www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Saints in the Byzantine Catholic Church

Well she was not Byzantine, so she is not a Byzantine saint. However, she is a saint of the whole Church and therefore she inspires us all regardless of where we slot into the Church.

ICXC
NIKA

She is also the Patron Saint for the Russicum in Rome. The chapel there is dedicated to her honor.

My sense is that she has a special connection to and solicitude for all Eastern Catholics and that she is certainly worthy of our devotion and honor. I seem to recall an excellent article in the Eastern Churches Journal on her spirituality of the Little Way and its relationship to Eastern Christian spirituality. (I cannot quite recall the issue.) It is well worth reading.

To me, this is one of the strengths of being fully Eastern and fully Catholic. There are a whole host of saints - of Eastern and Western heritages - that we can come to for prayer and look to as explars of holiness. According to our Byzantine tradition, each saint is a "revelation of God", so Therese's designation as a "word of God" is not too far removed from our understanding.

My family and I have a real devotion to the Little Flower - my daughter especially. She joined a "Little Flowers" club last year before our move.

You might consider picking up a copy of this book The Story of a Family [tanbooks.com] which chronicles the life of the martin family. It is a beautiful and detailed tribute to the Martin family, who first practiced the 'Little Way" of spiritual childhood, and, as is evidenced by her spiritual autobiography, were extremely influential in her spirituality throughout her earthly life. Any Christian family - Eastern or western, Orthodox or Catholic - could benefit from reading about and following the example of the Martins.

God bless,

Gordo

In her book, "Light Before Dusk: A Russian Catholic in France", the late Helen Isowolsky talks about devotion to Saint Therese among Russian Orthodox Christians in the chapter titled, "My Orthodox Friends".

She writes:

"I was interested to discover that my visitor[a Russian neighbor -g.c.] had a special devotion to St Theresa. She had even witnessed a miraculous cure while nursing a sick child in a French family. After our first talk she came to see me often and borrowed books from me. She was especially attracted by the life of little St. Theresa, by the writings of St. Theresa of Avila, and by Father Bruno's voluminous work on St. John of the Cross. When she returned this book to me, I was distressed to find it in a damaged condition; the cover was torn, the pages crumpled. I later learned she had lent the book to a number of friends, and to a man sick in the hospital. "I was advised to do so by Father T.," she explained to me, naming a well-known Orthodox priest. "He said it would bring comfort to the invalid."

"This is a good example of the interest by the Orthodox in Catholic books. I believe these books are exercising a considerable influence on Russian religious thought, as through them many Russian emigres have become acquainted with the great Catholic mystics and saints."

"Among these saints, St. Theresa of Lisieux is perhaps the most popular. It is not only her writings, but her entire personality which attracts the Orthodox. Her picture is often to be found in their homes, piously placed beside the family icons. St. Theresa is said to have performed many miracles for the Russians, as if fulfilling the wishes of Pope Pius XI who chose her as the patron saint of suffering Russia. She
has been known to help refugees find jobs and to bring them unexpected sums of money when they are hard up. There is even the story of the Russian taxi-driver who ran short of gasoline on a lonely road, and after praying to St. Theresa found his tank miraculously filled."

"I remember a priest who knew the Russians well complaining that they were always pressing St. Theresa for help. These prayers, he said, too often asked for temporal benefits and not for spiritual blessings. "And unfortunately," he added, "she always grants their prayers." I was asked by Father Bruno, editor of "Etudes Carmelitaines", to make an inquiry concerning devotion of Russians to St. Theresa. I visited many of my Orthodox friends and wrote to others about it. They readily answered my questions, and were pleased that an important Catholic review took interest in their religious sentiments."

"Most of them declared that the "Little Way" of St. Theresa and her "Spiritual Childhood" appealed to Russian piety. It reminded them of their beloved Saint Seraphim who also preached the little way of humility."

"While making my inquiry I visited the well-known Russian poetess and author, Zinaida Hippius, the wife of the late writer Merejkovsky.
...the poems which she had dedicated to little St. Theresa are not only beautiful but of admirable simplicity. I spent hours talking to her, and she told me of her pilgrimages to Lisieux."

"I published translations of Zinaida Hippius' poems
in the "Etudes Carmelitaines", as well as many testimonials and letters from my other Orthodox friends. These testimonials were of great interest, but in spite of the explanations they gave of the reasons why Russians have a devotion to St. Theresa, it still remains a mystery to me. St. Theresa's writings are so typical of Western piety, and the entire life of this young French Carmelite is so unlike the lives of the Russian saints, that I can scarcely understand why she has been specially chosen by my compatriots. Even the resemblance to St. Seraphim is not sufficient to explain this attraction."

"There must be another explanation, a supernatural one. St. Theresa's dream was always to pursue her apostolate in some distant country; but her health was too delicate for such an enterprise, and she was moreover a cloistered nun. Strangely enough, since her death she has become a favourite saint of the Russians and the patron of Union."

One only needs to casually study the "Little Way" of St. Therese of Lisieux to discover that her wish to remain a little child before God is the essence of Eastern mysticism. She may have been born in France, but whether she was born in France, Russia, or Missouri, she is an Eastern saint just as much as a Western saint.

When asked about her "Little Way", St. Therese said:

"It is to recognize our nothingness, to look for everything from God as a little child looks for everything from his father; it is to be disquieted about nothing, and not to be set on gaining our fortune...I have desired not to grow up, because I realized I should never be able to earn my own living, the eternal life of heaven! I have, then, always remained little, and have had no other occupation than that of gathering flowers, the flowers of love and sacrifice. These I have offered to the good God simply for His own pleasure.

"To be little, moreover, is not to attribute to ourselves the virtues we practice, nor to believe ourselves capable of practicing virtue at all. It is, rather, to recognize the fact that God puts treasures of virtue into the hands of His little children to make use of them in time of need, but they remain always the treasures of the good God. Finally, to be little means that we must never be discouraged over our faults, for children often fall but they are too small to harm themselves very much."

The "Little Way" is more consistent with Eastern mysticism than Western legalism. St. Therese seeks union with God through love and self-surrender. It is only natural for lay people of the Eastern and Western Churches to have a natural affinity towards her, no matter what the theologians and Church leaders may say about her.

Thus, it is proper to recognize St. Therese of Lisieux as a Byzantine Catholic saint as well as an Orthodox saint, and not restrict her to being a Roman Catholic saint, merely because she happened to be born in France.

It is the expression of Byzantine theology, not the accidental inheritance of Slavic genes, which makes one a Byzantine saint.

This is not a 300 day indulgence for venial sins type of spirituality:

I picture my soul as a patch of bare ground and I beg the Blessed Virgin to clear it from all rubbish (my imperfections) and then build there a vast pavilion fit for heaven and adorn it with her own jewels.

St. Therese of Lisieux

I am so happy to know that my favorite saint is loved by both East and West.

Here is the image of that chapel with the icon of Saint Therese on the right-hand side.

[Linked Image]

Here is a close-up of the icon:
[Linked Image]

Warning: Do not read this if you are offended by a discussion of St. Therese of Lisieux.

Wow! The Russian icon of my closest friend is an unbelievable improvement on the painting by her sister, Celine. The Eastern Crucifix and the elongated fingers are especially beautiful. A splendid improvement I would say.

Two questions for Griego Catolico:

(1) What is written at the top of the icon?

(2) How can I get a copy of the icon?

God bless you, and may you receive a rose today,

JP

Warning: Do not read this if you are offended by a discussion of St. Therese of Lisieux.

I also love her smile. None of the photographs or paintings of her come close to expressing the spiritual aspect of looking at the Little Flower through a window into heaven.

Of course, this may be due to the fact that she is busy here on earth helping someone to get gas for his car, being discharged from the hospital, or some other task given to her by Jesus.

JP

There has never been discussion about St Theresa but lot of very boring lectures about someone's private devotion and why everyone should do as that person has instructed. Personally I am sick of RCs telling Eastern Riters what to do with OUR liturgy and OUR services.

ICXC
NIKA

This thread is getting out of control.

First, in the time I have been associated with this forum, I have never seen posts begin with, �Warning: Do not read this if you are offended by a discussion of�� . This is not a private forum and all posts are meant to be posted publicly and non-offensively.

Second, for a thread that has to deal with Byzantine Saints, this has become an argument over one particular saint. While I understand that our posters have strong venerations to one saint or another, not all share in these venerations. That is why God has provided so many examples of saints for us, so that we may find saints that will aid us in our Christian walk. Trying to have an imposition of ones veneration of a saint, can become counter-productive and actually alienate and impair one�s outlook of that saint, thus becoming spiritually harmful.

I am closing this thread off, because it has steered in a direction that I believe has created ill feelings spiritually in many different posters.

In the Risen Christ,
Father Anthony+
Administrator/Moderator