11 h 58 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a life of small duties holds more meaning than great deeds?
In The Story of a Soul, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux traces her path from a devout family home to a strict Carmelite convent. Her clear, often funny voice brings parents, sisters, childhood loss and a determined calling close. She wants to enter Carmel while still a teenager, but the authorities consider her too young.
Thérèse shares childhood memories, reflects on her calling, and describes the demands of convent life. Her sisters Pauline and Marie belong to this intimate world of family and faith. Through family sorrow, convent duties and illness, Thérèse explores what she calls her little way: the belief that trust and small acts of love can bring her close to God.
What you’ll discover
- A family in focus Meet Louis the watchmaker and Zélie the lace maker through their daughter's childhood memories.
- A determined young woman Follow Thérèse's wish to enter Carmel despite objections to her age.
- Life behind convent walls Enter a world of early rising, long silences, shared prayer and winters without heating.
- The little way Explore her conviction that ordinary acts of love matter more than extraordinary achievements.
- Faith under strain Read her account of family suffering and illness alongside her search for childlike trust.
Who will love it
For readers who love honest personal memoirs, anyone curious about Catholic spirituality, and people who feel too ordinary for greatness. Thérèse’s family stories, humour and little way of trust and small acts of love offer a gentle invitation.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A happy childhood in a devout family
- Loss and illness shape a sensitive child
- A Christmas night brings new strength
- Rome and a bold request to the Pope
- In Carmel, small duties become great offerings
- Trials of her father and her faith
- The little way: trust like a child
- My vocation is love in the Church
- Last pages, spiritual brothers and a long afterlife
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Geschichte einer Seele (L'Histoire d'une Âme)
by Heilige Therese von Lisieux · 1898
In a Lisieux convent, Thérèse describes her little way of seeking holiness through trust and small acts of love.
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In short
The Story of a Soul is the autobiography of a young French nun who died at twenty-four. Thérèse Martin was born in 1873 in Alençon and spent her adult life in the Carmelite convent at Lisieux in Normandy.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A happy childhood in a devout family
Thérèse begins with her parents, Louis Martin and Zélie Guérin. Louis was a watchmaker and Zélie made lace in Alençon. They had nine children, but only five daughters lived to adulthood. These were Marie, Pauline, Léonie, Céline and Thérèse, the youngest. Thérèse writes about them with great warmth and says that God gave her parents who were more fit for heaven than for earth.
She describes herself as a lively and affectionate little girl who was also quick to cry. She remembers Sunday walks, Mass, her father's tender nicknames for her, and the way her older sisters took turns teaching her. Pauline and Céline, in particular, matter to her. Pauline was her second mother, and Céline was her closest friend and playmate.
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What is The Story of a Soul about?
It is the autobiography of Thérèse Martin, a young French Carmelite nun. It covers her childhood, her family, her entry into the convent and her spiritual idea called the little way, which stresses trust and small acts of love.
What is the little way of Thérèse of Lisieux?
The little way is her path of holiness through simplicity. She teaches that a person need not do great deeds, only trust God like a child and offer ordinary tasks, patience and kindness as acts of love.
Who wrote The Story of a Soul and when?
Thérèse of Lisieux wrote it in the last years of her life, between about 1895 and 1897, in three manuscripts. Her sister Pauline edited it and it was first published in 1898, soon after Thérèse died.
The author
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
1873–1897 · French Carmelite nun and memoirist
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux was a French Discalced Carmelite nun. She was born in Alençon in 1873 and moved to Lisieux in 1877. She entered the Carmelite convent there in 1888 and died in 1897. Her autobiographical writings, composed between 1895 and 1897, were published as The Story of a Soul in 1898.
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