Saint Therese the Little Flower: The Making of a Saint

She lived 24 years and was an obscure nun for nine of those. She died in 1897 and was canonized in 1925. Yet she is known the world over by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Her statue soon appeared in most Catholic churches in the world. With St. Joan of Arc, she shares the title "Patroness of France" and with St. Francis Xavier the honor of "Principal Patroness of all Missionaries." Her devotees acknowledge her as a second St. Jude in her powerful intercession with God. Her appeal is universal-from peasants to Popes-and people of all stations know her and call upon her for help. What factors conspired to shape St. Therese of the Child Jesus? John Beevers addresses himself to this question in The Making of a Saint. As author of an earlier biography, The Storm of Glory, and as translator of her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, he brings to his task an authority on her life unsurpassed perhaps by any writer in English. The story of this life is a marvel-a miracle-of divine grace. For the life of St. Therese is the lesson to all men of spiritual greatness to be achieved by perfect love of God and total consecration of all our actions, even the smallest, to His greater honor and glory.

John Beevers was an English author of the twentieth century, born in 1912 at Yorkshire. In the 1930s he started a career in journalism with the Manchester Daily Dispatch, before joining the B.B.C. in 1941. He remained there until 1969, eventually becoming an executive. He spent his spare time writing books, comprised mostly of saint biographies and translations of French spiritual works, including Storm of Glory, Saint Therese: The Little Flower, and Virgin of the Poor. He died on the thirteenth of September, 1975, and was survived by his wife, daughter and two grandchildren.