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Icons by Br. Robert Lentz, ofm.
Influenced by his Russian Orthodox background and a period of study with a master iconographer, Lentz's unique style blends classical Eastern iconography with contemporary elements and "witnesses."
Dimensions: 7.25" x 2.5"
Saint Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)
Until recent times, it was difficult to find a Catholic church without a statue of Therese of Lisieux. While statues are less in vogue in the past few decades, this saint remains one of the most popular in the Roman Church. On one level, she accomplished next to nothing in her brief life. When she died of tuberculosis at the age of 24, the prioress of her monastery wondered what she could possibly write in the obituary that would be sent to the other Carmelite monasteries. On a deeper level, Therese helped revolutionize modern Christian concepts of holiness.
Therese described her vocation as simply loving - loving God and the world. Whereas, in the past, many Christians had often suspected that being holy meant only something dramatic - being eaten by lions, sitting for fifty years on top of a pillar, whipping oneself daily - Therese believed that doing one's ordinary work was quite enough, provided that all was done with love. She strove in every way to identify herself with the people of her time. On a deeper plane this sharing was manifested in spiritual suffering, when she lost all sense of God's presence in her life during her last few years. She continued to embrace everything with generous love, including her fatal illness, in spite of the spiritual aridity that she felt. This darkness and aridity finally lifted in her last few minutes, and she died in ecstasy. She is depicted with roses as a symbol of the prayers she promised after her death.
© Robert Lentz, 1992
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