By Sr. Lini Sheeja MSC –
St Therese of Child Jesus for Prisoners and Her Little Way for PMI Volunteers
Born to Saintly Parents
Thérèse Martin was born on 2 January 1873 to a father who wanted to be a monk and a mother who wanted to be a saint. This devout couple had dedicated themselves totally to God but through the sacrament of confession they realized that their true vocation was not to celibacy but to pursue marriage as being intended by God, shown by the priest in confessional. 9 children were born of that marriage but just 5 girls survived. Thérèse was the youngest who later came to be known as St Therese of Child Jesus and the Holy Face. “I hear the baby calling me Mama! as she goes down the stairs. On every step, she calls out Mama! and if I don’t respond every time, she remains there without going either forward or back.” Said Madame Martin to Pauline about the Little Therese, November 21, 1875.After her mother died of breast cancer in 1877, Thérèse moved to Lisieux along with her whole family. Therese was often found to be falling sick. She began to suffer from nervous tremors as well.
Zeal to become a Nun
In November 1887, Louis took two of his children, Céline and Therese, on a diocesan pilgrimage to Rome for the priestly jubilee of Pope Leo XIII. On 20 November 1887, during the general audience with Leo XIII, Therese, in her turn, approached the Pope, knelt, and asked him to allow her to enter Carmel at 15. The Pope said: “Well, my child, do what the superiors decide… You will enter if it is God’s Will” and he blessed Therese. She refused to leave his feet, and the Noble Guard had to carry her out of the room.
Saintly Home to Saintly Convent
In the deeply religious atmosphere of her home, her piety developed early and intensively. All four of her elder sisters became nuns, and at the age of 15 she entered the Carmelite convent at Lisieux, having been refused admission a year earlier.
A Saint within the Walls
She was friendly to nuns she did not like as well as those who did not like her. She never complained about her food, so was often given the nastiest leftovers. When accused of breaking a vase she had not touched, she apologised and asked for forgiveness. It was a daily challenge to her nature and a complete secret from the other nuns. She was never rewarded for her humility. In 1896 Sister Thérèse first coughed up blood. She hid her illness so effectively that when she could no longer carry on her duties she was not entirely believed. What followed were months of pain. Her agony was so bad that she said without the love of God she would have willingly taken her own life. Before her death from tuberculosis, she acknowledged that, because of her difficult nature, not one day had ever passed without a struggle.
Story of a Soul
Pauline, Therese’s sister and Prioress, could only pray and think about something to distract her sister a little. Hence she asked Thérèse to write about her life and during her last weeks of life she wrote the ‘Story of a Soul’ which is considered Therese’s autobiography. It contains the story of her childhood, her love of God and her belief that “what matters in life is not great deeds, but great love.” Therese died on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. Her last words were the story of her life: “My God, I love You!”. Her life-story has a special place in all our hearts. She was beatified on 29 April 1923 by Pope Pius XI and she was canonized by him on 17 May 1925. Her feast day in the General Roman Calendar was 3 October from 1927 until it was moved in 1969 to 1 October and every year we celebrate it on the same.
Henri Pranzini as Death Row Prisoner
Henri Pranzini was a notorious and brutal criminal born in 1856 of Italian parents in Alexandria. He was tall, dynamic and charming in appearance but turned into a life-long petty thief who took advantage of vulnerable women in the nineteenth century France, a vice that eventually led him to capital punishment. He was a brilliant student who learned to speak eight languages but at the same time he was a seducer with languorous eyes. He was an adventurer, a soldier who entered the army of the Indies and waged war in Afghanistan. He was a trafficker, a man of action, punter, gambler, lady-killer and a triple murderer. Pranzini’s trial opened on July 9, 1887 and by the middle of August, it was clear Pranzini was to die.
Therese Martin in Redeeming a Soul
Pranzini’s crime would have quite likely been forgotten, had it not been for an extraordinary French teenager. Therese Martin, later to become St Therese of Lisieux who was just14 at the time, felt compelled to intervene in Pranzini’s case. From reports Therese came to know that Pranzini was impenitent and was sure of his eternal damnation. To avert that irreparable calamity, she decided to employ all the spiritual means she could think of. As she recounts in her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, she stormed Heaven for a man many considered beyond redemption: “Everything led to the belief that he would die impenitent. I wanted at all costs to keep him from falling into hell, and to succeed I employed all the means imaginable, feeling that of myself I could do nothing”.
Pranzini Redeemed
As his fate approached Therese increased her prayers and asked her sisters to join in her mission which continued until he was brought before the guillotine on 31 August 1887 at 0430. The next day, Therese read in the newspaper that when he was about to put his head into the device, “he turned, took hold of the crucifix the priest was holding out to him, and kissed the sacred wounds three times! Then his soul went to receive the merciful sentence of him who declares that in heaven there will be more joy over one sinner who does penance than over ninety-nine who have no need of repentance! (Lk 15:7)”I had obtained the sign I asked for, and to me it was especially sweet. Was it not when I saw the Precious Blood flowing from the Wounds of Jesus that the thirst for souls first took possession of me,” said the Little Flower. The most important weapon Therese Martin made use of for the conversion of Pranzini was the Holy Mass.
Mon Premier Enfant
Pranzini was Therese’s first saved child. Observe her prayer: “My God, I am quite sure that you will pardon this unhappy Pranzini”. Therese was convinced her prayers had helped save the forsaken Pranzini from damnation. He became for her “mon premier enfant-my first child” and the experience strengthened her conviction to become a Carmelite nun, and intercede for others in desperate need of God’s love.
Little Way of the Little Flower
Therese is popularly known in the English speaking world as “The Little Flower of Jesus”, or simply “The Little Flower,” and in French as la petite Thérèse (little Thérèse).Therese has been a highly influential model of sanctity for Catholics and for others because of the “simplicity and practicality of her approach to the spiritual life”. St Therese had a simple yet powerful message that still resonates in the hearts of millions today. Her “Little Way” of allowing God to work through her life has become a guiding light for the faithful. This is “The Little Way” of St Therese of Lisieux which Saint Mother Teresa also followed: to do everything as an act of love for God, to offer all the little (and big) hardships of life for the conversion of sinners. Imagine St Therese arriving in heaven after her death at the age of twenty-four. Who do you think was the first person to meet her? Her mother Zelie? Her father Louis? Perhaps the first person to meet her on her arrival in heaven was a man with a big smile on his face who could hardly wait to thank her for the role her prayers and sacrifices played in getting him there, the murderer named Pranzini
Redemption Stories of the Failed Ones
The most important factor in prison ministry is to lead convicts to repentance and reconciliation so as to be redeemed by the Redeemer. Although Pranzini murdered two women and a little girl brutally, a heinous crime that Therese in no way condoned, she did not condemn the man himself. Rather, in the spirit of the Gospel, she prayed for his conversion. Therese found within her heart the willingness to forgive his terrible crime. In this COVID 19 lockdown, as we are unable to enter the prison gates to meet our brethren, PMI volunteers reach out to the dark cells of prisons through the 24 hours Incessant Intercessory Invocation for the Incarcerated and join hands in the work of redemption. The same Little Way of the Little Flower is emulated by our passionate PMI volunteers through our little ways in this pandemic. Jesus not only builds His Church in cities and villages, but does so also behind bars. The Church is built when lost souls are redeemed from the darkest and most forgotten corners. May the redemption stories of the failed ones, criminals, abandoned, lonely and dejected be proclaimed from the roof tops and may Christ our Redeemer be glorified!
Sr Lini Sheeja MSC, served as National Secretary for Prison Ministry India and Chief Editor for Prison Voice, a national monthly magazine