Elizabeth of the Trinity

In the silence of the Dijon Carmel, Elizabeth of the Trinity developed a spiritual experience whose heart is the presence of the three divine persons in the innermost part of the baptized soul, what tradition calls the Trinitarian indwelling. Meditating on the Epistle to the Ephesians, she recognized her vocation as a "praise of glory" (Laudem gloriae), a formula she adopted as her spiritual signature. On November 21, 1904, she composed her best-known prayer, "O my God, Trinity whom I adore," which summarizes her desire for self-forgetfulness in order to remain in God. Despite a cloistered and brief life, she left behind an abundant body of work for her age: extensive correspondence, poetry, as well as two spiritual retreats written in 1906, including "Heaven in Faith" and her "Last Retreat." These texts, circulated after her death, made her one of the great figures of the French Carmel of the 20th century, often compared to her contemporary Thérèse of Lisieux for their shared thirst for contemplation and self-giving.

The spiritual journey of Elizabeth of the Trinity is characterized by a constant search for interior recollection and union with God present in the soul. Her spiritual motto, to become a "praise of glory" to the Trinity, reflects a desire for self-effacement to let God act within her. During the final months of her life, marked by the sufferings of Addison's disease, she lived this trial in a spirit of offering and abandonment, without revolt, seeking to unite herself with the sufferings of Christ. Her sisters testify to her gentleness, her fidelity to prayer, and her serenity in the face of death. According to the accounts transmitted by the Carmel, as she approached her end, she evoked the idea that, at the evening of life, only love remains. This reputation for holiness, founded on the quality of her interior life rather than on extraordinary deeds, spread rapidly after her death thanks to the publication of her writings, which reached a wide audience in search of spiritual life.

The process for the beatification of Elizabeth of the Trinity was opened in the diocese of Dijon as early as the 1930s. Pope John Paul II beatified her on November 25, 1984, in Rome, following the recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession, the healing of Dom Jean Chanut, a monk of the Abbey of Cîteaux. The canonization required a second miracle: this was the healing of Marie-Paul Stevens, a Belgian religion teacher from the Malmedy region, who suffered from Sjögren's syndrome and was severely disabled by the disease. Her healing, which occurred on April 2, 2002, during a pilgrimage to the Carmel of Flavignerot, near Dijon, was recognized as inexplicable following a diocesan and then Roman investigation. Pope Francis approved this miracle on March 3, 2016, and proceeded with the canonization of Elizabeth of the Trinity on October 16, 2016, in Saint Peter's Square, as part of a group of seven new saints. Her liturgical feast is set for November 8, as November 9, the day of her death, is occupied by the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica.

The legacy of Elizabeth of the Trinity lies above all in the dissemination of her writings, translated into many languages and read in contemplative circles as well as by many of the faithful. Her doctrine of the indwelling of the Trinity in the soul and her ideal of "praise of glory" have marked the spiritual theology of the 20th century. Her prayer "O my God, Trinity whom I adore" remains one of the most frequently cited texts of Carmelite spirituality. The Carmel of Dijon, transferred to Flavignerot in the vicinity of the city, maintains her memory and welcomes pilgrims who come to pray at the sites associated with the saint. Often associated with Thérèse of Lisieux, she is today considered a reference for contemplative prayer and the life of interiority. Several communities, places of prayer, and publications bear her name or claim her teaching, testifying to the persistence of her spiritual influence well beyond the Carmelite world.