Foreword by the Dean of York Minster
St Thérèse has become deeply valued and loved by innumerable people both within the Roman Catholic Church and beyond. This is of a piece with the paradox of her whole life. On the surface her life was a withdrawal, a career in obscurity and seemingly without significance in the wider world. But this same Thérèse seems to us now of huge importance to our world,

Foreword

Yesterday in our monastery church we had perpetual adoration [forty hours devotion].

Until a few years ago, very little from our silent monasteries penetrated into the world. It is different today. People talk a lot about Carmel and want to hear something about life behind the high walls. This is chiefly attributable to the great saints of our time who have captivated the entire Catholic world with amazing speed, for instance, St Therese of the Child Jesus.(2) Gertrud von le Fort's novel about Carmel(3) has vigorously directed German intellectual circles to our Order as has her beautiful foreword to the letters of Marie Antoinette de Geuser.(4)

On 6th April 2011, during his general audience in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI focussed on Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897) as part of a series of catecheses on the Doctors of the Church.
(The abbreviations in brackets refer to Thérèse’s various writings, including her autobiography Story of a Soul, her prayers, her poetry and her letters.)