The St Therese Novena

The Saint Therese Novena is one of the most-prayed Catholic novenas of the twentieth century. It is addressed to Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897), the Carmelite nun who died at the age of twenty-four after a brief life lived almost entirely within the walls of a small French Carmel. Her autobiography, Story of a Soul (Histoire d'une Âme), composed under religious obedience in the last three years of her life and published a year after her death, became one of the most-read Catholic spiritual books of the twentieth century. She was canonized in 1925, declared a Doctor of the Church in 1997, and is honored as the Little Flower of Jesus and as the patroness of the Catholic missions across the world.

Origin and history of the novena

The Catholic devotion to Saint Therese spread with extraordinary speed after the publication of Story of a Soul in 1898. By the time of her beatification in 1923, the Carmel of Lisieux was receiving an estimated five hundred letters per day from Catholics around the world reporting graces and conversions attributed to her intercession. The Catholic faithful began organizing novenas to her almost as soon as her writings were published; the standard form of the novena crystallized in the 1920s and has been preserved in Catholic devotional manuals ever since.

The particular character of the Saint Therese devotion is shaped by two of her own promises, recorded in conversations with her sisters in the months before her death. The first: "I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth." The second: "After my death, I will let fall a shower of roses." The Catholic faithful have taken these promises seriously. The reception of a rose (literal or symbolic) at the close of a Therese novena is a Catholic devotional convention so widespread that millions of testimonies have been collected over the past century. The roses arrive in unexpected ways: a flower delivered by a visitor at an unusual moment, a rose petal found in a book, a child's drawing of a rose, an image of a rose appearing in a photograph or a dream. The Catholic interpretation is consistent: Therese's prayer has been answered, and the rose is her sign.¹

Structure of the novena

Each day of the Saint Therese Novena follows the same form:

1. The opening invocation of the novena, addressed to the Little Flower.
2. A meditation on a theme proper to the day, drawn from Therese's Story of a Soul and from her recorded conversations.
3. The petition: the specific intention for which the novena is being prayed.
4. The classical prayer to Saint Therese (the prayer most commonly used since the 1920s).
5. Closing prayers: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

When the novena is prayed

The Saint Therese Novena is most commonly prayed:

• In the nine days before her feast on 1 October, the day of her religious profession in heaven and her feast in the universal Roman Calendar.
• In the Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face Novena, prayed on the 24th of each month (a particular Catholic devotional discipline practiced by some Catholics in honor of her religious name).
• At any time of personal need, particularly when seeking the conversion of a family member, healing of an illness, or guidance in a vocational discernment.
• As a 24-hour novena (a brief Catholic adaptation of the standard nine-day form, in which the novena prayers are said every hour for 24 consecutive hours, in cases of acute crisis).

Theological foundations

The principal theological note of the Saint Therese devotion is the Little Way. Therese articulated this in Story of a Soul as her response to the impossibility of imitating the dramatic spiritual feats of the great saints. Instead of climbing the mountain of perfection by heroic effort, Therese proposed to be carried up the mountain by the love of the Lord. The soul that has become small and trusting is the soul that the Lord can lift. "I am too small to climb the rough stairway of perfection... I sought, then, in the Sacred Scriptures some indication of an elevator that would raise me to Jesus, for I am too little to climb the rough stairway of perfection. The arms of Jesus are this elevator: it is enough for me to lift my eyes."²

The Catechism of the Catholic Church cites Therese in paragraphs 127, 826, 956, 957, 2011, 2558. Pope Saint John Paul II, in declaring her Doctor of the Church on 19 October 1997, called her Doctor of the Science of Divine Love. Her theology of the Little Way has shaped the modern Catholic spiritual life as deeply as any twentieth-century theological development.

Pairing with other prayers

The Saint Therese Novena is paired with:

• The Holy Rosary, which Therese prayed daily.
• The Surrender Novena of Don Dolindo Ruotolo, which shares Therese's spirituality of trust.
• The Memorare.
• The Litany of the Little Flower (a traditional Catholic litany composed in the 1920s).

For the saint herself, see Saint Therese of Lisieux. For broader theological context, see the Communion of Saints.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Saint Therese of Lisieux, Histoire d'une Âme (Story of a Soul, composed 1894-1897, published 1898). The standard English translation is by John Clarke, OCD, Story of a Soul (1976). The promises about heaven and the shower of roses are recorded in the Derniers Entretiens (Last Conversations, 1897), the records kept by her sister Mother Agnes of Jesus during Therese's final months. Catholic Encyclopedia entries on Therese were published after her canonization in 1925. ↩

2. Saint Therese of Lisieux, Story of a Soul, chapter 9, on the Little Way. Pope Saint John Paul II, Divini Amoris Scientia (apostolic letter, 19 October 1997), declaring Therese a Doctor of the Church. Available at vatican.va. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 127, 826, 956, 957, 2011, 2558. Available at vatican.va. ↩