St. Therese of Lisieux

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St. Therese of Lisieux is one of the most popular saints of modern times, known for her Little Way where one transforms everyday things into ways to love God. 

St. Therese was born to Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, the youngest of their nine children. She had a happy first four years of her life, until her mother contracted an aggressive form of breast cancer, which eventually took her life. 

Zelie’s death affected all of her children and her husband very deeply, and it especially affected little Therese. She had once been a happy, confident, and outgoing child. The loss of her mother turned her overnight into a timid, overly emotional, and depressed child who suffered from frequent headaches. 

Therese tried to overcome these faults for ten years, praying that God would heal her. But she didn’t make any progress on her own.

Then, her prayers were suddenly answered on Christmas Eve when she was 14 years old. She overheard her father saying grumpily that he wished Therese had outgrown Christmas presents. Normally, such a comment would have led Therese to burst into tears, but instead, she walked downstairs and opened her presents with her joyful family and celebrated Christmas. 

Her family was astonished at her constant change. Therese later wrote that God did for her instantly what she hadn’t been able to do in ten years. 

At the young age of fifteen, Therese was allowed to enter the local Carmelite convent. She spent the next nine years virtually unknown, using small everyday things such as the annoyance caused by her fellow sisters and the teasing of her fellow sisters to offer to God for the conversion of souls. She grew in immense holiness, and before her death at the age of 24, she wrote down her insights in her book The Story of a Soul, which has become a classic work on spirituality.

Trauma can affect people deeply, just as it did for Therese. Sometimes, we may face these effects for years and years, just as Therese did. We can try to work through these affects on our own, and through therapy, medicine, and more, God can help many. But sometimes, those human efforts are not how God means to heal us. Sometimes, like St. Therese, he will choose to heal us in his timing in an instant. 

Like St. Therese, when facing the effects of trauma, we should strive to overcome the effects of trauma through human means, but also pray for God’s healing. We should trust that God will heal us, through human means, through his grace, or, fully in Heaven. May St. Therese intercede for us so we can have confidence in God’s healing timing.

The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux

To learn more about other saints who have faced trauma, please visit the Stories of Hope page.