Thérèse Martin was born into a devout Catholic family and entered the Carmel (the name of a Carmelite monastery for women) in Lisieux, France, when she was 15 years old. She received the name “Thérèse of the Child Jesus;” she herself would later request that “and of the Holy Face” be added to her religious name.
Love for the Father, expressed in childlike simplicity and trust—combined with a deep understanding of the mystery of the Cross—formed the basis of her “Little Way.”
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face died in her monastery on September 30, 1897, at the age of twenty-four. She was canonized in 1925 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997.
