Sts Louis and Zélie Martin

Two closed doors

As a young man, Louis climbed high into the Alps to the hospice of the Great St Bernard, famous for its rescue dogs, hoping to become a monk. They told him he would first have to learn Latin. He tried, but it didn’t work out.

Zélie asked to join the Daughters of Charity, sisters who cared for the sick, and the superior said no. Both were disappointed. Zélie prayed about what to do instead, and felt God say: “Have Alençon lace made.” She became a fine lacemaker and ran her own lace business.

Source: Vatican, canonisation booklet with the biography of Louis and Zélie Martin (2015); Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, “Zélie Martin” (in French)

This is the one

One day in 1858, Zélie was crossing the Saint-Léonard bridge in Alençon when a young man walked past her. She heard a voice inside her say: “This is the man I have prepared for you.” It was Louis.

A few months later they were married, at midnight, in the church of Notre-Dame in Alençon.

Source: Vatican, canonisation booklet with the biography of Louis and Zélie Martin (2015)

Lace, watches and fishing

The Martins’ home was busy: lace workers coming and going, a watch shop, and lots of children. Zélie wrote more than 200 letters full of jokes and stories about her children.

Louis loved fishing and long walks, played with his daughters and sang to them. He called Thérèse, his youngest, “my little queen”.

Source: Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, “Zélie Martin” (in French); St Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul, Manuscript A

Léonie

Their third daughter, Léonie, was a difficult child. She struggled at school, had tantrums and wouldn’t do as she was told, and her parents worried about her terribly. Zélie never gave up on her.

One day Zélie discovered that the family’s maid had been secretly bullying Léonie and frightening her into obeying. Zélie was horrified. “Brutality never converted anyone,” she wrote; “it only makes slaves.” From then on she kept Léonie close beside her, and Léonie began to change. She grew up to become a nun, and today the Church is studying her life too.

Source: Zélie Martin, letter to Pauline, 22 March 1877 (CF 195, in French); Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, “Louise Marais” (in French); Vatican, canonisation booklet with the biography of Louis and Zélie Martin (2015)

A father’s last trial

After Zélie died, Louis moved his five daughters to Lisieux to be near family. One by one, his daughters felt called to be nuns (Céline and Léonie entered after his death), and he gave each one to God with a generous heart.

In his last years Louis became very ill in his mind. He got confused, sometimes wandered away from home, and had to be cared for in a hospital for three years. It was a deep sadness for him and for his daughters, and he bore it with faith.

Source: Archives of the Carmel of Lisieux, “Louis Martin” (in French); Vatican, canonisation booklet with the biography of Louis and Zélie Martin (2015)

When it was hard

Four of the Martins’ nine children died when they were babies or very small. Zélie wrote that she never regretted the cares she had given them, because they were happy in heaven and she would see them again. In 1877 Zélie died of breast cancer, when Thérèse was only four.

Louis lost his wife, gave all his daughters to God, and ended his life confused and in hospital. The Martins show that a holy family isn’t a family where nothing goes wrong. It’s a family that keeps loving God and each other when everything does.

Source: Zélie Martin, letter to Mme Guérin, 17 October 1871 (CF 72, in French)

God first served.

The Martin family’s motto (source)

Try this

Plan a family night this week: games, a walk or music, and finish with a short prayer together.
Ask your parents or grandparents how they met. Then thank God for them.

A prayer

Sts Louis and Zélie, you loved God, each other and your children through joy and sorrow. Bless our family, and help us to make our home a place of love. Pray for us.

For grown-ups: more about Sts Louis and Zélie Martin

Louis Martin (1823 to 1894), born in Bordeaux, was a watchmaker in Alençon; Zélie Guérin (1831 to 1877) ran a successful business making point d’Alençon lace. They married on 13 July 1858. Of their nine children, five daughters survived, and all five became nuns: Marie, Pauline, Céline and Thérèse at the Carmel of Lisieux, and Léonie at the Visitation in Caen.

Zélie’s letters, more than 200 of them, are a vivid portrait of family life. From 1887 Louis suffered strokes and then serious mental illness, and from 1889 to 1892 he was cared for at the Bon Sauveur hospital in Caen. The couple were beatified in 2008 and canonised together by Pope Francis on 18 October 2015, during the Synod on the Family. Their feast is 12 July.