The Artwork of St. Therese

St. Therese painted this fresco around the tabernacle at the Lisieux Carmel.




"Receive Communion often, very often...there you have the sole remedy, if you want to be cured. Jesus has not put this attraction in your heart for nothing..."
—The Little Flower

St. Therese was quite an artist, although if you asked her, she'd probably say that her work wasn't worth an extra glance. That's how humble she was! But she enjoyed painting, and I see such beauty in her artwork.  Her older sister Celine, known as Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face, described her sister's  fresco (above) in this way:

"The fresco around our Oratory Tabernacle, a task which the Saint accomplished with much love and devotion, is a monument to her spirit of obedience; she was unfamiliar with the rudiments of artistic decorating and designing, and furthermore, there was no way of providing sufficient light for the work in that part of the Oratory. She was obliged, besides, to make use of a ladder while painting; even an experienced artist should have been hindered in his work by such handicaps. Therese, however, triumphed over the difficulties and produced a very credible piece of work. The little angels which encircle the design are particularly attractive with their expressions of heavenly beauty and childlike innocence."

—Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face (Celine Martin), My Sister Saint Therese. pp. 117-118.  1997 TAN Books and Publishers, Rockford, IL.