Thérèse Martin was born in Aleçon in France in 1873. While still young she entered the Carmel of Lisieux, where she lived in the greatest humility, evangelical simplicity and confidence in God. By her words and example she taught the novices these same virtues. Offering her life for the salvation of souls and the spread of the Church, she died on September 30, 1897.
She is popularly known in English as the Little Flower of Jesus, or simply the Little Flower. Thérèse was canonized on May 17, 1925 by Pope Pius XI, only 28 years after her death. On October 19, 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her the thirty-third Doctor of the Church. Her autobiography, Story of a Soul, is read and loved throughout the world.
