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Feast Day: July 12
Patronage: Marriage, parenting, widowers, illness
"I embrace you with all my heart. I am so happy that today I will welcome you back home that I can hardly work for the joy of it. Your wife who loves you more than her own life!" - Saint Zélie
"Your husband and true friend who loves you for life." - Saint Louis
Saints Zélie and Louis Martin are perhaps best known for being the parents to one of the Catholic church’s most well-known saint and doctor of the church, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (also known as The Little Flower). They were declared venerable by Pope John Paul II on March 26, 1994, beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on October 19, 2008 and canonized by Pope Francis on October 18, 2015. Although they aren’t the first married saints, they are the first married saints to be canonised together.
Both wanted to enter into religious life, but were rejected by the communities they approached. They met each other in Alencon and married 3 months later on July 12, 1858. The decided to remain celibate until their spiritual directors encouraged them to fully embrace marriage. Their marriage and family life was formed by their promise to “serve God first”. Letters by Zélie and Louis document their ordinary lives, their love and their faith. Louis worked as a watchmaker and Zélie was a talented lacemaker. They had nine children, four that died at young ages and their five daughters who became nuns. In addition to their saint daughter, Thérèse, their daughter Léonie Martin has been declared “Servant of God”, the first step in the canonisation process.
Today, we have 219 of Zélie’s and 16 of Louis’ letters preserved (I smile at this number because it captures an amusing essence of man and woman communication!) The letters are a beautiful and relatable insight into the challenges, joys, and sorrows faced among ordinary life of marriage, parenthood, as business owners. Through it all they trusted in God even when prayers weren’t answered in the way they hoped. Zélie was diagnosed with breast cancer and went to Lourdes and prayed to be healed. The trip ended up being very difficult for her and she was not cured. In a letter she wrote, “The Blessed Mother didn’t cure me in Lourdes. What can you do, my time is at an end, and God wants me to rest elsewhere other than on earth.” (Letter 216) At the age of 45, Zélie succumbed to her illness and died in 1877, when St. Thérèse was four-years-old.
Louis moved to Lisieux and raised his daughters and supported them as gradually all five entered the convent. Even though he was incredibly lonely and suffered his own illness, he wrote, “It is a great, great honour for me that the Good Lord desires to take all of my children. If I Had anything better, I would not hesitate to offer it to him.” Louis died in 1894.
Oh well, that’s the day so far, and it’s still only noon. If this continues I will be dead by this evening! You see, at the moment, life seems so heavy for me to bear, and I don’t have the courage because everything looks black to me - St. Zélie Martin
If you haven’t come across the letters of Zélie and Louis, I high recommend looking through them. Zélie speaks straight to my mother heart when she talks about the Thérèse’s three-year-old tantrums, how difficult fasting is, the tiresome chores of looking after the family and clothes shopping for the children. The clear theme is that Zélie and Louis are full of ardent love for each other, take delight in their children and above all, love God and desire that they and their children shall all become saints and be united in heaven. They make the universal call to sainthood seem more possible with how they lived and loved, always with God at the centre.
Collection of quotes from the letters:
Saints have bad days too and what makes a saint is they take their bad days to God...
“Oh well, that’s the day so far, and it’s still only noon. If this continues I will be dead by this evening! You see, at the moment, life seems so heavy for me to bear, and I don’t have the courage because everything looks black to me.” (Letter 132)
On the vocation of parenthood and family...
“When we had our children, our ideas changed somewhat. We lived only for them. They were all our happiness, and we never found any except in them. In short, nothing was too difficult, and the world was no longer a burden for us. For me, our children were a great compensation, so I wanted to have a lot of them in order to raise them for Heaven.” (St. Zélie, Letter 192)
“Soon we’ll have the intimate happiness of the family, and it’s this beauty that brings us closer to him.” (St. Louis Letter 229)
Saint parents of saints have children that behave, well, unsaintly...
“I have to correct this poor baby, who goes into a terrible rage when things don’t go as she’d like. She rolls around on the floor like a desperate person, believing all is lost.” (Letter 147)
The sweetness of marital love...
“I am longing to be near you, my dear Louis. I love you with all my heart, and I feel my affection so much more when you’re not here with me. It would be impossible for me to live apart from you.” (Letter 108)
Below are some resources to learn more about Saints Zélie and Louis Martin:
This sweet animated short by Ascension Press shares some of the letters of Zélie and Louis
Novena to Saints Zélie and Louis Martin
This is a very extensive website dedicated to Saints Zélie and Louis Martin with lots of photographs and biographical information.
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