Collected Letters of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

By Saint Thérèse of Lisieux 

Edited by Abbé André Combes | Translated by F. J. Sheed

In every age, God sends saints to renew his Church. For the nineteenth century, that age of sweeping intellectual bewilderment, surely the obvious choice would have been another Angelic Doctor, a great mind to correct error and clear up confusion. Instead, the selection was Thérèse of Lisieux, a precocious, provincial young Frenchwoman. Neither lofty philosophy nor intricate mysticism did she wield as the instrument of renewal, but the seemingly inauspicious “Little Way.” “The smallest actions done for love,” she wrote, “are the actions which win God’s heart.” The difficulties of the Christian life are undeniable, yet even the most ordinary of souls can surmount them by following this Little Way. 

Edited by Abbé André Combes, translated by F. J. Sheed, and printed exactly as they were originally written, the Collected Letters of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux contains everything in the way of her correspondence—from the lengthiest epistle to the simplest inscription on the back of a holy card. As Pope Pius XI declared at her canonization, Thérèse received from God an “exceptional wisdom, so that she was enabled to trace out for others a sure way of salvation.” In these letters, that “sure way,” its author, and its divine destination are revealed in brilliant simplicity.

So rich was Thérèse in the science of the Saints that she was able to point out to them the true path of salvation… Whence was derived this vast treasure of knowledge? From the secrets which God reveals to little ones. (Pope Benedict XV)

André Combes (1899–1969) was a French Catholic priest and historian. A professor at the Pon­tifical Lateran University and the Institut Catholique, director of France’s National Center for Scientific Research, and a peritus at the Second Vatican Council, Abbé Combes wrote and edited numerous books concerning St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

F. J. Sheed (1897–1981) was one of the most important Christian intellectuals of the twentieth century. With his wife, Maisie Ward, he founded Sheed & Ward, which revived the Catholic literary movement and promoted innumerable intellectual, literary, and artistic treasures of the Catholic Church.

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Paperback: 388pp.

ISBN: 978-1685954369