St Teresa of Lisieux in Her Letters

Extract

The Letters of St Teresa of Lisieux, now first published in English, are an indispensable companion to her Autobiography. For they shed new light on her character and underline the special cachet of her sanctity. In the many short letters and occasional billets we are permitted to watch her soul as it were in working dress—and, let us say it at once, from the first letter to the last we see sheer sanctity. John Beevers, in his very understanding biography of her with the somewhat flashy title Storm of Glory writes: ‘St Thérèse of the Child Jesus is the greatest Saint of modern times . . . because she has liberated sanctity and made it obviously accessible to everyone’. It is this that strikes the reader so forcibly in her letters.