Basilica of Sainte-Therese of Lisieux

A dying nun who feared her life had been useless left behind a manuscript. Her sisters published it; the world responded. Within three decades, she had been canonized and a basilica was rising. Within a century, her parents would join her among the saints.

Thérèse Martin was born in 1873 to Louis and Zélie Martin, a devout couple who ran a lace-making business. She was the youngest of nine children; four died in infancy. When Thérèse was four, her mother died of breast cancer. The family moved to Lisieux, where Thérèse developed an intense religious calling.

At fifteen, after obtaining a papal audience to plead her case, she entered the Carmelite convent of Lisieux. She took the name Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. For nine years she lived the enclosed Carmelite life—prayer, work, community, silence. She developed her 'Little Way': the conviction that holiness did not require great deeds but consisted in performing small acts with great love.

Tuberculosis struck when she was twenty-three. During her final eighteen months, she continued to write, eventually completing the manuscript that would become 'Story of a Soul.' She died on September 30, 1897, at twenty-four years old.

Her sisters published her writings, which spread rapidly. Miracles attributed to her intercession multiplied. She was canonized in 1925; Pope Pius XI called her 'the greatest saint of modern times.' In 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church—only the 33rd person, and at that time the only woman, to receive this title.