We may trace a connection between the great seventeenth century theologians (Saint Francis de Sales and the masters of the “French School”) and Theresa of Lisieux. First of all, Pierre de Berulle was himself responsible for bringing the Reformed Carmel of Teresa of Avila into France: for a number of years he was the superior of all the Carmelite houses in that country. It was, of course, in the Carmel that Theresa and her sisters consecrated their lives to God.
Furthermore, Theresa’s two oldest sisters, Marie and Pauline, who both had a great influence on the young Theresa, were educated by the Sisters of the Visitation, an order founded by Francis de Sales. Another sister, Leonie, became a Visitation religious after leaving the Martin household.
At the Process for the Beatification of Theresa, Leonie testified “…there is great devotion to her in all our convents. This is not surprising, however, since her piety is the same in spirit as ours and as that of our holy founder Saint Francis de Sales.”
Theresa’s mother, Zelie Martin, had a great interest in the Visitation community and in their co-founder with Saint Francis, Saint Jane de Chantal. In 1875, she wrote to Pauline, “I have just been reading the life of Saint Jane and I am utterly beside myself with admiration. It interests me all the more since I have always thought highly of the Order of the Visitation. But now, I love it still more. How happy all those who are called to it seem to me.”
Mme. Martin was also devoted to one of the earliest French Carmelites, the disciple of Pierre de Berulle, Mme. Acarie (Blessed Marie of the Incarnation) of this great lady who lived from 1566 to 1618, C.C. Martindale wrote that she “influenced the whole of the religious future of France.”
We have seen two lines connecting Saint Theresa to the French School and to Saint Francis de Sales: through Berulle, in his establishment and direction of the Reformed Carmel in France; to Saint Francis de Sales, through the Visitation religious by whom Theresa’s family was influenced.