Teresa Margaret Redi

The life of Teresa Margaret at the Carmel of Florence consists entirely of fidelity to the monastic daily routine and self-effacing charity. During her few years of religious life, she dedicated herself to prayer, penance, and silence, seeking, in the words of hagiographic sources, to lead "a life hidden in love and self-giving." She was entrusted with the service of the infirmary, where she assisted the community's infirmarian and cared for the sick and elderly sisters, including those with difficult temperaments or those diminished by old age. This humble service, performed with gentleness and self-abnegation, became the privileged place of her sanctification. Her spirituality focused on the contemplation of the holy humanity of Christ and on devotion to His Heart. She was particularly marked by the words of the first epistle of Saint John, "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8, 16), which she meditated upon intensely and sought to make the inner rule of her entire life. This ordinary life, devoid of any outward brilliance, would only reveal its depth after her death, when her sisters realized the holiness of this young Carmelite.

The spiritual journey of Thérèse-Marguerite is that of a mystic of hidden love. Far from extraordinary manifestations, her holiness unfolded in a daily charity carried to a heroic degree: the Roman Martyrology notes that she 'walked the arduous path of perfection,' forgetting herself to serve her sisters. Her interior life was dominated by a deep contemplation of divine love, which she drew from the words of Saint John, 'God is love.' This mystical experience, which she lived in great discretion, was also accompanied by spiritual trials and an interior aridity that she traversed in trust and abandonment. Her devotion to the Sacred Heart, then in full expansion within the Church, structured her entire spirituality: she sought to be entirely given to the redemptive love of Christ. In accordance with her desire for self-effacement, her reputation for holiness was only fully manifested after her death, when the nuns of her community understood the depth of her hidden life. The unexpected preservation of her body, observed in the days following her passing, contributed to spreading this renown and directing the faithful toward the memory of the young Carmelite.

Having died in the odor of sanctity, Teresa Margaret became the object of a veneration that developed from Florence, supported by the phenomenon of the incorruptibility of her body. The beatification process concluded when Pope Pius XI proclaimed her blessed on June 9, 1929. Five years later, the same pontiff inscribed her in the catalogue of saints: the canonization took place at the Vatican Basilica on March 19, 1934, the feast day of Saint Joseph. According to several sources, some French references mistakenly place this event on March 13; the date of March 19, 1934, accepted by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, is the authoritative one. Her liturgical memory is celebrated on March 7, the anniversary of her death, in the Roman calendar and the martyrology; the Order of Discalced Carmelites celebrates her on September 1. Her body, which has remained in a remarkable state of preservation and is considered incorrupt, rests in a reliquary at the Carmelite monastery in Florence, where it remains an object of veneration.

The legacy of Saint Thérèse-Marguerite of the Sacred Heart lies less in an external work than in a spiritual testimony: that of an accessible holiness, lived in the ordinary life of religious observance and in the humble service of one's neighbor. Honored among the saints of Carmel, she is often compared to other young mystical Carmelites, and her spirituality of hidden love anticipates, in many respects, the "little way" that would be developed a century later by Thérèse of Lisieux. Her body, preserved in a glass reliquary in the church of the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Florence, remains a place of pilgrimage and prayer. Her figure is particularly dear to the Carmelite family and to the faithful attached to the devotion to the Sacred Heart, of which she is one of the great witnesses in the 18th century. A model for the young and for the contemplative life, she reminds us that Christian perfection is measured by the intensity of love far more than by the brilliance of works, following the words that summarized her entire existence: "God is love."