Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin

The work of Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin stems first from her profession as a lace-maker. In Alençon, she developed a business manufacturing Alençon lace, a renowned lace, organizing the work of several home-based workers and ensuring the marketing of the production; this activity supported the household and demonstrated a real sense of responsibility and organization. Her husband Louis, initially a watchmaker-jeweler, eventually gave up his business to assist her in the lace enterprise. As a mother, Zélie devoted considerable energy to the education of her children, whom she wished to raise in faith and work. Her abundant correspondence, particularly the letters addressed to her brother Isidore Guérin and her sister-in-law, as well as to her daughters, constitutes a precious testimony to the daily life of a Catholic family in the 19th-century French society and to her own interior life. Through these writings, her attention to the poor, her professional rigor, and a maternal tenderness marked by the repeated losses of young children shine through. Her deeply united home would be recognized by the Church as a model of conjugal and family holiness.

The spiritual journey of Zélie Martin is inscribed within the ordinary life of marriage and labor, lived as a path to holiness. With Louis, she placed God at the center of the home; according to testimonies, the divine will guided their decisions, in an attitude of abandonment summarized by the conviction that "God is the Master." The couple served the poor and the sick, whom they welcomed and helped by recognizing Christ in them. Deeply attached to prayer, daily Mass, and the Christian education of her children, Zélie endured numerous trials: the death of four of her children at a young age and, starting in the 1870s, the long suffering of cancer. She welcomed illness and the approach of death in faith, hoping for healing while abandoning herself to providence. Her reputation for holiness grew after her death, nourished by the influence of her daughter Thérèse of Lisieux, who would describe her parents as "more worthy of Heaven than of earth." The Church has seen in her existence an example of sanctification accessible to spouses and families, lived through work and the duty of one's state.

The cause of the Martin spouses, long joined to that of their daughter Thérèse, was brought to completion at the beginning of the 21st century. Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin and her husband Louis were beatified together on October 19, 2008, in Lisieux, during a celebration presided over by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, legate of Pope Benedict XVI. The miracle recognized for the beatification was the unexplained healing of an Italian newborn, Pietro Schilirò, born in Monza near Milan on May 25, 2002, with a severe lung condition deemed fatal, and who recovered after the invocation of the two spouses. The canonization took place on October 18, 2015, in Rome, where Pope Francis inscribed them in the catalogue of saints during the Synod of Bishops on the family. They thus became the first couple united by marriage to be canonized jointly. The miracle accepted for the canonization was the healing of a young Spanish girl, Carmen Pérez Pons, in Valencia. Their liturgical feast is set for July 12, the anniversary of their marriage, which was celebrated on the night of July 12 to 13, 1858.

The heritage of Zélie Martin is inseparable from that of her husband Louis and their daughter Thérèse of Lisieux, whose doctrine of the "little way" has its roots in the family upbringing received in Alençon. Recognized as models of conjugal and family holiness, the Martin spouses are invoked by many couples and families; they are presented by the Church as intercessors for the engaged, spouses, parents, and the sick. Their canonization at the heart of the Synod on the Family strengthened their figure as patrons of Christian homes. The cult is concentrated around two major sites: Alençon, where Thérèse's birthplace and the sanctuary dedicated to Saints Louis and Zélie Martin are located, and Lisieux, where the Basilica of Saint Thérèse preserves their relics. Reliquaries of the two spouses travel on pilgrimage throughout the world. Every July 12, their liturgical feast gives rise to celebrations and novenas for families. Their correspondence, edited and translated, continues to nourish a spirituality of daily life accessible to the laity.