Basilica · Other

Basilica of Sainte-Thérèse de Lisieux

Lisieux, France

"The Basilica of Sainte-Thérèse in Lisieux, Normandy, is France's second most visited pilgrimage site after ..."

Highlights

1One of only 37 Doctors of the Church — and one of only four women to hold this title
2France's second most visited pilgrimage site after Lourdes — approximately 2 million visitors per year Thérèse died at 24 years old, having entered religious life at 15 — one of the youngest Doctors of the Church The Story of a Soul, her autobiography, has been translated into over 60 languages Her reliquary tours the world — drawing millions who cannot come to Lisieux itself

Getting There

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Address

33 Rue du Carmel, 14100 Lisieux, Normandy, France

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Directions

Lisieux is 2 hours from Paris by train (Paris Saint-Lazare via Caen). By car: A13 motorway from Paris, 2 hours. The basilica is on a hill 20 minutes walk from Lisieux station or 5 minutes by taxi.

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Timings

Current time — Paris Time (CET)

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When	Hours	Note
Basilica	8:00 AM - 7:30 PM

Masses & Events

Daily Mass

Various times from 7:00 AM

In the crypt and upper basilica Feast of St Thérèse: October 1, Solemn Pontifical Mass — The principal feast; pilgrims from France and worldwide Novena to St Thérèse: September 23 - October 1 — The annual novena leading to the feast

Must See

The Crypt Church

Lower level, beneath the main basilica The crypt contains the main pilgrimage altars and the intimate devotional spaces where pilgrims most commonly kneel.

The atmosphere is different from the grand upper basilica

lower, warmer, more personal. This is where the devotion of Lisieux is most concentrated. The Reliquary of St Thérèse

In the basilica and at the Carmel Thérèse's remains are distributed between the basilica and the Carmel of Lisieux. A golden reliquary contains bones; another reliquary the arm.

The reliquary is taken on world tours

it has visited nearly every continent, drawing massive crowds in countries from India to the USA.

The Carmel of Lisieux

350 metres from the basilica The Carmelite convent where Thérèse lived for nine years is open to pilgrims. Her cell, the chapel where she prayed, and the cloister where she walked are preserved.

The atmosphere of a Carmelite enclosure

silence, simplicity, prayer

communicates exactly what the Little Way is about. The Martin Family Home (Les Buissonnets) — In Lisieux town The bourgeois family home where Thérèse spent her childhood, now a museum, is well worth visiting before the basilica. Understanding the entirely ordinary world from which she came makes the extraordinary quality of her holiness more comprehensible.

The Normandy Setting

Hills around Lisieux [OUTDOOR] The basilica stands on a hill above the Normandy town, its domes visible for kilometres across the rolling countryside.

The Normandy landscape

green, gentle, damp

was the world Thérèse knew, and its ordinariness is the setting of the extraordinary story. Walking the hill to the basilica across the Normandy fields is a gentle pilgrimage in itself.

Intentions

Carry these intentions into the Basilica with you — pause at each sacred spot and lift them to God.

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For those who feel too ordinary, too small, too ordinary for God to notice

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For the young and for those who die young

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For people living hidden, unglamorous lives of faithfulness

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For the sick — particularly those dying of lung conditions

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For writers and those who communicate the inner life

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For those who struggle to pray — that small prayers done with love are enough

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For missionaries in difficult places, who Thérèse called herself despite never leaving France

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For all who have been surprised to find that holiness was available right where they were

Reflection

Thérèse Martin entered a Carmelite convent at 15, got sick at 22, and died at 24, having never left Lisieux. She wrote her autobiography in between bouts of tuberculosis, on the instruction of her prioress, with a stub of pencil in failing hands. After her death, her sisters almost didn't bother to print it. The book has since been translated into 60 languages. She is a Doctor of the Church. This is the Little Way: small things done with great love are the most powerful things in the world.

Suggested Scripture — Zechariah 4:10

Who dares despise the day of small things?

Read in full on Bible Gateway →

A Pilgrim's Prayer

St Thérèse, Little Flower, you died at 24 having never done anything the world would call impressive. And yet you promised: I will spend my heaven doing good on earth; I will let fall a shower of roses. I am looking for a rose. Not a sign or a miracle — just one small thing, in my ordinary day, that tells me God is near. I trust the Little Way. Help me walk it. Amen.

The Basilica of Sainte-Thérèse in Lisieux, Normandy, is France’s second most visited pilgrimage site after Lourdes, receiving approximately two million pilgrims per year. It is dedicated to Thérèse Martin — St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the Little Flower — who was born in Lisieux in 1873, entered the Carmelite convent at 15, died of tuberculosis at 24, and was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope John Paul II in 1997, one of only 37 in Catholic history and one of only four women.

The Little Way

Thérèse’s spiritual teaching — the Little Way — is among the most influential in modern Catholic spirituality. It holds that holiness is available to ordinary people in the ordinary events of daily life, through small acts done with great love. Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul (published posthumously), has been translated into 60 languages and is among the most widely read Catholic books of the 20th century.

The Basilica and the Carmel

The Romano-Byzantine basilica, begun in 1929 and consecrated in 1954, stands on a hill above the town, its domes visible from the surrounding Normandy countryside. The lower crypt church contains the main pilgrimage altars. The Carmel of Lisieux — the convent where Thérèse spent nine years — is a few hundred metres away, with her cell preserved, and her relics are in a golden reliquary there and in the basilica.