On Monday, April 22, the monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe of the contemplative Augustinian Recollects housed the urn with the relics of the French saints, who went on pilgrimage during this year 2024 throughout Brazil to commemorate 150 years of her birth.
A large crowd of faithful members of the Augustinian-Recollect Family in Guaraciaba do Norte (Ceará, Brazil) received last Monday, April 22, the glass urn that contains the relics of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus (Alençon, France, 1873 – Lisieux, France, 1897), which is on pilgrimage throughout Brazil during this year 2024.
At five in the morning, a Eucharist gathered everyone in the temple of the monastery of the contemplative of the Augustinian Recollects, in the Sussuanha neighborhood of this municipality of the central-western Brazilian state of Ceará. Not in vain, the patron saint of the missions proved to have great drawing power and to be especially loved among the people.
Shortly before dawn, the surroundings of the monastery were already full of people coming from the entire Sierra de la Ibiapaba region. The Eucharist served to propose the path of the holiness of Therese of Lisieux to all those present, encouraging them to discover their vocational commitment and to live it radically, just as the Augustinian Recollect Jordan Tijerino said in his homily.
The next moment was the reception and prayer before the reliquary, which was done with quite emotion, faith, personal and community prayer, requests for intercession, and gratitude for the favors achieved.
Next, the reliquary continued his pilgrimage to the parish temple of Guaraciaba, where there was another space for prayer and the visit of the faithful. Then I walk toward the Diocese of Quixadá and later to Fortaleza, where she was from April 25 to 30.
The relics passed through the Uirapuru Spiritual Condominium on April 25, where they were locates the Santa Mónica Home, a socio-educational project of the Augustinian Recollects in Fortaleza that fights against exploitation, abuse, violence, or violation of rights fundamentals of girls and adolescents.
The relics of Saint Therese of Lisieux are transported in a glass urn that weighs 150 kilos. From February 1 to October 19 they visit 70 Brazilian cities within the commemorations of the 150th anniversary of her birth (1873-2023).
Pope Francis said of her in his Apostolic Exhortation “C’est la confiance” about the confidence in the merciful love of God on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face:
“Her earthly life was brief, barely twenty-four years, and simple as any other, after first in her family and then in the Carmel of Lisieux. The extraordinary load of light and love that radiated from her person manifested itself immediately after her death with the publication of her writings and with the innumerable graces obtained by the faithful who invoked her.”
The reliquary belongs to the Basilica of Lisieux in France, which has donated it for this pilgrimage through Brazil. As patron of the missions, her visit helps them organize Eucharists, moments of veneration, formative talks, and reflections on spirituality contemplative and missionary.
