Blessed Feast Day of Saints Louis and Zelie Martin!  The parents of St. Therese of Lisieux. 

July 12th, is the day Louis and Zelie Martin got married. Both Louis and Zelie Martin discerned the religious life before they met and got married in 1858. They had 9 children, only five of which survived. St. Zelie Martin wrote, “I love children madly. I was born to have them.” Zelie Martin passed away in 1877 from breast cancer. Their five daughters all entered the convent, including St. Therese of Lisieux. Louis Martin wrote, “It is a great, great honor for me that the Good Lord desires to take all of my children. If I had anything better, I would not hesitate to offer it to him.” How beautiful is it that a loving couple who both discerned the religious life would have their five children enter the religious life. St. Louis Martin passed away in 1894. 

St. Therese wrote, “The good God gave me a father and a mother more worthy of heaven than of earth.”

Saints Louis and Zelie Martin are the patron saints of illness, marriage, parenting, and widowers. 

Saints Louis and Zelie Martin, Pray for Us!