Why St. Thérèse continues to inspire believers today -- especially those who suffer

WARSAW, Poland (OSV News) -- As her relics start to tour the U.S. and more than 125 years after her death in a cloistered convent in Normandy, St. Thérèse of Lisieux continues to inspire the church. Her "little way" of trust and love has made her one of the most popular saints in modern Catholicism -- and a prophetic voice for a world often focused on success.

St. Thérèse is often seen as a "sweet saint of roses," a childlike figure whose holiness seemed effortless. Yet behind this image was a young Carmelite who embraced the demands of cloistered life, endured spiritual darkness, and suffered from tuberculosis, dying at just 24.

"She is not a saint of sugary devotion," Carmelite Father Jan Maria Malicki told OSV News. "She shows that true faith matures in darkness, in surrender without consolation."

Father Malicki -- papal commissary for the Neapolitan semiprovince of the Discalced Carmelites and former missionary in Africa and the order's provincial in Poland -- spoke to OSV News on how the "Little Flower" continues to challenge and inspire believers today. She "embraced darkness and suffering, and hidden love," the Carmelite said.

The famed French saint, affectionately known by devotees as "The Little Flower," born Thérèse Martin, died of tuberculosis in 1897 at age 24, after nine years of religious life at the Carmelite convent in Lisieux. She quickly became the object of astonishing devotion, far beyond the borders of France. Beatified in 1923, she was canonized in Rome on May 17, 1925, by Pope Pius XI, who proclaimed her patroness of missions in 1927.

One hundred years after her death, in 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a doctor of the church.

St. Thérèse's "little way" is often misunderstood as childish or naive, but as Father Malicki explained -- "At the end of her life she entered what she called the 'night of nothingness.'"

"This was not mere desolation. She shared in Christ's redemptive night, carrying the doubts and unbelief of sinners on her own shoulders," he told OSV News, explaining that St. Thérèse identified with Christ in Gethsemane and on the cross, echoing his cry of abandonment: "My God ... why have you abandoned me?"

"Her darkness," Father Malicki said, "was solidarity with unbelievers. Faith can be most heroic precisely when it is stripped of every support and yet still says 'yes' to God."

Her example challenges modern expectations that faith is always comforting. "Today many expect religion to soothe," Father Malicki noted. "Thérèse teaches us something deeper: faith is trust even without feelings, even in emptiness."

Father Malicki emphasizes that St. Thérèse's holiness was cultivated in the ordinary and often unnoticed moments of life. "Her faith was tested not in grand gestures but in the daily rhythm of convent life," he told OSV News. "It was in obedience, in small acts of patience with others, in silent endurance of suffering that she became a model for all Christians."

He noted that her closeness to God was intertwined with her sensitivity to those around her: "Even in her illness, she thought of others, offering her pain for priests, missionaries and souls far from God. Her love was not abstract -- it was practical, concrete and deeply sacrificial."

"Today, many expect faith to provide constant consolation," Father Malicki told OSV News.

"Thérèse teaches something deeper: faith matures in darkness, in surrender without comfort. She embraced the ordinary moments -- the small duties, the daily frictions, the hidden sufferings -- with radical fidelity and love. These are the moments where holiness is truly formed."

He emphasized that her "little way" is not minimalizing, but maximizing love.

"It is a demanding path, not spectacular, but radically evangelical," he said. "Even without leaving her convent, she lived as a missionary, offering prayers, sacrifices, and her suffering for the church. Holiness is not measured by extraordinary deeds, but by love and trust in God, even in what seems insignificant or hidden."

This perspective, he explained, makes St. Thérèse accessible to all believers. "Parents, workers, students, the sick, the elderly -- everyone can follow her path. Her genius was showing that everyday life is the place of sanctity, and that faith grows strongest not in ease, but in quiet fidelity."

St. Thérèse's message also speaks to a culture obsessed with success. "She reversed the world's logic," Father Malicki said. "Holiness is not in extraordinary feats, but in ordinary love. A small gesture done with love has eternal value. You don't need to be exceptional to be close to God. You need fidelity and love, even in hiddenness."

Though she never left her convent, St. Thérèse longed to evangelize across continents. From her cloister, she corresponded with missionaries, offered prayers and suffering for them, and dreamt of being sent to Saigon. Pope Pius XI recognized this hidden universality, declaring her patroness of missions in 1927. In 2025, a cloistered nun who never left Lisieux travels the globe, still inspires renewed faith.

"Thérèse's theology was not studied in lecture halls but lived in prayer," Father Malicki said. "She shows us that true wisdom is not academic brilliance, but the fruit of intimacy with God."

For Carmelites, too, her teaching remains a guide. "In our life together," Father Malicki explained, "the greatest struggles are not heroic acts but daily frictions -- small tensions, patience, forgiveness, fidelity. Thérèse shows that holiness is built in these little things."

The power of St. Thérèse lies in her ordinariness. "She made holiness possible for everyone," Father Malicki told OSV News. "Her genius was to show that everyday life is the place of sanctity."