Chapter 1
Thérèse and Her “Only Treasure”
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any people have heard of Thérèse of Lisieux by her formal name, Thérèse of the Child Jesus, or by her nickname, “The Little Flower.” Some know her as the “Little Theresa,” in comparison to the “Big Teresa” of Avila, the great Spanish saint of the seventeenth century. No matter how we know her—casually or in depth—Thérèse has become one of the most popular saints of the Catholic Church. Thérèse of Lisieux was virtually our contemporary. She died in 1897; if she had lived to be ninety, an age that two of her older sisters reached, she would have lived until 1963. But Thérèse died at the young age of twenty-four, succumbing to tuberculosis. Most likely she would have died in anonymity, like countless good and holy people, if not for her writings and the help that her life and her teachings inspired in those who came to know of her. Thérèse wrote her autobiography at the request of her superiors. After her death, the Carmelite sisters in France circulated
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