Relics of St Thérése and parents coming to Derry

The relics of Saints Louis and Zélie Martin, will be arriving at the Cathdedral on Tuesday, August 14 at 11.00 am and the relics of all three saints will be available for Veneration until 6.00 p.m.

Following on from this, Veneration will continue from 7.00 p.m. in the Carmelite Retreat Centre, Termonbacca, where they will repose overnight before the journey to Sligo at 8.30 a.m.

The special visit of the family relics comes ahead of Ireland hosting the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, which will be attended by Pope Francis, later this month.

Thousands of local people will be travelling to Dublin and Knock for the celebrations, which will continue from August 21 through to August 26.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, also known as ‘The Little Flower’ or ‘Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face,’ was a French Carmelite nun who is widely venerated today.

She became a nun aged just 15 in 1888 following in the footsteps of two of her sisters at the cloistered Carmelite Community of Lisieux, Normandy.

After nine years as a Carmelite religious she died aged 24 from Tuberculosis on September 30, 1897. After her death she became famous for her ‘Little Way.’

In recent times, Pope Francis canonised her parents and they were the first spouses in the history of the Church to be canonised as a couple.