On this day in 1883, in this room on the first floor of the family house in Lisieux, the young Thérèse experienced a miraculous healing. She had fallen seriously ill after her sister Pauline had entered the Carmel, and her family greatly feared for her life. A novena of Masses was offered for her in Paris, and during the novena Thérèse's sisters gathered with her to pray. The sisters together faced a statue of Our Lady which was in the room. "All at once the statue became animated", Thérèse recalled. "Our Lady became so beautiful that I shall never find words to express that heavenly loveliness... but what penetrated to the depths of my soul was her ravishing smile. Then all my pain vanished." Thérèse was completely cured of her illness. Visitors to the house can see a relica of that statue (on the right of the picture above); the original was placed with the reliquary which remains permanently at the Carmel in Lisieux.
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