Answering the call early

When Teresa was four years old, her mother died of breast cancer, leaving her father as single parent to raise her and her older sisters alone. It was a challenge, especially since Teresa was often sick, but everyone helped each other and also relied heavily on their devotion to God.

From the time she was a little girl, Teresa felt called to the religious life. She tried to enter the local Carmelite cloister twice by the time she was fifteen. She was told she would have to wait until she was 21, but (almost as an aside) she was told she could appeal that decision. Teresa not only appealed the decision to the local bishop but even traveled to Rome to make a personal appeal to the Pope. She was admitted within two months. All of Teresa’s sisters would eventually enter the cloistered contemplative life.

Teresa lived a pure life of prayer and reflection until her death from tuberculosis at the age of 24 one hundred and seven years ago yesterday.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux was canonized in 1925. Her spiritual autobiography, Story of a Soul, which she had dictated reluctantly at the behest of her spiritual director, quickly became a classic. In 1997, she was declared a Doctor of the Church.