Les Buissonnets, Home of St. Therese, Lisieux, France

The first place we visited in Lisieux was the childhood home of St. Therese. Therese Martin was born in Alencon, France, on January 2, 1873. Her mother died four years later. Mr. Martin moved her and his other four daughters to Lisieux to be nearer their uncle, Isidore Guerin, a Lisieux pharmacist. They moved into an 18th century house called Les Buissonnets.

Les Buissonnets, childhood home of St. Therese of Lisieux

The first room in the house is the kitchen with a fireplace that served both to cook meals and to heat the house.

Kitchen

The family dining room is visible through a window. Therese had her last meal here on April 8, 1888, before she entered Carmel.

Family dining room

Upstairs is a large bedroom that the older sisters shared.

Large bedroom

Therese was the youngest and shared another room with her sister Celine. Further on is a display of Therese's childhood things, including toys and her First Communion dress.

Therese's stuff

First communion dress

Her desk

In the back garden is a statue of Therese and her father. On Pentecost, 1887, Therese asked her father's permission to enter Carmel. He consented and gave her a little white flower which she identified with her life.

Back of the house

Lighting wasn't very good for me

By one of the sheds is a reconstruction of a creche (nativity scene) made by Therese when she was young.

Creche

The front garden is also nice and filled with flowers, even on the April day we visited.

Front garden

Flowers from the Little Flower's home

A tacky gift shop sits just outside the house but we did not visit it.

St. Peter's Cathedral, Lisieux, France

St. Peter's Cathedral in Lisieux was built in the late 1100s. During the French Revolution it was used for secular purposes. After Napoleon's Concordat of 1801 it returned to religious use but was no longer the seat of a bishop. It still played a central role in the life of the town and was used by St. Therese of Lisieux for ten years before she became a Carmelite.

St. Peter's Cathedral

Detail on the door

The nave has the classic openness and brightness found in medieval cathedrals.

Nave

Inside is a replica of the statue of St. Peter found in St. Peter's in Rome.

St. Peter

Many of the furnishings are related to St. Therese. The high altar was donated by Therese's father in 1888.

High altar

Altar detail

Angel flanking the altar

The other angel statue

Behind the high altar is the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was built in the 15th century by Bishop Pierre Cauchon who was also a judge at Joan of Arc's trial. He is buried in the chapel. Therese attended daily Mass here and here she prayed for the repentance of criminal Pranzini in 1887.

Chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Bas relief

More bas relief

Reliquary

One side chapel has a statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Here Therese's sister Pauline prayed and entrusted her vocation to Mary.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

The cathedral also has many photographs of Therese on display.

Therese as Joan of Arc in a play

Nearby statue of Joan of Arc

I thought this was a little tacky

The church also has an altar to St. Joseph!

St. Joseph altar (depicting his happy death)

Book Review: St. Benedict and St. Therese by Dwight Longenecker

St. Benedict and St. Therese: The Little Rule and the Little Way by Dwight Longenecker

Father Dwight Longenecker draws an interesting intersection between St. Benedict, the sixth century monk who founded western monasticism, and St. Therese of Lisieux, the 20th century French nun who posthumously took the world by storm with her beloved autobiography. Benedict, by contrast, wrote a rather dry book on how to run a monastery that is the classic guide though not popular reading. How does Longenecker make these apparently diverse tracks intersect? Through the Christian faith that they share and the relationship they both write about--the relationship between a father and a child.

For Benedict, the relationship is seen clearly between the monastery's abbot and the monks who live there. The abbot provides guidance, discipline, and care for those entrusted to him. The monks, for their part, make vows of obedience, stability (they will stay in the monastery for the rest of their lives), and conversion of life (they will seek a closer relationship to God). This relationship mirrors the relationship all we humans have as children to God the Father.

For Therese, the relationship is seen in her home life with her father, M. Martin, and with her obedience in the convent. She explicitly embraces her relation to God as His daughter, performing her tasks and living her life as a gift to God in the little things she does.

Longenecker's book beautifully and fluidly weaves back and forth between the two authors, reinforcing insights through examples in their lives and in the Gospels, as well as from the lives of other saints. The book is fairly easy to read and presents many encouraging thoughts to ponder. Most of all, it shows the reader how easily accessible is the life of holiness presented by St. Benedict and St. Therese. By living the faith in small, everyday, mundane acts we move along the path God has set for us; we live the vocation He has called us to. We become the best sort of children to God our Father.

Sample Quote:

"Ah," we say, "the little way of the Lamb is indeed a beautiful idea, and doubtless it is the way some are called to." But with the Gospel, Therese insists that this is not a way, but the way. To follow the Lamb and become a child is not an option; it is a command. "Unless you turn and become like children, " says the Gospel, "you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." "No grown-ups allowed" reads the sign over the door into paradise. Pearls are tiny, and so are the pearly gates. When Jesus said the way was narrow, perhaps he meant it was too narrow for grown-ups to squeeze through. The grown-ups are camels--hairy, lumpy, over-burdened, bad-tempered brutes--who can never get through that eye of a needle that is the little door of heaven. [pp. 58-59]