The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux - Expanded Edition: With Additional Letters and Prayers of Saint Thérèse and Other Writings

This expanded edition of the enchanting spiritual autobiography The Story of a Soul includes additional Letters, Prayers and other Writings of Thérèse, as well as numerous photographs from the life of one of the world's most popular saints, Thérèse of Lisieux.In a wonderful translation by Monsignor Thomas Nimmo Taylor -- the original English translation -- the life of the saint of "the Little Way" is made present to us today in a manner that brings to life the world in which the Little Flower lived over 100 years ago. Monsignor Taylor is known as "The Apostle of the Cause for the Beatification of Thérèse of Lisieux." It was he who first translated her autobiography into English and worked fervently for the recognition of her sanctity by the Church. He was the second witness in the Beatification of Thérèse and it was largely through his efforts that The Story of a Soul became known to the English-speaking world.THÉRÈSE MARTIN was born in Alençon, France on January 2, 1873. Two days later, she was baptized Marie Frances Thérèse at Notre Dame Church. Her parents were Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin. After the death of her mother on August 28, 1877, Thérèse and her family moved to Lisieux. On April 9, 1888, she entered the Carmel of Lisieux. She received the habit on January 10th of the following year, and made her religious profession on September 8, 1890 on the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Carmel she embraced the way of perfection outlined by the Foundress, Saint Teresa of Jesus, fulfilling with genuine fervour and fidelity the various community responsibilities entrusted to her. In her autobiographical manuscripts she left us not only her recollections of childhood and adolescence but also a portrait of her soul, the description of her most intimate experiences. She discovered the little way of spiritual childhood and taught it to the novices entrusted to her care. She penetrated ever more deeply into the mystery of the Church and became increasingly aware of her apostolic and missionary vocation to draw everyone in her path. She completed her first autobiographical manuscript on January 21, 1896.In the words of Francis Cardinal Bourne: "To many, on reading for the first time the story of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, it came almost as a shock to find a very youthful member of an austere Order, strictly retired from the world, engaged in hidden prayer and mortification, appearing before us to reveal to the whole world the wonders of the close intimacy of friendship to which her Divine Spouse had been pleased to call her. Certainly the way by which Saint Thérèse was led is not the normal life of Carmel, nor hers the manner whereby most Carmelites are called to accomplish the wondrous apostolate of intercession to which their lives are given. But no less certain is it that, in her particular case, her work for God and her apostolate were not to be confined between the walls of her religious home, or to be limited by her few years on earth." ~from the Preface Read more