First Saturday – St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Virgin–W (III)

Therese felt an early call to religious life, and overcoming various obstacles, in 1888 at the early age of 15, she became a nun and joined two of her elder sisters in cloistered Carmelite community of Lisieux, Normandy. After nine years as a Carmelite religious, having fulfilled various offices such as sacristan and assistant to the novice mistress, and having spent her last eighteen months in Carmel in a night of faith, she died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. Her feast day is on October 1. Therese is well known throughout the world, with the Basilica of Lisieux being the second largest place of pilgrimage in France after Lourdes.