Quote of the day, 14 April: St. Thérèse of Lisieux

We have only the short moment of this life to give to God… and He is already preparing to say: “Now, my turn…” What a joy to suffer for Him who loves us unto folly and to pass as fools in the eyes of the world.

We are not idlers, squanderers, either. Jesus has defended us in the person of the Magdalene.

He was at table [cf. Mk 14:3–6, Jn 12:1–8], Martha was serving, Lazarus was eating with Him and His disciples. As for Mary, she was not thinking of taking any food but of pleasing Him whom she loved, so she took a jar filled with an ointment of great price and poured it on the head of Jesus, after breaking the jar, and the whole house was scented with the ointment, but the APOSTLES complained against Magdalene…

It is really the same for us, the most fervent Christians, priests, find that we are exaggerated, that we should serve with Martha instead of consecrating to Jesus the vessels of our lives, with the ointments enclosed within them.…

And nevertheless what does it matter if our vessels be broken since Jesus is consoled and since, in spite of itself, the world is obliged to smell the perfumes that are exhaled and serve to purify the empoisoned air the world never ceases to breathe in.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Letter LT 169 to her sister, Céline (excerpt)
19 August 1894

Note: When St. Louis Martin died on 29 July 1894, Céline was at his bedside and closed his eyes. She buried him on 2 August, then traveled with her aunt and uncle, Céline Fournet and Isidore Guérin, to Caen. There, on 19 August, she wrote to Thérèse about the painful opposition she faced from their cousins, Francis and Jeanne La Néele, who resented her decision to enter the Carmel of Lisieux on 14 September. That same day, Thérèse responded with this letter—her tender, passionate defense of the “waste” of love, inspired by Mary of Bethany.

Thérèse of Lisieux, S & Clarke, J 1988, General Correspondence: Letters of Saint Therese of Lisieux: Volume 2 1890-1897. Centenary ed., Institute of Carmelite Studies, Washington DC.

Featured image: AI-generated artwork by Carmelite Quotes using DALL·E 3 (April 2025). Inspired by the style of John Singer Sargent. All rights reserved.

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Have you ever been misunderstood for choosing what you believed would please Jesus?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

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Quote of the day, 13 April: St. Louis Martin

My incomparable Father,

What Céline tells us is so like you! Ah, what a father we have! Truly, you are one of a kind… and so I’m not surprised that God is calling all your children to Himself, this father who cannot be matched! You are so precious to His heart that He cannot help but look upon you—and all who are yours—with a love beyond compare.

How our dear mother [St. Zélie] must be smiling down at you. How joyful she must be to see her little boat so well steered by you, guiding us all toward heaven.

O best of fathers, how great our responsibility will be if we do not become saints—if we do not follow in the path of your generosity. Ah, how Jesus will repay you a hundredfold for the lily you offer Him today—barely opened, yet full of freshness and purity.

Oh, your crown in heaven! My beloved Father, I see it already—radiant and beautiful. Ah, pray that your diamond not be too pale beside such glory.

I can say no more. You fill my heart—I am entirely yours.
Our Mother [Prioress Marie de Gonzague, O.C.D.] couldn’t help but weep as she read Céline’s account.
Ah! What a father you are!!

Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, O.C.D.
(Marie Martin)

Letter from Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart to her father, St. Louis Martin, 9 April 1888

St. Thérèse crosses the threshold of the cloister, a later watercolor
Photo: Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux
Visit the Archives site to see the annotated sketch for this watercolor and all of the artworks associated with the life of St. Thérèse.

Note: St. Thérèse entered the Carmel of Lisieux on the Feast of the Annunciation, which was deferred to Monday, April 9 in the year 1888 because March 25 was Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord.

We always refer to the website of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux for the vast majority of our quotes concerning Saint Thérèse, Saint Zélie, and Saint Louis Martin. If you would like to purchase English translations for the collected works of St. Thérèse, please visit the website of our Discalced Carmelite friars at ICS Publications. 

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: St. Thérèse outside the Lisieux Carmel. Image credit: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
What can you offer God this Holy Week with purity, generosity, and love?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#CarmelOfLisieux #familyLife #generosity #MarieMartin #MarieOfTheSacredHeart #postulant #religiousLife #StLouisMartin #StThérèseOfLisieux #vocations

🚨 Important Notice: The Lisieux Archives Website Has Moved

Many of you may have used links on this blog (or elsewhere) to access the Lisieux Carmel Archives. Unfortunately, the old domain (www.archives-carmel-lisieux.fr) has been taken over by an unrelated website and no longer leads to the Carmelite archives.

✅ The Good News

The Lisieux Archives still exist—they have simply moved to a new domain. The correct website is:

➡️ https://archives.carmeldelisieux.fr

If you’re searching for specific documents, we recommend bookmarking this new link and updating any saved references.

❌ The Bad News

The old domain was not retained by the Carmelites and has now been claimed by a secular, unrelated website. If you have old bookmarks or links to the previous site, please update them to avoid confusion.

🔧 What This Means for the Carmelite Quotes Blog

Many of our older posts contain links to the now-defunct domain. We’re updating them as we find them, but with so many posts, this will take time. If you encounter a broken link while reading a post, feel free to drop a comment so we can fix it.

📢 Help Spread the Word

Please share this update with fellow Carmelite enthusiasts, researchers, and anyone who may still be using the outdated link. If you need help finding something on the new archive site, let us know in the comments!

Thank you for your patience as we work through these updates. Your support in spreading the word is greatly appreciated! ➡️ For English translations, click the globe icon at the top of the Lisieux Archives website.

Featured image: DALL·E generated this image of a frustrated researcher working late at night, surrounded by manuscripts, books, and a laptop. Edited in Adobe Express by Carmelite Quotes.

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Quote of the day, 5 February: St. Thérèse

You have hidden me forever in your Face!…
Divine Jesus, deign to hear my voice.
I have come to sing the inexpressible grace
Of having suffered…of having born the Cross…

For a long time I have drunk from the chalice of tears.
I have shared your cup of sorrows,
And I have understood that suffering has its charms,
That by the Cross we save sinners.

It is by the Cross that my ennobled soul
Has seen a new horizon revealed.
Under the rays of your Blessed Face,
My weak heart has been raised up very high.

My Beloved, your sweet voice calls me:
“Come,” you said to me, “already the winter has fled.
A new season is beginning for you.
At last day is taking the place of night.

Raise your eyes to your Holy Homeland,
And on thrones of honor you will see
A beloved Father…a dear Mother
To whom you owe your immense happiness!…

Your life will pass like an instant.
On Carmel we are very near Heaven.
My beloved, my love has chosen you.
I have reserved a glorious throne for you!….”

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

PN 16, Song of Gratitude of Jesus’s Fiancée

Note: On 5 February 1895, Céline Martin was clothed in the Carmelite habit and began her novitiate in the Carmel of Lisieux. St. Thérèse wrote the Song of Gratitude of Jesus’s Fiancée as a gift for her sister’s clothing.

Thérèse of Lisieux, S & Kinney, D 1995, The Poetry of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: These are images of the note marking the day of Céline Martin’s clothing in the Carmelite habit, receiving the name “Geneviève of St. Teresa.” Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

#CarmelOfLisieux #CelineMartin #Clothing #monasticLife #novitiate #religiousLife #SrGenevièveOfTheHolyFace #StThereseOfLisieux

Quote of the day, 3 February: Pauline Martin

My beloved little sister, you’ll be able to come on Friday [January 29th], the elections won’t be until Monday or Tuesday [February 1st and 2nd].

I can’t be without you for a moment. Who could understand such a union! Let us love the good Lord well! Everything is here, and there’s nothing out there!

The weather is so sad! We need to create a Blue Sky in our hearts.

Soeur Agnès de Jésus (Pauline Martin)

Letter from Sr. Agnès de Jésus to Sr. Marie du Sacré Coeur (Marie Martin)
25-28 January 1886

Note: On 3 February 1886, Mother Marie de Gonzague was elected to her third term as prioress of the Discalced Carmelite monastery of Lisieux. At the time of her death in 1904, she had served 6 years as sub-prioress and 21 years as prioress of the community. You can read the biography of Mother Marie de Gonzague on the website of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux.

 

Mother Marie de Gonzague
(Marie Davy de Virville)
Caen, 20 February 1834 – Lisieux, 17 December 1904
Credit: Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

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Quote of the day, 20 November: St. Thérèse

Sunday, November 20, after dressing up according to Vatican regulations, i.e., in black with a lace mantilla as headpiece, and decorated with a large medal of Leo XIII, tied with a blue and white ribbon, we entered the Vatican through the Sovereign Pontiff’s chapel.

St. Therese of Lisieux

Even very young, the Servant of God said she would become a nun and consecrate herself to God, and nobody around her was surprised. She said she wanted to withdraw to the desert in order to belong to God alone. When our sister Pauline was admitted to the Carmel and the Servant of God heard what life inside was like, she realized it was in the Carmelite Order that her aspirations would be fulfilled.

You ask whether she prayed to God and sought counsel in order to resolve the problem of her vocation. I don’t think there was ever a problem of vocation for her. She never questioned whether or not she should consecrate herself to God. The answer was obvious to her. She wondered only how to reach her goal.

With regards to this, she sought counsel from Mother Agnes of Jesus, whom she would visit at the Carmel. The Jesuit priest Father Pichon, our family’s spiritual director, also encouraged her at this point. On Pentecost Sunday 1887, Thérèse shared her desire to become a Carmelite with our father. Marie, our eldest sister, had joined Pauline at the Carmel on 15th October 1886. With saintly faith and simplicity, our father gave her his consent, but our uncle and Thérèse’s legal guardian, Mr Guérin, was opposed to it. He said she should wait until she was a least 17. However he soon yielded, God having softened his heart in this matter.

There remained other difficulties to overcome: the ecclesiastical superior of the Carmel, Father Delatroëtte, refused to admit her because he considered her too young. Thérèse therefore had to appeal to the bishop. With this in view, she went to Bayeux with our father, but when she received only an evasive response, she decided that on her imminent trip to Rome, she would ask His Holiness Pope Leo XIII for the authorisation she sought [MsA 62r, ff]. She made this trip with our father and myself. The Holy Father did not give her a clear answer either [Papal audience, 20 November 1887] and referred the matter back to the Superiors of the Carmel and Providence.

Once back in France, Thérèse gave herself entirely over to the advice of her sister Pauline in the matter of her vocation [Cf. Ordinary Process, Witness 1, Sixteenth Question, 148r]. She wrote to his Lordship the Bishop of Bayeux, and on 28th December 1887, he replied and gave her the authorization she sought. However, desirous to appease the still protesting Superior, the Mother Prioress of the Carmel delayed her admittance until after Lent. It was therefore not until 9th April of the following year, 1888, that Thérèse stepped over the threshold to the cloister, accompanied by her father and the rest of her family.

Sr. Geneviève of St. Teresa, O.C.D.

(Celine Martin)
Apostolic Process, Witness 8
Response to Question 11

We always refer to the website of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux for the vast majority of our quotes concerning Saint Thérèse, Saint Zélie, and Saint Louis Martin. If you would like to purchase English translations for the collected works of St. Thérèse, please visit the website of our Discalced Carmelite friars at ICS Publications. 

Featured image: This portrait of Pope Leo XIII is a fumée engraving in black on tissue paper from the René Huyghe Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. American artist Charles M. Johnson created the engraving in 1899. Image credit: National Gallery of Art (Public domain)

#CarmelOfLisieux #CelineMartin #DivineProvidence #LeoXIII #papalAudience #pilgrimage #StThereseOfLisieux #testimony #vocations

October 31 [1887] was the day set for the trip to Bayeux. I left alone with Papa, my heart filled with hope, but also rather scared at the thought of meeting the bishop. For the first time in my life, I was to make a visit unaccompanied by my sisters and this visit was to a bishop! [Flavien-Abel-Antoinin Hugonin, Bishop of Bayeux].

I had never had any reason to speak unless in answer to questions addressed to me, and now I had to explain the purpose of my visit, to develop the reasons that made me seek entrance into Carmel; in a word, I was to show the firmness of my vocation.

Ah! what that trip cost me! God had to give me a very special grace to overcome my timidity. It’s also very true that “love never finds impossibilities, because it believes everything is possible, everything is permitted” [The Imitation of Christ, III, 5:4]. It was surely only love of Jesus that could help me surmount these difficulties and the ones that followed, for it pleased Him to have me buy my vocation with very great trials. …

The bishop was walking on the balcony with two priests. I saw Father Révérony [the diocesan Vicar General] say a few words to him and return with him to where we were waiting in his study. There, three enormous armchairs were set before the fireplace in which a bright fire was crackling away.

When he saw His Excellency enter, Papa knelt down by my side to receive his blessing; the bishop had Papa take one of the armchairs, and then he sat down facing him. Father Révérony wanted me to take the one in the middle; I excused myself politely, but he insisted, telling me to show if I knew how to obey.

And so I took it without further reflection and was mortified to see him take a chair while I was buried in a huge armchair that could hold four like me comfortably (more comfortably, in fact, for I was far from being so!).

I had hoped that Papa would speak; however, he told me to explain the object of our visit to the bishop. I did so as eloquently as possible and His Excellency, accustomed to eloquence, did not appear touched by my reasons; in their stead, a single word from the father superior would have been much better, but I didn’t have it and this did not help me in any way.

The bishop asked me if it had been a long time since I desired to enter Carmel.

“Oh! yes, Bishop, a very long time.”

“Come, now,” said Father Révérony with a smile, “you can’t say it is fifteen years since you’ve had the desire.”

Smiling, I said: “That’s true, but there aren’t too many years to subtract because I wanted to be a religious since the dawn of my reason, and I wanted Carmel as soon as I knew about it. I find all the aspirations of my soul are fulfilled in this order.” …

The bishop, believing he’d please Papa, tried to have me stay with him a few more years, and he was very much surprised and edified at seeing him take my part, interceding for me to obtain permission to fly away at fifteen.

And still, everything was futile. The bishop said an interview with the superior of Carmel [Father Delatroëtte] was indispensable before making his decision. I couldn’t possibly have heard anything that would cause me more pain than this because I was aware of his formal opposition.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

Manuscript A, 53v, 54v

Thérèse & Foley, M 2005, Story of a Soul: The autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Study edn, translated from the French by Clarke, J, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Dall-E depicts Normandy in the 19th century on a rainy October day. Image credit: Carmelite Quotes (AI artwork)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/10/30/tej-msa53v/

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Gallipoli Carmelite monastery
25 February 1910

Most Reverend Mother Agnes of Jesus,

May the grace of the Holy Spirit always dwell in the soul of Your Reverence. Amen.

I’m sorry for the unintentional delay in replying to your two precious letters. Many things have come up that made me fail in this duty, but I’m sure you, with your great kindness, will understand and forgive me.

You can imagine how happy I was to receive your writings and how fortunate I feel to be able to ask for prayers from the blood sister of dear Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, whom I consider such a close confidante! Even though she’s in Heaven, this beautiful soul continues to help us here on earth, especially poor sinners.

So, it won’t surprise you, my dear Mother, that our beloved Sister Thérèse, as an angel interceding before the Heart of Jesus, performed a miracle in our monastery, working through the least of this holy community.

I’m sending you the account in Italian as you requested, but please keep it private for now. There’s a large official document in Rome with the signatures of all the sisters, the bishop, and a commission of priests, including even a holy priest from the Society of Jesus!

On the night before January 16th this year, I was not feeling well. At 3:00 a.m., almost at the limit of my strength, I managed to sit up a bit in bed to catch my breath and then drifted off to sleep.

I had a dream where I felt a hand touching me, pulling up my blanket and covering me lovingly. I thought it was one of the sisters being kind to me, so without opening my eyes, I said: “Leave me alone, don’t fan me, I’m soaked. This isn’t helping. I feel like life is leaving me.”

Then a voice I didn’t recognize said: “No, my daughter, it is a good thing, and it will not take your life.”

As she continued covering me, she smiled and added: “See, the Lord uses both the inhabitants of Heaven and earth. Here are five hundred lire to pay your community’s debt.”

Taking the money, I told her that our debt was only three hundred lire, and she replied: “The rest is extra, but since you can’t keep money in your cell, come with me.”

Without answering, I thought to myself: “How can I get up, drenched in sweat like this?”

But reading my thoughts, she smiled again and said: “Bilocation will take care of that.”

Suddenly, I found myself outside my cell with a young Carmelite nun. Her habit and veil radiated a heavenly light that lit up our path. She led me to the turn room, where she opened a wooden box with the bill for our community’s debt inside and handed me the five hundred lire. I was overjoyed and amazed and bowed down to thank her, saying: “Oh, my Blessed Mother!”

But she lovingly lifted me up and said: “No, my daughter, I’m not Our Blessed Mother. I’m the servant of God, Sister Thérèse of Lisieux! Today is a feast in Heaven and on earth, for it is the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.”

I was moved and amazed, and without knowing what to say, I exclaimed from the bottom of my heart: “My God!” but I couldn’t finish. Then this heavenly sister touched my veil, as if to adjust it, gave me a gentle, sisterly caress, and began to walk away.

“Wait,” I called out to her, “you might go the wrong way!”

She smiled angelically and replied: “No, no, my daughter, my way is safe and I was not mistaken.”

I woke up, and despite feeling exhausted, I forced myself to get up, go to the Choir, and receive Holy Communion.

The sisters noticed I wasn’t well and wanted to call the doctor. I went through the sacristy, and when the two sacristy nuns insisted I go back to bed and call the doctor, I told them that I’d had a dream that had shaken me a little, and I recounted it simply.

They then insisted that I check the wooden box, but I told them that we shouldn’t believe in dreams and that doing so was even a sin. Eventually, because of their persistence, I went with them to the turn, opened the box, and there… we found the miraculous five-hundred-lire note!

I leave the rest to your reflection!

My dear Mother, we are all so humbled by such kindness, and we eagerly await the day when our dear Sister Thérèse, our great protector, will be raised to the honors of the altar!

Could you send me the life of this Angel in Italian? It would bring me great joy, and I will be forever grateful. I also want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the lovely picture you sent me. May the good Lord reward you abundantly for your kindness.

Please accept the warmest regards from the whole community, who entrust themselves to your prayers.

And, dear Mother, may I ask for your prayers for my own soul? I know you will pray for me, and please consider me one of your sisters (even though I am so unworthy!), as I am the same age as your heavenly sister!

Sister Maria Carmela of the Heart of Jesus,
unworthy Carmelite religious

Note: We share the text of the letter sent by the prioress of the Carmel of Gallipoli, Mother Maria Carmela of the Heart of Jesus, to Lisieux, addressed to Mother Agnès, the sister of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: This is a detail of a stained glass window created by artist Sr. Margaret Agnes Rope, O.C.D. for Holy Name parish in Oxton, Birkenhead (Cheshire) England, which is one of the best-loved stained glass images of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. You can learn more about Sr. Margaret from her sisters at the Quidenham Carmel in England. Image credit: Arthur Rope / Wikimedia Commons (For the common good)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/09/24/gallipoli-ltr1910/

#CarmelOfGallipoli #CarmelOfLisieux #DiscalcedCarmelites #dream #miracles #money #MotherAgnèsOfJesus #StThérèseOfLisieux #theTurn

History of the Canonization of Saint Thérèse

On May 17, 1925, Pius XI, surrounded by 23 cardinals and 250 bishops, processed to the canonization [Mass] of Thérèse. Among the 50,000 faithful who came to Rome, only 5,000 were able to enter St. Peter’s Basilica and hear the pope pronounce the solemn formula declaring that the humble Carmelite of Lisieux could henceforth be called: “Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus.”

Two miracles were required at the time of Thérèse’s canonization process to move from beatification to canonization. Once these miracles were authenticated, the pope could proclaim the canonization and authorize and recommend the veneration of this new saint in the universal Church.

In Thérèse’s case, the two miracles chosen for her canonization were:

• The healing of Sister Gabriela Trimusi, from the Poor Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (Parma, Italy), from tuberculosis of the vertebrae (1923);
• The healing of Maria Pellemans (a Belgian who came on pilgrimage to the tomb of Blessed Thérèse) from intestinal tuberculosis. She had suffered from her illness since 1919.

Maria Pellemans sent her testimony to the Carmel of Lisieux:

It was in the parlor of the Carmel that I conceived the desire to ask for my healing, so that I could realize the dream of my life, to become a Carmelite. (…) Despite my extreme fatigue, I wanted to return to the tomb. As soon as I was there, a very sweet and supernatural feeling completely enveloped me… A heavenly sense of well-being penetrated my soul and body, I felt as if I were in another world, flooded with an ocean of peace. (…) Filled with such extraordinary emotion, I thought to myself: I am surely healed! (…)

On Tuesday, March 27, we returned home. My father, very moved, could not believe my healing. The doctor, having heard of the miracle, came to visit me. He examined me thoroughly, then, shaken as well, he concluded:

“I don’t understand, I find you completely changed, this cannot be explained naturally, as the stomach and intestines were incurable… Yes, if this transformation persists, it could be said that it is a great miracle.”

Guy Gaucher, O.C.D.

History of the Canonization of Saint Thérèse

Note: The Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux share this account from Antoinette Guise Castelnuovo concerning the “miracle of Gallipoli“:

Another miraculous event was the subject of a canonical investigation due to the stir it caused, both locally and among Sister Thérèse’s friends: it is the miracle of Gallipoli. Accounts tell that Thérèse appeared to the prioress of a poor Carmelite monastery in Apulia in 1910. She provided material assistance to her community and confirmed the validity of her spiritual path by telling Mother Carmela: ‘My way is sure, and I was not mistaken in following it.’ Gallipoli has since become a place of pilgrimage and an important center for spreading Thérèsian spirituality in Italy.

We always refer to the website of the Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux for the vast majority of our quotes concerning Saint Thérèse, Saint Zélie, and Saint Louis Martin. If you would like to purchase English translations for the collected works of St. Thérèse, please visit the website of our Discalced Carmelite friars at ICS Publications. 

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Photographer Jason Shallcross captures an image of creamy white roses. Image credit: Jason Shallcross / Flickr (Some rights reserved)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/09/23/guy-miracles/

#canonization #CarmelOfLisieux #DiscalcedCarmelites #GuyGaucherOCD_ #history #LittleWay #miracles #StThérèseOfLisieux #tuberculosis

In 1931 to solemnly commemorate the third centenary of the re-acquisition of Mount Carmel, it was decided to hold the General Chapter of the Order in the monastery on the promontory. In preparation for the event the church was once more redecorated. The Maltese lay brother, Luigi Poggi, an accomplished artist, painted the ceiling and the interior of the dome, and the walls were covered with precious marble.

The bell tower was enriched by the addition of three new bells presented by the General Definitory, the nuns of Lisieux Carmel, and the nuns of Haifa respectively. Along the road leading towards the Bay of Haifa, fourteen small chapels were erected containing reproductions of the Stations of the Cross, the work of Rafael of the Infant Jesus of the province of Catalonia, whose work was financed by benefactors in his native country.

Participating at the solemn opening of the Chapter were representatives from all the countries in which the Order was established, including America, India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Poland, Ireland, England, Austria, Bavaria, Hungary, Italy, France, Spain, and Malta. Fr. William of St. Albert was elected as General of the Order for a second term of office. The Chapter decided to place votive lamps before Our Lady’s statue to represent every province of the Order.

“Her virtues are carved in her face.”
(Words of Pope Pius VII)
Image credit: Discalced Carmelite Friars (used by permission)

Because it was felt that the statue’s garments were not in accord with its ornate surroundings, it was decided to have them carved in wood. Brother Luigi Poggi, conventual on Mount Carmel, carved a copy to be enthroned temporarily, while the head and hands were sent off to Rome [in 1932].

The body was carved in Lebanese cedar, with instructions to keep the same proportions and pose as the original. In Europe, the work of restoration was entrusted to Emanuele Rieda, who finished it in less than a year.

The statue’s return to Mount Carmel was accompanied by great celebrations. In July and August, the image was displayed in the Discalced Carmelites’ Roman churches and was blessed by Pius XI on the 25th of July, 1933.

[When the statue arrived on 8 September 1933, it] was escorted by a long procession made up of civic and religious leaders, all Catholic groups in Haifa, and a group of pilgrims who had come specially from Europe. In the evening it was solemnly enthroned above the high altar in the basilica.

Father Elias Friedman, O.C.D.

Excerpts from chapters 3 and 4

Pope Pius XI and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, 12 February 1931 dedication of Vatican Radio.
Image credit: Mrs. Summer Goeller
(used by permission)

Giordano, S, Salvatico, G & Maccise, C 1996, Carmel in the Holy Land: From Its Beginnings to the Present Day, Il Messaggero di Gesù Bambino, Arenzano.

Featured image: Thousands of pilgrims accompanied the Pilgrim Virgin statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on the slow, arduous procession from Saint Joseph Latin Catholic Parish in the City of Haifa up to the Stella Maris Church and Monastery of the Discalced Carmelite friars on the promontory of Mount Carmel on 5 May 2019. It was the 100th anniversary of the procession, which began as an act of gratitude for the liberation of the city from Turkish rule at the end of the First World War. Image credit: Discalced Carmelite General Curia / Facebook (used by permission)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/07/24/friedman-25jul33-2/

#bells #blessing #CarmelOfHaifa #CarmelOfLisieux #DiscalcedCarmelites #friars #generalChapter #Haifa #HolyLand #OurLadyOfMountCarmel #PopePiusXI #Rome #statue #StellaMaris