Popes...
Saint Pius X."
The greatest saint of modern times. . ."
BENEDICT XV
"It is our wish that the secret of the holiness
of Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus
should not remain hidden from any of our sons".
(1921)
Pius XI
"From the depths of her enclosed convent, she
fascinates the world today with the magic of her
example, an example of holiness which everyone can
and must follow, for everyone must enter on the
`Little Way' - a way of golden simplicity, which
is childlike in name only - on the `Way of Spiritual
Infancy' .... `Little Thérèse' has
become the `Great Saint Thérese (1925).
Angelo RONCALLI -
LATER POPE JOHN XXIII)
"I shall never cease blessing and exalting
the little and great saint who has always been,
and always will be, the lucky star of my mission
in France. It was at the altar in the chapel dedicated
to
her in Ankara, in the heart of Turkey, that I bade
farewell to the Orient, where I had spent twenty
years of apostolic ministry. Every day, I look at
her marble statue in my private chapel in the nunciature;
better still, I turn to her in prayer and confide
to her all my problems and difficulties in the ministry
of reconciliation and peace which is my mission
in the service of the Holy Church and of France
also."
PAUL VI
"You know that I was baptized in 1897, on the
day when Thérèse Martin, later Thérèse
of the Child Jesus, passed away in France. On one
of the secret notes she made before her death (cf.
Last Conversations), Thérèse said:
`When I am dead, I shall visit the cradles of baptized
infants'. On pilgrimage in Rome, she had encountered
some mediocre priests; instead of criticizing them
and retreating to the periphery, she resolved to
place herself at the very heart of things, in love
alone. I shall read you what she said about this
in the `Story of a Soul"'. Taking the book,
the Pope read out the famous passage: "I understood
that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was
everything, that it embraced all times and places.
I cried out: I have found my place in the Church.
My vocation is love."
(Reported by Jean Guitton, who adds: "Paul
VI did not read me the French text, but the Latin
translation in the breviary.")
ALBINO LUCIANI - LATER
JOHN PAUL I)
"Dear Little Thérèse I was 17
when I read your autobiography. It hit me like a
thunderbolt. You had called it `Spring Story of
a Little White Flower', but the willpower, courage
and resolution which it revealed made it seem to
me the story of a steel bar. From the moment you
chose the path of total dedication to God, nothing
could stop you: neither illness, nor external opposition,
nor inner clouds and darkness:'
JOHN PAUL II
"The holy patron of the missions comes from
your region. From Lisieux, Thérèse
of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face has spread
her missionary zeal throughout the world. Her spiritual
teaching, which is of luminous simplicity, still
touches the faithful in all walks of life. It is
right that we should ask her to help Catholics in
France to follow in her holy footsteps and to develop
their solidarity with their brothers in Europe,
Africa and other parts of the world, so that all
can share in the gifts received from Christ, our
Savior." (1992)
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