St. Thérèse, often called the Little Flower, was born in Normandy, France, in 1873. She was the youngest of the five daughters born to Louis and Zelie Martin. Thérèse was a very lively, lovable little girl. It was Thérèse’s great desire to enter the Carmelite convent where two of her sisters were already nuns. But since she was only fifteen, permission was not granted. She kept praying and asking the prioress to admit her. She even dared, on a trip to Rome, to ask Pope Leo XIII himself to grant her heart’s desire. And finally she was allowed to enter.
