Deepertruth: Stand In The Gap With Us And Saints Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin

“Almighty Father, I place the Precious Blood of Jesus before my lips before I pray, that my prayers may be purified before they ascend to Your divine altar.”

Stand In The Gap With Us And Saints Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin 7/13/2024.  Saints Louis and Zelie Martin are the parents of st teresa of lisieux and patron saints of illness, mental illness, marriage, parenting, and widowers. St Louis Martin, born Louis Joseph Aloys Stanislaus Martin, was the third of five children, but his siblings all died before reaching the age of 30.

In April 1858, Zélie Guérin crosses paths with a young man on the Saint-Léonard bridge whose appearance impresses him… It is Louis Martin, watchmaker. The love she has for her husband is expressed in her letters

Born into a military family in Bordeaux, Louis trained to become a watchmaker. His desire to join a religious community went unfulfilled because he didn’t know Latin. Moving to Normandy, he met the highly-skilled lace maker, Zélie Guérin, who also had been disappointed in her attempts to enter religious life. They married in 1858, and over the years were blessed with nine children, though two sons and two daughters died in infancy.

Louis managed the lace-making business that Zélie continued at home while raising their children. She died from breast cancer in 1877.

The home that Louis and Zélie created nurtured the sanctity of all their children, but especially their youngest, who is known to us as Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Louis and Zélie were beatified in 2008, and canonized by Pope Francis on October 18, 2015. The liturgical feast of Saints Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin is celebrated on July 12.