12 Juli 2025 - Sts. Louis Martin and Marie Azélie Guérin
Spouses — Optional Memorial
Louis Martin was born in Bordeaux on 22 August 1823. A clockmaker in Alençon, he met Marie-Azélie (Zélie) Guérin, a lacemaker, born in Gandelain on 23 December 1831. Their marriage, celebrated on 13 July 1858, gave birth to nine children, including the future Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, but four died in infancy. Exemplary spouses, exemplary parents, entrepreneurs, caring for the poor, driven by a missionary spirit, the Martin couple drew their strength from frequenting the Eucharist and a deep Marian devotion. After a long illness, Zélie died in Alençon on 28 August 1877. Louis moved to Lisieux to ensure a better life for his five daughters, four of whom entered the Carmelite Order and one the Visitation Order. After offering all his daughters to God, this loving father experienced suffering and illness. He died near Évreux on 29 July 1894.
13 Juli 2025 - St. Teresa of Jesus (Fernández Solar)
Virgin — Memorial
🇨🇱 In Chile: Feast
Juanita Fernández Solar was born at Santiago, Chile, on July 13, 1900. From her adolescence she was devoted to Christ. She entered the monastery of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns at Los Andes on May 7, 1919, where she was given the name of Teresa of Jesus. She died on April 12 of the following year after having made her religious profession. She was beatified by John Paul II on April 3, 1987, at Santiago, Chile, and proposed as a model for young people. She is the first Chilean and the first member of the Teresian Carmel in Latin America to be canonized.
16 Juli 2025 - BLESSED VIRGIN MARY OF MOUNT CARMEL
PATRONESS AND HEAD OF OUR ORDER — SOLEMNITY
The sacred scriptures speak of the beauty of Mount Carmel where the prophet Elijah defended the faith of Israel in the living God. There, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, under the title of Saint Mary of Mount Carmel, the Order of Carmelites had its formal beginning. From the fourteenth century this title, recalling the countless blessings of its patroness, began to be celebrated solemnly, first in England and then gradually throughout the whole Order. It attained its supreme place from the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the General Chapter declared it to be the principal feast of the Order, and Paul V recognized it as the feast of the Scapular Confraternity.
17 Juli 2025 - Bl. Teresa of St. Augustine (Lidoine) and Companions
Virgins and Martyrs — Optional Memorial
🇫🇷 In France: Memorial
As the French Revolution entered its worst days, sixteen Discalced Carmelites from the Monastery of the Incarnation in Compiègne offered their lives as a sacrifice to God, making reparation to him and imploring peace for the Church. On June 24, 1794, they were arrested and thrown into prison. Their happiness and resignation were so evident that those around them were also encouraged to draw strength from God’s love. They were condemned to death for their fidelity to the Church and their religious life and for their devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Singing hymns, and having renewed their vows before the superior, Teresa of St Augustine, they were put to death in Paris on July 17, 1794.
The prophet Elijah appears in Scripture as a man of God who lived always in his presence and fought zealously for the worship of the one true God. He defended God’s law in a solemn contest on Mount Carmel, and afterwards was given on Mount Horeb an intimate experience of the living God. The inspiration that was found in him from the very beginnings of the Order so pervades its whole history that the prophet may deservedly be called the founder of the Carmelite ideal.
23 Juli 2025 - Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Divine Grace
Memorial
🇪🇺 In Europe: Memorial transferred to July 7
The Blessed Virgin Mary was eternally predestined, in the context of the incarnation of the divine Word, to be Mother of God. As decreed by divine Providence, she served on earth as the loving Mother of the divine Redeemer, his associate, uniquely generous, and the Lord’s humble servant. She conceived, bore, and nourished Christ; presented him to the Father in the Temple; and was united with him in his suffering as he died on the cross. In a completely unparalleled way she cooperated, by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity, with our Savior’s work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is Mother to us all in the order of grace (Lumen gentium, 61).
24 Juli 2025 - Bls. Maria Pilar of St. Francis Borgia Martínez García, Maria Sagrario of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Moragas Cantarero and Companions
Virgins and Martyrs — Optional Memorial
In a single memorial, we commemorate our sisters who were martyred during the Spanish Civil War that raged from 1936 to 1939. In particular: Maria Pilar of St Francis Borgia (Jacoba Martínez García born in Tarazona on 30 December 1877), Teresa of the Child Jesus and St John of the Cross (Eusebia García y García born in Mochales on 5 March 1909), Maria Angeles of St Joseph (Marciana Valtierra Tordesillas born in Getafe on 6 March 1905), Discalced Carmelite nuns from the Monastery of Guadalajara (Spain), were martyred on 24 July 1936 and beatified by John Paul II in 1987. Maria Sagrario of St. Aloysius Gonzaga (Elvira Moragas Cantarero) was born in Lillo (Toledo) on 8 January 1881. One of the first women pharmacists in Spain, she entered the Carmelite Order in Madrid in 1915. By her spirit of prayer and her love for the Eucharist she embodied the ideal of the Teresian Carmel. On 15 August 1936 she suffered the martyrdom that she so desired.
John Soreth was born at Caen in Normandy and entered Carmel as a young man. He took a doctorate of theology in Paris and served as regent of studies and provincial of his province. He was prior general from 1451 until his death at Angers in 1471. He restored observance within the Order and promoted its reform, wrote a famous commentary on the Rule, issued new Constitutions in 1462, and promoted the growth of the nuns and the Third Order.
Sts. Louis Martin and Marie Azélie Guérin
