Article Tools
- Text Size
- Add a comment (
- Print this article
- Email this article
No saint seems a less likely candidate for patron saint of the missions than Thérèse of Lisieux. Yet she shares that honor with St. Francis Xavier, a widely traveled and more logical choice. Francis, it is said, converted hundreds of thousands and endured harrowing conditions during his travels through the east.
Thérèse, on the other hand, never left her cloister for the nine years of her religious life, apparently converted no one, wrote no treatises on evangelization, never preached to large crowds, never baptized anyone, and never engaged in fund raising. To all appearances, she did nothing more than pursue her Little Way among the twenty-five or so nuns of her own convent.
But the church recognizes in Thérèse a most unusual and intense missionary spirit: she proposes to “spend her heaven doing good on earth,” bringing souls to Jesus. “If God answers my desires,” she said, “my heaven will be spent on earth until the end of the world” .
Not even Francis, the consummate missionary, makes such an extravagant claim. Earthbound, he accomplished miraculous conversions. Thérèse couldn’t compete with him in life, but she has matched him in death.…
The full article is available to subscribers only
Access all articles, daily meditations and readings, as well as special resources, by becoming a subscriber. View subscription options.
Special Offer: 2 week free web-only trial subscription. Sign up now.
Existing Print & Web-Only Subscribers: Login for full access.