Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin will be the first married couple canonised together
Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, announced recently that the parents of St Therese of Lisieux, Louis and Zelie Martin, will be canonised this October, coinciding with the Synod on the Family which will take place at that time in the Vatican.
“Thanks be to God, in October, two spouses, parents of St Therese of Lisieux, will be canonised,” said the Salesian Cardinal at a recent meeting organised by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana (LEV) to discuss the topic Of What Use Are Saints?, stressing the importance of sanctity in the family.
“Saints are not only priests and nuns, but also lay people,” pointed out Cardinal Amato, referring to this exemplary French married couple.
Married in 1858, they had nine children, five of whom followed the religious life.
The 218 letters that are kept of Zelie, written from 1863 until her death in 1877, record the rhythm of life with the war of 1870, the economic crises, and the births and death of their four babies.
Daily Mass at 5.30am, Angelus and Vespers, rest on Sundays, fasting during Lent and Advent – but also jokes and games, as Louis liked to fish and play billiards.
They invited poor people to dine in their home and they visited the elderly. They also taught their daughters to treat the underprivileged as equals.
Zelie died of a very painful cancer at 46. Louis was left with five very young daughters – Marie, Pauline, Leonie, Celine and Therese, who was only four and a half years old but who always remembered her Mother as a Saint.
Louis died in 1894, after suffering a serious mental illness.
Benedict XVI beatified both parents on 19 October 2008. Their canonisation will be the first joint canonisation of a married couple. Many have proposed their life of daily holiness as a model for our time.
Louis and Zelie Martin are the parents of St Therese of Lisieux, Patroness of the Missions and one of the most loved saints by Pope Francis.
St John Paul II proclaimed her Doctor of the Church in 1997. – Courtesy zenit.org