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WorkThérèse of Lisieux

Story of a Soul

A young nun's case that anyone too small to climb toward holiness can be carried there instead.

by Thérèse of Lisieux545 passages held

  • French, the original language
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Original title
Histoire d'une âme
First published
(published posthumously)
Original language
French

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Overview

A young Carmelite nun wrote this book in notebooks addressed to women of her own convent. Its claim is that holiness does not depend on great deeds or heroic penance. Thérèse of Lisieux compared herself with the saints and saw the distance between a mountain and a grain of sand; rather than climb what she called the rough stairway of perfection, she went looking for a lift, and found it in the arms of Christ, who carries anyone who stays small. Love and trust in the smallest daily duty were enough, and she offered this little way to every soul that felt as weak as she did. In one of the letters printed with it, to a seminarian bound for the missions whom she prayed for, she set the same lift against a stairway of fear. The book was assembled from three manuscripts: one written in 1895 for her sister Pauline, one in September 1896 for her eldest sister Marie, and one in June and July 1897, while she was dying of tuberculosis, for her prioress, Mother Marie de Gonzague. The last describes how, from Easter 1896, the thought of heaven brought her only darkness. She died in September 1897, at twenty-four. Pauline, known in the convent as Mother Agnès of Jesus, then merged the manuscripts, addressed them all to one prioress, and corrected and cut the text, partly on the advice of the censor, Father Godefroid Madelaine. In October 1898 the book was printed in 2,000 copies and sent first to 121 Carmelite convents in France and 18 abroad, as the circular that normally announced a nun's death. English and German translations appeared in 1901, and by 1911 about 100,000 copies had been printed. The Church canonised her in 1925 and named her a Doctor of the Church in 1997. At the request of Pope Pius XII, the manuscripts themselves were published in facsimile in 1956, and readers could see for the first time how much of the familiar text was Pauline's.

Key concepts

What is the little way in Story of a Soul?

A road to holiness for people too small to climb toward it. Beside the saints, Thérèse saw herself as a grain of sand beside a mountain. Rather than try to grow bigger, she chose to stay small and be carried: to trust God, and to do the smallest daily duty out of love. She offered this way to every 'little soul' who felt as weak as she did.

What does it mean to offer oneself to merciful love?

It means asking to receive God's love rather than to pay for other people's sins. In 1895 Thérèse thought of souls who offered themselves as victims to God's justice, taking on the punishments due to sinners. She found that generous but not hers. Instead she offered herself to his merciful love, which she believed was held back for want of people willing to receive it, and asked him not to count her works.

What does Thérèse mean by throwing flowers?

It is her name for proving love through the smallest acts. Unable to do great deeds, she resolved to let no small sacrifice, glance or word go to waste, and to do even the least action for love, as a child scatters petals before a throne. The flowers are what a small soul still has to give once it has stopped trying to climb: nothing impressive, but nothing wasted either.

What is the trial of faith Thérèse describes?

A darkness that fell over her hope of heaven from Easter 1896. Heaven, her joy since childhood, became something she could no longer feel, and a mocking inner voice told her death would bring only nothingness. She went on believing without the feeling, and offered the darkness for people who had no faith, as if sharing their table. The trial is not doubt argued through but a night endured.

Why does Thérèse call herself a little flower?

Because she believed small souls have their own place in God's garden. Looking at nature, she saw that the rose and the lily take nothing from the violet or the daisy, and that a field of nothing but roses would lose its beauty. Great saints are the lilies and roses, smaller souls the daisies and violets, and each is perfect by gladly doing God's will. She tells her life as the story of that little flower.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

A lift for the small

What becomes of the call to holiness for someone who sees a grain of sand beside the saints' mountain? The answer here is to stop climbing and let oneself be carried.

Measured against the saints, Thérèse found herself too small for what she called the rough stairway of perfection, and she refused to give up on holiness for that. In an age of inventions, she reasoned, the rich no longer climb stairs but take a lift. Hers was the arms of Jesus, and the one condition for riding it was to stay small: to trust rather than pile up merit. The same thought shapes her offering of 1895, made to God's merciful love rather than to his justice, and her wish to come before him with empty hands.

  • humility
  • trust
  • divine love
  • divine mercy
  • grace
  • divine grace
  • childhood
  • hope
  • salvation

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Love at the heart of the Church

How can a nun who will never preach, travel or die a martyr share in the work of the whole Church? Her answer is love spent on the smallest acts.

Charity entered her heart, Thérèse writes, on Christmas night 1886, together with the need to forget herself, and her first soul to win was Pranzini, a murderer condemned to death. In Carmel she wanted every vocation at once, priest, apostle and martyr among them, until she found her place: in the heart of the Church she would be love, and so be everything. What that love looked like was modest. A smile for a sister who grated on her, no small sacrifice let slip, prayer for two missionaries she took as brothers.

  • charity
  • love
  • sacrifice
  • religious vocation
  • vocation
  • prayer
  • martyrdom
  • forgiveness
  • religious life

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A wall up to heaven

What is left of faith when the heaven a person has longed for since childhood becomes a source of darkness? The book stays inside that night instead of explaining it away.

From Easter 1896 the thought of heaven, her joy since early childhood, brought Thérèse only darkness, and a mocking voice promised her the night of nothingness after death. Faith was no longer a veil, she wrote, but a wall rising to the heavens, and when she sang of heaven she sang only what she wanted to believe. She did not argue her way out. She pictured herself born in a land of fog, took her seat at the bitter table of those without faith, and asked to stay there for their sake as long as God wished.

  • suffering
  • faith
  • death
  • heaven
  • divine providence
  • obedience
  • religious experience
  • devotion

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Within this work

passages held
545
distinct concepts
561
by passages held, corpus-wide
#133

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “faith” and “suffering”.
Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 8 concepts, joined by 28 pairings. 80 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
ConceptPaired conceptShared passages
faithsuffering21
lovesuffering18
divine lovesuffering14
religious vocationsuffering11
devotionsuffering10
divine lovehumility10
humilityreligious vocation10
devotiondivine love9
humilitylove8
humilitysuffering8
prayerreligious vocation8
prayersuffering8
devotionhumility7
faithprayer7
devotionlove5
devotionprayer5
divine loveprayer5
faithhumility5
lovereligious vocation5
humilityprayer4
faithlove3
faithreligious vocation3
divine lovefaith2
divine lovereligious vocation2
loveprayer2
devotionfaith1
devotionreligious vocation1
divine lovelove1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

  1. 1898 Story of a Soul (Histoire d'une âme) you are here FR
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