This article was written before the year 2000, however,
it tells of her travels till then and her schedule after that.

One hundred years ago, when Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face died, she was buried in the town cemetery of Lisieux, on the 4th of October 1897. She was even the first to be buried in the enclosure bought by the Carmelite convent as a result of the new legislation forbidding burial within monastery enclosures. With hindsight, in the light of the events which followed her death, we can say that this legislation proved providential. It allowed hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to visit her grave for 25 years, which they would never have been able to do, had she been buried within the convent. It was only in 1923, on the occasion of her beatification, that her mortal remains were brought back to the Carmelite chapel, where they are today. When we speak of the veneration of her relics, it is therefore necessary to go back to the origins of the veneration in the town cemetery. That is how it all started. I often say that the cradle of the pilgrimage was Thérèse's grave... But is the same not true of Rome, Compostello, and many other places of pilgrimage throughout the world ?..

Anthropologists tell us that burial is a sure sign of the presence of humans, for only they bury their fellow men. The Church herself respects this custom which consists of meditating and praying in the presence of the mortal remains of those we have known and loved. Every year millions of men and women from every culture and social status visit cemeteries, and they reflect and pray before the "reliquia", that is, the "remains" of their nearest and dearest. Of course, we know that we do not really meet our loved ones in cemeteries, but we are not pure spirits and we need signs.

The Christian significance of relics

The relics of saints are just poor and fragile signs of their bodies. In the presence of relics we can evoke their human condition more easily : it was their bodies that they used to act, to think, to pray, to work and to suffer.

And yet, these weak and almost pathetic signs are just what God sometimes chooses to manifest his presence and reveal his Power and Glory. He is the one at work through these signs. We are operating on a different logic from the world's. We are entering into God's disconcerting logic. That is what the apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians : "But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise ; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong." (1 Co 1/27). But had the same apostle not just declared that : "The foolishness of God is wiser than men ; and the weakness of God is stronger than men " ? (1 Co 1/25).

Coming back to Thérèse's, it is a fact that in the presence of her mortal remains and through contact with her poor remains - like those of an unpetalled rose - God, who received so many acts of love in her humanity, has been pleased to show his love in return through the remains of her humanity.

Through these poor signs, her powerful aid is revealed and unfolds. In order to be convinced of this, all you need do is read the volumes relating the favours and healings obtained through contact with Thérèse's relics or the abundant mail which arrives in Lisieux every day. Who can tell how many people preciously keep in their wallet or personal papers a picture bearing the words : "material having touched the relics of the saint..." ? We truly are following a different logic, the one which emerges from Jesus' words :"I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight " (Lk 10/21).

In addition, the veneration of relics reminds us that we are awaiting the Resurrection. In fact, God who made our bodies out of so little matter is powerful enough to fashion a glorious body for us. The mortal remains of the first are like a deposit for the second. Relics are a sign of this double truth. That is why they are kept in our altar stones, where the real presence of the Risen Christ in the Eucharist anticipates our own resurrection in faith.

If there has been abuse of relics in past centuries, if they have been misused, if they were not always authentic, if our sensitivity as regards relics is somewhat different from that of our ancestors, it is nevertheless true that the veneration of relics still has its value and is still needed in the Church, and the celebrations which revolve around their meaningful presence still draw crowds, as we witness here in Lisieux and elsewhere.

As for our own attitude towards all these signs, in my opinion it is admirably described by Blaise Pascal in this extract from his Pensées ("thoughts"), 944 : "In order to receive from God, the outward self must join in with the inner self ; in other words, we kneel down, we pray with our lips, etc. so that proud man who refused to submit to God should now be submitted to the creature. To expect help from the outward self is superstitious, and not wanting to join it to the inner self is to be haughty."

"The days of your conquests"

In the perspective of the centenary of Thérèse's death, the Shrine of Lisieux wanted to create similar event dynamics to those of 1947. So Thérèse took up her pilgrim's staff on the 14th October 1994, inaugurating her mission of evangelisation in LYON by climbing Fourvière Hill which overshadows the ancient capital of Gaul. Then it was MARSEILLE and PARIS' turn to welcome the secondary patroness of France triumphally, before she began her own tour de France.

Crowds travelled to thank her, to open their hearts to her and to entrust to hers their burdens, their joys, their suffering and their hope. These children and young people, adults and elderly persons, poor and cultured alike : it is astonishing to see how close they feel to 'little Thérèse', their friend, their sister, their confidante, their favourite saint after the Virgin Mary !

Everywhere, we witness the same prayerful stillness, the same fervour, the same joy. The uncountable witnesses that we have received in Lisieux attest that for three years a capital spiritual event took place, and we have not yet had a complete picture of its consequences.

In every place where she has been received, Thérèse has tirelessly repeated her Gospel message of love, of trust and invincible hope. Who could ever tell how many graces have been received, how many healings obtained, how many vocations aroused, how many conversions brought about ? From the most prestigious cathedrals to the smallest parishes, from the most famous abbeys to the humblest communities, Thérèse sowed the good seed of the Word of God in hearts and minds so that it should sprout and give fruit. For two years she ploughed the earth of France in every direction, opening up a promise-filled furrow...

The Abbot of Fleury welcomed her like so many other monasteries : "Saint Thérèse wanted to be a missionary throughout the whole world. One century after her death, her wish has come true and she has become a front-line participant in the new evangelisation promoted by John Paul II. To those involved in laborious pastoral work she teaches that holiness and the poorest means are still the most powerful ways of diffusing the Good News." How could we but completely agree with him ?

"I would like to travel around the world"

BELGIUM and LUXEMBOURG welcomed her enthusiastically ; she was acclaimed by thousands of young people in GERMANY and ITALY... Thérèse was anticipating her future peregrinations throughout the whole wide world, everywhere where she is in demand.

In fact, the Holy Father wanted her relics to be presented all week long at the World Youth Days in Paris. They were indeed, and thousands of young people from all around the world came to pray near her night and day in the Basilica of Our Lady of Victories.

It was also John Paul II who insisted on bringing the relics of Thérèse to ROME for the DECLARATION OF HER DOCTORATE. So Thérèse crossed the Alps once more, stopping at MILAN, where the Archbishop, Cardinal Martini wanted her to be present at a large youth gathering.

After the centenary celebrations in Lisieux, the relics were taken to SWITZERLAND, AUSTRIA and SLOVENIA. Then they took off for a year's tour of BRAZIL. Welcoming her poor mortal rests in this immense Latin-American country was the experience of an unexpected grace of renewal in the proclamation of the Gospel. Such is the witness given by the bishops, priests and all the faithful who welcomed her relics with such fervour for the greatest spiritual good of their communities.

At the dawn of the third millennium, Thérèse appears to be a privileged participant who is to be reckoned with in the new evangelisation. Should we be surprised, since we know that the Church has chosen her as patroness of the universal missions ? We all now know that her permanent influence is due to the fact that her message is the pure and faithful echo of the Gospel. It is not surprising that her diary is already fully booked until after the year 2000. You can imagine all these countries awaiting her visit who are preparing her arrival so carefully.

Even at the very beginning of 1999, she had hardly finished her year-long stay in Brazil when Thérèse found herself in the NETHERLANDS ; from the 20th January to the 21st February, she was welcomed in the main towns : La Haye, Tilburg, Heerlen, Roermond, Helvooirt, Den Bosch, Eindhoven, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Nÿmegen and in several Carmels, including the one in Echt where Edith Stein stayed.

From the 27th February to the 30th June, it will be vast RUSSIA's turn to welcome her. The main stages of this visit will be : Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Novgorod, Smolensk, Vladimir, Saratov, Marx and Orenburg. Then begins a long journey across SIBERIA : Ekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Irkoutsk and Vladivostok, not forgetting Magadin and the Sakhalin Islands. Then she will return to Moscow after a month-long stay in KAZAKHSTAN.

From the 1st July to the 4th October, Thérèse will cross the ocean once more to go out to meet the 64 dioceses of ARGENTINA. She will be present at the 6th Latin-American Missionary Congress, which, for the first time, will be open to both North and South America. She will also go to PATAGONIA.

Next stop : the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. First of all, the federal capital, Washington; then Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, Boston, Niagara Falls, Chicago, Saint Louis, Milwaukee, Sioux City, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, New Orleans, Miami, San Antonio, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Anchorage in Alaska, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Tucson and the Hawaiian Islands.

Leaving Honolulu on the 30th January 2000, the relics will be welcomed in the PHILIPPINES for two months : Manila, San Fernando, Bayombong, Balanga, Lipa, Dumaguete, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro and Davao.

From the Philippines, we hope Thérèse will be able to leave for VIETNAM - Hue, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City - and for the gateway to China : Hong-Kong. The relics will also stay in Taiwan, mainly in Kaohsiung and Taipei.

After this great tour in southeast Asia, Thérèse will return to Europe on the 30th April 2000 : ITALY is preparing to receive her then, for several months. It will be the year of the Great Jubilee. And already, we have a trip to MEXICO lined up for autumn of that year, where the Bishops have requested her visit.

And that's not all : AFRICA is waiting for its turn...

And thus, Thérèse's wishes and promises are being fulfilled:

"In spite of my littleness, I would like to enlighten souls as did the Prophets and the Doctors. I have the vocation of the Apostle. I would like to travel over the whole earth... I would be a missionary." (Ms B, 3 r°).

Having already travelled tens of thousands of kilometres and gathered thousands of people of all conditions, Thérèse has not ceased to surprise us. But was it not the fulfilment of this prophecy before our very eyes that surprised us : " The Saints tell me that after my death it will be time to work and to conquer. " (Yellow Notebook, 10th August 1897).

R. ZAMBELLI
Rector of the Basilica of Lisieux.

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