To these two glorious saints, I would add Venerable Louis Martin, father of St. Therese of the Child Jesus.
Louis Martin, Thérèse's Father
Louis Martin, St. Thérèse's father, was regarded as a saint in his lifetime. The last seven years of his life were marked by a severe trial, for him and for his daughters who loved him dearly. In 1887 he suffered several strokes which led to mental paralysis. Confined at first to a mental hospital, he was then cared by his daughter Céline until his death on 29 July 1894.
On 26 March 1994 Pope John Paul II declared Louis Martin and Thérèse's mother, Zélie Martin, "Venerable", the first step toward canonization.
When I consider this good father, venerable Patriarch we are pleased to call him, bent under the weight of his trial, dragging his cross painfully, and when I remember him as so kind, so happy among his children, taking his dear little queen by the arm, I say to myself: "There must be a beautiful heaven where all this will be rewarded. This good father has given three of his children to God, and there remains nothing in return..."
Letters
I was very lucky in having the father I did. He was an Irish Catholic gentleman of the first order. He loved my mother and us children with every fiber in his body and showed us that love by teaching us right from wrong, to be ladies and a gentleman, to care about our community and the people in it of all stations in life. He set an example by daily attendance at Mass, taught us the rosary...and a healthy skepticism when it came to hierarchs. He respected and honored the Orthodoxy of my mother and her family and supported all of us in our years in “Greek School”. The older he got, the more he loved mother’s icons and through them, I think, came to understand that The Church really does extend, as he used to say, from Kerry in the West to Constantinople in the East.
He and Mother had a long, long love affair, one which lasted in part he claimed because of a couple of lines of advice to husbands about wives from Homily XX on Ephesians by +John Chysostomos which he recited for me before I got married:
“...never call her simply by her name, but with terms of endearment, with honor, with much love. Honor her, and she will not need honor from others; she will not want the glory that comes from others, if she enjoys that which comes from thee. Prefer her before all, on every account, both for her beauty and her discernment, and praise her. Thou wilt thus persuade her to give heed to none that are without, but to scorn all the world except thyself.”
This will be the 10th Father’s Day without him.
Thanks, NYer. This is very timely, not only because it’s Father’s Day on Sunday, but because I was watching “A Man for All Seasons” last night.
Happy Father’s Day to everyone. Here’s remembering all the good times with my Dad, who has now passed on to glory. He took care of my Mom when she struggled with an illness that eventually took her life. I honor him for that above all.