Popularly known today as “the Little Flower,” Thérèse Martin was born in Alencon in France in 1873. Whilst still young she entered the Discalced Carmel of Lisieux, where she lived in the greatest humility and evangelical simplicity and confidence in God. By word and example she taught the novices these same virtues. Offering her life for the salvation of souls and the spread of the Church, she died after a long and painful illness on September 30th 1897. She was canonized in 1925 and successive popes have referred to her as “the greatest saint of modern times.” She was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1997. She is co-patroness of the Missions and secondary patron of France.