Saints Louis and Zelie Martin

Summary:

Louis Martin was born on August 22, 1823, in Bordeaux, France. His first wish was to become a monk at the Augustinian Great Saint Bernard monastery, but was rejected because he was not able to properly learn Latin. He then turned to the watchmaking trade. After three years in Paris, he opened a watch and jewellery shop on rue du Pont Neuf in Alençon. He also had his elderly parents and an orphan nephew move in with him. A man with a strong faith, he attended Sunday and weekday masses, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, pilgrimages, as well as social functions. With a quiet and reflective personality, he was still single at 35, much to his mother's chagrin, until Zelie and he saw each other for the first time on the Sarthe River bridge in Alençon, a meeting that marked a turning point in their life. The pair married on July 13, 1858, at Our Lady's church in Alençon (note: they had their required civil mariage at 10pm on July 12, followed by a religious ceremony at midnight - so technically on July 13, even though their feast day is fixed on July 12).

Azélie-Marie Guérin, later known as Zelie, was born on December 23, 1831 in Gandelain, a village in north-western France (Orne department). She had an older sister, Marie-Louise, and a younger brother, Isidore, ten years her junior. Her parents moved to Alençon when she was 12. Zelie had a difficult relationship with her mother. Her austere upbringing made her scrupulous, as was often the case in her day. She aspired to holiness from an early age, even thinking of becoming a nun at the Hôtel-Dieu in Alençon, but the superior dissuaded her, probably on account of her chronic headaches. She became a highly-skilled lacemaker, specialized in Alençon stitch, opening a shop at the age of 22 with her sister, who left her to enter the Visitandine convent in Le Mans under the name of Sister Marie-Dosithée. Zelie married Louis when she was 27.

In the Martin family, God was the center of everything. They trusted in His Providence and surrendered to His will in the smallest details. Everything was an occasion for prayer, especially the special feasts, fasts, and seasons of the liturgical year. The Holy Family of Nazareth served as their model and God's love was the glue of their family. 

Despite multiple pregnancies and the onset of breast cancer in 1863, Zelie had a lot of energy; she employed up to twenty workers in her business. Louis sold his watchmaking business and helped his wife run the lacemaking business. Therese was born on January 2, 1873, but she was soon put into foster care because her health was failing. Then she lost her mother to breast cancer on August 28, 1877. After nineteen years of marriage, the widowed Louis moved to Lisieux with his daughters.

Later, if Therese spoke so much of the Father's mercy, it is because she had a model in her life. At 55, Louis Martin could almost have been her grandfather. She wrote in her autobiography The Story of a Soul that she "only had to look at him to know how the saints pray" (Manuscript A 18r). Compensating for the absence of her mother, he was, in his own way, the head of a single-parent family. Although he was a contemplative at heart, he maintained a lively social life in Alençon, especially at the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Conference and in Catholic Worker circles.

In the Martin family, we find these two poles: solitude and solidarity. Solitude, because of their vocation to follow Christ and their unique response to this call; solidarity, which takes the form of selfless mutual help and support. Solitude, because of Zelie's death; solidarity, because Louis would not stand in the way of his daughters' vocation to the religious life. He himself offered himself totally to God, welcoming the ordeal as a grace.

In May 1888, cerebral arteriosclerosis plunged Louis into fits of delirium and his health deteriorated. He experienced the great humiliation of losing his mind. He was locked up in an asylum, "with the lunatics", as people referred to mentally ill patients at the time, but he accepted everything for the greater glory of God. He spent three years in a psychiatric hospital, which did not prevent him from living his faith and wanting to love to the end, following Christ. He was discharged in 1892, but could no longer walk or talk. He died peacefully on July 29, 1894.

By canonizing Louis and Zelie Martin, the Church is giving them as a model of lay people committed to their faith, who lived the Gospel of Christ through the vocation of marriage day by day. In the homily at their canonization on October 18, 2015, Pope Francis explained that marriage and family life form a path to holiness that is just as effective as religious life: "The holy couple of Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin lived Christian service in the family, building day by day an atmosphere full of faith and love."  

Their liturgical feast day in the calendar of saints is July 12, the anniversary date of their marriage.

Beyond reasons to believe:

Louis and Zélie Martin took their universal vocation to holiness seriously, putting God first in their home, serving him in fervent prayer and service to the poor. They didn't have worldly ambitions, but wanted to love God and neighbor perfectly and become saints. Christ doesn't call us to be "above all", but to serve all, by overcoming our selfishness, which locks us into indifference. This is how the Martin parents raised their children.

Going further:

• "Louis and Zelie Martin: A marriage of love," by Guy Gaucher,  O.C.D., auxiliary bishop emeritus of Bayeux and Lisieux - a translation of the article that appeared in Feu et Lumiere, July/August 2004. 

More information:

• "The Parents of St. Therese" by Fr. James Geoghegan, O.C.D  An eight-page conference from "Proceedings of the Second Regional Congress, Discalced Carmelite Third Order."  San Francisco, 1974, pp. 21-31.
• Brochure about Louis and Zelie Martin, illustrated with photographs, courtesy of the Irish National Office for St. Therese.  It contains short lives of Therese's mother and father by Christine Frost; "History of a Cure," details of the miracle certified by Pope Benedict XVI on July 3, 2008; an article by Rev. J. Linus Ryan, O. Carm.  Thanks to the Internet Archive
• "Louis and Zelie Martin: An example of a Christian family Interpreted according to Pope John Paul II's Letter to Families"  A spiritual newsletter published by St. Joseph de Clairval Abbey in Flavigny
• "A House of Love: Louis and Zelie Martin" An eight-minute film showing their Alencon home as it appeared before its renovation.