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She was the youngest of nine children, five of whom survived childhood. After her mother died of breast cancer when Thérèse was four years old, she moved with her father and four older sisters to Lisieux. In the deeply religious atmosphere of her home, her piety developed early and intensively. All four of her sisters followed their vocations as nuns and, at the age of fifteen, Thérèse entered the Carmelite convent in Lisieux to begin her vocation as a cloistered Carmelite nun.

 

Although as a child she had suffered from a severe mental breakdown, scruples and then at the end of her life a dark trial of faith, Thérèse kept the Carmelite rule to perfection, always maintaining a smiling, unselfish attitude. Before her death from tuberculosis at the age of twenty-four, she admitted that not one day had ever passed without a struggle. 

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The story of Thérèse’s spiritual development was related in a collection of her essays, written out of obedience at the requests of her Carmelite prioresses. These were published after her death in 1898 under the title, “Story of a Soul." Her popularity is largely a result of this work, which tells her loving pursuit of holiness in day-to-day ordinary life. She called this her "little way." Saint Thérèse defined her doctrine of the "little way" as, “the way of spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute surrender to Jesus."

 

Thérèse was canonized in 1925 and, among her many titles, is the youngest person to be designated a Doctor of the Church. Because of the astounding number of miracles and graces obtained from God through her intercession, many have called "the Little Flower of Jesus" the greatest Saint of modern times.

Ladies of the Little Flower ask our Carmelite friend Saint Thérèse to be our sister and guide in helping us live the little way of trust and absolute surrender to Jesus!

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A photo of the chapel tabernacle from the Lisieux Carmel archives

Ladies of the Little Flower is for ladies of all ages. We meet once a month, September through May, on the third Saturday of the month from 10am-12noon, beginning in the Donahue Academy Chapel. After an hour of prayer before our Eucharistic Lord Jesus in the tabernacle (30 minutes vocal prayer together then 30 minutes of mental or quiet prayer), we move to a room where we have our book study until noon. 

Our Book Beginning September 2025

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© 2020-2025 LADIES OF THE LITTLE FLOWER

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