LETTERS FROM LEONIE MARTIN

The Cause for Sainthood for Leonie Martin has now been approved.

On April 11, 2015, the Carmel of Lisieux finished translating all the surviving letters that St. Therese’s sister, Leonie Martin, wrote to the members of her family.  The letters are available below (just click on each one to be taken to the website of the Archives of the Lisieux Carmel).  She wrote the last on June 8, 1941, eight days before her death, to Sister Marie of the Trinity, who had been a novice of St. Therese.

Most of the letters are to her three sisters at the Lisieux Carmel (Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart {Marie}; Mother Agnes of Jesus {Pauline}; and Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face {Celine}).  Several are to her uncle, Isidore Guerin.  There are also letters to his wife, Celine Guerin; to their daughter Marie (Sister Marie of the Eucharist); and to Therese’s prioress, Mother Marie de Gonzague.  These letters, never before published in English, contain invaluable insight into Leonie’s personality; her spirituality, prayer, and retreats; her daily life and the life of her Visitation community; her relationships with her three sisters in the Carmel;  her reaction to Therese’s beatification and canonization; and her response to World War I and World War II.