all-powerful, we are going to do violence to the good God, and he will be obliged to restore your sight.” A few days later, I was amazed at the ease with which I could read and distinguish the steps of the altar at my feet. The same day, I ordered the queen in question from a beekeeper in Italy and informed the mother prioress of the order and of my next arrival (March 1910). In Zarauz, I learned that the community had made a novena to obtain the cure of my sight through the intercession of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, whose existence I had not known until then. It was therefore from a priest who did not know her, who had personally asked nothing of her, that the angelic sister [1132v] had obtained from her divine Spouse a signal improvement in my eyesight. I say "improvement" because, however great and surprising this change for the better was, I had (not) regained clear and full vision. We therefore agreed, the Reverend Mother and I, to make a second novena and she gave me a relic image of the one whom from then on I called my "celestial oculist", recommending that I apply it to my eyes each evening of the novena. (May 1910). However, this novena was not finished that already I could easily read the “Decrees of the S. Congrégation des Rites” which are printed in very fine characters at the head of the Roman Breviary (edition in. 12 of 1902 of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, Tournay) and which previously presented to my eyes only an indecipherable smudged page. Even more, I recognize, since then, people at more than a hundred paces. We began this novena on Thursday in the octave of Pentecost (May 19). Around mid-June I returned to Spain to put the Carmel hives in order. We then decided to make a third novena in thanksgiving that one, and at the same time to obtain a more perfect lucidity of sight. Meat. this time again, my [1133r] celestial oculist answered our prayers, or rather those of her colleagues from Zarauz, as the following fact attests. Having regained my sight, I wanted to become a beekeeper again. So I buy a colony of bees from a local hive and transfer it, people and combs, to one of my elegant villas with movable frames. A few days later, I visited my hive to see if everything was in order and I found several royal cells there, some of which contained larvae which had already hatched and others of simple eggs. Oh! the sight of those tiny bee eggs, like little bits of bluish-white sewing thread. For years I had been unable to see them even with powerful glasses, and now I could see them again with the naked eye!

There is therefore no longer any possible doubt: the healing of my sight is real and persevering. I may not have the eyesight of a young man of 20, but the condition of my eyes has returned to what it was before the appearance of the first symptoms of cataracts in 1899. In short, my eyesight is better than the normal eyesight of an old man of my age (76). And this healing, incontestably [1133v] wonderful, since obtained without the intervention of any help or human remedy, I obviously owe it to the intercession of the one whom we had invoked for this purpose: Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus , died in 1897 in the Carmel of Lisieux. Glory to God! and gratitude to my celestial oculist!!

I can communicate to the court a letter from Doctor Baradat, in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, Haute-Savoie, dated September 7, 1910. Here is this letter: "My dear Abbé: I remember very well having saw a certain opacity, a cloud in your lens (left or right, I don't remember), which allowed me to predict the more or less distant appearance of a cataract. Ten years ago! the memories are too imprecise for me to be able to formulate them in a certificate. However, in spite of the thousands of patients with whom I had to deal, I remember this observation very well; I saw something along these lines, and I must have told you. Please accept, my dear abbé, the assurance of my most cordial feelings. Doctor Baradat. I can also submit to the court, [1134r] to be inserted after my deposition, the autograph attestation of the Reverend Mother Prioress of the Carmel of Zarauz, relating the circumstances in which the prayers were said which obtained my cure.

[Having recognized the authenticity of this document, the judges and the promoter decide to insert it at the end of the deposition, as follows]:

[Relation of the Prioress of the Monastery of Zarauz]:

« JMJT

I, the undersigned, prioress of the Carmel of the Good Shepherd in Zarauz, Guipuzcoa, Spain, declare having made with the whole community three novenas, the first in March, then in May and June 1910, to the Servant of God Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, Carmelite of Lisieux, to obtain the recovery of the sight of Father CM Weber, Lorraine priest of the diocese of Metz, domiciled in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, diocese of Bayonne, one eye of which was lost for more than a year and the other suffering from cataracts. During these novenas, he gradually recovered clear vision in both eyes, both in the extinguished eye [1134v] and in the other.

WITNESS 19: Claude-Marcel Weber

In witness whereof I have signed with the mothers of the council.

Signed: Sister Thérèse Aimée of the Heart of Jesus, prioress

Sister Marie-Thérèse of Jesus, sub-prioress

Sister Marie of the Cross, 3rd Custodian,

Sister Marie of the Trinity 1st Depositary,

Sister Marie Joseph of the Saviour. Carmel of the Good Shepherd in Zarauz August 10, 1910.”

[Session 70: - March 23, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30]

[1138r] [1138v] [Continued response to the twenty-ninth request]:

[Request from the promoter: in the absence of the certificate of the doctors relating to this eye disease before the miraculous cure, could you provide at least a certificate of public notoriety of this infirmity? Answer]:

I have not foreseen the usefulness of this document, but if the court wishes it, nothing will be easier for me than to obtain it after my return to Saint-Jean-de-Luz and to send it to Mr. presiding judge. All the clergy of the city and the region know indeed how, before March 1910 my confreres were often obliged to drive me when the weather became a little dark.

[The judges accept this proposal in agreement with the promoter and decide that this document, authenticated by the Episcopal Curia of Bayonne, will be attached to the Acts, at the end of this deposition].

[Witness continues]:

I learned from Canon [1139r] Daranatz, secretary to the Bishop of Bayonne, that two miraculous facts were attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God in the region: 1° The conversion, on her deathbed , of a father refractory to religious practices. 2° The healing of a six-year-old girl. I myself made a novena to the Servant of God, associating this novena with a few people, to obtain the conversion of an atheist publicly denying the existence of God and appearing inaccessible to any religious idea. However, during our novena, to the great surprise of those around him, he spontaneously began to speak of God and to implore his mercy, repeating: “Lord, have mercy on me. »

A sectarian Calvinist of my acquaintance, having consented to read the "Life of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus", was so touched by this reading, that he now goes to the Catholic Church, attends the instructions and seems visibly lead to a future conversion. I know, either in the Carmel of Zarauz, or among the Ursulines of Getharia [sic], or among the Visitandines of Zarauz, a certain number of healings and other temporal and spiritual graces attributed by the nuns and superiors of these houses, who reported it to me [1139v] themselves, at the intercession of the Servant of God.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I exposed everything I remember.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. This concludes the examination of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ego testis, ita pro veritate deposui, illud ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signature: CI. Mr WEBER

Witness 20 - Jeanne Guérin (La Néele)

Marie-Elisa-Jeanne Guérin was a cousin of Thérèse. Daughter of Isidore Guérin, brother of the Saint's mother, she was born in Lisieux on February 24, 1868 and married Doctor Francis La Néele on October 1, 1890. It was a great sadness for her to have no children, but she accepted this heavy ordeal in a Christian way and was helped by Thérèse who had written to her on October 17, 1891: "I hope that soon the good Lord will send a little Isidore too perfect than her dad, or else a little Jeanne resembling her mother exactly", and again in mid-October 1895: "Soon I have the intimate confidence, you will receive a hundredfold more abundant, a little angel will come to rejoice your home and receive your maternal kisses.” But the Saint also urged him to abandon himself completely to Providence (letter of July 16, 1897 to Monsieur and Madame Guérin).

Therese further comforted her cousin when she had to accept the separation from her young sister Marie who entered the Carmel of Lisieux under the name of Sister Marie of the Eucharist (1870-1905). Having lost her husband on March 19, 1916, Madame La Néele devoted herself even more to charitable works and died on April 24, 1938 in Nogent-le-Rotrou (Eure-et-Loir), where she had retired *. (Annals 14 , 1938)

During her childhood and adolescence, both in her family and among the Benedictines, the witness lived with the Saint as if she had been her sister. Moreover, during the last weeks of Thérèse's life, her parents received from their other Carmelite daughter, Marie of the Eucharist, letters of the greatest interest, letters attached by Madame La Néele to her own testimony. They are now found in the 1st volume of the Last Interviews, under the title of Letters from Witnesses.

Madame La Néele filed on March 28, 1911, during the 71st session f. 1144v-1155r of our Public Copy.

[Session 71: - March 28, 1911, at 8:30 a.m. and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1144v] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Marie-Elisa-Jeanne Guérin, wife of Doctor Francisque La Néele. I was born in Lisieux on February 24, 1868, from the legitimate marriage of Isidore-Victor-Marie Guérin pharmacist and Céline Fournet. I am the first cousin of the Servant of God, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

[Response to third request]:

I have the habit of going to confession and taking communion several times a month.

[1145r] [The witness answers the fourth to the sixth questions correctly].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

Although family ties attach me to the Servant of God, I hope that the feelings of affection I have for her and for all her family do not cloud my judgment about her. I also ask the good Lord to bear sincere witness to the truth.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I mainly frequented the Servant of God during the period that elapsed from her arrival in Lisieux (1877) until her entry into the Carmel (1888). She was four and a half and I was nine and a half when she came to Lisieux after her mother's death. Our relations during this period were constant, especially since Monsieur Martin had come to Lisieux precisely after the death of his wife, my father's sister, to be closer to our family. After the Servant of God entered Carmel, I only conversed with her from time to time in the visiting room, and our relationship necessarily became [1145v] less intimate. I will not use “Story of a Soul” in my testimony, although I feel that this book speaks the truth. I will mainly use my personal memories and the letters exchanged between the Servant of God and the members of our family.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I invoke the Servant of God, but I see that she sends me crosses rather than consolations. For several years, I have noticed that many graces have been obtained from all sides through the intercession of the Servant of God and I conclude that her beatification is in the sights of Providence. I confess that, in the first years that followed his death, I did not foresee this expansion of the supernatural which revealed to me a holiness that I did not know was so great.

[Answer from the tenth to the thirteenth questions]:

I don't have very personal memories on all these points.

[1146r]

WITNESS 20: Jeanne Guerin

[Answer from the fourteenth to the fifteenth request]:

As a child, Thérèse was a very pious child, with exemplary wisdom; I don't remember ever seeing her disobey or tell the slightest lie. She was entirely formed by Pauline, who engraved in her the imprint of all the virtues. Our little saint had a predilection for this sister (Pauline), whom she had chosen to replace her mother. My parents loved Thérèse like their own daughter, and she returned their affection, as evidenced by the letters she wrote to them and which we have preciously preserved. I do not remember having seen her do the smallest pain to my father and my mother, who were in admiration of her virtues and of her angelic life. Often I heard around me: "This child will not live long, she is too angelic." The expression of his face was indeed that of an angel.

I must note, however, that the age difference meant that I perhaps did not know the Servant of God as much as my younger sister [1146v] Marie. Therese was five years younger than me, which is a lot when you're a child; also, she always went with my younger sister, while Céline and I were always together. The Servant of God was not expansive and spoke very little; I remember seeing her very rarely enjoying the game. As she frequently complained of headaches, I figured it was the pain that made her so serious. I never would have suspected, at that time, that she was so holy; she was very impressionable and was crying for nothing.

At the age of 10, she was seized with a terrible illness which we attributed to the great grief she had at the departure of her sister Pauline for the Carmel: I remember very well that she was very deeply saddened by it. and that nothing could console her. All the phases of this disease are also very present in my memory. The doctor who treated her called this disease "Dance of Saint Guy." Nevertheless, it seems to me that he seemed hesitant in his diagnosis and hinted that there was something else; but what?... He didn't know it himself, for he would certainly have told my father.

[1147r] [Answer to the sixteenth to the eighteenth questions]:

When I saw Thérèse enter the Carmel at the age of 15, while being very edified by her virtues, I thought in my heart that she was entering this convent to join Pauline there, for whom she had such a great affection; but my father and my mother did not think like me. My father was very involved in the details of this entry into Carmel, and I heard my parents say that this child was predestined. But it was especially during her religious life that her virtues burst forth. I was married in Caen, and I only saw Thérèse in the parlor when I came to Lisieux; I should rather say that I divined its presence there, but I neither saw nor heard it. The inflexible Rule condemned me to attend the parlor with the gate completely closed; and I could hardly hear our little saint either, because she spoke very little and stood back completely to let her sisters speak. The prioress of Carmel (Mother Marie de Gonzague) wrote to my parents, speaking of Thérèse: “Never could I have believed in such an advanced judgment in fifteen years of age; not a word to say to him: everything is perfect.” [1147v.1 My young sister Marie, having entered Carmel in 1895, lived there for two years with the Servant of God. I often heard my parents say how happy they were that Sister Marie of the Eucharist (that was my sister's religious name) had her as a model at the beginning of her religious life. The letters I have kept from my parents and my younger sister testify to the admiration they had for Thérèse's virtues; and the letters we received from the Servant of God also show to what degree of perfection she was raised.

[Answer from the nineteenth to the twenty-third questions]:

I know nothing more on these points than what I testified to in answering the preceding questions.

[Response to the twenty-fourth request]:

When she was very ill (1896-1897) I heard from the Carmelites and from the people who approached her that her resignation was very great and that she was in a hurry to go away with the good God. She wanted to die of love. She suffered a lot during this last illness and without any [1148r] relief. When she died, I was so convinced that she was with the good God, that I was absolutely convinced that she was going to grant me all the graces that I desired. I have kept a whole correspondence from this period, coming from my parents and my Carmelite sister: it clearly shows what the Servant of God's dispositions were towards the end of her life. Here are the most notable passages from these letters:

(Letter from my mother, Madame Guérin, to her niece, Céline Martin, sister of the Servant of God):

June 18, 1897

“I think our dear little patient is still in the same condition; I find myself hoping that the good Lord will leave her to us for some time yet. This is not what our Therese wants! I know it; but it becomes his nevertheless if it is the will of the good God... It sometimes occurs to me to write to him. I say to myself: 'Maybe she would be happy... but she wouldn't say it, she's too perfect!'. Then, I reflect and I think that to speak to this dear little angel I would have to use an angelic language: I feel that the things of the earth are below her, and I keep silent. But tell him, my Céline, that this silence... is a silence of [1148v] admiration and love for God and for the poor little dear creature he has raised to such high perfection. Tell her that my great happiness would be if my dear daughters looked like her. She is so perfect, this child, that when I think of her, tears well up in my eyes...»

WITNESS 20: Jeanne Guerin

(Letter from my young Carmelite sister, Marie of the Eucharist, to our father, Mr. Guérin):

"July 8, 1897

When we go to see Thérèse, she is much changed, much thinner, but still the same calm, and a joke. She sees death coming with happiness, and has not the slightest fear of it. It will sadden you, my dear little father: it is understandable, we are all losing the greatest of treasures; but she is not to be pitied! loving God as she loves him, how well she will be received up there! She will definitely go straight to heaven. When we told her about purgatory for us, she would tell us: 'Oh! how sad you are to me! You are doing a great insult to God by thinking you are going to purgatory: when you love, there can be no purgatory. Some time ago, our mother (prioress) gave [1149r] Monsieur de Cornières (the doctor) her poem Vivre d'amour. She wasn't sick at the time, she just had her mucous condition. But when he had read it, he said to our mother: I will never cure her for you: she is a soul that is not made for the earth'”.

(Letter from my young sister Marie of the Eucharist to our mother, Madame Guérin):

"July 10, 1897

Oh! she is not to be pitied, our little sister, she will be so happy! She is so well prepared! It will be such a great protection for us in heaven... Our father (superior) said to him yesterday: 'Going to heaven soon? but your crown is not made, you are only beginning it!'. So she answered him so angelically, 'Oh! Father, it's very true, I didn't make my crown, but it was the good Lord who made it! - Ah! yes, his crown is made! it is now up to us to make it as beautiful as his and when we have known such a beautiful soul, we would be very responsible not to follow in his footsteps.

(Letter from Madame Guérin to her daughter, Sister Marie of the Eucharist):

[1149v] “July 12, 1897 We are beginning to hope that this accident will pass, and that our dear little queen (the Servant of God) will overcome it. We are in awe of everything we are told about her. But that's not enough: you have to imitate it, and how to achieve such detachment, such happiness in dying? Until now, I had only read this in the lives of the saints; today we have an example of this before us.”

(Letter from Sister Marie of the Eucharist to Monsieur Guérin, her father):

"July 31, 1897

Our Father Superior arrived at 6 o'clock: he administered Extreme Unction to her, and afterwards he brought her the good Lord... It was very touching, I assure you, to see our little patient still with her calm and pure... Never have we seen people die so calmly. 'What do you want - she said to us -, why should death scare me? I have never acted except for the good Lord'. And when someone says to her: 'Perhaps you will die on the day of such and such a feast', 'I don't need to choose a feast day to die - she replies -: the day of my death will be the most great feast days for me'' '.

[1150r] [Response to twenty-fourth request continued]:

(Letter from Madame Guérin to Sister Marie of the Eucharist)

"July 1897

... Poor little queen! how we are all with her in spirit and in heart! How she contemplates death with joy! Your little father couldn't hold back his tears when he read the passage where she talks about her entry into heaven. It's so pretty! It seems to me that the good Lord must happily contemplate the image of his Son in this heart of the bride he has chosen. She is so pure, our little [1150v] Thérèse, so holy! For me, she entered Carmel with her baptismal innocence, and what degrees she must have gone through in so few years! My dear little Marie, I often find myself thanking the good Lord that you were able to see this dear little soul up close, that you lived her life, too little time, alas!... But God knows very well what 'he does. This does not prevent us from seeking, through our prayers, to keep this dear treasure in our midst...” '.

(From the same to the same):

"July 24, 1897

I still wonder how our little Thérèse could, being so weak, write us such a beautiful letter whose thoughts were not only sublime, but also the writing very well formed? I am sure that she must have been very tired of this effort, for which we are infinitely grateful to her, because we will keep this letter in our archives. She deserves it... ".

(Letter from Monsieur Guérin to the Servant of God, his niece, in response to the letter mentioned above):

“July 25, 1897

My dear little angel,

[1151r]... Your letter caused us untold surprise and joy, it wet my eyes with tears. What kind were they? I cannot analyze it. A host of different feelings provoked them: the pride of having such an adopted daughter, the admiration of such great courage and such great love for God, and I cannot hide it from you, my darling, the sadness from which human nature cannot defend itself in the face of a separation which seems eternal to it. Faith and reason protest, we surrender to their arguments, but they cannot prevent the painful groans of the body which sees one of its most precious members removed. You were the little pearl, latecomer, of your good mother, you were the little queen of your old father, and you are the most beautiful jewel of this crown of lilies which surrounds me, embellishes me and gives me a before - taste for the perfections of heaven. Whatever the pain which, at certain moments, obsesses me and embraces me, it never occurred to me to seek to dispute you with the tenderness of the Bridegroom who calls you... They say that the swan, always mute and silent during its life, exhales a sublime song when it sees death approaching. Your letter, my darling, is undoubtedly the last song you dedicated to us. We will keep it [1151v] as a precious deposit. The pious thoughts he inspires in us will perhaps teach us to feel a little the flame of divine love which consumes you, and to which you desire to be united more intimately. Poor little blue bird who has seen the burning bush since her earliest childhood, who has been fascinated by its brilliance and who has come so close to it that she will soon find herself confused with it!

To God, my beloved child, precious pearl entrusted to me by your good mother, the memory of your virtues and your innocence will never leave me, and I hope that your prayers will earn me one day to be reunited with all mine in the eternal abode!

The one who may have the right to call himself your second father, and who embraces you from the bottom of his heart.

I. Guérin »

WITNESS 20: Jeanne Guerin

(Letter from Sister Marie of the Eucharist to Monsieur Guérin, her father):

"August 17, 1897

... We must not believe that his desire to go to heaven is an enthusiasm. Oh! no, it's very peaceful. She said to me this morning: 'If they told me that I was going to be cured, don't think that I would be caught, [1152r] I would be as happy as to die. I have a great desire for heaven, but it is above all because I am in great peace that I am happy, because to feel an immense joy as sometimes when your heart beats with happiness, oh! No; I'm at peace, that's why I'm happy'"

(From the same to the same):

“August 27, 1897

... Now, my dear little father, you are impatiently awaiting news of your little queen. They are still the same, weaker and weaker, no longer able to bear the slightest noise around her, even the rustling of paper, or a few words spoken in a low voice. There is a lot of change in his condition since the day of the Assumption. And even, we have come to desire her deliverance, for she suffers martyrdom. She said to us yesterday: 'Fortunately I did not ask for suffering, because if I had asked for it, I would be afraid of not having the patience to bear it; while coming to me from the pure will of the good God, he cannot refuse me the patience and the grace necessary to support it'. Oppression always makes her suffer a lot... She said yesterday: 'I tell the good Lord that all the prayers that are offered for me do not serve to alleviate my suffering, but that they are all for sinners '... »

(Letter from Madame Guérin to Madame La Néele, her eldest daughter):

"September 30, 1897

... Indeed, this morning the state is the same, the night was not good, but the state is the same. He's really a little victim that the good Lord has chosen for himself. In the midst of her sufferings, she still has the same face, the same angelic air. Father Faucon, who saw her yesterday, told me he was in awe. He had to confess her, then she asked for his blessing, but always with her little smiling and angelic air that never abandons him. She always has her knowledge as lucid...”.

[Response to the twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth questions]:

I often go to pray in the city cemetery at the Servant of God's tomb. Always, or almost always, I meet people from all walks of life who also come to pray. I saw priests, religious and laity there. This [1153r] people's contest began around the time when the publication of the “Story of a Soul” made the Servant of God known; it has grown considerably since the ordinance of the Bishop of Bayeux for the research of the writings of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and it is developing every day.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

The letters and reports that reach Carmel establish that the Servant of God's reputation for holiness has become universal. I know all of these correspondences from what my Carmelite cousins ​​tell me. Moreover, because of the kinship that unites me to Sister Thérèse, I personally receive a large number of visits or letters asking me for my memories of the life of the Servant of God, or requesting images, relics, etc. . My husband, Doctor La Néele, having acquired the house in Les Buissonnets where the Servant of God spent her childhood, I know that people come, out of devotion, to visit this property.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

[1153v] I have never heard any criticism or opposition formulated against the holiness of the Servant of God. Several people have recognized, like me, that Sister Thérèse's reserve and simplicity had prevented them from discerning, during her life, all the heroicity of her virtue. If what they have learned from him since his death has been like a revelation to them, they have not dreamed of casting doubt on the truth of this perfection.

WITNESS 20: Jeanne Guerin

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

In addition to the accounts, made at Carmel, of the numerous graces of all kinds obtained through the intercession of the Servant of God, I personally received confidences of a large number of benefits obtained by people I know. People spoke to me of spiritual graces, temporal favors, healings, etc. I didn't write down the details: I told these people to report it to Carmel. But I can attest in a general way that the belief that great graces can be obtained through the intercession of Sister Thérèse is very widespread. To limit myself to what directly concerns the members of my family, we [1154r] have attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God the unexpected peace and calm in which my mother died. During her last illness, the memory of Sister Thérèse was very present to her. During a night of great suffering, she said to my husband, Doctor La Néele: "It is true, I suffer a lot, but I feel there, very close to me, my little Thérèse, her presence gives me courage, that help me to bear my sufferings.” My mother had a great apprehension of death, and we feared because of that that her end would be very painful; on the contrary, she abandoned herself to the will of God with the greatest calm. His last words were these: “My Jesus, I am sacrificing my life to you for the priests, like my little Thérèse of the Child Jesus.”

We must also consider as a precious grace, the sanctifying influence that the Servant of God exercised, mainly after her death, on the soul of my young Carmelite sister, Mary of the Eucharist. Here is a letter from her which clearly shows what help she obtained from it for her perfection.

(Letter from Sister Marie of the Eucharist to Monsieur Guérin, her father):

[1154v] “July 3, 1898

... Since the stories of the little graces obtained by our little angel give you pleasure, I'm going to tell you about one that happened to me this winter and that I hadn't told you about. One day when it was very cold, around 5 o'clock in the evening, my feet were so frozen that I could hardly walk, I no longer felt them. I must tell you beforehand, for the clarification of my story: 1° that the soles of our alpargates being made of rope, take on moisture very easily and that we are obliged to dry them on a heater; but the heater simply heats the alpargates when you don't have your feet in them, the use of heaters to warm your feet being forbidden in Carmel; 2° second clarification: At that time, I was bleeding frequently from the nose, and our mother had obliged me to wear warm alpargates from time to time; but for a few days, the nosebleeds seeming to be over, I found the obligation also suspended. So that evening, my alpargates being to dry, I could without sin put them very hot since I had permission to do so, but I preferred to mortify them; I said to myself: 'If my little Thérèse were here, what would she say to me? [1155r] Ah! her answer would be categorical, she would like me to change our alpargates to take warm ones, because, for her little novices, she was always filled with tenderness and very often prevented them from suffering. But in my place too, what would she have done? Ah! the little rascal, she would have jumped on this means to mortify herself, and would have remained with frozen feet for love of the good Lord. So, I spoke to her and I said to her: 'Since you would have done this, I am going to do it too; you shouldn't give us the example, if you don't want us to follow it!. My resolution was therefore taken, happy to give something to the good Lord. I passed singing in front of the apartment where our alpargates were heating. Hardly had I passed the door of the apartment, crack!... There I feel something crack in one of our alpargates; I look... it was irreconcilable; at the time it was impossible for me to continue my walk with these alpargates. I was therefore obliged to go and put on some very warm alpargates, since I had no more. The good Lord sometimes has these little delicacies, when one deprives oneself for him. I recognize that as one of my little Thérèse's tricks; this was often how she acted, she let us make our sacrifices willingly, then always found some way to diminish them, when they were [1155v] fully accepted.”

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I don't think I forgot anything.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Witness, I have deposed as above according to the truth, I ratify and confirm it.

Signed: J. LA NÉELE

Witness 21 - Etienne Frapereau

Etienne Frapereau was born in La Jumellière (diocese of Angers) on April 12, 1831.

Pastor of Beaucouzé (1870-1876) and La Salle-de-Vihiers (1876-1908), he then retired to the priestly community of Saint-Martin de Beaupréau (Maine-et-Loire) where he died on December 27, 1913.

Father Frapereau testified to an apparition of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus to an elderly priest, Mr. Rossignol, who had thus been freed from the anguish that affected him at the thought of God's judgment.

The witness testified on March 30, 1911, during the 72nd session, f. 1161v-1164r of our Public Copy.

[Session 72: - March 30, 1911 at 8 a.m. 30]

[1161v] [The witness correctly answers the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Etienne Frapereau born in La Jumellière, diocese of Angers, on April 12, 1831, from the legitimate marriage of Charles Frapereau watchmaker and Jacquine Colaisseau. I am a priest, now retired in the community of Saint-Martin de Beaupréau, diocese of Angers. My priestly life was spent in the exercise of parish ministry, having been successively parish priest of Beaucouzé (1870-1876) and of La Salle de Vihiers, diocese of Angers (1876-1908); since 1908 I have been in Beaupréau.

[The witness answers the third to the seventh questions correctly].

[1162r] [Answer to the eighth request]:

My testimony will relate only to a miraculous fact which I learned from the very one who was the object of it, as I will expose it in relating the fact.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I cannot say that I have a particular devotion for the Servant of God. We talked a lot about it in the community where I live and I read his Life which edified me a lot.

[From the tenth to the twenty-eighth inclusive, the requests are omitted, because for the citation of this witness the vice-postulator only insisted on a single fact, namely the assertion of the apparition of the Servant of God. So we immediately come to the twenty-ninth request. The witness answers]:

The one who was favored by this apparition is Father Rossignol, about 76 years old. He had been a professor at the major seminary of Luçon for about 26 years; there he had successively taught dogmatic and moral theology. For about four years, he had been part of our [1162v] community of retired priests at Saint-Martin de Beaupréau. Monsieur Rossignol enjoyed throughout the diocese of Luzon a reputation as a very distinguished professor and a priest of high sanctity. In the community, we all considered him a “saint.” He was a timorous soul; the shadow of a venial sin would have made him tremble. He spent two whole hours every day near the Blessed Sacrament, and during all this time he remained on his knees, in spite of his age and his infirmities. After his death, several penitential instruments were found which he used, and no one was surprised. He had a very calm and sure judgment, he was a positive man of great experience and was not prone to lapses of imagination. He had suffered for a long time from a chronic affection of the intestines, but this state did not prevent him from taking part in all the common life and in no way made foresee, at the date of the appearance, the almost sudden death which took place two days after. Reading the life of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had inspired her with great devotion to the Servant of God. Here is now the simple account of the extraordinary event of which he was the object:

Last January 16, in the morning, [1163r] I asked him for news of his health; he replied: "Thank you, the night was good, very good, given my usual state, but what was especially good, very good, was my waking up and getting up this morning, I saw at this moment little sister Thérèse, it really is her, I saw her clearly and recognized her as her photograph gives us; she stood at my bedside; she looked at me with a smile and made me understand by her signs and the expression of her entire face that she had come to say to me: I am taking care of your business... of the business; it will come soon, count on it. He added: it's not a dream, I was wide awake.

WITNESS 21: Etienne Frapereau

What did these words of Monsieur Rossignol mean? Discretion prevented me from asking him. He walked away looking happy, telling me not to tell anyone about this. The death of this holy priest, which happened suddenly two days later, released me from my promise and allows me to say today what he wanted to keep hidden - I have no doubt about it - in a spirit of humility. I was told that Monsieur Rossignol had an exaggerated terror of God's judgments, from which it was inferred that the purpose of the appearance of the Servant of God was to [1163v] announce his approaching death and to reassure him. . The fact is that at the moment of his death, he made, in my presence, the sacrifice of his life with transports of extraordinary joy, without any manifestation of fright or fear. But these interior apprehensions of his soul, I must say that he had never manifested them to me, I knew them from what Father Arsène told me about them, a Trappist monk from Belle-Fontaine, his ordinary confessor, and also Father Gaignet who had been his colleague in Luçon for 16 years, I also have from the same Father Arsène that Mr. Rossignol had told him on January 16 the same story of the apparition that he had made to me . Moreover, I have in hand, to submit it to the Trial, the written and legalized attestation of this said Father Arsène, a document drafted at the request of Monsignor de Teil, vice-postulator.

[The judges recognize the authenticity of this document and after having shown it to the promoter of the faith, they order that I, notary, insert it at the end of this certificate].

[1164r][Response to thirtieth request]:

I said everything I know.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Signatum: Testis deposui ut supra secundum veritatem, ratum habeo et confirmo.

ETIENNE FRAPEREAU, presbyter

[1164v] [Authentic account of Reverend Father Arsène]:

I, the undersigned, certify that on January 1911, XNUMX, I received a visit from Father Rossignol who came to me for confessions. He told me that he saw that morning, when he woke up, the Servant of God Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who was standing near his bed. I also personally know the great devotion he had for her. He had made me the confidant of the terrors he had of the judgments of God after his death. I was happy to learn that two days later, a few hours before his death, he enthusiastically offered the sacrifice of his life to God.

Signed: Brother MARIE ARSENE, OCR, presbyter.

Witness 22 - Jean-Jules-Pierre Gaignet

Jean-Jules-Pierre Gaignet was born in Gué-de-Velluire (diocese of Luçon) on May 11, 1839. Professor of dogmatic theology and Holy Scripture at the major seminary of Luçon, then, becoming a Sulpician, professor of moral theology in Dijon and superior of the major seminary of Limoges, finally residing in Issy, Mr. Gaignet testifies about the apparition of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus to Father Rossignol on 16 February 1911, which has just been mentioned. It provides additional information.

The witness testified on March 30 and 31, 1911, during sessions 72 and 73, f. 1165r-1172r of our Public Copy.

[Session 72: - March 30, 1911, at 3 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1165r] [The witness correctly answers the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Jean-Jules-Pierre Gaignet, born in Gué-de-Velluire, diocese of Luçon, on May 11, 1839, of the legitimate marriage of Jean Gaignet, farmer, and Modeste Freté. I am a priest of the diocese of Luçon; after having been a professor for a few months at the minor seminary of Sables-d'Olonne (18621863-1863), I was called to the major seminary of Luçon, where I was professor of Sacred Scripture, then of dogmatic theology (1884-1884 ). I then entered the Congregation of Saint Sulpice (1884); after having taught moral theology at Dijon (1885-18851886) as an auxiliary, I did my novitiate (1886-1905) and was sent as superior to the major seminary of Limoges (1165-XNUMX). Since that time, [XNUMXv] I have been at the residence of Saint Sulpice in Issy, diocese of Paris.

[The witness answers the third to the seventh questions correctly].

WITNESS 22: Jean Gaignet

[Answer to the eighth request]:

My testimony is limited to the case of Father Rossignol, favored at Beaupréau by an apparition of the Servant of God. I will draw the material for my deposition from the personal knowledge that I had of the dispositions of Mr. Rossignol who was first my teacher, then my colleague at the major seminary of Luçon. In this double capacity, I lived in his intimacy for 25 years.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a particular devotion to the Servant of God, whose life I read with great edification. I recognized in her an elite soul of heroic sanctity whose beatification I desire and hope for.

[As at the request of the vice[1166r]postulator the witness had been called to give his testimony on the apparition of the Servant of God, the requests are omitted from the tenth to the twenty-eighth inclusive, and we skip all straight to the twenty-ninth. Witness response]:

I knew Father Jules Rossignol intimately for 25 years, director of the major seminary of Luçon, where he successively taught dogmatic and moral theology with equal success. He had a firm and lofty mind; his teaching was precise and of perfect orthodoxy: he was an offline teacher. He was cautious in his advice and showed no tendency to exaggerated mysticism; his virtues, and in particular his humility, dismiss the thought and even the suspicion that he wanted to raise himself in the esteem of those to whom he confided the secret of the apparition with which he says he was favored. This supernatural favor of a vision of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, he confided in two different people, whose testimony reached me as I will say. The first confidant of this grace was Father Frapereau, former parish priest of the Salle de Vihiers, his boarding colleague in the community of Saint-Martin de Beaupréau. I had in my hands and I read the written report [1166v] that the said Mr. Frapereau had made of this communication to the vice-postulator of the Cause. Moreover, I saw the same Mr. Frapereau in recent days who told me verbally and with even more details the same story. He told me that on the morning of January 16, 1911, when he asked Monsieur Rossignol for news of his health, the latter replied that the night had been good and even very good, and especially his awakening, because then he had distinctly seen at the bedside of his bed the Servant of God, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who appeared to him smiling, making him understand that the matter he had entrusted to her was on the right track.

The other confidant of Monsieur Rossignol was Father Arsene, a Trappist from Bellefontaine, his confessor. I saw, in fact, at the Carmel of Lisieux, a report written and signed by the hand of the said Father Arsène, with the legalized signature, in which the said Father Arsène attests that Monsieur Rossignol declared to him the fact of the apparition near his bed of the Servant of God. In this play, Father Arsène also speaks of the great fears that Monsieur Rossignol had of the judgments of God. I have no doubt that the Vice-Postulator intends to add this document to the Trial file one day. The knowledge that I have of the moral value of Monsieur Rossignol makes me affirm that [1167r] his testimony is very admissible when he attests that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus appeared to him and that he recognized her perfectly his resemblance to his portraits. I therefore hold this fact as real without any hesitation.

[Request from the judge: do you know if the aforesaid Mr. Rossignol still enjoyed at the end of his life the remarkable lucidity of mind of which you spoke? Answer]:

I do not doubt it and cannot doubt it, given the testimonies that I have received from those who knew him until the last moment, in particular Monsieur Frapereau and Monsieur Rossignol's own nephew, a distinguished and very grave of the clergy of Luzon.

[Then the witness continues]:

As for the meaning to be attached to these words of Mr. Rossignol: "She made me understand that my business was on the right track", everyone regretted that Mr. Frapereau had not insisted on knowing from him what this business was. Those who knew Monsieur Rossignol well interpreted in two senses, which moreover are not mutually exclusive, and are equally to the honor of this excellent priest: 1167° the Servant of God wants to reassure him against the fears he had of the judgments of [1870v] God. These fears he had often expressed to me, either as a friend or as the director of his conscience (I was in fact his confessor between 1884 and 2). Now, according to the witnesses of his death, the unusual blooming of his face, the sudden cessation of his fears, the sacrifice of his life made with enthusiasm, are facts which contrast so much with the usual state of Father Rossignol, that there is every reason to consider them as the effects of the appearance of Sister Thérèse. XNUMX° In this apparition, Monsieur Rossignol was able to see the announcement of his approaching end and, by the very fact of his death, the solution of a matter which was very close to his heart and which he recommended to the Servant of God . Here is the nature of this affair as it is explained to me in a letter that Father Camille Rossignol, his nephew, wrote to me. He had founded a fine Christian school and relied on his personal resources to maintain it. The prolongation of his life, diminishing his resources, seemed to compromise the future of his work. "In his mind - writes his nephew to me - he had to die so that his school could live."

WITNESS 22: Jean Gaignet

[Session 73: - March 31, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30]

[1171v] [Response to the thirtieth request]:

I believe I have said all I know concerning the Cause.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum [1172r] habeo et confirmo.

Signed: J. GAIGNET, priest

Witness 23 - Anatole-Armand-Marie Flamérion, SJ

Anatole-Armand-Marie Flamérion was born in Paris on October 7, 1851. He entered the Society of Jesus, taught for ten years in various colleges while also devoting himself to preaching and was appointed director of the "Villa Manrèse", a house of retreats located in Clamart, near Paris. He was there in a good position to realize the profound attraction exerted on priests by Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. He succeeded in 1909 to the father of Haza as exorcist of the diocese of Paris.

Father Flamérion underlines with how much prudence it is necessary to know how to measure the words of the obsessed.

Let us recall that Mother Agnès had written on January 12, 1911 to the Postulator Father: “We are receiving more and more letters from all sides which bear witness to the confidence inspired by the intercession of our little sister; it continues to heal bodies and convert souls. The demon in exorcisms is obliged to agree. A very serious Jesuit father wrote to me about it recently in confidence: Providence and obedience have entrusted me with the same mission as venerable Father de Haza and Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus shows herself to be very powerful in the struggles I am charged against the evil spirit. On several occasions, the demon, seized with fear and forced to make a humiliating confession, cried out, pointing to a point on the horizon: “Ah! here it is! " "Who?" - “The little Carmelite! - "Say his name!" » - « Thérèse of the Child Jesus! » - And, on another occasion, he adds furiously: « There she is, the little eater of priests! Oh! how she tore me from it! (Arch. Gen. OCD, 398d:9). Father Flamérion will also testify at the Apostolic Process on August 25, 1916.

This testimony was given on April 3, 1911, during the 74th session, fr. 1175v-1180r, from our Public Copy.

WITNESS 23: Anatole Flamerion SJ

[Session 74: - April 3, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1175v] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Anatole-Armand-Marie Flamérion, born in Paris, parish of Saint-François-Xavier, on October 7, 1851, of the legitimate marriage of Nicolas-Alexandre Flamérion, employee of the city of Paris, and Louise Adélaïde Charlotte Sicart. I am a professed religious of the Society of Jesus. I have been applied for 15 years to teaching in a college and simultaneously to works and preaching; then I was especially applied to preaching, until 1900. At that time, I was called to direct the house called “Villa Manrèse” in Clamart, diocese of Paris, where a series of priestly retreats are held. Eighteen months ago, I was appointed by the Archbishop of Paris to exercise the functions of exorcist in this diocese.

[1176r] [The witness answers questions XNUMX to XNUMX correctly].

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I did not know the Servant of God except by reading the “Story of a Soul”, and I will not use this work in my testimony. The details that I have to make known to the court relate to graces obtained by the Servant of God since her death, and I have known them through my personal observation in the exercise of my ministry, either as an exorcist or also as director of the priests in the retreats they come to do at the “Villa Manrèse.”

[Response to the ninth request]:

Around 1906, I read the “Story of a Soul” very hastily, superficially and incompletely, and I got a rather unfavorable impression from it: this Biography seemed to me cutesy and childish. A few years later, in 1909, learning from grave and very Christian people that [1176v] reading this same book did them a lot of good, I decided to make a thoughtful study of it, and my first impression changed completely. I found there a very deep and very strong spirituality. On the other hand, I noted precious graces obtained through the intercession of the Servant of God, either by priests or other people whom I directed, or by myself. Since that time, I have had a great devotion for the Servant of God and I hope that the Process for her beatification will have a happy outcome.

[Answer from the tenth to the twenty-eighth questions]:

I have nothing special to say on these matters.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

For the understanding of what I have to say about the Servant of God, I must explain in a few words what is called the “Work of the All-Merciful Mother and of the Victims of the Heart of Jesus.” To come to the aid of the Church and of souls against a particularly [1171r] formidable unleashing of the demons, to which the Sovereign Pontiff Leo XIII alludes in the prayer he has prescribed to say after Mass, the Most Blessed Virgin "Mother all-merciful" has chosen a certain number of "voluntary victims" over whom the demon receives a special power of possession and who, by their generosity in bearing and offering to Our Lord these terrible trials, use up the power of the demons, and thus serve the Church by preserving or delivering other souls. Father de Haza, my predecessor in the function of exorcist which he fulfilled for 36 years, recognized this merciful plan in the very exercise of his ministry. Having been his "socius" for nine years in this function of official exorcist, then his successor since 1909, I myself have verified by multiple facts the reality of this plan. In 1900, the Reverend Father de Haza had the Archbishop of Tours present to the Holy Office a report of the findings he had made. In 1901, the Holy Office replied to the Archbishop of Tours in these terms: “We found this work extremely interesting; everything that is told there is in conformity with the doctrine of the Church. We have particularly [1177v] noticed that the whole thing is in conformity with what the prayers prescribed by the Holy Father imply on a kind of unleashing of demons.”

WITNESS 23: Anatole Flamerion SJ

[Response to the twenty-ninth request continued]:

I must also remark that the authors of mystical theology recognize that during exorcisms, the demons are often forced, in spite of their tendency to lie, to make, to their confusion, the confession of truths concerning the glory of God. and the good of souls; these same authors give sure rules for discerning truth from falsehood between these various assertions. There are likewise sure rules, sanctioned by the Church, for recognizing divine effects in souls and distinguishing them from phenomena of the imagination. However, in the exercise of my ministry of exorcist, I recognized without being able to doubt it, either by the confession of the demons, always concordant in multiple exorcisms, interesting various subjects, totally unknown to each other, or by the conforming declarations of these same souls under divine action, I have recognized, I say:

1°. That the Blessed Virgin oriented the "Work of the Victims", of which I spoke above, very particularly towards the sanctification of priests and the reparation of the outrages done to Our Lord, in the Holy Eucharist, by unworthy priests .

2°. That in this work of mercy and love, undertaken for the sanctification of priests, the Blessed Virgin has associated herself in a very special way with the Servant of God Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who works: to help those who work for the sanctification of priests; 2° to deliver the priests from the demons who tempt them or even enslave them, by chaining these demons only to the “Victims” whose virtues cause their torments and [1178v] reduce them to impotence.

3°. That the demons dread as particularly contrary to their undertakings and favorable to the progress of souls, the acts of obedience, humility, smallness, trusting abandonment and love, done in the spirit of the "Little Way" of Sister Therese.

In support of these assertions, here, among many others, are some of the facts that I have noted:

A) The demon declared, through the mouths of several possessed, completely unknown to each other, that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus assists me in my ministry, precisely because I am concerned with sanctification priests. "Therese was prepared for you for a long time - It is she who directs your arm - It is the Virgin who sent it to you" (Exorcism of January 20, 1910 on j.... Paris). - “Thérèse is the angel of your priesthood and of your ministry to the priests” (This response from the demon was made to me in many different circumstances, notably on July 30, 1910). “Thérèse was given to you, she is yours and always assists you, because of your priestly mission” (February 9, 1911, exorcism of J... ). - “Thérèse was given to you because of your mission... she helps you with the [1179r] priests” (Exorcism of M... on December 8, 1910 - M... completely unknown to J... ).

B) The demon also declared that Sister Thérèse had snatched many priests' souls from him. “There she is, the little Carmelite, Thérèse of the Child Jesus, that little priest-eater:

Oh! that she tore me away” (Exorcism of J... November 25, 1909 - item January 27, 1910: “Thérèse of the Child Jesus! she tore priests from me!”).

C) The demon declares elsewhere that Thérèse tore him from the soul of a priest, and that the Virgin relegated him to the body of a "voluntary victim": "Yes, it is your Thérèse who snatched this soul and which is the cause that I am imprisoned by the Virgin.

D) The demon confesses that the path of perfection through humility and obedience taught by Thérèse of the Child Jesus is particularly odious to him: he disdainfully calls it "supreme imbecility." "What is it - I said to the devil - that drew the Heart of Jesus to this little Thérèse? » - « Because - he answers - it was a soul that was destroying itself!... A destroyed soul! Ah! Jesus comes and stays there; a [1179v] priest, whose soul would be destroyed, would save the world; he would be a living Christ” (Exorcism of J... March 10, 1910). "Therese has arrived at supreme imbecility," said the demon one day; and as I asked him: "What do you mean by this supreme imbecility?" he replied, "Because she was small."

Apart from this ministry of exorcism, I was also able to observe in the ordinary ministry of retreats for priests at the “Villa Manrèse”, that devotion to the Servant of God inspires in them a great desire to progress in holiness. 400 to 500 priests come to the “Villa Manrèse” a year, and many of them tell me about their trust in the Servant of God. Some even consider it as an auxiliary and as associated with their ministry and their spiritual life.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I have nothing to add.

[1180r] [Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in responding to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Testis deposui ut supra pro veritate, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signed: A. FLAMERION, SJ

Witness 24 - Victor Madelaine

Victor Madelaine was born in Le Tourneur (diocese of Bayeux) on November 14, 1842 and entered, still young, in the premonstratensians of the abbey of Mondaye (Calvados) where he received the first name of Godefroy and made his profession on February 7, 1864. Ordained a priest , he quickly became very popular as a preacher in Normandy. He was prior of his abbey from 1879 to 1899, the year in which he was elected abbot of Saint-Michel-de-Frigolet (Bouches-du-Rhône). Expelled from France as a monk in 1903, he took refuge in Belgium at the Abbey of Leffe near Namur. After World War I, he retired to Mondaye where he died on September 22, 1931.

When he resided at Mondaye, Father Godefroy had many opportunities to go to the Carmel of Lisieux where he was highly esteemed, either as a preacher or as a director. He gave the annual retreat there in 1890, 1892 and 1896. Mother Marie de Gonzague could speak to him with admiration of her “little angel” whose family he knew well, being a friend of Monsieur Martin for whom he had a veneration. The father heard Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus more than once in the confessional and in his old age he still remembered with admiration the interview he had had with her in 1896 and how with extraordinary serenity she was then open to him of her great trial concerning the faith. He was happy to be able to follow the stages of the glorification of the Saint and it was on the order of Monsignor Lemonnier, Bishop of Bayeux, that he wrote "My memories" (Annals of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, 2 [1926] 16-18, 27-29, 40-42) where he had the opportunity to confirm some of the points of his testimony *.

Highly esteemed by Mother Marie de Gonzague, whom he thought was gifted "with particularly good judgment" (f. 1219r), it was to him that the prioress then addressed herself when she wanted, one month after Thérèse's death, publish her manuscripts. Father Godefroy Madelaine read and re-read the text attentively, and, helped by one of his colleagues, Father Norbert Paysant, indicated to make some corrections and deletions, intervened for the division of the chapters and suggested retaining the title Story of a soul, inspired by Thérèse herself who had written at the beginning of her memoirs: “I come to entrust the story of my soul...” (MA “A” 1r).

He managed, not without difficulty, to obtain the Imprimatur from the Bishop of Bayeux, who mistrusted "the imagination of women." From the first edition, he personally wrote a truly prophetic letter-introduction which does him credit.

The witness testified in Lisieux on May 23 and 24, 1911, during sessions 77-78, f. 1205r-1223r of our Public Copy.

[Session 77: - May 23, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon

[1205r] [1205v] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Victor Madelaine, in religion brother Godefroy, abbot of Saint Michel de Frigolet, diocese of Aix. I was born in Le Tourneur, diocese of Bayeux, on November 14, 1842, of the legitimate marriage of Jean-Baptiste Madelaine, farmer, and Marie Hamel. I am a professed religious of the Order of Prémontré. I made my profession on February 7, 1864, at the Abbey of Mondaye, diocese of Bayeux, where I remained until 1899. I was elected and blessed Abbot of Saint Michel de Frigolet. Expelled from this abbey in 1903 by the French government, I took refuge with my community in Belgium, at the abbey of Leffe, diocese of Namur, where I currently reside.

[The witness answers the third to the sixth questions correctly].

[Response to the seventh request].

I came to testify on [1206r] the appeal of the vice-postulator; I do it very willingly because of my old relationship with the Servant of God; but I testify very freely and would not, for anything in the world, advance anything that was not in conformity with the truth. The saints, moreover, only need the truth.

WITNESS 24: Godefroy Madelaine 0. Praem.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

Before the Servant of God entered Carmel, I had no personal relationship with her; I knew his father well, whom I had met several times at the presbytery of Saint Jacques de Lisieux. After the Servant of God entered Carmel (1888) I had a relationship of conscience with her, which enabled me to read her soul well beforehand; I was in fact called to preach and lead several retreats in the Carmel community. Immediately after her death (1897) the Reverend Mother Marie de Gonzague, Prioress, sent me the manuscript of the “Story of a Soul” to examine it. Since that time I have maintained assiduous relations with the community of Carmel, and more especially with the successive prioresses. [1206v] In my deposition, I will mainly state my personal observations, bearing either directly on the Servant of God, or on her autobiography. I will not exclude, however, the knowledge that came to me through the interviews I had with various people. Touching the value of the manuscript of the "Story of a Soul", I will explain myself presently, by giving an account of the examination that I was called upon to make of it.

[Response to the ninth request]:

As soon as I became acquainted with this privileged soul through the confidences of her retreats, I conceived for her a veneration that I could call a worship, which in the sequel has only been affirmed and increased. I consider it one of the great graces of my life to have known this soul. I hope and I ask God for his beatification, relying moreover on the judgment of the Holy Church.

[Answer to the tenth request]:

Of the very early years of the Servant of God, I only know what is reported in her autobiography.

[1207r] [Answer to the eleventh request]:

I personally knew Monsieur Martin, the Servant of God's father. He was an exemplary family man and so profoundly Christian that he did not seek an establishment for his daughters in the world, but wished to see them all consecrate themselves to God. I remember, in particular, that on March 19, 1887, finding myself near him at the table of the parish priest of Saint Jacques, superior of the Carmel of Lisieux, on the occasion of the taking of the habit of one of his daughters, he said: “I am very happy, here are already two of my daughters whose salvation is assured; I still have one who is only 14 years old, and who already burns to follow them.

[Answer to the twelfth request]:

I have no personal information on this point.

[Answer from the thirteenth to the sixteenth request]:

What concerns the Servant of God during the first years of her life up to and including her entry into Carmel, is only known to me, in detail, [1207v] through subsequent conversations or by studying her manuscript. Nevertheless, I remember that from then on people spoke of the young Thérèse Martin as an elite soul.

[Answer from the seventeenth to the eighteenth questions]:

I preached and directed the retreats of the Carmel of Lisieux in 1890, 1892 and 1896; moreover, I also preached several triduum in this community during the life of the Servant of God. On these occasions, Mother Marie de Gonzague, prioress, spoke to me about the state of her community, and in particular of the Servant of God whom she commonly called her “little angel.” I thus learned that she had done her novitiate, then her profession, finally that she exercised the office of mistress of novices, but she was not given the title because of her age. Father Delatroëtte, parish priest of Saint Jacques and superior of the Carmel, also spoke to me in these circumstances of the state of the monastery, and pointed out to me, with real veneration, the exceptional virtues of "little sister Thérèse". is what it was always called. In short, I know very little about the "curriculum vitae" of the Servant of God. As for his moods, I will talk about them [1208r] when dealing with his virtues.

[Answer to the nineteenth request]:

On October 29, 1897, only a few weeks after the death of the Servant of God, Mother Marie de Gonzague, prioress, confided to me that she had biographical notes written by Sister Thérèse herself, and asked me to examine them; here is a passage from his letter: “The latest events that have happened to us (the death of the Servant of God) leave me almost inert, I don't really know where I am, where I'm going. The death of our angel leaves me with a void that will never be filled; the more perfections I discover in this child of blessing, the more I regret having lost her. Out of obedience, she left me some delightful pages which I am in the process of reviewing with Mother Agnès of Jesus, and I believe that we will be able to make them known. This is a secret for you... You will be kind enough to correct it (the manuscript) for us or have it corrected if your occupations do not allow it. No one knows, even in the community; Only Monsieur le Supérieur allowed me to do so.”

I studied the manuscript for [1208v] about three months; I distributed it in chapters and made some small corrections of form, but which in no way affected the content. The Reverend Mother Prioress of Carmel gave me the letters I wrote on this occasion. It will be enough for me to communicate passages of it to the court to reestablish with precision the history of this manuscript.

From March 1, 1898:

Mondaye Abbey.

My reverend mother, I have read the whole manuscript as well as the poems... I still keep it, because I want to reread it and it is then that I will mark in blue pencil what I believe should be omitted for the impression. Everything, absolutely everything is precious to you in this manuscript; but for the public there are details so intimate, so elevated above the common level, that it is better, I believe, not to have them printed. There are also slight mistakes in French or style; they are only small stains which are easy to remove. Finally, we also, from place to place, noticed lengths; for the readers it will be better to delete certain [1209r] repetitions that I will point out.

WITNESS 24: Godefroy Madelaine 0. Praem.

This is the part of criticism; but, my good mother, I cannot tell you with what pleasure, with what spiritual taste, I read these pages, all perfumed with divine love. Before Easter, I hope to be able to deliver the dear manuscript to you with our observations, and then you can begin to copy it for printing. On March 8, 1898 I wrote:

"My good mother,

you can rest assured about the Imprimatur: we have it. Yesterday, I saw my lord, and on my report (verbal) he was good enough to give it to us.

Here is what had happened: Monsignor, hearing of a manuscript by Sister Thérèse, objected at first sight that it was necessary to mistrust the imagination of women; but I was able to assure him in all conscience, and after careful study, that in the present case I had been able to recognize that the whole manuscript bore evident traces of the spirit of God and that there was no could identify any doctrinal error. On this testimony, Monsignor gave, in [1209v] session, the authorization to print.

From a letter, written a few months later, I extract this passage:

“Mondaye Abbey, January 3, 1899.

My reverend mother... three days ago, in Bayeux, a most intelligent canon told me that he had read the “Story of a Soul” up to three times; and that this reading makes it better every time. He added that in the major seminary the students devour the dear book. Thank you! It is the fulfillment of the beautiful saying 'I will spend my heaven doing good on earth'.” (Providence willed that the said canon became today the president of the tribunal of the Cause).

As for the value of this manuscript, I consider it to be the most authoritative witness to the dispositions of his soul. I notice that she undertook and carried out this work only out of obedience to her superior. Moreover, I note there the expression of a humility so candid that it guarantees the veracity of his statements. "It is for you alone, my mother - she said - that I am going to write the story of the little flower picked by Jesus: this thought will make me speak with abandon, without worrying either about the style, nor of the many digressions that I am going to make. If a little flower could speak, it seems to me that she would simply say what the good Lord has done for her, without trying to hide her gifts” - MSA 1210v - . A third observation relates to the disinterestedness she shows regarding the fate of her manuscript: "If you burned this manuscript before my eyes - she said - even before having read it, I would experience no pain" - MSA 3r - . I noted in this manuscript an elevation and a precision of doctrine which testify to obviously supernatural lights. Without going into all the details, I will point out in particular the happy use she constantly makes of Sacred Scripture, and the marvelous developments she gives on fraternal charity.

[1210v] [Response to nineteenth request continued]:

If the question of veracity concerning the content of the manuscript were to be asked, I would say that in my opinion one cannot doubt the perfect accuracy of all that is contained in this autobiography: 2° because the sincerity, the horror lying and, as it were, a need for absolute frankness were natural qualities in the Servant of God which were revealed from her earliest childhood: she had no peace until she had shown her little childish peccadilloes. XNUMX° It should be noted that the study of her whole life shows that she was in no way inclined to excesses of imagination and the dangers of illuminism; everything about his story is simple and reasonable.

[Answer to the twentieth request]:

The Servant of [1211r] God's faithfulness to grace was revealed from her early childhood and was never denied. She was able to say, towards the end of her life, and we can believe her, given her perfect sincerity: "Since the age of three, I have never refused anything to the good Lord" - CS? ? - . In all that I have known of her, I have observed that she fully realized this ideal of perfection which she describes in these terms: "As in the days of my childhood in the presence of a basket of toys, I I had said: I choose everything, I exclaimed: My God, I choose everything, I don't want to be half a saint; I am not afraid to suffer for you, my God; I want to be a great saint” - MSA 10v - . In the reading of her manuscript, one notes a constant and very remarkable progression, either in the sublimity of the virtues which she practices, or in the elevation of the doctrine which she exposes; and the eleventh chapter, which is the last, is like the swan song; never has it risen higher.

[Response to the twenty-first request]:

A) OF FIDE HEROICA. - The Servant of God excelled in the heroicity of her faith, to a degree all the higher because she had, by God's permission, [1211v] terrible and prolonged assaults to sustain against this virtue. I was the confidant of his soul, especially in those trials by which God purified his soul. I know full well that she is telling the truth when she expresses herself thus in her manuscript: “I have pronounced more acts of faith in the past year than in my whole life” - MSC 7r - . I was very struck by the peace which reigned in the upper part of her soul, in the midst of all her anguish, and I remember very well that she lost nothing then, neither of her usual gaiety nor of her usual expansion. . I always looked at this great ordeal as the providential preparation for the extraordinary graces that God granted him in the last period of his life.

WITNESS 24: Godefroy Madelaine 0. Praem.

B) OF SPE HEROICA. - What I found remarkable in the Servant of God's state of mind was that, drawn by the attraction of grace, to acts of pure and disinterested love, she was never fallen into the illusions of quietism: Christian hope remains in her with all her rights; she practices the most filial abandonment, but she never falls into this quietist passivity, which excludes acts. She claims others in her direction, and practices [1212r] herself to the end, the exercise of the Christian virtues.

C) FROM HEROICA CARITATE IN DEUM. The true vocation of the Servant of God, as she says herself, was the affective love of God, and to describe exactly the state of her soul, it would be necessary to quote the whole end of the eleventh chapter of the "Story of a soul." I cannot help comparing it to the eighth chapter of the third book of the Imitation: "de mirabili affectu divini amoris." The offering to Merciful Love that she made of herself on June 9, 1895, is like the culmination of her whole life. It was then that she exclaimed: “Now I no longer have any desire, except to love Jesus madly; yes, it is love alone that attracts me, I no longer desire either suffering or death, yet I cherish them both” - MSA 82v-83r -

D) DE HEROICA CHARITATE IN PROXIMUM, - It is well known in Carmel that she was in the midst of her sisters an angel of peace and charity. I have often been told how helpful she was to all the sisters, and especially to those whose faults and infirmities [1212v] made them more inconvenient. But what I want above all to attest to is his heroic love of souls. The Servant of God often expressed to me the ardent desires she had to exert herself to win souls. There was an apostolic flame in his soul. These aspirations were not pure theory with her, they translated into constant acts of prayer, good works and mortifications, I believe that the intention of saving souls was one of her most usual intentions. She would have liked to be a missionary and it was with very active generosity that she agreed to unite her spiritual life to the work of two missionaries, whom she called her "brothers." I learned this last detail, not only from the “History of his life”, but from the account given to me by the parents of one of these missionaries, Reverend Father Roulland, of the Missions Etrangères.

OF VIRTUTIBUS CARDINALIBUS: A) OF PRUDENTIA. - It seems obvious to me that the Servant of God had received special lights from heaven for the direction of her own spiritual life and the conduct of others. This is certainly what she called "her way", "her little way", "her mission". She [1213r] has a well-characterized ascetic and mystical doctrine. By studying his life and his writings, we manage to summarize it in a small number of formulas of great simplicity. At the starting point is the "nothingness of the creature." At the point of arrival, the "pure love of God carried to heroism." And as a means of passing from one to the other, the exercise of the simplest virtues, the most modest, but always animated by the liveliest love of God. It gives to all the Christian virtues a stamp of simplicity and of evangelical childhood. It is thus that, speaking of prayer, she says: “Apart from the divine office, I do not have the courage to look in the books for beautiful prayers; I do like children who can't read, I simply tell God what I want to tell him, and he always understands me. For me, prayer is a surge of the heart, a simple gaze cast towards heaven, a cry of gratitude and love, in the midst of trial as in the midst of joy, something elevated and supernatural, which expands the soul and unites it to God" - MSC 25r-v - This spirit of Christian childhood led her to adopt an attitude of abandonment and boundless trust towards God and to advise others, which is still a characteristic of his spirituality.

[1213v] [The promoter asks: do you think that the absolute character of this disposition of trust and resignation accords in any way with quietism? Answer]:

The practice which she adopted for herself in the exercise of the virtues and which she imposed on the novices, shows that there was nothing of the sort in her doctrine. She certainly understood that the soul should do, on its part, everything in its power to keep itself in innocence and exercise itself in virtues.

B) OF JUSTITIA AND PARTIBUS EJUS. I can attest, in a special way, to the very filial character of his devotion and his cult towards the Most Blessed Virgin. I researched in his writings what could be his "spiritual intimacies" and the more ordinary objects of his devotions. It seems to me that the Holy Humanity of Our Lord constantly filled his mind and his heart. We see, especially in her poetry, that she had to live in the constant feeling of the presence of Jesus Christ. After Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin, we can affirm that Saint John of the Cross occupied a place of honor in his spirituality. [1214r] We also find in her writings that she was particularly fond of Saint Thérèse, Saint Agnes, Saint Cecilia, Blessed Joan of Arc, the Holy Innocents and Blessed Théophane Vénard.

C) FORTITUDIN. -I know very little about the external sufferings of the Servant of God, except what was told to me about her last illness; but I know, from the secrets she confided in me during her retreats. that the good Lord almost constantly subjected her to very great interior sufferings which, at certain periods especially, constituted for her a real martyrdom. At first there were very painful scruples; then very violent temptations against the faith and especially with regard to its eternal salvation; then she suffered her "martyrdom of love", which I feel powerless to describe, but in which the thought of God's offense caused her untold suffering. To all these particular ordeals was added a habitual state of aridity and interior abandonment. However, what always seemed to me extremely remarkable, it was his fortitude to support all these sorrows. Her cheerfulness, her good [1214v] humor, her friendliness towards everyone were so constant that no one in the community suspected how much she had to suffer.

[Session 78: - May 24, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30]

[1218r][Response to the twenty-first request continued]:

DE VOTIS RELIGIONIS, SPECIATI M DE OBEDIENTIA. - In my relations with the Servant [1218v] of God, it was easy for me to observe, generally speaking, that she had to a high degree in the practice of her vows, a spirit of regularity and of renunciation. But as for the detail, it is difficult for me to know it, since I only came to Carmel at rare intervals. However, as far as obedience is concerned, Mother Marie de Gonzague, prioress, confided to me that, in order to exercise the virtue of Sister Thérèse, she tried to test it, affecting towards her a kind of indifference and some appearance of severity. The same Marie de Gonzague testified to me that this apparent rejection had certainly been very painful to the Servant of God in her first years; that, afterwards, she had made herself absolutely mistress of these impressions, of which she joyfully made an occasion of sacrifice. Moreover, even in the first years, the pain she felt never deterred her in any way from perfect obedience.

[The judge asks: do you know anything of the character of the said prioress, Mother Marie de Gonzague? Answer].-

I knew her particularly well: I had many relations with her, [1219r] either by correspondence or through conversations in the visiting room. She seemed to me to have a particularly straight judgment. In the administration of her community, she was very desirous of good. Judging by the external relations I had with her for a long time, her character seemed excellent to me. It is not possible for me to appreciate what was his way of being in the intimacy of the life of the cloister. Her numerous re-elections as prioress have always led me to believe that the sisters favorably appreciated her way of governing. She told me that her character and that of Mother Agnès of Jesus did not naturally sympathize, and that they made each other suffer, despite a very sincere mutual esteem. Besides, she showed no shade of bitterness in her confidences.

OF HUMILIATE. - It suffices to read the Servant of God's autobiography attentively to convince oneself that humility was her fundamental virtue. My conversations with her have always shown her to me as an exceptionally ingenuous and small soul in her own eyes. I don't think I have ever [1219v] met in my ministry a soul both more humble and more magnanimous.

[Response to the twenty-second request]:

One is struck, in reading his life, by the small number of extraordinary facts which are related there; and I believe that his life was indeed very simple and that extraordinary events are very rare. at least as far as outward manifestations are concerned. For his inner life, it is quite another thing. My conversations with her and the study of her writings lead me to believe that she was raised by God to the highest degrees of the life of union. I wanted to reread what Saint Thérèse wrote on this subject in "The Castle of the Soul", and I recognized with emotion that the description she gives, even of the highest states, corresponded exactly to what that I had observed in the Servant of God. In particular, what the Servant of God herself says in the eleventh chapter of her Life reproduces in almost the same terms what Saint Thérèse says of the sixth dwelling of the "Castle of the soul." Here is this text from Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus: “It seemed to me that an invisible force was plunging me entirely into the fire. Oh! what [1220r] fire! what sweetness!... one minute, one second longer, my soul separated from the body” - HA 12 -

I will not insist on an apparition of the Blessed Virgin with whom the Servant of God was favored at the age of 10, nor on the prophetic vision she had of her father's illness, because I do not know these details only for having read them in the “Story of a Soul”, or having heard them told by her Carmelite sisters.

[Response to the twenty-third request]:

Many times during the life of the Servant of God, I heard her appreciated as a marvel of virtue. At the presbytery of Saint Jacques de Lisieux, where I went frequently; in the Carmel, and in many other places, I then heard people speak with admiration of the "little Carmelite." It was said that there was a "little saint" in Carmel, but they were far from foreseeing the expansion that her reputation for holiness was to take in such a short time.

WITNESS 24: Godefroy Madelaine 0. Praem.

[Response to the twenty-fourth request]:

I was not a direct witness of her last sufferings, but I heard [1220v] the story of them from Mother Marie de Gonzague and the other Carmelites. We find in this circumstance what made the characteristic of his life: a very high sublimity of virtue joined to the greatest simplicity.

[Response to the twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth questions]:

I know nothing about this point except what is public knowledge: the existence of his tomb in the cemetery of Lisieux and the frequent manifestations of the piety of the pilgrims.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

Apart from what is known through public relations of the universal diffusion of the reputation of holiness of the Servant of God, I can certify pertinently that in Belgium "this little saint" is very popular, not only in the Carmels and the religious communities, but in the seminaries and in the world. At the minor seminary of Floreffe, diocese of Namur, an establishment of about 300 students, I preached the retreat with a colleague around 1904 or 1905; I had occasion to say a word about the Servant of God; it resulted in enthusiasm throughout the [1221r] community. Most of the students wanted to read and meditate on the life of Sister Thérèse, and some time later, the Superior said to me: “One cannot imagine what good this reading has produced in my seminary.” When I had the opportunity to go to England, I immediately noticed that the "Little Flower of Jesus", as they call the Servant of God, was very well known in this country, even in Protestant circles. . Quite recently the English newspapers, even non-Catholics, reported the conversion of Doctor Grant, a Presbyterian minister, a conversion which he himself publicly attributes to the "Little Flower of Jesus", Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

Touching on the causes of this diffusion, the propaganda activity emanating from the Carmel of Lisieux has sometimes been highlighted. Even if there were some truth in this allegation, I believe that this propaganda would have produced nothing lasting, if it had not had for its object a life of truly extraordinary holiness. I have no doubt that the action of God is the root cause of this diffusion. In seeking the reasons for this providential action, I identify two main ones: 1221° the great humility of the Servant [XNUMXv] of God: “ Who humiliated himself, exaltabitur - *Matt., 23 12 -; 2° the extraordinary zeal with which she was animated made her ardently desire to continue to do good to souls after her death: the good Lord will have granted her in this. It may be added that the penetrating charm of this virtue, so simple, helps to win him the sympathy of the readers of his life.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I have never heard the Servant of God's behavior criticized, nor her doctrine, nor even questioned the sublimity of her virtue. I have only heard sometimes disputed the advisability, for a Carmel, to publish the autobiography of one of its members. In some Carmels, the main blame has been placed on the intensity of the propaganda carried out by the Carmel of Lisieux. These criticisms, moreover, are limited to a few religious houses, and I could cite one which has since returned from these exaggerated prejudices, and the prioress of this house has herself written a very reasoned postulatory letter.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

[1222r] To answer this question, I will relate three or four facts which I will not qualify as “miraculous”, but which were considered to be “very special favors”, obtained through the intercession of the Servant of God. A young religious in my community, Brother Vincent de Paul, about 25 years old, had been suffering from deep and persistent neurasthenia for several years. The hydrotherapeutic diet, followed for two months, had produced almost no results. He makes a novena to the Servant of God and asks her for her healing for a fixed day, October 14, 1910; on the appointed day, he found himself in a condition to preach, and since then he has been very well and devotes himself to study and preaching, without any fatigue.

The Reverend Father Ernest, master of novices at the Abbey of Leffe, suffered from stubborn laryngitis, which made it very difficult for him, and even, for several weeks, even impossible, to chant, teach and even talk. During a novena to the Servant of God, he was completely cured; the cure has been going on since October 1910. This cure is all the more remarkable because the remedies recommended by several doctors had given no [1222v] results. Reverend Father Ernest now exerts without fatigue the functions of master of novices, cantor and teacher.

A Norbertine novice from the abbey of Bonlieu, diocese of Valence, had suffered for several years from enteritis which worsened to the point that her appetite and sleep having completely disappeared, her end was considered imminent. The internal pains had become very sharp, and two doctors called declared that the state was serious, without being able to agree either on the cause of the evil, or on the medication. The abbess thought of returning the novice to the family. Sister Alexandra, who held her vocation very dear, then thought of having recourse to the intercession of the Servant of God. During a novena in which the whole community joined, she was suddenly cured. This event happened on January 12, 1911 in Grimbergen (Brabant) where this community has been a refugee since 1901. Since then Sister Alexandra has been flourishing in health, and she has been able to endure the rigors of Lent in this community, whose rule is very austere. I have in hand a report of this fact, consistent with the present deposition and which bears the signatures of the abbess and the [1223r] dignitary nuns.

WITNESS 24: Godefroy Madelaine 0. Praem.

[The witness then shows the judges the said document].

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I have nothing to add.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Signatum: Fr. GODEFRIDUS MADELAINE, abbas, testis deposui ut supra secundum veritatem; ratum habeo and confirmo.

Witness 25 - Alexandre-Charles Maupas

Alexandre-Charles Maupas was born in Mesnil-Auzoul (Calvados) on August 27, 1850 and was ordained a priest in Bayeux on June 29, 1874. Vicar at Saint-Jean de Caen (1876) and parish priest of Bretteville-sur-Odon (1889) he succeeded to his cousin, Canon Delatroëtte, in 1895 as parish priest of Saint-Jacques de Lisieux and as delegate superior of the Carmel. He therefore had a good source for information about Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and had direct contact with her, especially during her last two months. This assistance fell, by right, to Father Louis-Auguste Youf (born in 1842), but who was already very ill and was to die in 1897, only a few days after the Saint. This is why Monsieur Maupas was able to visit Thérèse, confess her and give her Extreme Unction on July 30, 1897. He died in Lisieux, honorary canon, on February 19, 1920. The witness testified on August 7, 1911. during the 79th session, f. 1228r-1235r of our Public Copy.

[Session 79: - August 7, 1911 at 8 a.m. 30]

[1228r] [The witness correctly answers the first request].

[Response to second request]:

[1228v] My name is Alexandre-Charles Maupas, born in Mesnil-Auzouf on August 27, 1850 from the legitimate marriage of Alexandre Maupas, farmer, and Jeanne Marie. I have been a priest, honorary canon, pastor of the parish of Saint Jacques de Lisieux since November 1895; I have also been Ecclesiastical Superior of the Carmel of Lisieux since the same period. I therefore began to exercise this last function approximately two years before the Servant of God's death.

WITNESS 25: Alexandre Maupas

[The witness answers the third request correctly].

[Answer to fourth request]:

I appeared before the civil judges at the time of the separation of Church and State in France (December 1906) to answer for the offense of having celebrated Mass without the declaration required by the government. It is a crime of which I take pride.

[1229r] [The witness answers the fifth to the seventh questions correctly].

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I believe it is useless to reproduce in my testimony what I know from reading the “Story of a Soul”, this work being known to all. I will only give my personal information: I had some direct contact with the Servant of God in the exercise of my office as Superior of Carmel. These reports were somewhat more frequent in the last months of his illness. The chaplain being himself seriously ill at the time, I visited the Servant of God five or six times and administered the last Sacraments to her. I also collected the testimonies of the Carmelite superiors and the monastery chaplain about the Servant of God.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a confident devotion [1229v] for the Servant of God and I hope that the Church will one day place her on the altars; my hope is based on the esteem that I have for his holiness and on the power of his intercession observed, not only in others, but also personally.

[Answer from the tenth to the seventeenth questions]:

I would have nothing to say on all these points if not what I read in his autobiography. My personal information dates, in fact, only from the time when I was appointed superior of the Carmel (1895).

[Answer to the eighteenth request]:

My functions as ecclesiastical superior did not put me in very direct contact with each of the nuns of the community. But I remember the Reverend Mother Prioress. Marie de Gonzague, talking to me about the state of the community, pointed out Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus as an exemplary and exceptionally fervent religious [1230r]. I believe she had entrusted her with the care of the novices, although she was then only 22 years old. The Carmel chaplain, Monsieur Youf, speaking to me of Sister Thérèse, told me that he considered her to be a nun of exceptional virtue.

[Answer to the nineteenth request]:

I remember that when writing the usual obituary circular, after the Servant of God's death, the Reverend Mother Prioress told me that she had very precious notes on the life of Sister Thérèse written by herself on the order she had given him.

[Answer from the twentieth to the twenty-third request]:

I did not know the Servant of God intimately enough to give a more precise testimony on each of these points in particular than what I said in response to the eighteenth question.

[Response to the twenty-fourth request]:

The Servant of God died of tuberculosis in the infirmary of the Carmel of Lisieux on 30 September-[1230v] September 1897. I was called to visit her, for the first time, about two months before her death. I then found her all radiant and smiling. As I expressed my surprise to her at finding such a fulfilled patient, she replied that she was joyful at the thought of going soon to see Jesus in heaven. From the few visits I made to him at that time, I retained this general but very clear impression of a child's candor, and of a very simple abandonment to the designs of God. When I gave him Extreme Unction and the indulgence of Good Death, I told him that "these graces would make his soul pure as on the day of his baptism." I find in her Life that these words struck her and made her very happy.

[Response to the twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth questions]:

I know that it is common knowledge that the tomb of the Servant of God, in the cemetery of our city of Lisieux, is constantly visited by pilgrims who come from all [1231r] countries to pray and give thanks. My vicars go several times a week to the cemetery for the parish service and tell me that most of the time they find the faithful praying at the tomb of the Servant of God. This movement of piety has been going on for a long time and is not slowing down.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

On all sides the faithful invoke the Servant of God as one invokes a saint.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I have heard nothing said against the reputation of holiness of the Servant of God.

WITNESS 25: Alexandre Maupas

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

As pastor of the parish of Saint Jacques in Lisieux, I note that the trust of the faithful in the miraculous intervention of the Servant of God is, so to speak, universal. As soon as an illness breaks out, we most often think of commending ourselves to it through novenas and other practices of piety. Among the particular favors attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God, I can bring special testimony to two cases:

1° My vicar, Abbé Lamy, personally told me the story of his findings in the cure of young Legot, suffering from meningitis declared [1231v] incurable by the doctor. This case is related in the “Articles” of the vice-postulator under n.132 and the story that my vicar told me is in every way consistent with this relationship.

2° Father Anne, whose recovery is reported in the same “Articles” (n. 126) was, during his illness, domiciled in my parish. I could see that he was "at all ends." His recovery was hopeless; she surprised those around her; I continue to see him from time to time, now that he is vicar of Pont l'Evêque, and I note that he enjoys good health. I also know that his healing is attributed by him to the intercession of the Servant of God whom he invoked. Nevertheless, other people who were interested in him prayed at the same time to Our Lady of Lourdes for his recovery.

In the exercise of my pastoral ministry, I have several times recommended to the Servant of God the dying, whose conversion was particularly difficult. In three different cases, I attributed the return to God of these sick people to the intercession of Sister Therese of the Child Jesus. One especially of those dying, compromised in the spoliation of Church property in France, and who could not, without a public recantation, receive ecclesiastical burial, had, for the first time, refused this recantation. I recommended him to the Servant of God, asking her as a sign of her intervention that this sinner send for me on his own; that's what happened. Spontaneously he sent his nurse to fetch me, retracted his scandals, received all the Sacraments, and died a Christian. In the few trips I had the opportunity to make in France and Switzerland, I noticed that Sister Thérèse's reputation for holiness was spread almost everywhere. Six or seven years ago, when the Carthusians were still in their monastery of Grande-Chartreuse, the bursar who received me on one of my trips told me that reading the life of Sister Thérèse exerted on the brothers a very marked influence to bring [1233v] them to fervor.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I don't see anything specific to add.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signed: A. MAUPAS.

Witness 26 - Victor-Louis Domin

Born in Caen on October 1, 1843, Victor Louis Domin spent almost the entire time of his priestly life in Lisieux. There he was chaplain of the Benedictine Abbey for more than forty years, responsible not only for the assistance of the sisters but also for the religious education of the students and the direction of various pious associations. It was thus that little Thérèse Martin made her first retreat with him, that of preparation for her first communion in 1884. I even wrote the summary”, Thérèse tells us (MA “A” 34r), who will note a little further on: “(he) called me his little doctor, because of my name of Thérèse” (f. 37v). She made another retreat with him in 1885. Monsieur Domin, an exemplary priest, died in Lisieux, honorary canon, on June 13, 1918.

His testimony is sincere. He notes that while already deeply a soul of prayer, Thérèse as a child had difficulty adapting to liturgical prayer. In addition and above all, whether as a child or as a nun, Thérèse always gave him the impression of being an overly "flattered" creature. From his father, Monsieur Martin, and from Mother Marie de Gonzague, and from Father Youf, it was only praise upon praise, which ended up upsetting him to the point of no longer setting foot in Carmel.

The witness testified on August 7, 1911, during the 79th session, f. 1234r-1239r of our Public Copy.

WITNESS 26: Louis Domin

[Session 79: - August 7, 1911, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1234r] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Victor-Louis Domin, born in Caen, parish of Saint Sauveur, [1234v] on October 1843, 1874, of the legitimate marriage of Louis Domin, printer, and Euphémie Delos. I have been a priest, honorary canon, chaplain of the monastery of the Benedictine nuns of Lisieux since the year XNUMX.

[The witness answers the third to the seventh questions correctly].

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I knew the Servant of God: 1° through a few family ties, being a third cousin to her aunt, Madame Guérin. 2° I knew her above all when she was a half-board student at the Benedictine Abbey. As chaplain, I was responsible for giving religious instruction to these students; I was also their confessor; I chaired the meetings of the Association of Holy Angels and the Brotherhood of the Blessed Virgin, established in this school. 3° I also collected the testimony of the Servant of God from various people, in particular from some nuns who were her former mistresses and some of her [1235r] boarding school companions. 4th I will make little and accidental use of the testimony of the Servant of God recorded in her autobiography.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a particular devotion for the Servant of God: I pray to her every day. This devotion goes back to the time when I read his Life (circa 1898). I desire the success of her Cause for beatification, because all the events that are happening today convince me that she is a soul particularly blessed by God. The special relationship that I had with her also makes me wish for this beatification, without this wish, however, being able to influence the sincerity of my deposition.

[Answer from the tenth to the fourteenth questions]:

Thérèse Martin entered the boarding school, run by the Benedictines of Lisieux, in October 1881; she was therefore eight and a half years old. She left it, I believe, around Easter 1886. She no longer appears on my register from October [1235v] 1886. So that is about four and a half years of pension, but this time was interrupted by numerous absences. I have few things to say, although I had quite intimate relations with several members of the Martin family, allied to mine. I have met the child many times in family gatherings, but my attention has never been well fixed on her. At boarding school, I hardly saw her outside of catechism; but I must say that she stuck to it perfectly well, and knew her lessons admirably. I thought, along with many other people, I believe, that she was too flattered, too adored by her family members, and especially by her father, who seemed to be unable to part with her, and called her constantly "my little queen." I felt that one ran the risk of making her vain and full of herself like so many other young girls. I have been told that her boarding companions had no great sympathy for her, no affectionate connection; she was only a half-boarder and was often absent. She [1236r] was very weepy, as she says herself, and as I noticed one day in catechism. She was said to follow mass rather badly on Sundays; but this demands an explanation. Children are usually asked to follow the different points of the Mass by reading in their book. So we asked Thérèse like the others; but the dear child did not. When told what to read, she thanked her with a gracious smile, looked down at her book for a few seconds, and soon raised her head as if distracted. But no, no doubt, she was not distracted, she said a much better prayer than that of her companions, giving herself up to contemplative prayer... Besides, I have sometimes been told of the expression of his face which, during services and religious ceremonies, had something absolutely heavenly about it.

[Answer to the fifteenth request]:

I did not follow the Servant of God closely during the period [1236v] between leaving boarding school and entering Carmel.

[Answer from the sixteenth to the nineteenth questions]:

I remember that this thought, namely, that we were flattering and adulating the Servant of God, still haunted me after she entered Carmel. One day, during her novitiate, I saw her in the parlor, accompanied by Mother Marie de Gonzague, and I was deeply surprised to hear the superior praising the generosity of the little novice: I said to myself that he It was unwise to praise a young person like that in his presence. I have since thought that she must be strongly rooted in humility, since she was not shaken by all this praise. The chaplain of the Carmel at that time, Father Youf, also spoke to me sometimes of the extraordinary qualities of Sister Thérèse, but it was not in her presence. He said to me verbatim this: "Although she is very young, if the community needed a prioress, we could appoint her without fear." [1237r] This word of my colleague seemed to me to be a “bluff”, as the English say, and as a result I hardly ever went to see her at Carmel; I have always maintained a great reserve because I found the opinion people had of this child exaggerated, and I did not want to enter into this concert of praise. Alas! I was the one who was wrong in not believing in his extraordinary virtue: I recognize it now.

WITNESS 26: Louis Domin

[Answer from the twentieth to the twenty-fourth request]:

I cannot give detailed testimony on these matters. I have said above what I had noticed of it during its life.

[Response to the twenty-fifth to twenty-sixth questions]:

I went about ten or twelve times to pray at the Servant of God's tomb. I was carried there by a feeling of devotion and confidence. I was able to see then that the same feelings brought other pilgrims to the tomb. I saw them [1237v] from all classes of society, priests, nuns, seculars, soldiers. Their attitude was not that of mere curiosity, but expressed piety and religion.

[Answer from the twenty-seventh to the twenty-eighth questions]:

During the life of the Servant of God, as I have already said, I always believed that people admired her too much and that this admiration was not justified, but my feelings changed completely from of the time when I became aware of "Story of a Soul." From then on, I began to invoke him every day and I don't believe I have ever failed to do so. I was particularly impressed by these words spoken on his deathbed: "I feel that my mission is about to begin, my mission to make the good God loved as I love him... to give my little way to souls" - DEA 17-7 - . For me, one of two things: either these words are those of a foolishly or even madly proud young girl, [1238r] or it is a prophecy that can only come from heaven. Impossible to stop for a moment at the first hypothesis; We therefore have to agree with the second and see in this young Carmelite a saint in the fullest sense of the word.

I have more than once admired what I would call her doctrine, what she herself calls her “little way” and which can be summed up in three points.- 1) remain small or practice humility; 2) often perform light mortifications, small sacrifices, what she calls “throwing flowers” ​​- DEA 17-7 - 3) practicing trust in God and holy abandonment. I was even so impressed by this little presentation that I remember drawing my resolutions from it in one of my annual retreats.

If I found lessons for myself in the words of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, I also found some for the souls entrusted to me. I spoke about it in my conferences or my private conversations with the nuns, now fully convinced of the extraordinary [1238v] way that it pleased God to teach this soul: “Qui te revelas parvulis... Beati mundo cord, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt” - *cfr. Luke. 10, 21; Matt. 5, 8) - . Several years ago (7 years, I believe) I asked the mother prioress of the Benedictines for permission to offer each nun a copy of the "Appeal to little souls" or abridgement of the life of Sister Thérèse: I allowed me to tell everyone that I did not claim to offer them a simple souvenir, but rather a manual and a kind of treatise on mystical theology. In various trips that I made, either in Belgium or in the Pyrenees, I noted that the Servant of God's reputation for holiness had spread as far as these countries.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I believe the favors obtained through the intercession of the Servant of God are innumerable, because I hear about them from all sides. Some tell of temporal favours, others of spiritual graces, as evidenced by the many reports sent to Carmel every day, several of which have [1239r] been published.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I said what I knew.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ego testis deposui ut supra secundum veritatem, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signature: L. DOMIN.

Witness 27 - Alexander-James Grant

Alexander-James Grant, of whom Thomas Nimmo Taylor spoke in his deposition, was born in Latheron-Caithness (Scotland) in 1854 and was pastor of the United Free Church of Scotland at Lochranga (Isle of Arran). On September 20, 1900 he married an Anglican, Ethel Dalley (1874-1956) who, converted to Catholicism (July 20, 1908), soon became a fervent admirer of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. She left in her husband's office the number of the Catholic Herald which gave an outline of Thérèse's biography and also announced the publication of the English version of theStory of a soul. Pastor Grant cut this advertisement and put it in his wallet. He read the book as early as 1909 and was overwhelmed by it. He warned (felt?) several times of Thérèse's presence, but the struggle was hard. Very cultured - he spoke eight languages ​​- the biblical Greek text always accompanied him and he studied it with passion. He gave himself to everyone with exquisite charity and at the same time sought the truth with ardor and serenity. After months and months of inner struggle he abjured on April 20, 1911 and thus entered the Catholic Church under the name of François-Marie-Thérèse. He testified in Lisieux, at the Ordinary Process, a few months later and it was then that he was offered to come with his wife to live in Alençon as guardians of the house where Thérèse was born, as he made it known by deposing at the Apostolic Process on May 31, 1915. He therefore settled in Alençon, rue Saint-Blaise, on June 3, 1912, as a humble servant and guide for the pilgrims of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus (Annals 1956, n°4).

The witness testified on August 8, 1911, during the 80th session, f. 1249v-1256v from our Public Copy

[Session 80: - August 8, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1249v] [The witness correctly answers the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Alexandre-Jacques Grant, born in 1854 (I don't know the precise date, because then parish registers were not kept regularly) in Latheron Caithness, Scotland, of the marriage of Louis Grant and Marguerite Macpherson. Until my recent conversion, I was a member and minister of the Free United Church of Scotland. I was minister from 1890 until my conversion, April 20, 1911. I am domiciled today in Edinburgh (Scotland), 34 Warrender Park [1250r] Terrace.

[The third request is omitted. Answer given to the fourth request]:

I have never been brought before any court.

[Answer to the fifth request]:

I made my canonical abjuration on April 20, 1911.

[Answer to the sixth request]:

I give my answers freely.

[Answer to the seventh request]:

It is the truth alone that dictates my testimony.

[Answer to the eighth request]:

As I testify to the personal fact of my conversion, I will take my answers from my personal experience.

[Response to the ninth request]:

The success of the Cause of the Servant of God is my cordial desire, [1250v] because I believe that it could determine the conversion of others, as it determined mine.

[Applications are omitted from the tenth to the twenty-eighth inclusive. We come to the twenty-ninth which gives the witness the opportunity to speak of his miraculous conversion to the Catholic faith. He answers the question as follows:

It is to reading the Life of Sister Thérèse that I owe my conversion.

[Request from the promoter of the faith: had you ever given any thought to embracing the Catholic faith before hearing about the Servant of God? Answer]:

Not at all; the readings and studies to which I devoted myself only attached me more strongly to my Protestant faith.

WITNESS 27: Alexander-James Grant

[Did your wife's conversion, which took place around 1908, have any influence on yours? Answer]:

[1251r] This event had no influence on my thinking. My wife was very religious and very good before her conversion; it has remained so ever since. I didn't notice any change that made me think.

[Has anyone at least tried to orient you towards the Catholic faith before you have read the entire Story of the Servant of God? Answer]:

Twice I met Catholic priests who, on occasion, said a few words to me about the Roman Religion, but I was absolutely refractory to their insinuations.

[Had you at least read books dealing with the Catholic religion? Answer]:

I read some, but to find in them objections against Catholicism.

[How were you led to read the “History of Sister Thérèse”? Answer]:

I had read, by chance, in the newspaper "Catholic Herald." [1251] which my wife received each week, a short biographical sketch, drawn up by the Reverend Father Taylor; it mentioned the forthcoming publication of the complete English edition of the “Story of Sister Thérèse.” This article interested me very much. I cut out the announcement that I carried in my pocket for almost a year, often asking myself if the complete biography had finally appeared. A friend of my wife borrowed the old edition from Catholic nuns. At Christmas time, 1909, returning from preaching a mission, I had to take to my bed because of influenza, and I found this book lying on my table, and I read it with avidity.

[What was the moral effect of this reading? Answer]:

I found that the work of a genius, a theologian, as well as a poet of the first order, had fallen into my hands. I cannot describe the extraordinary impression that the reading of this life made on me. [1252r] I felt then what a person would feel before whom the invisible world would suddenly open up. One evening, being fully awake, I experienced an extraordinary sensation, and I said to my wife who was just entering my room: “That little girl is there” - “Who? she asked me. "Little Flower - I replied - I'm sure she's in this room." Nothing had prepared me for this feeling, nor motivated such a fact. This is what I felt in my mind: the outside world seemed to disappear to my eyes, and it was inside, in my intelligence, that I saw the Servant of God. I pushed his thought away from myself, and I said to myself: “You are superstitious and idolatrous”; but it was in vain that I tried to push her away; it returned and intertwined itself around my heart, refusing to leave me, and here is what I seemed to hear: “This is how the Catholic saints love Jesus, choose my little way” -. "Well! - I answered -, I will try to follow her, if you help me”, because I ardently wished to succeed. [1252v] This happened towards the end of 1909.

It was around this time that I read Newman's Apologia, and after reading it I remember saying to my wife, "I now believe things I never could have believed before.” Nevertheless, I did not want to become a Catholic then and follow Sister Thérèse. My health having returned, I began to preach again and to read rationalist books again, thus gradually losing all my faith. It was then that, for the second time, Sister Thérèse appeared in an extraordinary way in my life. This happened in the month of August 1910. This time again, without anything having made me foresee this visit or having prepared me for it, I felt the Servant of God close to me, and when the charm of her presence had disappeared, I was left with these words that seemed to ring in my mind: “Can rationalism be true, and can a life of such beauty and sweetness be a lie?” I had the conviction that it was impossible and that the Religion which produces such a life must be a great reality.

[1253r] The following month, I bought the complete life of Sister Thérèse in French. By a providential coincidence, I bought this life the very day a novena to Sister Thérèse ended, which friends were making for me without my knowledge. It was while reading life in French that I began to invoke the help of Sister Thérèse. For a Protestant minister, it was not at first easy. My prejudices were there to defend me. However, after a few efforts [1253v]d, I was able to continue with great delight. Sister Thérèse completely changed my feelings with regard to the Blessed Virgin. The change was all the more striking because it was on this point of Catholic doctrine that I had, a few months before, interrupted the controversy begun with a nun from Edinburgh. This is how, it seems to me, Sister Thérèse brought about this change. I heard these words: "Why do you ask me to pray for you, and do you ignore the Blessed Virgin?." I then saw all the inconsistency of such a procedure and I began to invoke Mary. The result surprised me. Instantly, an extraordinary love fills my heart. Where was she leading me? I didn't know then; but I was sometimes astonished at the feelings which possessed me and at the change which took place in my ideas with regard to the Catholic faith.

WITNESS 27: Alexander-James Grant

The influence that Sister Thérèse had on me was very great and made me brave sarcasm and mockery. Among other facts, here is one of the most touching. I had [1254r] hung above my fireplace an enlarged photograph of the “Little Flower”; it was placed in such a way that no one could fail to observe it. Well! one day when we were expecting a visit from a Protestant minister and his wife, I was tempted to take down the painting, but when I was at the time to do so, I was unable to touch it. "Would you be ashamed - I said to myself - of a person whom God and the angels make their society? And I say to myself: “The painting will remain there, even if the whole world has to visit me!” It pleased Sister Thérèse to show me her gratitude for this act, by pushing me into the Church. Moreover, I almost continuously enjoyed the presence of Sister Thérèse with me. She invited me to acts of generosity, and when I resisted, she immediately left me. However, the sweetness and the sensible help of this presence disappeared almost entirely in the month which immediately preceded my abjuration, and I was left only with struggle, doubt and obscurity.

[1254v] Sister Thérèse used a human means to destroy the prejudices that I still had against Catholicism, and to instruct me in the truths of the faith. Desiring to go to Lisieux, I wanted to study the French language more thoroughly, and my wife obtained from the superior of a convent in Edinburgh that a nun give me French lessons. By a grace of God, the lessons soon turned into religious controversy, and for long hours each week we discussed the real presence, the divine institution of the Mass, what constituted its sacrifice, and also its authority. and the institution of the Church by Our Lord Jesus Christ. I attribute to these lessons much of the change that took place in me at that time. The studies made in Father Leroy's “Conferences on Sacred Scripture”, in Father Hoppenot's “Mass”, and even simply in the Catholic Bible, also helped to enlighten me. God sometimes seemed to shed a special light on things that I had already read several times, as when, reading Father [1255r] Leroy's Lectures on the Eucharist, I exclaimed: "He makes me understand more than anything that I had read so far! However, I could not come to believe in the real presence. One day, towards the end of March 1911, during the novena that I was then making to Sister Thérèse to obtain this much desired faith, after a long and ardent discussion on the Eucharist, the nun who was teaching me suggested a visit to the Chapel. There, I had a feeling of Our Lord's presence in the tabernacle, and as I left I said to the same nun who was waiting for me: “Now I believe he is there. I have felt it; something that was not there for me before is there now.”

After many struggles, doubts, anxieties, Sister Thérèse made me take a first decisive step on April 9, the day when she herself broke the ties that kept her in the world, to go to Carmel. I was unaware then of this coincidence of date: it was pointed out to me later. That day, therefore, I wrote to my ecclesiastical superiors that I could not continue [1255v] to remain in the Presbyterian Church, my convictions no longer being in keeping with its doctrine. Finally, on April 20, 1911, I broke my ties definitively and was received into the Catholic Church by Father Widdowson, SJ, who had seen and helped me during the last fifteen days preceding my abjuration, and whose instructions seemed to me as divine revelations. I was baptized this same day, April 20, 1911, in the Church of the Sacred Heart of Edinburgh (Lauriston); out of gratitude for my celestial benefactress, I wanted to take the name of François-Marie-Thérèse at baptism. Since then, I have had an extraordinary feeling of Sister Thérèse's presence, followed by a material ordeal. By the fact of my entry into the Catholic Church, I had lost my means of existence; one Thursday in May, being alone in my room in Edinburgh during the day afternoon, I saw Sister Thérèse standing beside me and looking in the direction of Glasgow; at the same time I had the inner feeling that she was doing something for me in this town. When my [1256r] wife came in at this moment, I told her: “Thérèse is taking care of us at the moment.” The following Thursday, extraordinary and unexpected help arrived from Glasgow. Since then, I have continued to have great confidence in the little Carmelite woman of Lisieux and she continues to assist me in my spiritual and temporal needs.

These interventions, this invisible presence, these touches of grace seem to me to come from heaven, for nothing in my first education, nor in my religion, disposed me to experience these impressions; 2° I have read very few mystical books: the Life of Saint Teresa of Avila written by herself, and an author from the 3th century, which I read about thirty years ago and which I have forgotten the name, are the only mystical works that I have read; 1256° these interventions pushed me to all the sacrifices; they helped me to defy human respect and the sarcasm of my Protestant friends. These and other reasons convince me of the truth of this supernatural [XNUMXv] action.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I have nothing to add either on the interrogations or on the Articles.

[This concludes the examination of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signatum - A. J. GRANT

Witness 28 - Helene Knight

The testimony which follows that of Pastor Grant is of Hélène Knight, widow Dorans, of whom Thomas Nimmo Taylor had spoken. It is omitted here because it contains no allusion either to Thérèse's virtues or to her reputation for holiness.

In his deposition of August 9, 1911, during the 81st session, fr. 1261r-1266v of our Public Copy, the witness, mother of twelve children, refers only to the vicissitudes of her illness, the cure of which is attributed to the intercession of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

Witness 29 - Sister Saint-André, OSB

Born in Les Chapelles (diocese of Laval) on January 21, 1863, Eugénie-Marie Barbé arrived at the Benedictine Abbey of Notre-Dame-du-Pré in Lisieux in January 1882, as secular sub-mistress of the boarding school. There she met Thérèse Martin who had been coming there as a student for a few months. She was admitted to the novitiate in 1884 and made her profession on July 22, 1886. The testimony is of little interest.

Remember that the glorious Benedictine institution of Lisieux, founded at the very beginning of the 1808th century, then dispersed during the Revolution at the end of the 6th century, had taken on a new life in 7. It was completely destroyed by the bombardments of June 1944-XNUMX, XNUMX.

The witness testified on August 11, 1911, during the 84th session, f. 1287r-1290r from our Public Copy.

[Session 84: - August 11, 1911, at 8:30 a.m.]

[1286v] [The witness answered the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

[1287r] My name is Eugénie Virginie Marie Barbé, in religion Sister Saint André. I was born on January 21, 1863 in Les Chapelles (diocese of Laval) from the legitimate marriage of Michel Barbé, farmer, and Anne Bigot. I entered the “Abbaye” (monastery of the Benedictines of Lisieux), first as a secular sub-mistress at the boarding school (January 1882). I entered the novitiate on August 11, 1884, I made my profession on June 22, 1886. I have been the prioress of the monastery since August 18, 1896.

[The witness answers the third to the seventh questions correctly].

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I especially knew the Servant of God while carrying out my duties as sub-mistress at the boarding school. When I arrived there in January 1882, Thérèse Martin had already been a student there for several months. My relationship with her continued until I entered the novitiate in August 1884. She was not part of the class of which I was sub-mistress, [1287v] but I had the opportunity to see her and talk to her every day. in recreation, in the refectory, in studies, etc. For these two years of the Servant of God's life, I will report what I was able to observe personally. I will also say a few confidences that have been made to me since the Servant of God's death on favors obtained through her intercession. I reread, in preparation for my testimony, the "Story of a soul written by itself", but only to remind myself of what I had observed directly. I was able to notice that especially in these parts, the subject of my direct observations, the account of the Servant of God is indeed in conformity with the truth.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I want the Process to lead to the beatification of the Servant of God, because I believe and I have observed that her doctrine and her example do good to souls. I have a certain devotion for the Servant of God, but this [1288r] feeling leaves me completely free in my assessments and my testimony.

[Answer from the tenth to the thirteenth questions]:

I did not know the Servant of God before my arrival as secular sub-mistress at the “Abbey” of Lisieux. I didn't know her parents either, or how she was raised in her family.

WITNESS 29: Sister Saint-André OSB

[Answer to the fourteenth request]:

The Servant of God was already a student at the “Abbey” when I arrived there. I can testify that, as a student, she was remarkably regular and always at her duty. My observations on this point seem to me to have all the more weight in that not being, strictly speaking, his mistress, since she was not part of my section, I saw her, so to speak, more naturally. As I was then a secular mistress, I found myself more involved with the students, and I dealt with them [1288v] more as equals than did the religious mistresses. I understood since then that this fidelity proceeded from his great desire to please God, but, at the time of which I speak, I was tempted to see in it exaggeration and as the mark of a state of worried and scrupulous soul. I wasn't directly involved in her preparation for first communion, and she didn't tell me about her moods. I could only observe his attitude during the retreat and the very day of his first communion in the chapel of the "Abbaye", on May 8, 1884. I remember on this subject that his dress and the expression of his face testified to 'a tender, and I may say exceptional, piety; she stood out among all the others who, however, were not lacking in piety. After that time, I did not follow it closely enough to find anything in particular; I entered the novitiate in August 1884, and I lost sight of her, although she continued to be a pupil of the house. [1289r] The novices, in fact, had no connection with the boarding school.

[From the fifteenth to the twenty-sixth request, the witness replies that he has nothing to declare].

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

Those of our sisters who knew the Servant of God at boarding school all gave good testimony of her; but since his death, like me, they have better understood what was deep and elevated in his virtue.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I have never heard any protest against the reputation of holiness which is established concerning the Servant of God. One or two of our nuns only say that during her stay at the boarding school, she was overly sensitive, which caused her to be unduly distressed.

[1289v] [Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

In my office as prioress, I observed that reading the life and writings of Sister Thérèse exercised a blessed influence in the formation of souls. I will note in particular that the meditation of this life procures a better understanding and a more fervent practice of fraternal charity, mortification of sensibility, small sacrifices and abandonment to God. I have several times been told of supernatural favors obtained through the influence of the Servant of God. These were more interior graces than temporal favors. They were translated as follows: “I feel closer to God when I pray to her.” This testimony was communicated to me by several of our nuns (no less than six) and by two people from outside.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I don't know anything anymore.

[1290r] [Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in responding to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signatum: Sister SAINT ANDRÉ, OSB

Witness 30 - Sister Saint-François de Sales

Marie-Joséphine-Aurélie Pierre was born in Saint-Désir de Lisieux on March 15, 1848. Entered the Benedictines of Notre-Dame-du-Pré, she made her profession there on May 17, 1871. Appointed to the boarding school almost immediately after her profession, she remained there until 1888. She therefore knew Thérèse well during her school attendance, being her teacher for the ordinary class and also her mistress for religious education. She emphasizes that it would have been wrong to take Thérèse for a spoiled child and that she was very diligent in her studies. She evokes the difficulties encountered as a result of classmates. It highlights with what care, with what love Therese deepened the doctrine of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to prepare herself well for confirmation and how she gradually opened up to the theology of mercy and the universal salvific will of the divine Providence.

The witness testified on August 11, 1911, during the 84th session f. 1290v-1296r from our Public Copy.

[Session 84: - August 1, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1290v] [The witness answers the first question correctly].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Marie-Joséphine-Aurélie Pierre, in religion Sister Saint-François de Sales. I was born on March 15, 1848, in Saint Désir de Lisieux, from the legitimate marriage of Jean-Edouard Pierre, craftsman, and Francoise-Alexandrine Etienne. I am a professed nun of the Benedictine monastery of Lisieux, where I made my profession on May 17, 1871. I was a teacher at the boarding school from October 1871 until 1888. Currently, I am in charge of the monastery's temporal matters.

[The witness answers the third to the seventh questions correctly].

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I knew the Servant of God personally and I followed her very closely during her stay at the boarding school. I was, in fact, his teacher for the ordinary class and also his mistress [129lr] for religious instruction. I also knew his sisters quite intimately, particularly Léonie and the other members of the family, whom I saw in the visiting room. I was able to hear the testimony of several of our sisters and classmates of the Servant of God; but these communications have, properly speaking, taught me nothing new; they only corroborated my personal observations. As for the book "Story of a Soul," I won't use it, strictly speaking; I only find that on the points that I have been able to verify for myself, he expresses the truth very exactly.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a deep devotion for the Servant of God, and I desire her beatification, because I believe that she will glorify the good God; but I can affirm in conscience that this desire in no way affects the sincerity of my testimony.

[1291v][Answer to the tenth request].

I have no direct knowledge of the Servant of God's early years.

[Answer to the eleventh request]:

I did not know Madame Martin. I often spoke to Monsieur Martin in the parlor of the community. He was truly a great Christian and even when dealing with temporal matters he always found a way to bring the conversation back to the mind of God.

[Answer to the twelfth request]:

The Servant of God often told me the date of her baptism in Alençon, January 4, 1873.

[Answer to the thirteenth request]:

Monsieur Martin's affection for little Thérèse was certainly very intense, full of solicitude and demonstrations of tenderness. His sisters also loved him very much. One might easily have believed, judging by appearances, that she was a spoiled child, [1292r] but I can testify that this was not so, and that the supernatural element which entered into her upbringing preserved her. unfortunate effects of this predilection of which she was the object.

WITNESS 30: Sister Saint Francis de Sales

[Answer to the fourteenth request]:

I followed Thérèse almost all the time she spent at boarding school. As a teacher in her class, I noticed that she was always on duty; I never had to make a formal reproach to him. The thought of God was habitual to her and everything in her studies brought her back to this memory; she was [sic] particularly striking in her little stylistic compositions, where she always introduced a supernatural note, despite the childish naivete of the story. It was noted in her, at this time, an excessive sensitivity, she herself admits it; however, at the bottom of this sensitivity that many took for self-love, I almost always found a supernatural feeling, such as the fear of having edified badly or [1292v] of having caused God to be offended. Her conscience was indeed of an incredible delicacy which required all sorts of precautions to avoid disturbing her. One day when she had forgotten to help one of her companions who was reciting her lesson badly, the teacher told her very earnestly: “So Thérèse has no conscience!” They were inexhaustible tears, and for 15 days I could not console her. When she met me, she would throw herself into my arms, and start crying again, saying: "I have sinned and I have committed sin" - Source pre. - .

[1293r][Continued response to fourteenth request]:

In religious instruction classes she was eager for explanations and constantly asked me questions whose depth could sometimes embarrass me. Her attention was, from that time, particularly attracted by the thought of the mercy of God, and she was anxious to make me solve the problems which result from the apparent conflict of this infinite mercy with human freedom. She could not admit (she was then 9 years old) that children who died without baptism were irremediably deprived of the sight of God. She would also have liked God to convert all sinners since he could.

She insinuates, in her History, that one of her companions made her suffer like a little persecution. The fact is true; this pupil had a somewhat whimsical character and very opposed to the seriousness of Thérèse's. But the Servant of God never complained to us about these procedures, nor demanded any punishment; if, as a result of some more serious and obvious fact, we [1293v] happened to take action, she was not happy about it. There was among the companions of her age a little girl little endowed with wealth and other natural advantages. This child, who had nothing attractive about her, suffered moreover from what left something to be desired in the religious situation of her family. Little Thérèse was full of solicitude and attention to please this companion and provide for her spiritual well-being. I am convinced that there was no natural attraction in these attendances, but that the Servant of God went there out of fraternal charity and out of zeal for the good of this soul. She easily accepted being forgotten and if neglected, she did nothing to attract attention; this disposition is all the more remarkable as she was the object of continual solicitude in her family.

His First Communion retreat (May 1884) was very meditative, but presented nothing of note. On the day of her First Communion (8 May) I noticed, as indeed all her companions noticed [1294r] that she shed a great abundance of tears, which were certainly not tears of grief: her face was beaming. During the little retreat which preceded her confirmation (June 14, 1884) she showed herself very diligent in studying the gifts of the Holy Spirit and, as an unexpected circumstance delayed the ceremony by a day, she was quite happy to prolong her preparation. Especially since that time, she rarely used a book to pray. His prayer was entirely interior and seemed to be a contemplation. This form of prayer imposed itself on her, so that she could not compel herself to read the prayers of the mass in her book, as was the order of the boarding school. What she reports in her employment book of her days off is quite accurate; it was to myself that she made this reply: "I am hiding in the alley of the bed and I am thinking..." - "But what are you thinking of?" - "To the good God... finally... I think!..." - MSA 33,2 -

[1294v] [Answer to the fifteenth request]:

She left the Abbey boarding school earlier than other students commonly do, and even as her older sisters continued to stay with us. The defective state of his health, the weariness of mind caused by painful scruples, made it advisable to substitute private lessons for the regime of the boarding school. There was no dissatisfaction on our part which could have motivated this departure; she continued to come two or three days a week for manual work and to be received into the Congregation of the Children of Mary. During this period she went to the gallery of the chapel as soon as the work lesson was over, and remained in prayer until the moment of departure, that is to say for an hour, or an hour and a half.

[From the sixteenth to the twenty-sixth question inclusively, the witness replies that he knows nothing other than what is reported in the book of the Life of the Servant of God].

[1295r] [Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

In our community, which is made up of about forty nuns, the universal opinion is that the Servant of God practiced a sublime virtue. I myself am particularly struck by two things: first, the clarity of his views, however very simple, on the things of supernatural life; 2° the fact that surrounded on all sides by benevolent attentions, she kept a perfect oblivion of herself.

WITNESS 30: Sister St. Francis de Sales OSB

[Response to twenty-eighth request]:

One or two of our sisters who had once been struck by the excessive sensitivity of little Thérèse, our boarder, suspected that these easy sorrows testified to a fund of self-love; but since, by studying his writings and his virtues, they have completely modified their feeling.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I do not know in my immediate entourage any noticeable and properly miraculous favors due to the intercession of the Servant of God; [1295v] but our sisters testify more or less unanimously that devotion to the Servant of God is for them the source of many interior graces which lead them to greater generosity and fervor in the practice of perfection.

[Regarding the thirtieth request, the witness says he did not omit anything].

[1296r] [Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in responding to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signatum: MARIE-JOSÉPHINE-AURÉLIE PIERRE, Sister Saint-François de Sales.

Witness 31 - Sister Saint-Jean The Evangelist

Marie-Blanche Dupont was born in Balleroy (diocese of Bayeux) on May 11, 1867. She was for some time the companion of Thérèse Martin at the Benedictine Abbey where she was later to enter as a nun. She made her profession there on August 12, 1890, a few months before Thérèse in Carmel, the same year. While one day acting as supervisor (because she was a little older), Marie-Blanche seemed to doubt Thérèse's sincerity, she received this retort: ​​"Marie!... I never lie" (f. 1297r).

The witness testified on August 11, 1911, during the 84th session, f. 1296r-1298v of our Public Copy.

[Session 84: -August 11, 1911, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1296r] [The witness correctly answers the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Marie-Blanche Dupont, in religion Sister Saint-Jean-l'Evangéliste, born in Balleroy, diocese of Bayeux, on May 11, 1867, of the legitimate marriage of Théodore Dupont, merchant, and Léontine Domin. I have been a professed nun of the Benedictine monastery of Lisieux since August 12, 1890.

[The witness answers the third to the seventh questions correctly].

[1296v] [Response to the eighth request]:

I knew the Servant of God: 2° in a family interview on the day of her first communion; 1885° during the stay I made at the boarding school for my studies, from June XNUMX.

[Response to the ninth request]:

WITNESS 31: Sister Saint John the Evangelist OSB

I have great confidence in Sister Thérèse, although my devotion is not as enthusiastic as that of several others I know. I hope she will be beatified, because I admire in her, among other virtues, her fidelity in little things.

[From the tenth to the thirteenth questions inclusive, the witness replies that he has nothing in particular to say on these points].

[Answer to the fourteenth request]:

On the day of her first communion (May 8, 1884) I came to the Abbey to visit two little cousins ​​who were also making their first communion there. As [1297r] there were some ties between my family and that of the Servant of God, we were introduced to little Thérèse, and my mother noticed that her eyes were very red and seemed to have cried. Reading his life has since reminded me of this particularity and revealed its meaning to me.

[Answer to the fifteenth request]:

In the month of June 1885, being 18 years old, I entered the boarding school of the Abbey, to prepare for my exams as a teacher, I met the Servant of God there during the school year 1885-1886; I noticed that it was exceptionally edifying and regular. She kept herself a little aloof from her companions' games; his character was much more serious than theirs. As I was much older, I was sometimes entrusted with a share of supervision; in one of these circumstances, I asked little Thérèse if she had not failed in silence; she answered that she had not missed it; and as a little by teasing I pretended to doubt her sincerity, she seemed very distressed and said to me: "Marie!... I never lie" - Source pre. -

[1297v] [Answer to the fifteenth request]:

After she left boarding school, the Servant of God came back two or three times a week, so that she could be enrolled in the association of the children of Mary, of which I was president; this condition had been imposed on him. The director of the boarding school, Sister Sainte-Placide, who died in December 1909, told us on this occasion: “Thérèse who left the boarding school asks to be admitted among the children of Marie; I granted it to him on this condition; we will not have to regret having his name in our lists.” I remember that during the afternoons that she spent then at the boarding school, I had a great desire to talk to her after class, but I noticed her disappearance. The story of her life revealed to me that she hid in the gallery of the chapel to pray there. She was received as a child of Mary on May 31, 1887, at the same time as Marie Domin who was later to become my sister-in-law. I have a very precise memory of it and I keep a small picture signed “Thérèse, child of Mary”, which she gave me on this occasion. [1298r] I'm noting down these details to make up for a regrettable oversight I made at the time. I was president and secretary of the congregation and responsible for writing the minutes of reception. When after a few days I wanted to draw up a list of the new associates, I looked around at those who were in the house and forgot Thérèse Martin who was not part of the boarding school. It was after his death that I noticed and repaired this oversight.

[From the sixteenth to the twenty-eighth questions inclusive, the witness replies that he knows nothing].

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I hear it being said on all sides that one obtains favors marked by the intercession of the Servant of God. I have not personally experienced the benefit of these favors; but I know that, among our sisters, a good number recognize that they obtain, by invoking him, signal interior graces. His teaching enlightened me usefully on certain points of the [1298v] spiritual life, in particular on the practice of humility.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I believe I have said everything I knew about the Servant of God.

[Regarding the Articles, the witness says he only knows what he has already filed in response to previous requests. - This concludes the questioning of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signatum: Sister SAINT-JEAN THE EVANGELIST, OSB

Witness 32 - Sister Marie of the Holy Rosary

Marguerite-Léonie-Augustine Leroy was born in Lisieux on June 27, 1867. She was at boarding school, for two years, the companion of Thérèse Martin, without however being of the same class. After the Saint's death, she entered this Abbey as a Benedictine and made her profession there on July 2, 1900. 'learn to do meditation' (f. 1305r).

The witness testified on August 12, 1911, during the 85th session, f. 1303v-1306v of our Public Copy.

[Session 85: - August 12, 1911 at 8:30 a.m.]

[1303v] [The witness correctly answers the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Marguerite-Léonie-Augustine Leroy, in religion Sister Marie du Saint Rosaire. I was born in Saint Jacques de Lisieux, on June 27, 1867, of the legitimate marriage of Ferdinand-Auguste Leroy, commercial employee, and Clémentine-Malvina Rivière. I am a professed nun from the Benedictine monastery of Lisieux, where I made my profession on July 2, 1900.

[The witness answers the third to the seventh questions correctly].

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I knew the Servant [1304r] of God for having been her boarding school companion for about two years. I was not in the same class, being about six years older than her. I will only use my personal observations in my testimony.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a sincere devotion to the Servant of God; I hope and desire his beatification. The study of her life makes me believe that she is a saint, and the good that her protection does to my soul makes me think that she is powerful with God.

[Answer to the tenth request]:

I did not know the Servant of God or her family before their arrival in Lisieux (1877).

[Answer to the eleventh request]:

I have seen Monsieur Martin very often with his daughters since their arrival in Lisieux. He inspired his children with deep veneration; he himself was, as a Christian, the model for [1304v ] the whole parish.

[Answer to the twelfth request]:

I have no special testimony to furnish on this point.

[Answer to the thirteenth request]:

Before my entry into religion, I had close contact with the family of the Servant of God. In the eyes of the world, which judges only superficially, it might seem that the very delicate affection of which the Servant of God was the object, resembled a “treat”; but, having myself observed them more intimately, I can testify that it was not so. Mr. Martin's children, and particularly little Thérèse as much as his other sisters, received a very serious, very Christian education in their family and were not left to their own will, I would rather say that obedience was strict in this family.

WITNESS 32: Mary of the Holy Rosary OSB

[Answer to the fourteenth request]:

During the two years that I knew Thérèse Martin at the Benedictine boarding school (1882-1884), [1305r] she seemed to me to be shy and very sensitive. Because of that, and also because I was six years older than her, I left her with the "little ones" without forming very intimate relationships with her. Despite this, I seized in her, without really realizing it, an exceptional delicacy of conscience which inspired me with real respect. I remember that one day little Thérèse, then 9 years old, asked to talk to me during recess. I was president of an association of piety in the house, and as such the little pupils sometimes asked me for some advice or encouragement on their outward conduct. I imagined it was a confidence of this kind; but I was surprised and above all very embarrassed when she said to me: "Marguerite, I would like you to teach me how to meditate." - Source Pre. - I have a very certain memory of this feature. It also seems to me that on this occasion she said to me what she later repeated to one of her mistresses, namely that at her [1305v] house, she isolated herself in the alley of her reads to... “think” - MSA 33,2 - . Which meant thinking about God. But this trait was told so often in our community that I entertained some doubt as to whether she had really told it to me. I had left boarding school before his first communion. Sister Thérèse suggests in her life that she suffered during her stay at the Benedictine boarding school. I believe I can give the reason for this, which was the contrast between the exquisite delicacy of mutual relations and the forms of piety in his family environment and the composition of the boarding school which, at that time, included a certain number of rather vulgar.

[Answer from the fifteenth to the twenty-sixth questions]:

Having left the Servant of God before leaving boarding school, I cannot give precise testimony about the rest of her life from that time.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

[1306r] In our community, all the nuns have studied the “life” of Sister Thérèse, and think almost unanimously that it is the life of a saint.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

There is indeed one of our sisters who, when we express our admiration for Sister Thérèse, seems to apply herself to dampening our enthusiasm. But she brings no positive reason for her opposition, and I think she does so more out of a certain habit of contradicting than out of a true conviction.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I could not mention, as far as I am concerned, any temporal favor obtained by the invocation of the Servant of God; besides, I didn't ask him anything of that kind; but reading his life awakened in me a greater desire for perfection. I can say that this influence is very marked; moreover, I am convinced that by invoking her I obtain from her precious help for the realization of these good desires.

[1306v] [Regarding the thirtieth request, the witness says that he did not omit anything].

[About the Articles witness says he only knows what he has already asked when responding to previous requests. - This concludes the examination of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Signatum-. Sister MARIE DU SAINT ROSAIRE, OB

Witness 33 - Nicolas Giannattasio di Francesco, Bishop of Nardo

Born in Bisceglie on January 17, 1871, Nicolas Giannattasio was ordained a priest, still very young, on December 21, 1893. Doctor of letters, philosophy and theology, he taught successively at the regional pontifical seminary of Benevento then in that of Ascoli Satriano and Cerignola of which he was also the rector. He was appointed bishop of Nardò on November 30, 1908, and consecrated on the following December 31. Not agreeing later to be transferred to the archiepiscopal see of Otranto, he then became titular archbishop of Pessinunte and settled in Rome, where, named canon of Saint John of Lateran, consultor of the Congregation of the Sacraments and examiner of the clergy , he also devoted himself to study and the apostolate. A good connoisseur of Dante Alighieri, he was a friend of artists and scholars, very intimate with Perosi. In 1916 he published Saggi di apologia cattolica, in 1942 Parusia storica secondo San Pietro, and in 1952 Cristologia Paolina. He died in Frascati on August 24, 1959*.

The witness testified in Italian. Its text was immediately translated into French by Mr. Dubosq, promoter of the faith. It is about the prodigious events that occurred in the Carmel of Gallipoli in 1910-1911, a monastery with which Monsignor Giannattasio was in contact for reasons of ministry. The bishop already appreciated the true value of the spiritual message of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and saw it confirmed by the Servant of God saying to Mother Carmela of the Sacred Heart during the apparition of January 16, 1910: "The mia via è sicura, e non mi sono sbagliata seguendola” (“My path is sure and I was not mistaken in following it”), words that Monsignor Giannattasio related to the promise made by Sister Thérèse to Sister Marie de la Trinity: “If when I arrive in heaven, I learn that I have misled you, I will obtain permission from God to come immediately to warn you. Until then, believe that my path is sure and follow it faithfully. -CSM-

The witness testified on August 21-22, 1911, during sessions 86-87, f. 1309v-1329v of our Public Copy.

[Session 86: - August 21, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30 and at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1310v] [The witness answered the first question correctly].

[1311r] [Response to second request]:

My name is Nicolas Giannattasio di Francesco, born in Bisceglie, archdiocese of Trani, province of Bari (Italy), on January 17, 1871, from the legitimate marriage of Francesco Giannattasio and Lucretia Gramagna. I am bishop of Nardò, province of Lecce (Italy), bordering the diocese of Gallipoli.

[The witness answers the third to the seventh questions correctly].

[Answer to the eighth request]:

I have to testify mainly about the prodigious facts that happened in the Carmel of Gallipoli (Articles nn. 145, 145a, 145b). I know from personal science what I will report on these facts. I will also mention, on occasion, the authority of reliable witnesses, from whom I can obtain certain information relating to my deposition.

[1311v] [Answer to the ninth request]:

I have a strong devotion to the Servant of God, and I very much wish the success of her cause; but it is not for any human feeling. I desire his beatification for the sole glory of God, and because I believe that it will contribute to the edification of souls, especially for the present times.

[Answer from the tenth to the twenty-sixth questions]:

I don't know anything specific about these points.

[Response to the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth requests]:

My feeling is that the Servant of God practiced in her life a holiness that was not only eminent, but I would say “one of the most eminent in the Church.” Moreover, this holiness seems to me "characteristic" in the sense that it is destined in the views of Providence to trace a new path towards perfection.

[In what sense do you call this way of holiness a “new way”?]:

As one says of a man of genius that he has "new" views on the "immutable" truth, that is to say "a new way of grasping and exposing the truth which nevertheless remains substantially the even." It is thus that "typical" saints, such as Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Teresa, etc., brought to light in a special way a virtue and a point of view of the Gospel doctrine, which doctrine remains the only path to all holiness. It is not only by their teaching that these same saints have propagated the special practice of some Gospel virtue, but above all by the practice of their life, they have become like a "new exemplary cause" of holiness, without the principal and "authoritative" cause of all holiness ceases to be unique.

WITNESS 33: Bishop Nicolas Giannattasio

[What do you think this special way of holiness consists of?]:

In the love of God, [1312v] seen as the love of trust and abandonment and in the practice of the “little acts” of the virtues. His life, in fact, presents a "heroic" tenacity and constancy in the attentive exercise of these "little acts" of virtue: his fidelity in this practice has never been denied, and the "History of his life" shows her to us in this way constant from her early childhood, during her stay in the world, then in Carmel until her death. I believe that by the constantly faithful practice of these “little acts”, she reached the pinnacle of perfection and an eminent degree of love of God. She thus shows that the highest perfection is accessible even to “little souls”, and it seems to me that most souls today are “little souls” in the sense understood by the Servant of God.

[Do you think it was above all about certain virtues in particular that the Servant of God exercised such “little” acts?]:

I believe that it applied especially to an exquisite friendliness towards one's neighbour, to patience in [1313r] bearing the faults of others, to a very minute and very sustained attention in the testimonies of his deep piety and his religion towards God.

[How did you know all this?]:

I deduce it from the study and meditation of “his Life”. This work seems to me a masterpiece in Christian hagiography; it is a marvelous ascetic "directory."

[Do you know how famous the Servant of God is in southern Italy?]:

She is known to a large number of souls, especially among pious and serious people. Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus is considered a saint. The prodigious event which took place at Gallipoli, and of which I will speak later, contributed to spreading this reputation for holiness. I have never heard the truth of this reputation for heroic virtue disputed.

[1313v] [Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

The events of Gallipoli can be reduced, for more order, to three heads: 16° the prodigious fact of January 1910, 2; (16) the fact of surpluses recurring in the accounts on various occasions after January 1910, 3; 16° the fact, which is more particularly personal to me, of January 1911, XNUMX.

1°- The event of January 16, 1910 was reported to me a few days after its occurrence by the Bishop of Gallipoli who had invited me, on February 6, to perform the pontifical function for Saint Agatha, patroness of Gallipoli. Moreover, the next day, February 7, 1910, the prioress of the Carmel of Gallipoli, who had been favored with this prodigy, reported it to me herself in the presence of Monsignor Muller, Bishop of Gallipoli.

I am going to relate the fact by reporting this relationship that Mother Carmela of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, prioress, made to us. Therefore, Monseigneur de Gallipoli, to satisfy the desire that I had expressed to him the day before, following his [1314r] story, took me, on February 7, to the parlor of Carmel and asked the mother prioress to tell us the story. of the January 16 event. I must note that this nun showed great hesitation and reluctance to relate these details: she proceeded to do so with great reserve, and it was only under the injunction that Monseigneur de Gallipoli made to her in the name of obedience. that she resigned herself to satisfying us.

[Do you know the cause of this reluctance?]:

I never thought that the awareness of saying something that wasn't true could be the cause of these hesitations. The whole of the circumstances which I have observed in his attitude and his story do not leave the slightest room for such suspicion. This prioress is very virtuous and incapable of lying. I had the impression, and I believe it to be true, that this repugnance stemmed from a feeling of humility which made it very painful for her to recount facts which concerned her personally. I also noticed that during this [1314v] interview, where the prioress obviously did violence to herself to obey her bishop's order, her face changed as she continued her story, and her features took on a all celestial which made a deep impression on me.

WITNESS 33: Bishop Nicolas Giannattasio

[Witness continues]:

The prioress therefore told us that around the dawn of January 16, 1910, she was in her bed. Rather suffering from the consequences of pleurisy, she had not slept all night, and at that moment she was half-sitting in her bed. (Whether she was wide awake, or half asleep, she does not say in her account). It seemed to him that someone was touching the covers of his bed towards his chest. She then said, "Don't do that, I'm all sweaty." A voice replied, “Fear not, what I am doing is not for evil, but for good.” Then this voice added: “God uses the beings of heaven as well as those of earth: I bring you five hundred pounds to provide for the [1315r] needs of the community.” The prioress resumed: "The debt of the community is only three hundred pounds." - "Well - said the voice - you will keep the rest for the other needs of the community." The prioress objected: "But the Rule does not allow me to keep money in my cell." The voice replied with a "mental locuzione": that this money could be taken out of the cell, and that, as the prioress could not get up because of her perspiration, a "bilocation" would allow her to come and receive this money. money. (I should note here that the prioress was very hesitant to repeat this word “bilocation” and only did so at the insistence of Monsignor Muller, enjoining him to tell the whole truth).

[1315v] [Continuation of the response to the twenty-ninth request]:

Then the prioress was led out of her cell by a Carmelite woman radiant with a light which illumined their walk through the corridors. She led her to the trick room, still inside the fence. In this apartment there was a desk with drawers: this desk was regularly used for the accounts of the temporal administration of the monastery. The apparition opened one of the drawers in which was a small box about ten centimeters in length. She deposited in this box the sum of five hundred pounds in notes from the bank of Naples. The prioress was very moved and initially believed in an apparition of Saint Thérèse, foundress of Carmel. She [1316r] then exclaimed: “O Santa Madre.” The vision answered: "I am not the 'Santa Madre', I am the Servant of God Sister Thérèse of Lisieux: today is a feast in heaven and on earth" (it was the feast of Saint name of Jesus). There was an exchange of a few other words; then the apparition gave the prioress some tokens of friendship, placing her hand on her head, and tidying up the folds of her veil as a caress; she then seemed to walk away to head for the exit door. The prioress says: “Wait a moment, I will lead you, because you could make a mistake, not knowing the way.” The vision answered in proper terms the following: “La mia via è sicura, e non mi sono sbagliata seguendola.”

[Do you know if the prioress had already known anything of the Servant of God or if she had heard of it?]:

Shortly before, a Marcelline nun from Milan, from the house of Lecce, on a visit to the Carmel of Gallipoli, had said [1316v] a few words about Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus; the Carmelites of Gallipoli had resolved, in extreme necessity, to invoke the young Carmelite of whom they had been told, and around the time of the apparition, they made a triduum or a novena to obtain the help of God through her intercession. , in the end where the monastery was located.

[The witness continued his statement as follows]:

The prioress was very moved by this strange event. In the morning she got up with great effort to make communion and attend mass. As she retired after thanksgiving, the two sacristan nuns noticed the pallor of her face, which seemed to indicate great unease. They wanted at all costs that their mother prioress went back to bed and that the doctor was called. Pressed by their insistence, she ended by telling them that she was still under the impression of a phenomenon experienced during the night and which she believed to be a dream; she then told them [1317r] briefly what had happened concerning the little box placed in the drawer of the desk. The prioress said to them, as if making fun of them -. "Do not believe in dreams." The nuns insist; but, moved by a kind of religious fear, none of them dares to open the drawer. The prioress is forced to do it herself, and indeed finds in the little box the sum of five hundred pounds.

[Do you know if the prioress in question was more or less sleepwalking or suffered from some nervous disorder, so that she could have deposited in this cassette the sum already present inside the monastery?]:

This hypothesis is absolutely inadmissible: 1° the said prioress is of a very sound mind and has never given, neither before nor since, the slightest sign of nervous trouble; 2° it is equally impossible that such a sum of money was found in the monastery or that the prioress received it from outside. [1317v] I know for sure and personally that the Carmel of Gallipoli is in extreme poverty: the country itself is poor, not very religious and not very generous; no benefactor would be found to contribute such sums. Moreover, the monastery's creditor had been pursuing him with extreme relentlessness for 16 days, demanding his due every day. If we had had any money available, we would have given it to him immediately. But above all, the extremely severe investigation by Monseigneur de Gallipoli left no room for any possible suspicion. This venerable prelate, either by special permission from God, or by measure of wisdom in the conduct of so delicate an affair, is in such a disposition that he would seize the slightest pretext to bring the whole affair to naught. However, Monsignor Muller, in his investigation, made all the possible suppositions of error, illusion or deception; he has, on the spot, all the elements of information and he noted, as moreover he told me, that no natural explanation was admissible.

WITNESS 33: Bishop Nicolas Giannattasio

[1318r] 2°. - As for the more or less prodigious facts that happened in the Carmel of Gallipoli between January 16, 1910 and January 16, 1911, I do not attach the same importance to their account, because I have not verified them myself- same and that the circumstances in which they were realized are not as striking as those of the first appearance. I will only say in a general way that the prioress affirms to have found on several occasions in her accounts surplus receipts which cannot be explained without supernatural intervention, and that the Bishop of Gallipoli, who makes these accounts a very frequent and very careful verification, admitted to me that the origin of these sums was for him inexplicable. Moreover, he subjected this prioress, on the occasion of these events, to so many tests, examinations and vexations of all kinds that he himself considers that there would be for the prioress no advantage in supporting them if they were not true. Monsignor of Gallipoli notes, moreover, that the progress of the whole community and of each of the nuns in the spiritual life is [1318v] extraordinary and that one cannot deny their coincidence with the material facts related above: I I know for myself that this is so for having directed the spiritual exercises of this Carmel.

3°. - The third fact is completely personal to me. I have the special devotion, based on the effects I have experienced, to recommend to the Servant of God and to have the Carmelites recommend to her the solution of the exceptional difficulties that I find in the administration of my diocese. To make the Servant of God more propitious to me, the thought occurred to me of giving the Carmel of Gallipoli an alms of five hundred pounds, a sum equal to that which the Servant of God had miraculously brought, and of giving precisely this alms on the anniversary of the prodigy related in n. 1 above. I hesitated, however, to offer such a considerable sum to a monastery which is not of my diocese; but, on Christmas day, a benefactor unexpectedly handed me the sum of a thousand pounds to use as I wished. Immediately [1319r] I said to myself: “Sister Thérèse comes to my aid”, and I no longer hesitated to carry out my alms project. For this, having received on December 28, 1910 the visit of a very trustworthy person from Gallipoli, I took advantage of her coming to transmit through her my sending. To this end, outside the presence of this person and without being seen by anyone, I introduced a note of five hundred pounds in a small envelope, and I inserted at the same time one of my business cards. , on which, to recall the event of January 16, 1910, I wrote these words: "In memoriam... My path is sure, and I was not mistaken in following it" (Sister Thérèse of Lisieux to Sister Maria Carmela in Gallipoli, January 16, 1910). Orate pro me quotidie ut Deus misereatur mei.” I left this envelope open and wrote on it these words: "In memoriam." I enclosed this little open envelope, with its contents, in one of those large double envelopes known in the trade as security envelopes. The inner envelope was of fine paper, tinted blue; the outer envelope of strong paper of a lighter [1319v] colour. I carefully closed this double envelope and sealed it with a strong wax seal with the imprint of my arms. Then, and in the presence of the person who was to be the commissioner, I wrote on the outside of the large envelope: "To be placed in the ordinary little box, and to be opened by the Mother Prioress, Sister Carmela, on the date of 16 January 1911.” Moreover, I begged the commissionaire in person to recommend that we comply with the instructions written on the envelope. One absolutely could not, through the double envelope, read the word "In memoriam", written on the small inner envelope; even less could one know its contents. Moreover, I did not tell the messenger what this letter contained: I only recommended that she take good care of it.

[Session 87: - August 22, 1911 at 8:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1323v] [Continuation of the response to the twenty-ninth request]:

At the invitation of Monsignor Muller, Bishop of Gallipoli, I was to preach the eight-day spiritual exercises in Carmel, beginning on January 16, 1911. So on January 16, around four o'clock in the afternoon, I went in the parlor of the Carmel on the order of the Bishop, to determine the timetable for the exercises. This January 16 was precisely the date that I had fixed for the opening of my sending: I thought that the prioress had become aware of it from the beginning of that day; but in our conversation in the visiting room, she told me that the envelope was still in the little box and intact and that she wanted me to open it myself. Why did she want me to open the envelope myself and had she waited for me to come? It is, I believe, because she suspected that something extraordinary had happened with this envelope and that she wanted, as much as possible, to avoid being involved in this new affair which does not would not fail to cause her further trouble, and to attract further public attention to her. In fact, for a year, the nuns of her monastery had had the idea of ​​praying [1324v] to the Servant of God, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus: “Since you are interested in the material good of the community, deign to interest yourself also in something more spiritual and procure for us the means of acquiring a garnish of flowers for the altar of our poor chapel.” They estimated the expense at 300 pounds. The prioress had at first refused to join in this request; then she ended up condescending. and for some time she had been praying for this object with the other nuns. However, a few days before January 16, the prioress. having occasion to open the casket where my envelope was, had noticed that this envelope had become more voluminous and she had had the intuition that some prodigy relating to the prayer of the sisters had been accomplished. This, in my opinion, is the reason why she hesitated to open the envelope; and she had written to me: "Don't forget to come yourself on the 16th, it seems to me that the Servant of God wants to give you a noticeable albeit indirect sign of her supernatural action."

WITNESS 33: Bishop Nicolas Giannattasio

[1325r] The prioress, at my request, went to get the cassette and took out the envelope which she presented to me, asking me to open it. I insisted that she open it herself. She tore with some effort a corner of the envelope which was solid and well gummed, then with her finger she opened it upwards. Then, without touching the contents, she handed it to me through the grating, saying to me: "Take it, then, since it is yours." I believe that she obeyed in this the feeling described above and that she wanted, as much as possible, to get rid of this affair which she felt was supernatural. So I took the envelope and was amazed when I saw other notes than the five hundred pound note that I had enclosed in the small inner envelope. There were two hundred pound notes and two fifty pound notes, placed inside inside the second thin paper envelope. My little envelope was in the middle of these notes and I didn't see it at first.

My first instinctive thought was that my five hundred pound note had been changed, replacing it [1325v] with divisional notes. The prioress said to me: "Count it, maybe it's the three hundred pounds requested by the sisters?" In any case, keep all that and deal with this matter yourself. If you want, I will call the sisters and you will give them this sum as of yourselves. She probably thought that by this means the miracle would pass unnoticed and that people would not talk about it. I counted the notes again: one of the fifty-pound notes gave off a faint smell of roses. I took it for myself and replaced it with another of the same value. The sisters were called: I gave them this value without saying anything about the miracle; they thanked me and withdrew. The prioress then told me that the Servant of God wanted to act in this case through me. But I replied that I was only a witness to the facts. Having taken back the envelope, she said to me with vivacity: "Check to see if it is indeed your seal." She then returned the letter to me, which I examined with great attention. The seal was intact; I also recognized, which is important, the identity of certain [1326r] peculiarities in the way the edges of the envelope had been erased by me. I had indeed added with a brush a little liquid eraser, and it had resulted from it certain small folds which I found identical. I don't want to forget to say that my five hundred pound note with my visiting card was intact in its envelope among the other notes.

As I had to preach immediately, I distracted myself, for the moment, from any impressions this event might have on me; but in the evening, finding myself alone in my room at the bishopric of Gallipoli, I reflected with freedom of mind on all these circumstances and I remained convinced until the evidence that the fact could only be supernatural, and I was moved to tears. The hypothesis that the prioress inserted these notes in my envelopes is absolutely inadmissible. 1° she could not have this sum at Carmel; the monastery is in fact in a state of poverty that can be called “misery”; 2° the envelopes were [1326v] absolutely intact; 3° the prioress is absolutely incapable of such fraud: not only all her nuns bear witness to it, but also the Bishop of Gallipoli, who, as I have said, is a priori opposed to the admission of the supernatural in these facts and who would be happy to find the slightest clue to invalidate the supposition of the miracle, is himself forced to affirm the perfect morality of this prioress, he himself gave me this testimony, adding that elsewhere the prioress would have no reason, no advantage, to fabricate these lies. On the last day of the spiritual exercises, Monsignor of Gallipoli asked me to give him a canonical deposition, under oath, of everything that had happened.

[1327r] [Continuation of the response to the twenty-ninth request]:

To complete my testimony, I must note that it was not by chance, but on purpose that I had written on the visiting card which was attached to my five hundred pound note, this sentence said by the Servant of God, January 16, 1910, to the Mother Prioress of Gallipoli: “My path is sure and I was not mistaken in following it.”

WITNESS 33: Bishop Nicolas Giannattasio

From the first moment, this word had seemed very important to me and I regretted that the canonical inquiries made into the subject of the event had not sufficiently brought out its scope and had not grasped its spiritual meaning. For me, there has never been the slightest doubt that this sentence means: “The spiritual path of [1327v] holiness which I myself have followed and taught to others is sure, etc....” She does not can mean something else, and in particular it cannot be interpreted in this purely material sense: "the way to follow through the corridors to leave the monastery is surely known to me." Indeed, the expression: "Mia via", "My way", would not be understood in the material sense especially in Italian. Moreover, the expression "seguire la via" is rather, in Italian, said in a figurative sense. I did not know at first what I learned afterwards and which fully confirmed me in the conviction of the spiritual meaning of this sentence; that is to say, this same sentence had been said by the Servant of God to three novices, speaking properly of her "little way of holiness": "I will come back to tell you if I was wrong and if my way is safe” - HA 12 - '. In my opinion, the Servant of God fulfilled her promise in her apparition of January 16, 1910 and precisely in these words “My way is sure, etc...”; and the theological motive of the second prodigy of January 16, 1911, was to bring out [1328r] the truth of this interpretation; I infer it from all the circumstances and I had an immediate intuition of it from the first moment. Although in writing this sentence on the business card attached to the five hundred books, I had no actual intention of causing a miraculous sign to confirm the meaning of this sentence, I was nevertheless under the very strong impression of the ideas set forth above, and invincibly determined to exercise all my authority and to take all means to draw attention to the importance of this saying and its true interpretation. The miracle of January 16, 1911 thus satisfied my desire.

Finally, I would like to briefly report another prodigious event that happened in Nardò on the night of January 2 to 3, 1911: it was the healing of Miss Santa Aprile, about 50 years old, living opposite the cathedral. This young lady was affected in the face and throat with phlegmonous erysipelas of gangrenous character. This disease had seized her on January 1st, and in 48 hours had brought her to [1328v] the article of death. In the judgment of two doctors, Zuccalà and Tarantino, there was no hope of a resolving crisis: necrosis had declared itself in the mouth; the face was horribly swollen and the doctors were thinking of performing a tracheotomy to allow breathing. The patient, aware of her condition and ready to die, nevertheless kept in her soul the confidence that she would be cured, but only through the intercession of the Servant of God, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. During the night, when everything had been prepared to bury her, being wide awake, but with her eyes closed due to the swelling of her face, she mentally saw a very white hand and she had the feeling that this hand delicately touched the face; she had the intuition that it was Sister Thérèse, and she felt a beginning of well-being; the next day the doctors found the condition better; the necrosis began to resolve itself, and from that moment, the better went on until the complete cure which was achieved although slowly and despite a new crisis of [1329r] two or three days. I know this family personally, and I hold the above facts from the testimony of the patient herself, her mother, her two brothers and her sister.

Finally, I would add that I am indebted to the protection of the Servant of God for extraordinary spiritual graces in the very difficult government of my diocese. I consider Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus as my special protector and I invoke her on every occasion.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I don't think I forgot anything important.

[At the end of the examination relating to the Interrogations, we came to the Articles of the Vice-Postulator. The witness then answered:

There is a small inaccuracy in Article 145b, page 162. This slight inaccuracy, or rather this ambiguity, comes from an imperfect translation of my Italian report sent to the vice-postulator. These words: “Monsignor Nicolas [1329v] Giannattasio was unaware of the words, etc. then…” are true if you hear them from the time when I conceived the plan to send alms of five hundred pounds; they would no longer be true if one hears them in relation to the date on which, in fact, I made the dispatch, for I had learned this detail a short time before.

[This concludes the examination of this witness. Reading of Acts is given. The witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Ita pro veritate deposui, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signatum.t NICOLAUS, episcopus neritonensis.

Witnesses 34 to 45

After Bishop Giannattasio, the Tribunal heard another eleven witnesses (including one, twice, Doctor La Néele), who testified about two healings attributed to Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

The first is that of the seminarian Charles Anne in 1906. It constituted the first miracle for the beatification (1923). Witnesses 34-39 testified about him, namely:

1. Charles Anne, priest then, exercising the ministry (f. 1337v-1342r).

2. Sister Marie de Saint-Ignace François, of the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception of Nogent-le-Rotrou, nurse much loved and highly appreciated by all of Lisieux, where she had been since 1877 (f. 1342r-1345v).

3. Josephine-Reine Hare mother of Charles Anne (f. 1346r-1348v).

4. Prosper-Alexandre Anne, father of Charles (f. 1352v-1354v).

5. Paul Loisnel, doctor. (f. 1355v1356v).

6. Francis La Néele, doctor (f. 1357v1362v).

Doctors Damasus-Alexandre de Cornière and Victor Viel were also heard, as experts required by the Court for an opinion on the patient's condition at the time of the Trial (f. 1368r-1370v).

Witnesses 40-45 testified about the second healing, that of sixty-year-old Ferdinand Aubry, from the house of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Lisieux, who suffered from cancer of the tongue, from which he was delivered in 1910 through the intercession of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. There deposited four Little Sisters of the Poor and two doctors, namely:

1. Sister Saint-Charles-Borromée Cario, superior of the house (f. 1379r-1383r).

2. Sister Laurentine-Thérèse Pinçon (f. 1383v-1387v).

3. Sister Saint-Martin Laffargue (f. 1387v-1391r),

4. Sister Domitille de Saint-Laurent Belpeer (f. 1391r-1392v).

5. Victor Viel, doctor (f. 1398r-1400v).

6. Francis La Néele, doctor (f. 1401r-1403r).

The testimonials are essentially of a technical nature from a medical point of view, so let's omit them. Doctor Damasus-Alexandre de Cornière (1841-1922) and Doctor Francis La Néele (1855-1916), husband of Jeanne Guérin, cousin of the Saint, who nevertheless approached Sister Thérèse during her last illness, do not speak there, too, only on the medical level (evolution and disappearance of the disease).

Let's just remember this. With exquisite charity towards the sick whom she often visited and whom she knew how to console with a word and a smile, Sister Marie de Saint-Ignace François went to see Father Louis on October 1, 1897. -Auguste Youf (1842-1897), then very seriously ill and gives us this echo of their meeting: "Without entering, on the life of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, into the account of common details which are known to a large number of witnesses, I will report a particularity which shows what esteem was held for his holiness, at the time of his death, Father Youf, chaplain of the Carmel. Monsieur Youf was a priest of remarkable prudence recognized by all. The day after Sister Thérèse's death, in the morning, I went to see Monsieur Youf, himself ill. He had not yet been informed of the death of Sister Thérèse, which had occurred the evening before. Hearing the Carmel bell ringing, he said to me: 'She is dead... She will not be long in coming to fetch me: she promised me... What a loss for Carmel!... She is a saint. '. Father Youf himself died eight days later” (session 88 of August 23, 1911, f. 1345r).

Official witness 1 - Armand-Constant Lemonnier

The first official witness is Father Armand-Constant Lemonnier (or Le Monnier, as the copyist of the Trials writes). Born in Vassy (diocese of Bayeux) on November 1, 1841, he entered the Congregation of Notre-Dame de la Délivrande at a very young age and was ordained a priest on June 15, 1867. A much appreciated preacher and director of spiritual exercises, he enjoyed the esteem of eminent men, including Dom Vital Lehodey, Abbot of La Trappe de Bricquebec, theologian of abandonment to Providence. The separation of Church and State, in 1904, caused the dissolution of the Congregation of Délivrande and Father Lemonnier had to leave the Marian sanctuary of Bayeux. It was thus that after having worked for some fourteen years in the colleges of his Institute and twenty years in the service of the diocesan missions, he was appointed chaplain to the Religious of the Holy Family in Bayeux. He testified at the two Teresian Trials and died on February 20, 1917 *.

He directed the spiritual exercises of the Carmel of Lisieux in 1893, 1894 and 1895, which gave him the opportunity to make in-depth contact with the monastery, as well as to hear Thérèse in confession and to get in touch with the Martin family. . He was also Céline's director for a while and opened the doors of Carmel to her. It was to him that Mother Agnès submitted the text of the Act of Offering to Merciful Love during the October 1895 exercises. the name of Lemonnier and who was the author of the famous change of the expression "infinite desires" into that of "tremendous desires."

The witness recalls, among other things, the extraordinary esteem of Father Youf for the person of Thérèse and for his way of forming the novices.

He deposited on April 7, 1911, during the 75th session, f. 1185v-1189v of our Public Copy.

OFFICIAL WITNESS 1: Armand Le Monnier

[Session 75: - April 7, 1911, at 8 a.m. 30]

[1185v] [The official witness correctly answers the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Armand-Constant Le Monnier, born in Vassy, ​​diocese of Bayeux, on November 1841, 15, of the legitimate marriage of Auguste Le Monnier, farmer, and Victoire Groult. I am a priest, ordained on June 1867, 1186. I belonged to the Congregation of Diocesan Missionaries of Notre-Dame de la Délivrande. Since the dispersion (1904), I have been chaplain to the nuns of the Holy Family, at Notre-Dame de la Délivrande. Most of my priestly life has been spent in our secondary schools (about 14 years) and in the exercise of diocesan missions (20 years).

[The witness answers the third to the seventh questions correctly]

[Answer to the eighth request]:

On three occasions, in 1893, 1894 and 1895, I preached and directed the annual retreat of the Carmelites of Lisieux. In these circumstances, I heard in confession and direction the Servant of God and the other nuns of the monastery, who then communicated to me their impressions both of the Servant of God and of the community as a whole. On this same occasion, I spoke with Father Youf, ordinary chaplain of the Carmel, who died in October 1897; He also shared with me his appreciation of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the community. [1186v] At that same time, in addition to the Carmelite sisters of the Servant of God, I also met other members of her family, in particular her sister Céline who was still in the world, and her sister Léonie, a nun of the Visit to Caen. I read part of the “Story of a Soul”, but I did not use it for my deposition.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have confidence in the Servant of God, but I have not adopted personal devotional practices towards her. I ardently hope and wish the success of her beatification, which I believe will be for the glory of God and the good of souls, for she has already done much good to those who invoke her.

[Answer from the tenth to the thirteenth questions]:

I don't know any other details on these questions than those I read in the “Story of a Soul.”

[Answer to the fourteenth request]:

[1187r]Among the nuns whom I direct at the Holy Family, at La Délivrande, there is one, Sister Alice Dumoulin, who was the companion of the Servant of God at the boarding house for the Benedictines of Lisieux, known as the "Abbaye .” She was then about 7 years old and the Servant of God 10 or 11 years old. Sister Alice Dumoulin often told me that the Servant of God was distinguished from then on by her great piety and her charity for her little companions. Sister Alice today has a great devotion to the Servant of God Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

[From the fifteenth to the seventeenth question inclusively, the witness replies that he knows nothing more than what is reported in the book "Story of a Soul"].

[Answer to the eighteenth request]:

When in the years 1893, 1894 and 1895 I preached and directed the retreats of the Carmel, I learned from the confidences of the nuns that the Servant of God, then aged 20 to 22, exercised near them the function of mistress of novices, without bearing the title. I noticed that the novices [1187v] had great confidence in her; they considered her to be very virtuous and very enlightened; his judgments, especially in matters of the supernatural life, seemed to them particularly wise. My personal conviction, determined by the knowledge that I had been able to make myself of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus' dispositions, was also that no better guide could be found, and I encouraged the nuns to follow her reviews and examples. What is still remarkable on this subject is the judgment of Father Youf, chaplain of the Carmel. He was a priest and director of a rather austere spirituality; the Servant of God, moreover, was an expanded soul who preached trust in everything. It would therefore seem that Monsieur Youf had to profess a certain reserve in his assessments of the influence of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. However, on the contrary, he expressed to me in a very clear way, which I remember very vividly, that he had absolute confidence in the guidance given by the Servant of God to the novices. He had also noticed that everything she wrote on spiritual things bore the imprint of a very sure and very enlightened doctrine.

[1188r] [Response to the nineteenth request]

Most of his writings are known to me only through the publication of them in the "History of a Soul." However, I can relate a feature concerning the "Act of offering as a victim of holocaust to merciful Love", which the Servant of God had composed around the month of June 1895. At the retreat which took place from 8 to On the following October 15, the Reverend Mother Prioress submitted this writing to me, to find out if it could be given as a formula of consecration to the nuns who wished to adopt it. To judge more surely, I took the writing and communicated it to the reverend father superior of our congregation. It seemed to both of us very beautiful and perfectly in keeping with sound doctrine.

OFFICIAL WITNESS 1: Armand Le Monnier

[Answer from the twentieth to the twenty-second request]:

In her leadership communications, the Servant of God was very simple and very forgetful of herself; she did not share with me the details of the particular graces she received from God. It was impossible, however, not to recognize [1188v] in her a great fervor and a constant concern to be faithful in all things. My relations having been limited to these three retreats of 8 days each, I cannot give more details on his interior life and his virtues.

[Response to the twenty-third request]:

I said above, in response to the eighteenth questioning, what the Servant of God thought in 1893-1895, either the nuns of her monastery or Mr. Youf, chaplain of the Carmel. I can add that the latter told me that he considered the presence of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus to be a treasure for the Carmel, not only because of the wisdom of her advice, but also because of the influence of her fervor.

[From the twenty-fourth to the twenty-fifth questions, the witness answers that he knows nothing]

[Response to the twenty-sixth request]:

I once went to visit the tomb of the Servant of God, in September 1910; I noticed that several people came to pray there during the quarter of an hour [1189r] that I spent there myself.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

In the community of the Holy Family of La Délivrande of which I am chaplain, we admit, for the spiritual exercises, people from the world who come in this way, at certain times, to make retreats. This ministry puts me in touch with a good number of pious people, coming from various parts of the diocese. I am struck by the intense devotion and trust that most of these souls show for the Servant of God.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I have never heard anyone criticize the Servant of God or what is being done to obtain her beatification.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

I know the general reputation for miracles spread universally and the facts related in various publications, but [1189v] I have not been in personal contact with any of those who have been the object of these favors.

[Answer to the thirtieth request]:

I said everything I knew.

[Regarding the Articles, the ex officio witness says he only knows what he has already filed in responding to previous requests. - This concludes the examination of this official witness. Reading of Acts is given. The official witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

Testis deposui ut supra secundum veritatem, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signed: Ar. LE MONNIER

Official witness 2 - Alcide Ducellier

Alcide-Leonida Ducellier was born in Chicheboville (diocese of Bayeux) on November 14, 1849. Ordained a priest in 1874, he was successively curate at Saint-Gervais de Falaise (1874-1877) and at Saint-Pierre de Lisieux (1877-1884), then pastor of Mathieu (1884-1892), pastor-dean of Trévières (1892-1899) and archpriest of Saint-Pierre de Lisieux from 1899 until his death (December 20, 1916).

Vicar at Saint-Pierre de Lisieux, he was a friend of the Martin family. He heard Thérèse's first confession when she was about seven years old - MSA, 16,2 - and remained her confessor until she entered the Abbey of Notre-Dame du Pré as a half-boarder. He preached at the taking of the habit of Pauline, which he directed, and also at the taking of the habit and veil of Céline. Pastor-dean of Trévières, he had remained in contact with the Martin family and on July 30, 1897 Thérèse thought of him with delicacy: “Don't tell Monsieur Ducellier that I only have a few days left; I'm not yet weak enough to die, and after that, when you live you're really "hood" (DE/1 [30.7.13] p. 290).

Monsieur Ducellier testified at the two Teresian Trials. In his present testimony he echoes his memories of Thérèse's childhood and concludes briefly with his reputation for holiness.

[Session 76: - May 3, 1911, at 8:30 a.m.]

[1195r] [The official witness answers the first request correctly].

[1195v] [Response to second request]:

My name is Alcide-Leonida Ducellier, born in Chicheboville, diocese of Bayeux, on November 14, 1849, of Louis-Adolphe Ducellier, masonry contractor, and Céleste Philippe. I am a priest, ordained in 1874. I exercised the holy ministry first as vicar at Saint Gervais de Falaise (1874-1877), then at Saint Pierre de Lisieux (18771884-1899); then I was parish priest of Mathieu; then senior parish priest of Trévières, and finally I have been archpriest parish priest of Saint Pierre de Lisieux since XNUMX.

[The witness answers the third to the seventh questions correctly].

[Answer to the eighth request]:

When I was curate of Saint Pierre de Lisieux (1877-1884), I had the opportunity to know the family of the Servant of God; but, to tell the truth, I barely knew anyone except her father, Monsieur Martin, and her two elder sisters, Mademoiselles Marie and Pauline, whose confessor I was. The Servant of God when I arrived was only four and a half years old, and she was 11 when I left Lisieux. When she [1196r] was seven years old, I heard her make her first confession. Afterwards, she became a boarder at the Benedictine Abbey in Lisieux. Since I returned to Saint Pierre de Lisieux as parish priest (1899), I have been able to observe what is said in the city, concerning the Servant of God. I read part of the "Story of a Soul", but I will not mention it in my deposition.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a real devotion for the Servant of God, I invoke her every day; I desire and hope for his beatification, because I am convinced of his holiness and of the power of his intercession.

[Answer to the tenth request]:

The Servant of God was born in Alençon (diocese of Séez); she only came to Lisieux at the age of four and a half (in 1877), after the death of her mother. Her father, Monsieur Martin, wanted to get closer to the Guérin family, so that Madame Guérin, aunt of his daughters, would serve as their mother.

[1196v][Answer to the eleventh request]:

I knew Mr. Martin well: he was, par excellence, a man of faith, very loyal and with lofty feelings. He showed it to me, particularly on the occasion of his daughters' entry into religion. Certainly he suffered from these separations, and yet he seemed joyful.

[Answer to the twelfth request]:

She must have been baptized in Alençon, but I don't know anything specific about that.

OFFICIAL WITNESS 2: Alcide Ducellier

[Answer to the thirteenth request]:

The first education of the Servant of God was mainly done by her second sister, Pauline. From the religious point of view, this education has been as perfect as it can be. This child was much loved by her father and her sisters, but I am convinced that this affection in no way harmed her formation. It was at this time (1880) that I heard the first confession of the [1197r] Servant of God, then seven years old. I also saw her with her whole family every Sunday at the parish services. I retained the impression that little Thérèse was a very pure soul. very pious, greatly fearing to offend God in the smallest things.

[Answer from the fourteenth to the twenty-fifth questions]:

Having left Lisieux when the Servant of God was 11 years old, I only came back after her death. So I personally don't know anything about all these points. I could only repeat what I have learned from her since then through a few conversations with her Carmelite sisters, which would add nothing to the information of the Process.

[Response to the twenty-sixth request]:

I know that the assistance of pilgrims to the tomb of the Servant of God is constant and considerable. Many priests passing through Lisieux make a point of going to the cemetery two kilometers away to pray at this tomb. I know this in particular from several preachers whom I had invited at [1 197v] different times to preach in the church of my parish; and also Monsignor Monnier, Bishop of Troyes, who had come occasionally to Lisieux, likewise made this pilgrimage. During Easter week, four groups, among others, came to pray at the cemetery: 2° the patronage of young girls from Grenelle (Paris); 3° the Rugles orphanage (diocese of Evreux) run by the Sisters of Saint Vincent de Paul; 4° a group of young girls from Serquigny (diocese of Evreux); and XNUMX° finally, five nuns, directors of the asylum of Trouville.

[Response to the twenty-seventh request]:

In addition to the very numerous testimonies received each day at Carmel and of which a note is kept in the monastery, I can attest by my personal observations that the reputation of holiness of the Servant of God was established, in a general way, among the faithful of my parish and the city. In all classes of society people commend themselves to her, in order to obtain temporal and spiritual graces through her intercession.

[Answer to the twenty-eighth request]:

I have never heard [1198r] any criticism of the holiness of the Servant of God.

[Answer to the twenty-ninth request]:

The universal practice of invoking Sister Thérèse shows that she has a reputation among the faithful for obtaining miracles or exceptional favors from God. On this point too, very many contacts are received every day at Carmel. Personally, I have had direct knowledge of several cases of extraordinary favors. I have the following story from Mr. La Néele, doctor in Lisieux: "Called to a young man, sick with peritonitis, in Glos, near Lisieux, I noticed a perforation of the intestine and I declared that the case was hopeless. Faced with this extremity, I thought of applying a relic of the Servant of God, but I withdrew fully convinced that the patient would be dead the next day. Now, the next day he was better, and within a fortnight he was cured; it is the only case that I know of, in the annals of medicine, of a cure of this lesion.

[1198v] [Response to the thirtieth request]:

I said everything I knew.

[Regarding the Articles, the ex officio witness says he only knows what he has already filed in responding to previous requests. - This concludes the examination of this official witness. Reading of Acts is given. The official witness makes no changes and signs as follows ]:

Ego testis ex officio deposui ut supra pro veritate, ratum habeo et confirmo.

Signatum: DUCELLIER, archpriest of Saint Peter.

Co-Witness 1 ex officio - Beloved of Jesus and of the Heart of Mary

The promoter of the faith first presented two ex officio co-witnesses on March 16, 1911, during the 67th session (f. 1111v), namely two Discalced Carmelites from Lisieux:

1. Sister Aimée of Jesus (Léopoldine Féron).

2. Sister Jeanne-Marie of the Child Jesus (Jeanne-Marie Halgaud).

Born on January 24, 1851 in Anneville-en-Saire (diocese of Coutances), Sister Aimée of Jesus entered the Carmel of Lisieux on October 13, 1871 where she took the habit on March 19, 1872 and made profession on May 8, 1873. Physically strong , of an active and dynamic character, she was of a rather disconcerting realism: “there were no need for artists in the community, one should aim only for the practical, and have good nurses, dressmakers, linen maids, etc., and nothing more” (Obituary Circular, p. 5). She was irreducibly opposed to Celine's entry into the Carmel. She didn't want four sisters to live together in the same monastery and she was afraid of the talents of the one who was the last to come. We know that Sister Thérèse had asked God for a sign showing that her dad had gone "straight to heaven" by formulating his request as follows: "If my sister A. de J. consents to the entry of Céline or does not no obstacle, it will be the answer that dad went straight with you”, which took place (MA “A” 82v). Basically, beneath her rough and gruff exteriors, Sister Aimée hid a truly generous heart. She died on January 7, 1930*.

Very sincere, she reveals at the beginning of her testimony that she had no "particularly intimate relationship" with Thérèse and humbly declares that she was "one of the instruments that God used to sanctify her .” She considers that Thérèse “would have been an excellent prioress, that she would have always acted with prudence and charity, without ever abusing the rights of authority.” She relates a good retort given to her one day by Father Youf, chaplain of the Carmel, about the presence of four sisters and a cousin in the same Carmel (f. 1117r).

The witness testified on March 17, 1911, during the 68th session, f. 1113r-1118r of our Public Copy.

[Session 68: - March 17, 1911, at 8:30 a.m.]

[1114v] [Aware of the scope and seriousness of the oath taken, the co-witness responds regularly and correctly to the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Léopoldine Féron, in religion Sister Aimée of Jesus and of the Heart of Mary. I was born in Anneville en Saire, diocese of Coutances, on January 24, 1851, of the legitimate marriage of Ambroise Féron, farmer, and Cécile Enault. I am a professed nun of the Carmel of Lisieux, where I made my profession on May 8, 1873.

[The witness answers the third to the sixth questions correctly].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I love all our sisters for the love of God and I don't believe that any human feeling can disturb the sincerity of my answers.

[1115r] [Answer to the eighth request]:

I was at the monastery when the Servant of God entered it in 1888, and I lived with her in the community until her death. However, our relationship was not particularly intimate, and because of that many details of his life must have escaped me.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I esteem and love the Servant of God as a very holy soul, however without enthusiasm and without perceptible attraction.

[The other requests having been omitted, we move on to the twenty-first and twenty-third requests, the subjects of the summons of the co-witness. Answer given to the twenty-first request]:

I was one of the instruments that God used to sanctify her, because my faults, which she charitably supported, brought her to an eminent degree of holiness. His charity towards his neighbor was disinterested and supernatural. His conduct towards the Capitulating Sisters seemed heroic to me, because when [1115v] Mother Agnès of Jesus, his sister, was elected to the priorate in 1893, the votes were very divided; my sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus never showed the smallest feeling of animosity to the sisters who had not voted for Mother Agnès of Jesus, the secrecy of the vote not having been sufficiently guarded. My sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, even in the arms of death, had the courage to make herself suffer so as not to bother others. I remember that the Sunday before her death, one of our port sisters came to watch her during mass, and placed herself against her bed in such a way as to embarrass her, her breathing then being very difficult. The Servant of God didn't let anything show; it was only after the port sister had left that our dear patient, having had a fit of suffocation, was obliged to confess the cause. As I said, I had very little contact with my sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus; I should therefore have seemed rather indifferent to him; however, I felt, in these infrequent reports, the tenderness of his affection for me and a charity which came from his ardent love for God and from his profound humility. Only once during his illness I was able to do him a small favor: I will never forget either the gentleness of his gaze expressing his deep gratitude to me, nor his angelic smile.

OFFICIAL CO-WITNESS 1: Aimée de Jesus OCD

[1116r] Her strength was heroic during the ordeal of her venerable father's illness, by her admirable submission and her punctuality in going to community exercises, when her sisters were planning family matters. I saw her then in recreation while her sisters were absent, and she spoke to us with perfect serenity, while the big tears which escaped her clearly showed that she was not insensitive to these sufferings.

As soon as she entered the Carmel, she stood out for her religious bearing; there was nothing puerile or frivolous about her appearance, despite her young age. She gave no opportunity to become the plaything of the community; her very serious nature prevented her from being treated like a child. Her calm was imperturbable, and in the annoyances of daily life she let her sisters move about without being moved. Only once did I see my sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus come out of this calm a little: her sister (Geneviève de Sainte Thérèse) had had a great deal of annoyance a few weeks before her profession, which she could not conceal; This pain had come to her from Mother Marie de Gonzague, then mistress of novices. I didn't know exactly why Sister Geneviève had been humiliated, but I say generally to my [1116v] Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus: "Mother Marie de Gonzague has the right to test my sister Geneviève , why be surprised? On this, the Servant of God answered me with emotion: “It is about a kind of test that one should not give” - Source Pre. - '. This answer surprised me then and seemed to me the effect of too natural an affection, but I didn't really know, since I didn't know what ordeal it was. Today and for a long time already, I have the conviction that it was out of a spirit of discernment that she answered me thus, I am sure that she would have been an excellent prioress, that she would have always acted with prudence and charity, without ever abusing the rights of authority.

I noticed the delicacy of humility in the Servant of God by her silence, never saying a word to make us feel that we should be grateful to her for the temporal benefits with which her family showered us. She never made use, in order to mortify others, of the natural and supernatural gifts which she had so generously received from the good God. She knew how to efface herself so well that one had to have intimate relations with her to appreciate her virtue; so I confess to my confusion that I did not recognize early enough all the rare qualities with which the good Lord had endowed her.

[1117r] [Response to the twenty-third request]:

The Servant of God being very simple and very modest, diligent in concealing her virtue, we did not see during her lifetime, in the community, all the perfection of her life, such as it appears to us now. Nevertheless, I can attest that even during Sister Thérèse's life all our sisters considered her to be an exceptionally virtuous soul, in whom the virtues of humility, charity and gentleness were particularly remarkable. Apart from the small imperfection that I pointed out above (and even then it was perhaps not an imperfection), I never found the slightest shortcoming in his life.

In the days of my sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, our chaplain was Father Youf; it gives me pleasure to recall his memory, and to bear witness to the esteem he had for this little sister. One day, when I thought I had to complain about his older sisters, he said to me: “Don't complain; if you have, on the one hand, something to suffer, you must be too happy to possess a treasure such as the youngest: it is an elite soul which rises from virtue to virtue; she would be the glory of Carmel, if we knew her.” [1117v] Father Youf told me that towards the end of the Servant of God's life. The simultaneous presence in the community of four sisters and a first cousin (Sister Marie of the Eucharist) may have given rise to clashes and sometimes unfavorable appreciations; never, to my knowledge, has the perfection of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus been called into question.

OFFICIAL CO-WITNESS 1: Aimée de Jesus OCD

[The co-witness adds this about the twenty-ninth request]:

At the time of the first communion of one of my nieces in 1902, I conjured our little sister Thérèse to convert the father of this child (my own brother) and to bring him back to the practice of religion. I was not answered for this date, but I redoubled my confidence and the Servant of God finally took care of the soul of my beloved brother. Two years later I had the consolation of seeing him sincerely return to God. His conversion was remarkable because, to make up for the bad example he had given by his distancing from the sacraments, he wanted, despite his state of serious illness, his weakness and his sufferings, to go to confession and take communion in church. He generously [1118r] bore the pains of his illness and edified those around him by his lively piety; it was with full knowledge that he wanted to receive the last sacraments and his death was very edifying. I put off publishing this grace for a long time, our angelic sister knows how much my heart was grateful to her, and today I again offer her my heartfelt gratitude.

[This concludes the examination of this co-witness. Reading of Acts is given. The co-witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

I filed as above according to the truth, I ratify and confirm it.

Signed: Sister AIMÉE DE JESUS

Co-Witness 2 ex officio - Jeanne-Marie of The Child Jesus and the Holy Face

Jeanne-Marie Halgaud, born in the territory of the parish of Crossac (diocese of Nantes), entered the Carmel of Lisieux as a lay sister when she was less than twenty, under the name of Sister Jeanne-Marie of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. She made her profession there on October 17, 1907. "Angel of virtue and piety", as Sister Marie des Anges defines her (f. 613r), she had to take care of the making of the relic images of the Servant of God, whose reputation for holiness spread marvelously.

Her testimony relates to facts that seem to be miraculous, and particularly to this one: the inexplicable multiplication of small crests of the Order that Sister Jeanne-Marie used for her office.

The witness testified on March 17, 1911, during the 68^rd session, f. 1118v-1122r of our Public Copy.

[Session 68: - March 17, 1911, at 2 a.m. of the afternoon]

[1118v] [The co-witness responds correctly to the first request].

[Response to second request]:

My name is Jeanne Marie Halgaud, in religion Sister Jeanne Marie of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. I was born on October 17, 1886 in Isle-Olivant, parish of Crossac, diocese of Nantes, of the legitimate marriage of Denis Halgaud, fisherman, and Marie-Modeste Poulot. I am a lay nun from the Carmel of Lisieux where I made my profession on October 17, 1907.

[The co-witness answers the third to the sixth questions correctly].

[Answer to the seventh request]:

I do not believe that any human feeling can blind me and influence my testimony.

CO-WITNESS 2 EX OFFICE: Jeanne-Marie of the Child Jesus OCD

[Answer to the eighth request]

I only know Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus by reading her life and by all that our Carmel sisters have told me about her.

[Response to the ninth request]:

I have a very great devotion to the Servant of God, because her examples and her protection do me a lot of good. I pray daily for the success of his Cause.

[The other requests having been omitted, we move on to the twenty-ninth request, the subject of the summons of the co-witness. Answer]:

I adopted the practice of constantly having recourse to the invocation of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus. His memory and his examples are for me a continual encouragement to live in fervor. I entrust the whole life of my soul to the Servant of God and very often [1119v] I notice the effect of her protection. In addition to the good thoughts and inner encouragement that I attribute to him without the slightest hesitation, I have repeatedly experienced extraordinary signs of his intervention. On several occasions, I have had the sensation of perfumes of incense, of violets or of roses, in circumstances where nothing natural could explain them, and particularly when I happened to obey some good movement which led me to imitate his virtues. Here are four other more remarkable facts:

1° For eight days, in the year 1907, I found myself alone at work in the kitchen, one of my companions being ill. I proposed, for the love of God, to do generously and without murmuring the work of two, although ordinarily I had difficulty in carrying out my ordinary task without wasting a moment. Every morning, during these eight days, I invoked the Servant of God to help me keep my resolution. I said to her: “Little Thérèse, help me.” From then on I felt as though I had been invested with incredible courage; I accomplish my double task without any fatigue; I would have liked to give even more work ' nothing cost me in the thought that [1120r] I was imitating Sister Thérèse and that I was pleasing Jesus.

2° My dear little sister Thérèse wants me to be faithful in everything. For three days, September 26, 27 and 28, 1910, I had negligently kept three handkerchiefs in our cell, whereas one should only have two. The thought constantly haunted me that my invisible angel, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, was reproaching me for this infidelity. Finally, on the morning of September 29, this impression of reproach being more vivid, I immediately put a handkerchief back in the cupboard reserved for it. So I only had two left. The next evening, September 30, anniversary of the birth in heaven of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, I went at 8 o'clock in the evening to help a sick senior sister to bed. She said to me: "My little girl, I don't have a handkerchief, would you like to ask the nursing sister to give me some?" As I was going there, it seemed to me that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus was saying to me inwardly: “It's the great silence! Instead of talking to the nursing sister, give one of the two handkerchiefs from your cell.” Which I did without saying anything and it was all over that night. But the next morning I was greatly surprised, when I wanted to get some [1120v] laundry, to find two handkerchiefs very neatly folded and arranged on top of each other, and at the same time I felt a very great desire to be very faithful in little things and very eager to render small services following the example of the Servant of God.

3° During the week of Christmas 1910, on Thursdays, I used half an hour of freedom to prepare small sachets containing souvenirs of the Servant of God, and on which were stuck the coat of arms of the Vice-Postulator. . My desire was, in my hours of freedom, to prepare a very large number of these sachets to surprise our Mother Prioress with this work on her feast day (January 21). While working on it, I conversed internally with "my sister in heaven", I spoke to her of my soul, I told her of my troubles, and above all I told her of my fear of not having time to prepare all the small sachets that I wanted to present to our mother Agnes of Jesus; in particular I was concerned that there were only a hundred small coats of arms left in the box that contained them, and the time that I would have to find to cut out others. At 10 o'clock I go downstairs for my work in the kitchen; when at three o'clock I returned to our cell, I was very surprised to find our box full of "authentic cut-outs"; there were surely eight or nine hundred, whereas [1121r] in the morning at 10 o'clock, there were one hundred to one hundred and thirty left. As it was “licensed” that day, the thought occurred to me that perhaps one of our sisters, of those who cut “authentic” ones, would have liked to surprise me. I get information from each of them; but none had thought of working for me. I have the assurance that Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus had thus responded to the request made in the morning. I never stop thanking my "little sister from heaven", and I ask her to always help me in everything.

4° On Wednesday, February 23, 1910, I was busy cleaning windows, when around 4 o'clock in the evening, the thought occurred to me of helping my sister Marie-Madeleine, the cook, to fill the kettle in the stove. It cost me a lot to disturb myself from my work, but my little sister Thérèse, whom I got into the habit of constantly calling for my help, inspired me to do so. So I descended quickly. My sister Marie-Madeleine told me: “First take all the little hot water that is still left in the kettle and then we will fill it up”; I did as she told me until the kettle was completely empty. So my sister Marie-Madeleine said to me: “That's good, let's fill it with cold water now. I am going to the pump to fill this jug (which she was holding in her hand), meanwhile you are going to [1121v] pour this other jug ​​which is already full into the kettle.” So I poured it all out, and brought it back empty to my sister Marie-Madeleine. I then took the second jug she had just pumped out and carried it to pour it into the kettle; but as I approached, I saw that the kettle was quite full. I then said to my companion: “Come and see! the kettle holds four jugs of water, I only poured one, and it's full! What does that mean?... But I don't understand anything about it!... Have you filled it out?...» She answered me: « But I'm coming! you see! I only pumped out one jug! but it’s extraordinary!” “The good Lord – we said to ourselves – has sent an angel, and that angel is our dear little Thérèse. She loved charity so much! We wanted to help each other charitably; our little sister in heaven has done everything.”

CO-WITNESS 2 EX OFFICE: Jeanne-Marie of the Child Jesus OCD

[1122r] [This concludes the examination of this co-witness. Reading of Acts is given. The co-witness makes no changes and signs as follows]:

I filed as above according to the truth, I ratify and confirm it.

Signed: Sister JEANNE-MARIE OF THE CHILD JESUS, rci