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OCD |
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St Thereses Parents |
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Curia OCD
ROMA (01-06-2008).- The 150th anniversary of the wedding of Louis Martin and Celia Guerin, the blessed parents of our holy sister from Lisieux, will be celebrated on July 13. Celebrations have been prepared in Alencon and in Lisieux for July 12 & 13. Presiding at these will be Cardinal Saraiva Martins, the Prefect for the Congregation of the Causes of Saints. We hope that they will be beatified during this commemorative year. On March 26, 1994 Pope John Paul II proclaimed their virtues to be heroic. On January 17, 2008 the medical panel at the Vatican declared the healing of Peter Schiliro an inexplicable cure, after his parents invoked the intercession of the Martin couple. Mr Mrs Schiliro, whose baby was born in May 2002 in Monza, Italy, with only partial lungs, something grave and incurable. The miracle was considered valid for the beatification of Thereses parents.
Celia Guerin died in Alencon in 1877, at the age of 46. Louis Martin died aged 71 in 1894 in La Musse castle. With the publication of the correspondence of Louis and Celia it was discovered just how christian their daily lives were. In 1957 a separate inquiry began for each in view of a canonical process for their beatification. On October 13, 1958 their mortal remains were placet together in a tomb behind the basilica in Lisieux, in the open air, close to the way of the cross. Now, in view of their proximate beatification they are preparing to move their bodies to the crypt in the basilica.
Their mortal remains have already been carefully exhumed in the month of May. Three doctors verified that the bones were actually theirs, in the presence of 10 invited guests, among them two of the Carmelite nuns and the photographer who were present at the first exhumation in 1958. Meanwhile they are preparing the 1.2 metre long and 60 cms high copper reliquary in Verona (Italy). The artist was inspired by Thereses floral decoration on a chasible: precisely two roses that represent her two parents, with five fully open lilies (the five sisters) and four budding lilies (the four children who died). The reliquary will be deposited in September in the crypt of the basilica. Perhaps by then the date of the beatification will be made known.
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