“To live on love is to banish all fear”.

Thérèse wrote these words more than a century ago. Time does not alter their strength.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, first Thérèse Martin, then Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, was a woman who was both fragile and strong-willed. The fascination, the love, the interest it arouses are not the result of extraordinary exploits. His life was brief and simple.

The universality of his message lies in his humanity. The events that marked Thérèse's life take on their meaning and importance from the way in which they were lived and they were lived with the power of the heart and the demand of a great soul. Thérèse Martin chose to trust God, to let herself be invaded by love and to live it through the smallest actions of every day.

Here is his story…

Based on the idea of ​​a retired pilot suggested to Mother Agnès de Jésus (Pauline, sister of Thérèse) at the end of the 30s and established on the site of the Basilica in 2006, this small wax museum allows you to discover, thanks to very touching characters created by Grévin, the major stages of the family and spiritual life of Saint Thérèse, from her birth in Alençon to her death in the Carmel of Lisieux.

Each scene is illustrated by an extract from “Life in images of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus” (1922).

2th January 1873

Birth in Alençon

Thérèse was born on a Thursday at 23:30 p.m. “under a happy star”, surrounded by her parents Louis and Zélie, and her sisters Marie, Pauline, Léonie and Céline. She will be baptized on January 4 in the Notre-Dame basilica in Alençon.

“In one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three,
On January 2, almost at midnight,
The kind “Little Thérèse”
Came to the earth, without noise.
“To sing Love, she was born”,
Said his Angel with a heart of fire,
“Great will be his destiny”
Heaven replied: “Glory to God! »

March 4, 1877*

The practice of virtues

Very close friends, Thérèse and Céline count their practices on a rosary in the garden on rue Saint-Blaise in Alençon, under the gaze of the neighbor.

*Letter from Zélie to her daughter Pauline

She was only three years old,
And already, according to his confession,
Displayed a manly courage,
“Refusing nothing to the good Lord.”
With Céline, her sister
She talks about her exploits,
And, quietly, to be discreet,
Counts them on his little fingers.

15th November 1877

His name in the sky

After Zélie's death, Louis and his daughters arrived in Lisieux in November 1877 and settled in the Buissonnets house. A few years later, one autumn evening, while she was walking with her father, she saw his name in the sky. These are the stars of the constellation Orion which form a T.

What are you doing here, little girl,
In the hand of your beloved father?
“I look at a sparkling T,
Of pearls of gold it is formed;
In order to see it at my ease,
Dad, take me, if you want?
Oh happiness! My name Thérèse,
I find it written in Heaven! »

13 May 1883

The healing of Thérèse by the smile of the Virgin Mary

After her sister Pauline left for Carmel, Thérèse suffered from a strange illness. Louis had a novena said to Our Lady of Victories. Marie, Léonie and Céline pray at the foot of her bed. Suddenly she is healed by the “delightful smile of the Blessed Virgin” in front of the family statue.

As a child, people admire you in ecstasy.
But why, at this moment,
So close to the ray that sets you ablaze,
On your eyelid, a diamond?
“It is that the divine light
Soon disappeared from my eyes,
And my Mother's smile,
I will only see him in Heaven! »

8 May 1884

First communion at the Benedictine Abbey of Lisieux

Thérèse made her first communion at Notre-Dame du Pré abbey where she was a resident. She is eleven years old. “Ah! How sweet was Jesus' first kiss to my soul!” she wrote in her manuscripts.

O heavenly day, without cloud,
O First Communion!
That, in sublime language,
Thérèse calls it “fusion”.
She seemed delighted,
Crying with love and happiness,
Because “infinite joy
In floods penetrated his heart…”

31 October 1887

Visit to Monsignor Hugonin

After asking her father on the day of Pentecost for permission to enter Carmel at the age of 15, Thérèse met Mgr Hugonin, the bishop of Bayeux, who advised her to wait until she was 21. She had pulled her hair up into a bun to look older.

Here is the lovely teenager
Before the Monseigneur of Bayeux;
To age yourself – innocent trick –
She put her hair up!
“Speak, Thérèse,” said her father,
Without fear, explain your purpose. »
But the Bishop and the Grand Vicar
Listen to him, without deciding anything!

20th November 1887

Audience of Pope Leo XIII

Taking advantage of a diocesan pilgrimage to Rome, her first major trip, Thérèse requested a waiver from Pope Leo XIII, (“so old it looks like he’s dead” she will say mischievously) to enter Carmel before the legal age. But the sovereign pontiff answers him : “Do what your superiors tell you“. Therese persevering, he concluded: “You will enter if the Good Lord wants it!"

At the feet of Pope Leo Thirteen,
We follow her as a last resort.
He blesses you, poor Thérèse!
But, alas! without fixing your fate.
It was the hour of your weakness,
Another hour, one day, will strike:
In glory and joy,
The Vatican will see you again...

10th January 1889

Blessing at the Closing Gate

On April 9, 1888, Thérèse postulant entered Carmel. Ten months later, under the gaze of Mgr Hugonin, she left the cloister for the last time in bridal attire to receive the blessing of her father, Louis Martin. That day, she received the Carmelite habit.

Thérèse, at the threshold of the Monastery,
On the day he took his habit,
Kneels before his Father,
And he, full of faith, blessed her.
“O spectacle worthy of the Angels”,
So simple, but so touching!
Present, heavenly phalanxes,
This burnt offering to the Almighty.

17th January 1889

Sister Thérèse novice

Having taken the name Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, the novice experienced the joys and trials of a cloistered Carmelite life. She likes to strip the leaves of roses at the ordeal in the courtyard.

Jesus attracts the novice
More at Calvary than at Tabor.
She welcomes the sacrifice,
Like a grace, a true treasure;
But, on the crosses of his lover
A veil by God was cast.
You, who admire her smiling,
Will know everything in eternity...

20th January 1896

Editing of manuscripts

On a suggestion from Sister Marie of the Sacré-Cœur (Marie Martin) during a break in December 1894, Thérèse began writing her manuscripts which would be brought together after her death under the title “Histoire d’une soul” published in 1898 She gave Manuscript A to Mother Agnès for her birthday on January 20, 1896 and, seriously ill, left Manuscript C unfinished in June 1897. Each of the manuscripts ends with the word “love”.

In his solitary cell,
Away from human gaze,
In silence and prayer,
She worked with her hands:
Painting and lingerie
Occupying his time in turn;
In the evening, she wrote her Life,
In the breath of the Spirit of love.

30 September 1897

Thérèse breathes her last

"Oh ! I love it! My God… I love you” will be his last words. In the infirmary, surrounded by her sisters, crucifix in hand, Thérèse breathes her last at 19:20 p.m. In a farewell letter dated June 9, 1897 and addressed to her spiritual brother, Father Maurice Bellière, missionary, she wrote : “I do not die, I enter life and everything that I cannot tell you here below, I will make you understand from the heights of Heaven…"

In a slow agony,
Terrible and so beautiful at the same time,
Suddenly his forehead glows,
She seems to say: “I see!” »
And, when his eye full of light
Lowers itself into this pale abode,
Thérèse fled far from the earth,
After dying of love...

Access to the museum is free. Thank you in advance for your free participation in the costs.