Novena to St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Prayed to: St. Thérèse of Lisieux
Intentions: Vocations, Illness & healing, Trust in God
Feast: October 1

This novena is part of the app's one-time unlock, so its text is not published here.

About this text

Source: Original devotional composition written for this novena. The opening prayer, the daily meditations and the daily invocations are the app's own text, drawing only on verifiable biography of St. Thérèse Martin (1873–1897) and on universal public-domain Catholic prayers (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be). Nothing here quotes an English translation of her writings: although St. Thérèse died in 1897 and her French Histoire d'une âme (1898) is itself public domain, every English translation of it is a separate copyrighted work by a translator who died well within the last hundred years, so her words are reported in this app's own wording rather than reproduced. This entry previously opened with the 'Holy Trinity, God the Father...' prayer of the Twenty-Four Glory Bes devotion composed by Fr. Putigan, S.J. in 1925, and twice used the invocation 'Little Flower, in this hour, show thy power.' Both were removed: the first is a 1925 composition, and the second, though anonymous, cannot predate 1900 — St. Thérèse was almost unknown before 1898 and was not canonized until 1925. Neither satisfies the licensing rule in PRD §4 (author died more than 100 years ago, or anonymous and published before 1900).

In the app, tap Sources on this novena to see its full source note.

About St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin was born in Alençon, France, in 1873 and lost her mother to breast cancer before she was five. She entered the cloistered Carmelite monastery of Lisieux at fifteen, after personally petitioning Pope Leo XIII for permission during a pilgrimage to Rome. Within the hidden, ordinary routine of convent life she developed what she called her 'Little Way' — trusting God like a child and turning small, unnoticed acts into offerings of love — which she set down, at her prioress's request, in the autobiography published after her death as Histoire d'une âme (Story of a Soul). In her last eighteen months she suffered from tuberculosis and a severe interior trial against faith itself, yet continued to profess belief for the sake of others. She died in 1897 at twenty-four, was canonized in 1925, named co-patroness of the missions in 1927 despite never leaving her convent, and in 1997 was declared a Doctor of the Church, the youngest ever named.

Biographical details drawn from St. Thérèse's own autobiography, Histoire d'une âme / Story of a Soul (first published 1898; text and early English translations are in the public domain), together with the documented historical record of her 1925 canonization, 1927 naming as co-patroness of the missions, and 1997 declaration as Doctor of the Church.