Saints
A big welcome for the Little Flower
By Mary Hansen

Hardcopy Issue Date: October 2001
Online Publication Date: Oct 23, 2001, 22:48

The headlines in the newspapers were amazing: The Dublin Irish Times (April 30, 2001) declared "Big Crowds Turn Out as Saint's Relics Reach Dublin." The Montreal Gazette (April 21, 2001) stated, "Remains of Superstar Saint Expected to Draw Thousands." It then goes on to describe St. Thérèse as "a world superstar," as one whose "remains have been seen by millions in the last four years." "From Edith Piaf to beat-era writer Jack Kerouac, the Carmelite nun inspired a devoted following."

Reliquary
World superstar? A saint? Seen by millions? We must be dreaming! What is being discussed here is the visit of the reliquary (the container of a significant portion of the remains of St.Thérèse of Lisieux) to Canada in the fall of 2001. Canada will be the twenty-second and final country to receive the reliquary.

The tour was begun in 1994 to encompass celebrations of the centenary of the saint's death in 1897. Since then her remains have travelled throughout the world, from Siberia to South America, a fitting itinerary for a saint who has been declared the World Patroness of Missions. In Canada the tour is sponsored by the bishops and will visit 41 of Canada's 63 dioceses.

September 17
The Canadian voyage will begin September 17, 2001, in Vancouver and end three months later in Halifax on December 15. Members of the Knights of Columbus across Canada have volunteered to transport the reliquary in the "Thérèse-mobile." The actual reliquary is quite large, weighing more than three hundred pounds and measuring about four feet by three feet. Various modes of transportation will "ferry" the reliquary to remote centres: for example, in Labrador City and Schefferville a local businessman has offered the use of his personal helicopter. According to The Montreal Gazette, plans are set in place to take the reliquary from the airport in Wabush, Nfld., to nearby Labrador City by dogsled!

Everywhere, the reliquary has attracted exceptional attention. Officials have been overwhelmed by the public response. 75,000 people turned up at one church in southern California to venerate the relics. 25,000 people paid their respects in Delgany, County Wicklow, Ireland on one Saturday alone. Thousands more visited her in Dublin. The story is repeated in location after location.

Relics more than "a box of bones"
What is going on here? Why are so many people flocking to venerate the relics of St. Thérèse? Father Linus Ryan, the tour's national co-ordinator in Ireland, says everyone is simply stunned by the turnouts. He believes the reason for the crowds is expressive of a deep human need, that there is a "deep yearning in the human heart for the transcendent, for God," and Thérèse helps to bring people closer to God. When asked if it wasn't just a bit "ghoulish" to come and venerate a "box of bones," he responded that the Church" is "very comfortable" with the tour and the veneration of relics.

The word 'relic' comes from the Latin "reliquae" (remains). Relics are grouped in three classes, ranging from actual body parts of the saint to items which have touched them. The reliquary of St. Thérèse holds relics of the first class.

In fact, the veneration of relics goes back to the Old Testament. We see evidence of this in a passage from 2 Kings 13:20-21. It records the death and burial of the great prophet Elisha and later gives an account of a dead man being cast into his grave. "When the man came in contact with the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and rose to his feet." This miraculous event occurred approximately six hundred years before the time of Christ. Similar veneration can be traced back to the New Testament as well. An example is found in Acts 19:11-12. So extraordinary were the mighty deeds God accomplished at the hands of Paul that when face cloths or aprons that touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

History of veneration of relics
The early Church continued this veneration of relics. We read accounts from Smyrna around the year 156, when St. Polycarp was burned at the stake. His followers gathered his ashes and bones and venerated them with the greatest of affection and respect.

So too did the friends and followers of St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who was devoured by lions in A.D. 107. Persecution of Christians was widespread throughout the Roman Empire, resulting in the deaths of thousands of martyrs. Some of them were buried in the catacombs in Rome. These burial sites became the prayerful destination of millions of pilgrims throughout the centuries. Following the legalization of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine in the year 313, basilicas and shrines were built above the tombs of the martyrs.

By the fourth century the practice of the veneration of relics had become widespread. So highly were these relics regarded by their owners that they were often encrusted with precious jewels and ornate metalwork. The custom has persisted throughout the history of the Church, and to this day, a relic of a martyr is placed on the altar of each new church. In his travels around the world, we see many instances where our present Holy Father, John Paul II, has prayed before the relics of a saint: we see photographs of him praying at the shrine of Lisieux, the burial place of St.Thérèse, and at Auschwitz, in the death chamber of St. Maximilian Kolbe. Shortly after his election as Pope on the feast of St. Charles Borromeo, his patron saint, he wrote, recalling his devotion to the saint: "St. Charles, how often I have knelt before his relics in Milan Cathedral."

Relics are venerated, not adored 
While the custom of venerating relics may seem strange to the rationalist believer or even to Protestants who, following Luther, rejected the Church's sacramental system reducing religion pretty much to the reading of the Bible, for the Catholic Christian it seems the most normal and logical consequence of the Faith.

The Church has always respected and encouraged the custom of expressing veneration for the remains of our loved ones, particularly the saints, our models in spiritual life. They are the ones who can teach us how to live closer to God. God has frequently exhibited His approval of the use of relics in the Church by working miracles through them. The bodies of the saints (like our bodies) are "temples of the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 6:19) and are the instruments through which God performs some of His mighty works. Thus it is only fitting that the Church encourages us to treat the remains of the saints with the utmost love and respect; never adoration, however, for adoration is fitting only for God. That indeed would be idolatry.

We pray to these saints as those who are closest to God, that they may carry our prayers to Him. In the case of the reliquary of St. Thérèse, as in all relics, the focus is not on Thérèse but on Our Lord. The theme of the Canadian tour expresses this concept perfectly: "Encountering Jesus Christ with Thérèse of Lisieux." We are not here to adore St. Thérèse; rather, we are here to adore Christ.

Who is St. Thérése?
Who is St. Thérése of Lisieux? What do we know of her? At the time of her death it is said that only thirty people were present at her burial. She was completely unknown outside of her own convent. And yet, a little over a hundred years later, she has become revered and loved by millions worldwide. The CCCB website on the reliquary of St. Thérése asserts that "no one in human history has ever experienced what has happened to Thérése in these past seven years: her humble mortal remains have travelled from Alaska to South America, from Brazil to Siberia, from Italy to Mexico". How does one account for such a phenomenon?

Her life was a hidden one. She was born in France on Jan 2, 1873 to devout parents, the youngest of five daughters whose mother died when Thérése was only four years old. She quickly claimed her older sister Pauline as her "second mother" and was shattered when Pauline left home four years later to join the Carmelite convent in Lisieux. Later Thérése herself entered the same convent in Lisieux at the age of 15, taking the religious name of Thérése of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. At the time of her death three of her siblings were also sisters in the same convent. Thérése died of tuberculosis at the age of 24 on September 30, 1887. An obscure nun while she lived, she became known and loved worldwide after death through her autobiography, The Story of A Soul, which was written under obedience to her sister Pauline, the prioress of the Lisieux convent at the time.

Fame
How could one spiritual biography of a young girl make such an impact on the world? It began when the prioress decided to circulate Thérése's autobiography to all the Carmelite convents in France, a commonplace occurrence among Carmelites upon the death of a sister. Gradually the book became so popular that more printings became necessary. People were talking about how it changed their lives. Many flocked to the convent in Lisieux to pray at her tomb. Miracles, dramatic healings, and conversions were reported. The faithful began calling for her canonization. By 1907, less than ten years after her death, Pope Pius X (1903-1914) called her "the greatest saint of modern times."

Pius XI (1922-1939) canonized her in 1925 and two years later proclaimed her the principal Patroness of the Universal Missions, together with St. Francis Xavier. In 1944 Pope Pius XII made her the second patroness of France together with the stalwart St. Joan of Arc (1412-1431). As if this were not enough, she was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II on October 19, 1997. She became one of only thirty-three saints in the Church's two thousand year history and the third woman to receive this title. (The others are St. Teresa of Avila and St. Catherine of Siena.) As the youngest Doctor of the Church, she makes a perfect model for the youth who will be coming to Toronto to celebrate World Youth Day with Pope John Paul II in July, 2001. Thérése is indeed preparing the way for them.

Popes, theologians and scholars are equally laudatory in their assessments of her. But what about the common folk, the "little people", the ones who have been flocking to "visit" Thérése in droves at the beginning of this Third Millenium? Why do they come to see Thérése? What propels them as the reliquary makes its way around the world?

She's one of us
"She's reachable! She's one of us!" said one visitor at an American church. "She's so accessible," said another. One priest interviewed during the American tour was asked to explain the popularity of the reliquary: he said that people need "realness", they need something tangible, something they can see and touch. Relics serve that need. "They're even more real than a photograph of our loved ones!" he stated.

"Everybody loves Thérése," says Bishop Patrick Ahern, Auxiliary Bishop of New York, and a Theresian scholar. "She gave us a spirituality full of simplicity, accessible to anyone. She spoke of the unconditional love of God for each one of us." He says it's because Thérése reassures us, she encourages us. She tells us that God loves us just as we are. We don't need to do heroic things for God. We can do small things with great love. She teaches us her "little way," which is the way of confidence in this incredible God who loves us.

Mary Hansen is a teacher who lives in Barrie, Ontario. Her previous articles on Saint Thérése are "St. Thérése of Lisieux, a new doctor of the Church?," (C.I., October 1996, pp. 6-7, 16, and "St. Thérése, Doctor of the Church," C.I., Jan/Feb 1998, pp. 8-10).