London, UK - The relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux, a 19th-century Roman Catholic nun, have arrived in Britain for a month-long tour of England and Wales.
A casket containing some of her bodily remains, which were preserved after her death from tuberculosis at 24 in 1897, has arrived in Kent. St Thérèse was known for introducing the concept of The Little Way. She taught that a person did not need to execute acts of heroic virtue to lead a saintly life. It became popular after the publication of her autobiography, The Story of a Soul. Her teaching was simple and centred on helping people to do everyday things with great love and without complaining. St Thérèse, who was canonised in 1925, said that she would “let fall a shower of roses on earth” after her death and many of the faithful who visit her relics are expected to bring roses and ask for them to be blessed.
The relics will tour 28 centres of prayer and worship, starting at St John’s Catholic Cathedral in Portsmouth today. During her short life, St Thérèse said that she longed to visit Portsmouth.
Canon Dave Hopgood, of the cathedral, said: “It’s a great honour, not just for Catholics and Christians but it’s a great honour for the city, too. “People will come not just from our diocese but from the whole of the South of England. She was just an ordinary person who lived an ordinary life extraordinarily well. She was one of the great saints.” Other cathedrals on the tour will include Plymouth, Birmingham, Cardiff, Liverpool, Salford, Lancaster, Middlesbrough, Leeds, Nottingham and Westminster. The casket will also visit York Minster, Wormwood Scrubs prison and a hospice in London.
St Thérèse, a French Carmelite nun, was born in Alençon, Normandy, and entered a Carmelite convent in Lisieux, aged 15.
Organisers said that the arrival of the casket, containing pieces of her thigh and foot bones, was likely to attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.
Monsignor Keith Barltrop, the organiser of the tour, said that the relics were an aid to help the faithful to come into deeper contact with God.
He said: “St Thérèse has always been popular, I suppose for her simplicity and the very direct, almost childlike relationship she had with God and the fact that she was very ordinary and full of love for God and other people teaches us that everyone can be holy.
“I suppose we live in such a complicated age that people value the kind of direct approach she has.”