JMJT! Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!
How appropriate that on the Eve of the Feast Day of St. Francis de Sales, that Léonie Martin, who followed his way of Divine Love and the Devout life in everyday life and in all circumstances, along with the Little Way of her sister St. Therese, will be named Servant of God and her cause opened. In our broken world riddled with so many suffering from abuse and mental illness and instability, her more visible role in the Church is timely indeed. Read below to learn more about this sister of St. Therese, who was said to have perfected and lived out the Little Way amidst her fragility and challenges.
Opening of the diocesan process
for the sainthood of Leonie Martin, Sister of St. Therese, to be announced January 24, 2015 in France, according to reports in French newspapers.
by Maureen O’Riordan for http://leoniemartin.org
On Saturday, January 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales, Mgr.
Jean-Claude Boulanger, bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, will announce officially
the opening of the diocesan process of beatification for Léonie Martin, the sister of St.
Therese of Lisieux, according to stories in the French press. La Manche Libre, Le Pays d'Auge, Normandie Actu, and the
French Catholic newspaper La Croix reported
the news. According to these reports, Father Laurent Berthout, the
bishop's press officer, said:
“For many years, people have entrusted themselves to the
prayers of Léonie Martin, coming to her tomb at the Monastery of the
Visitation, where she was a nun from 1899 to 1941. These persons witness to
graces they have received through her intercession. Léonie Martin lived a
simple, hidden, humble life in the shadow of the cloister. She wanted to live the
spirituality of St. Francis de Sales, doing “all through love, nothing through
force” in the words of St. Francis. She was blessed by the spiritual discovery
of her sister, St. Therese, who taught her to live by Love in the most humble
and the most everyday actions. Leonie gave witness by her life to the
possibility of living it fully, even through her limitations: character,
health, trials.”
The French press reports that Bishop Boulanger will announce the
opening of the process when he celebrates Mass tomorrow at the Monastery of the
Visitation at Caen. He will officially confer on Léonie the
title "Servant of God." The opening of the diocesan process (an
inquiry into the life and writings of the candidate for sainthood) is the
beginning of a long procedure that, for some candidates, leads ultimately to
canonization. The diocesan process for Therese was opened by an earlier
bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux in 1910, and Léonie testified
at it.
