Saint Thérèse

Patron saint of: African missions, AIDS sufferers, bodily ills, and tuberculosis.

Feast day: October 1

Saint Thérèse Martin was always a good little girl. She was very obedient.

One day, little Therese was tired from a walk and had to stay home from Mass. She started to cry and beg for “her Mass.” She was so set on going, that in spite of the pouring rain, she ran alone toward the church.

Therese loved to tell God, “I choose everything that you wish.” She called God her “Beloved.” 

She wrote a book on her life and she says: “Just as the sun shines both on the cedar and on the smallest flower, so the Divine Sun illumines each soul, great or lowly.”

Therese died soon after from tuberculosis.

She was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997, only the third woman to be honored as such.

Good examples to remember from the life of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus: She always serve God in the littlest ways with great love.