St. Therese of Lisieux
(1873-1897)
Teresa was only 14 years old when, during a pilgrimage to Rome, she understood her vocation as a spiritual mother to priests. In her autobiography she writes how, after having met many holy priests in Italy, she had also understood that, despite their sublime dignity, they remained weak and fragile men. “If holy priests… show by their behavior that they are in dire need of prayers, what would we have to say of those who are lukewarm” (A 157). In one of her letters she encouraged Sister Celina: “Let us live for souls, let us be apostles, let us save above all the souls of priests… let us pray, let us suffer for them and, on the last day, Jesus will be grateful” (LT 94). In the life of Teresa, Doctor of the Church, there is a moving episode that demonstrates her zeal for souls and especially for missionaries. She was already very ill and walked only with great effort, so the doctor had ordered her to take a walk in the garden every day for half an hour. Although she did not believe in the usefulness of this exercise, she did it faithfully every day. Once, a sister who accompanied her, seeing the great suffering that walking caused her, said to her: “But Sister Teresa, why do you make all this effort if it causes you more suffering than relief? And the saint answered: “You know sister, I am thinking that perhaps just at this moment a missionary in a distant country feels very tired and demoralized, therefore I offer my fatigues for him”. God proved to have accepted Teresa’s desire to offer her life for priests when the mother superior confided to her two names of seminarians who had asked a Carmelite for spiritual help. One was Abbé Maurice Bellière, who a few days after Teresa’s death received the habit of “White Father” and became a priest and missionary. The other was Father Adolphe Roulland, whom the saint accompanied with her prayers and sacrifices until his ordination to the priesthood and then in a special way as a missionary in China.