For one hundred years, St Therese Church of the Child Jesus on Donore Avenue has stood on the basis of hope and faith guided by the little way of their patron saint, St Thérèse of Lisieux. As parishioners gathered on the centenary day of May 16 for a beautiful celebratory Mass, they honoured the generations of worshippers whose faith was shaped in its walls through the little way.
St Thérèse of Lisieux, often known affectionately as the ‘Little Flower’ is the patron saint of the parish and imbedded into the lifeblood of the church. In conversation with The Irish Catholic, Fr David Corrigan, PP of St Therese Church of the Child Jesus said, “She’s hugely popular here. There is the triduum to St Thérèse every year, through September 29-30 and our feast the first of October… there is Mass each night and then we get a speaker to come in. This year, there’s a Carmelite priest coming; last year a Carmelite sister came from one of the enclosed sisters’ conferences in Roebooks, Sr Teresita.”
Life
St Thérèse was a French Carmelite nun, widely popular and venerated as a modern saint. Born in January 1873, St Thérèse was the youngest of five daughters and from an early age had a strong pull towards religious life. When she was just nine years old, her oldest sister Pauline joined the Carmelite convent in Lisieux, where Thérèse would eventually follow.
St Thérèse’s enthusiasm for religious lifewas so strong that on a pilgrimage to Rome at the young age of 15, she asked Pope Leo XIII to give her permission to enter the Carmelite convent. By April of the following year, she entered and became a Carmelite postulant.
Around the age of 19, Thérèse began a written chronicle of her childhood memories which she continued over the next few years, completing a full manuscript by 23. That year’s Holy Week, Thérèse began coughing up blood, a sure sign of tuberculosis. Through her struggle with sickness, she wrote further about her spirituality, which would become her ‘Little Way.’ On September 30 of 1897 Thérèse passed away at the young age of 24.
This dedication reflected a new and topical devotional movement in the country”
28 years after her death, Thérèse was canonised as a saint, with the Donore Avenue parish being dedicated to her the following calendar year. Fr Alois Greiler, author of A Guide to the Roman Catholic Church of St Teresa of the Child Jesus, which was published in 2020, commented on this quick dedication, saying, “The significance of opening a church to a newly canonised saint: In a way, that is a risk. Catholics are normally the type of people that prefer tradition. However, in this way, the church becomes something unique: I read [that] Donore was the first church in the world dedicated to St Teresa. This dedication reflected a new and topical devotional movement in the country.”
Focus
St Thérèse’s Little Way theology focuses on the idea that spiritual and religious life is led by the seeking of doing ordinary things with extraordinary love. In her autobiography, Thérèse wrote, “I concluded that God would not inspire desires which could not be realised, and that I may aspire to sanctity in spite of my littleness. For me to become feat is impossible. I must bear with myself and my many imperfections; but I will seek out a means of getting to Heaven by a little way – very short and very straight, a little way this is wholly new.”
The area around the church is also deeply rooted in St Thérèse’s Little Way”
Throughout the Donore Avenue parish, on every singular windowsill, is a different picture of St Thérèse and a quote from her, physically spreading the word of her little way and including it naturally into the church. Besides having a very present spiritual presence, St Thérèse is incredibly physically present within the church.
A shrine to St Thérèse resides towards the back of the church, with a prayer to the Little Flower on display. In addition to this carefully maintained ornate display, St Thérèse was added into the stained-glass windows behind the altar of the church. A beautiful piece of the church, as called by Fr Corrigan, St Thérèse is represented in the central window of the intricate stained-glass work, situating her directly in the Holy Family.
“They were clear glass windows when the church was built,” said Fr Corrigan. “When they were put in, the bottom of the middle one is St Thérèse, then Christ and Mary and Joseph.”
The area around the church is also deeply rooted in St Thérèse’s Little Way. “The famous social housing area of solid build was named after her – St Teresa’s Gardens. The people respected a statue of the saint among their houses…St Teresa’s Gardens of course developed a certain fame in Dublin and Ireland – one of the first places to be badly hit by drugs…the name gave them an identity. People who were born there and later left usually want to come back for their funeral. The parish itself established the Triduum to the saint and the blessing at the end with her relic,” said Fr Greiler.
Devotion
The devotion to the saints tends to generally be less than it was 150 years ago, Fr Greiler remarked, so the dedication to St Thérèse is admirable by the church. “The name and the lovely personality of the young saint give identity and warmth and a feeling for and with the local church. The area, now gentrified, was then an area of workers and families. They would understand the little way of doing good things faithfully very well.”
The Irish soldiers active in WWI brought back the devotion to
the saint”
The Donore Avenue parish was the first church in the world to be dedicated to St Thérèse and the reason for this is debated. Fr Greiler commented, “I could not find a written argument in the archives. In my book I build on two facts: Donore Avenue was part of Meath Street Parish. Their parish priest had a great devotion for St Teresa. The Irish soldiers active in WWI brought back the devotion to the saint.”
Regardless of how the dedication came to be, St Thérèse and her Little Way continue to be celebrated and practiced within the church, influencing the lives of generations of Mass goers.