[Mrs. Don-o]

I'm sure Zelie and Louis Martin wanted all their children to be saints. Any Christian parent does. You seem be implying, though, that an older nun infected Therese to further Zelie's "obsession" that her daughter should die young.

Are you really saying that?

It's pretty far-fetched, since Zelie died when Therese was only 4 years old.

Plus, by the late 19th century the early romantic image of a consumptive woman had given way to the later view of a scourge spread by the poor. By the 1890's, the war against tuberculosis in France --- which still had more than a 35% mortality rate--- had become a war against the dirty habits of the working class. There were, for example, official campaigns against alcoholism and spitting.

I doubt anyone thought it romantic or glorious for Therese to succumb to this terrible endemic disease at age 24.

[x_plus_one]

Therese volunteered to take care of the dying nun. She didn't expect to become infected, one would assume. The mother was obsessed with having at least one of her children enter a convent, become a priest and eventually become a saint.

At that point in history, 'consumption' was seen as a near-glamorous disease by many.

The public library has several biographies of Therese and the books on tape version of one of them is very frank about the social and emotional conflicts experienced by Therese. She adored her sister and could not imagine a life without her so she finagled her way into a carmelite convent years too early on the good word of her sister.

Her older sister egged her on to be 'holier than thou' and insisted that Therese write her book that made her a doctor of the church.

None of this diminshes the facts regarding the spiritual elightenment of Therese and the miracles she experienced and performed.