Many people have heard about St. Therese of Lisieux, known as the Little Flower. Her parents, Louis and Zelie Martin, have also been beatified. Now her sister Leonie is being considered for sainthood.
I suspect that Leonie will be a saint loved by many because of her abundant trials. Her many struggles began early.

Born June 3, 1863, she was the middle child in the Martin family of five daughters who lived to maturity. Her four sisters were healthy and beautiful, bright and docile little girls. But Leonie was difficult, unattractive, and a sickly child inclined to tantrums. She felt so out of place that at one point she decided that she must have been somehow switched at birth with the real Martin baby.

She was 18 months old before she walked, then a severe case of eczema covered her entire body. Prayers for her brought her better health, but her emotional health remained unpredictable. She became reckless and rough in her play as she grew physically stronger. She also exhibited slow intellectual development.

Before the truth became known, Leonie was abused by a maidservant who beat and threatened her when no one else was around. And this note from one biography describes a special sadness: “As often happens in families, Marie and Pauline shared a room and their secrets; so did Celine and Therese. At one time Leonie too had enjoyed the intimate friendship of a younger sister. But Helene had died when Leonie was not quite 7. That left Leonie all by herself in her own Iittle room. Later, Leonie was to write that she had known ‘loneliness of heart’ in the midst of her family.”

In January 1874, Leonie again enrolled in the Visitation boarding school with her sisters, and one nun made a dent in her student’s trials. Sister Marie Dosithee described her efforts in a letter, saying, “I wanted to be God’s Providence to her so I stopped scolding her and started to be very gentle with her, telling her that I saw she wanted to be good ... and that I had faith in her. This had a magical effect — not just temporary, but lasting; now I find her a lovely, obedient child ... The job is far from finished ... .” And indeed, within five months Leonie was expelled for the third time.

Still, she exhibited qualities including generosity of spirit and love of her sisters. Her shortfalls and limitation brought humility, which “led to a door of kindness,” says Father Antonio Sangalli, postulator of her cause, who notes that “she was actually the first one in her family who decided to embrace a religious vocation.”

When she was 23 Leonie, who had considered becoming a Poor Clare Nun ever since childhood, visited the Poor Clares in Alencon. She entered, but the austere rule was too great for her health, and she was sent home in less than two months. Her health failed her again when she entered the Monastery of the Visitation in Caen on July 16, 1887.

“Her sister Therese, helped her out, when her self esteem was low,” says Father Sangalli. Leonie “helped her sister to embrace her vocation as a sister in the (Discalced Carmelite) Order. When Therese of Lisieux died and her book, ‘A Story of a Soul,’ was published, (Leonie) decided to try out her vocation again.”

In 1899, Leonie, 35, entered the Monastery of the Visitation at Caen and became Sister Françoise-Thérèse. She died in 1941 at the age of 78, after becoming a sister everyone remembered as so kind, so serene, and so happy that they could not believe she had had a difficult childhood.

Know of anyone who could benefit from Leonie’s prayers? Here is an approved prayer for her cause:
Dear Léonie our Sister, You have already intervened with God on our behalf, and we would  like to be able to pray to you officially, so that many more might know you. Come to the aid of parents who risk losing a child, as you nearly died at a very young age. Continue to uphold the families where different generations  have problems living together in peace. Enlighten youth who question their future  and hesitate to commit. Show to all the way of prayer which permits you to bear your limitations and your difficulties with confidence, and to give yourself to others. Lord, if such is your will, deign to accord us the grace that we ask of you through the intercession of your servant Léonie, and inscribe her among the number of the venerable of your Church. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Favors through her intercession can be sent to Monastery of the Visitation, 3 rue de l’Abbatiale, 14000 Caen, France.