Little Flower honoured

By DEBORAH JONES
Two MILLION PILGRIMS are expected in the small Normandy town of Lisieux this weekend to begin a week of celebrations for the centenary of the death, at 24, of its most famous daughter, St Therese of the Child Jesus.
A procession tomorrow evening will accompany her relics from the Carmelite monastery, which Therese Martin entered at the age of 15 and in which she died, to the Cathedral. Bishop Pierre Pican of Bayeux and Lisieux will then preside over the opening Mass.
The following morning Cardinal Paul Poupard, the Pope's special Envoy, will offer Pontifical Mass before a vast congregation and in the presence of numerous bishops and Abbots whose abbeys have received relics of Therese.
Relics of the "Little Flower" will be exposed in the Cathedral for the veneration of the faithful. At the climax of the week of prayer vigils, concerts, Vespers and Masses, including one in celebration of the saint's patronage of the Missions and of Missionaries, there will be Pontifical Mass, led by Bishop Pican, at which the Diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux will be consecrated to Saint Therese.
The Little Flower — Page 7