A little girl and her father take a stroll through town. Passersby smile at the pair as they watch the girl wave at her uncle, who is busy working in his store. Vendors selling fish to customers remind the girl of the Friday fast. There is nothing extraordinary about the scene, except that this isn’t just any father-daughter duo. It is four-year-old future Saint Thérèse of Lisieux and her father, Saint Louis.

At the tender age of four, St. Thérèse Martin lost her mother, St. Zelie Guerin. Her father moved the family from Alençon to Lisieux in order to be near his relatives. Thérèse was everyone’s favorite, and she quickly earned the title of “the little queen.” As a young child, she and her father went to a different church each day to pray to Jesus in the tabernacle. Her favorite days were feast days with a procession of the Blessed Sacrament. She loved throwing flowers before Jesus. 

Drawing from The Story of a Soul  as well as from her own imagination, Kathleen Vincenz has written a delightful little book for anyone with a devotion to St. Thérèse. The book is broken down into three sections. The first section, entitled “The Walk” is a fictionalized story of little Thérèse and her father walking through the town of Lisieux  The second section is a five-page biography, “About the Little Queen.” The final section, “Pictures of Papa and the Little Queen,” includes pictures of St Thérèse as a young girl, her saintly parents, and her as a nun washing laundry.

In the story, “The Walk”, Thérèse’s father points out the Chapel of the Carmel, home of the nuns who spend their days in prayer. She wonders if she will be a nun one day. God knows the answer, but Thérèse needs to wait a few years before she enters the convent. 

At the age of fifteen, Thérèse joined the Carmelite Convent in Lisieux. As a cloistered nun, she spent her days quietly and simply, away from the rest of the world. She could not win battles like St. Joan of Arc or be a missionary like St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. She could, however, do ordinary tasks with great love and make small sacrifices daily. This became her “little way.” 

Before she died of tuberculosis, her sister asked her to write her life story, which became The Story of a Soul.  Vincenz recalls in the short biography, “About the Little Queen,”  how Thérèse wrote her story in longhand on school paper. While some might not request such a task of a loved one, the world is thankful her sister did. Her book caused a sensation and brought about many conversions.  

The “little queen” is an appropriate title for St. Thérèse. She won the hearts of many. There is so much to learn from this little saint. I have read a lot on St. Thérèse and thought I knew everything about her story before opening the book. I was wrong, thankfully, and ended up learning from this book. Vincenz takes readers by the hand and walks them through the town of Lisieux in Thérèse’s day and in ours. We are welcomed into the sweet world of a doting father and his daughter  and gain  a new appreciation for the saint and her little way.