Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
The little way
The girl from Alençon who stood up to a bishop and a pope to enter Carmel at fifteen, and the Carmelite who died at twenty-four, in darkness, writing about trust and love.
16 episodes · Narrated in English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and German
Episode 1 is free
Episodes
- 01
Easter Night
A twenty-three-year-old Carmelite wakes up happy because she has coughed up blood. Days later, the thought of Heaven becomes a torment.
- 02
The Lace and the Clock
A watchmaker and a lacemaker who had wanted to enter religious life, nine children, four small graves, and a mother who falls ill.
- 03
The Second Mother
A house with a garden in Lisieux, a man with a covered face who vanishes behind the trees, and the sister who enters the convent.
- 04
The Smile
An illness the doctor cannot name, a statue that smiles, and a secret, once told, that becomes a torment.
- 05
Scruples
A teenager who cries over everything, even over having cried, loses her last confidante and talks to her brothers and sisters who died.
- 06
Christmas Night
A weary remark from her father, one minute on the stairs and, months later, a condemned man she decides to save.
- 07
The Permission
A father who says yes in tears, an uncle who says no, an unbending superior, and a bishop facing a girl with her hair pinned up.
- 08
Rome
A month of travel, an order of silence, and a fourteen-year-old girl kneeling before Pope Leo the Thirteenth.
- 09
The Enclosure Door
A letter to the bishop with no answer by Christmas, three months of waiting, and a fifteen-year-old girl before the door of Carmel.
- 10
The Veiled Face
The snow on her clothing day, an asylum in Caen, and a novice who learns to love a hidden face.
- 11
The Elevator
A retreat that frees her from fear, her father's death, a sister with a camera, and a way for the little ones.
- 12
Merciful Love
An offering to Love rather than to Justice, a difficult sister, two missionary brothers, and a notebook she fills with flowers.
- 13
The Wall Up to Heaven
A vocation found in the heart of the Church, a Creed copied in blood, and a Heaven that falls silent.
- 14
The Thief
A last notebook written in pencil, an infirmary with brown curtains, and a treatment told without retouching.
- 15
The Last Afternoon
A prayer written with a trembling hand, the hardest sentence she ever spoke to a sister, and her last words before the crucifix.
- 16
Story of a Soul
A book no one expected, a blue pencil, retouched photographs, and the original notebooks given back to her own words.
How this series was researched
The narration and the place and date labels were broken down into factual claims and checked against sources: 389 claims in this series were checked against a cited source. Where the sources did not support a claim, the text was corrected or reduced to what the sources actually say.
A second, independent check then went through the whole series again.
The text was reviewed separately in each of the five languages it is narrated in.
Main sources
- Manuscrits autobiographiques (A, B, C) — Thérèse de Lisieux (1895–1897)
- Correspondance (Lettres) — Thérèse de Lisieux (1877–1897)
- Carnet jaune (Derniers entretiens) — Mère Agnès de Jésus (1897)
- Divini Amoris Scientia — John Paul II (1997)
- Histoire d'une vie. Thérèse Martin (1873–1897) — Guy Gaucher
Tradition and debate
Where the sources are thin or disagree, the series says so. For example:
- It is only said, not documented at the time, that Thérèse's parents, Louis and Zélie Martin, first met on a bridge.
- Pope Leo XIII's full reply to Thérèse comes from her own account, written years later; her letter that same night records only “You will enter if God wills it!”
- Her famous promise of a “shower of roses” comes to us through her sister Marie, who reported her words.
