Louis and Zélie Martin were an inspirational couple, devoted to God and one another, and faithful and holy parents, who helped each other and their children to sainthood.

Louis was born on August 22, 1823, in Bordeaux. Zélie was born Marie-Azélie Guérin in northwest France, in a town very near Alençon, on December 23, 1831.

Louis was the third of five children. Louis desired to become a monk and wanted to join the Augustinian Monastery of St. Bernard in the Alps, the famous monks who rescued wayward vacationers or travelers in the cold mountains.

Louis went to the monastery to discern a vocation but was turned away because he could not learn Latin sufficiently. Dejected, Louis left the monastery, but returned to the world and became a watchmaker. He settled down in Alençon.

Zélie was the second-oldest daughter, from a large family like her husband. Also like Louis, Zélie yearned to join religious life. But she was not strong enough and suffered from too much poor health to join Vincent de Paul’s order of sisters, the Sisters of Charity. Zélie took up lacemaking and became a widely-recognized manufacturer of Alençon lace. There, in Alençon, the watchmaker and lacemaker fell in love, and Zélie and Louis were married in 1858 in the Basilica of Notre-Dame in Alençon. Twelve years later, Louis sold his watchmaking business to go into business with his wife, whose lacemaking business was booming.

For ten months after their wedding, the couple did not consummate their marriage. Since they had both so deeply longed for religious life, they continued to live like Mary and Joseph. Their spiritual director encouraged them to live as husband and wife, and they ended up having nine children, only five of whom lived past infancy.
Zélie and Louis were devastated by the loss of four children, but they vowed to pour their love into the children that God granted life to. Louis and Zélie were affectionate and deeply sentimental parents, expressing their love and devotion to each other, their children, and their God without embarrassment. Sadly, Zélie died of breast cancer in 1877. Louis left Alençon and settled his family near Zélie’s brother in Lisieux. Soon, Pauline joined Carmel, then Marie, then Thérèse, and finally Céline. Léonie, the middle daughter, joined the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. Louis watched as his daughters fulfilled their parents’ dreams of giving their lives over to God.

In 1889, Louis was paralyzed by back-to-back strokes, and he spent the remainder of his life in hospice in care. In 1892, he returned to Lisieux, where Céline and Léonie cared for him in his final days, before he died in July 1894.

Louis and Zélie were canonized on October 18, 2015.

Sts. Louis and Zélie, parents of St. Thérèse the Little Flower—pray for us!