Påven helgonförklarar gift par – första i modern tid

Kanonisering, kanonisation, helgonförklaring, är den akt där kyrklig myndighet förklarar någon vara ett helgon. Ordet kanonisering härleds ur grekiskans kanonizein ’reglera’, ’bemyndiga’. I samband med kanoniseringen för patriarken, biskopsmötet, påven eller motsvarande in en död persons namn i förteckningen, kanon, över helgon, och personen ifråga är därmed värdig att vördas offentligt inom hela den världsvida katolska kyrkan. Ingen blir ett helgon i och med helgonförklaringen. Den bekräftar endast något som redan är en erkänd tro inom kyrkan. Den helgonförklarade anses alltså ha varit ett helgon redan under sin livstid.

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (Born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin, January 2, 1873 – September 30, 1897), or Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, O.C.D., was a French Discalced Carmelite nun. She is popularly known as "The Little Flower of Jesus" or simply, "The Little Flower". Thérèse has been a highly influential model of sanctity for Catholics and for others because of the "simplicity and practicality of her approach to the spiritual life". Together with St. Francis of Assisi, she is one of the most popular saints in the history of the church. Pope Pius X called her "the greatest saint of modern times". Thérèse felt an early call to religious life, and overcoming various obstacles, in 1888 at the early age of 15, she became a nun and joined two of her elder sisters in cloistered Carmelite community of Lisieux, Normandy. After nine years as a Carmelite religious, having fulfilled various offices such as sacristan and assistant to the novice mistress, and having spent her last eighteen months in Carmel in a night of faith, she died of tuberculosis at the age of 24. Her feast day is on October 1. Thérèse is well known throughout the world, with the Basilica of Lisieux being the second largest place of pilgrimage in France after Lourdes.