St. Teresa was born to a devoted Catholic family on January 2, 1873 in Alencon, France. She was the youngest child of Louis Martin and Zelie Guerin. Therese was the youngest of a family of nine, but four of her brothers and sisters died at a young age. Martin was a watchmaker’s businessman and Zelie run lacework business. They lived a happy life, in a devoted Catholic family, therefore since Therese was small, she was living in an atmosphere of love and prayer. Her mother died when Therese was four, the whole family then moved to Lisieux. 

Although Terese was not an inborn saint, she had struggled for her insistence and had experienced failure and the suffer of setbacks, she understood that only she dedicated herself wholeheartedly to God’s grace, to be empowered in God’s strength in order to accept her own weakness and restraints. Terese claimed herself “The Little Flower of Jesus”, from earlier times, she wanted to dedicate herself completely to God, but due to her insistence and over-sensitivity, she experienced a large struggle deep inside her heart and also suffered a lot.

When Terese was fifteen, she was granted the permission to enter Camelites Convent, known as Terese of Child Jesus. In her short period of nine years’ spent in the convent, Terese lived a simple and humble contemplative life which was loyal and loving God. She was inspired by the Scriptures which made her advocating “The Little Way”, i.e. her spirituality is to believe in God and wholly devoted to God, to submit to God’s love.

Therese died on 30 September 1897, she was canonized on 1925 and was Pope Piu XI declared her a “star” of his pontificate”, claimed her the patroness in Europe, and was proclaimed Therese the Patron of the diocese in 1927. In 19 October 1997, Pope Paul II declared her a Doctor of the Church.