On this day in 1925 Pope Pius XI pronounced, "We declare Blessed Thérèse of the Child Jesus to be a saint." The canonisation ceremony, at St Peter's Basilica in Rome, was perhaps the grandest ever seen. 34 cardinals, over 200 bishops and up to one million faithful attended. The Pope said, "We desire most earnestly that all the faithful should study her in order to copy her, becoming children themselves." Privately he spoke to the Archbishop of Philadelphia, referring to Thérèse by saying, "whom you call in America the Little Flower, but whom I call my guiding star."
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