Who is St. Thérèse?
St. Therese of Lisieux
The patron saint of Alaska
On October 1, Catholics around the world honor the life of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, or St. Therese of Lisieux, on her feast day.
St. Therese was born Jan. 2, 1873, in Alencon, France. Her mother died of breast cancer when she was four, leaving her father and elder sisters to raise her. She died of tuberculosis on Sept. 30, 1897. She was beatified on April 29, 1923, and canonized on May 17, 1925. Both her parents were canonized in October 2016.
Alaska’s first bishop, Bishop Joseph Crimont, S.J., had known Therese’s family in France before he came to the U.S. and had a devotion to her. He traveled to Rome for her canonization. Upon his return to Juneau, he ordered construction to begin on a shrine honoring her. This is now the National Shrine of St Therese; it was completed the year Bishop Crimont died in 1945. The Shrine celebrates its 85th anniversary this year.
Therese wrote, “‘Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that if the Church had a body composed of different members, the most necessary and most noble of all could not be lacking to it, and so I understood that the Church had a heart and that this heart was burning with love. I understood that it was love alone that made the Church’s members act, that if love were ever extinguished, apostles would not proclaim the Gospel and martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. I understood that love includes all vocations …. Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: ‘O Jesus, my Love … at last I have found my vocation; my vocation is Love!’”
Since her death, millions have been inspired by her “little way” of loving God and neighbor. Many miracles have been attributed to her intercession. She had predicted during her earthly life that, “My heaven will be spent doing good on Earth.”
St. Therese was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1997 — 100 years after her death at the age of 24. She is only the third woman to be proclaimed a Doctor of the Church, after St. Catherine of Siena and St. Teresa of Avila.
St. Therese wrote once, “You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.”
by Peggy Bergsrud
The North Star Catholic, October 2023
Volunteers, the Backbone of the Shrine!
From the beach stones gathered that make up the walls of the Shrine Chapel to the plants that grace the Marian and Biblical Gardens, all are the work of volunteers giving their time for the greater glory of God. Are you being called to this work?