Henri Grialou (his secular name) was born into a modest mining family in Aveyron, in central France. Attracted by God from an early age, he wanted to be a priest. In the minor seminary he discovered the little Therese of the Child Jesus. It was then 1908, he was 13 years old: he was touched in a decisive way by this supernatural friendship, which would influence his life and his mission.

At the major seminary he discovered St. John of the Cross and felt strongly impressed by the Spanish Carmelite reformer of the sixteenth century: he understood that he was called to follow him and resembled him. On his deathbed he confessed: «In the depths of my soul, it is with Saint John of the Cross that I live».

This was how he entered the Carmelite novitiate just after his priestly ordination, in February 1922. There, he learned to know Teresa of Avila, the great reformer of Carmel, and found in her the mother of the spiritual.

1923, 1925, 1926, was the period of the beatification and canonization of Thérèse of Lisieux, then of the proclamation of John of the Cross as a Doctor of the Church. Our young Carmelite (28-31 years old) preached a lot in different French circles and perceived everywhere, especially among the laity, a spiritual thirst that found an adequate response in the teaching of Carmel. He then understood that his mission was to «lead souls to God» and to form them in the union of contemplation and action, showing them the path of prayer and life in the Spirit.

1929. Some young women who wanted to give themselves to God asked him to guide them. They gradually realized the thought that he had, of forming a group where action and contemplation in the world were united, to bring God where people do not know him. The donation of the sanctuary of Notre-Dame de Vie, in Provence (Venasque), allows him to begin his work. The Institute of Our Lady of Life was born (1923).

1937: Father Maria Eugenio was elected Definitor General of the Carmelites in Rome and remained so for 17 years, until the Chapter of 1955. It was during this period in Rome that Pius XII appointed him Apostolic Visitator of the Carmelite Nuns of France and asked him to unite them in a federation. A tireless worker, he also found time to publish in two volumes his masterpiece "I want to see God" (1949-1951).

In 1955 he returned to France, where he was able to take care more closely of his foundation, without forgetting his Carmelite province of Avignon, since he was exercising his third mandate as provincial of the Carmelites, when he died on March 27, 1967.

The beatification ceremony was held on November 19, 2016.

1. The canonical norms concerning the procedure to be followed in the Causes of Saints are stated in the Apostolic Constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister promulgated by John Paul II on 25 January 1983 (AAS LXXV, 1983, 349-355).

2. To initiate a Cause it is necessary that at least five years pass after the death of the candidate. This is to allow for greater balance and objectivity in the evaluation of the case and to allow the emotions of the moment to decant. There must be a clear conviction among people about his/her sanctity (fama sanctitas) and about the efficacy of his/her intercession with the Lord (fama signorum).

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BLESSED GIOVANNA MARIA CONDESA LLUCH

Giovanna Maria Condesa Lluch was born in Valencia, Spain on 30 March 1862.   When only 18, she discovered that God’s will for her was to dedicate herself and her life to service for the Kingdom of God, through evangelization and in helping working women.

In 1884, having overcome certain difficulties presented by the Archbishop who thought she was too young to found a Religious Congregation, Giovanna did get permission to open a house where she could welcome, educate and restore dignity to these working ladies.  A few months later, she started a school for the daughters of these workers on the same premises.

She obtained diocesan approval for her Institute in 1892 and made her own Temporary Profession in 1985, followed by her Perpetual Profession in 1911.  On 16 January 1916, God called her to her eternal reward.

The ceremony of her Beatification took place on 23 March 2003.

1. The canonical norms concerning the procedure to be followed in the Causes of Saints are stated in the Apostolic Constitution Divinus Perfectionis Magister promulgated by John Paul II on 25 January 1983 (AAS LXXV, 1983, 349-355).

2. To initiate a Cause it is necessary that at least five years pass after the death of the candidate. This is to allow for greater balance and objectivity in the evaluation of the case and to allow the emotions of the moment to decant. There must be a clear conviction among people about his/her sanctity (fama sanctitas) and about the efficacy of his/her intercession with the Lord (fama signorum).

PLEASE NOTE

1) In order to be able to consult the Positio please fill in the request form on this page.

2) If your request is accepted, we will then send you the conditions and directions for consulting the document.

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Teresa Adelaide Cesina Manetti, was born in Campi Bisenzio, in the then hamlet of San Martino, to Gaetano Manaetti (a poultry farmer) and Rosa Bigagli, on March 2, 1846.

At the age of three she lost her father. This event profoundly marked the life of the family, as well as the character of little Teresa, who would grow to be strong and strong-willed, as well as open and generous. Strength in the time of trial, from her experience of poverty, abandonment to Providence, the sense of sacrifice...: these were the attitudes that Teresa learned from an early age, especially thanks to the example and education from her mother, a strong woman of deep faith.

After a self-assured and lively adolescence, carried away even be how to dress and behave, at the age of 19 she irresistible felt God’s call and decided to follow the example of Teresa of Avila, who would appear to her in a vision.

In 1874 she began her first communal living together with two friends in the so-called 'Conventino', a small house under the Bisenzio embankment, and shortly after they became members of the Teresian 'Third Order', she taking the religious name of Teresa Mary of the Cross; in this period the young religious could count on the help and advice of Don Ernesto Jacopozzi, the chaplain of the church of San Martino, who followed her until her untimely death in 1894.

Teresa decided at the same time not to dedicate herself exclusively to a contemplative or ascetic life, but to open out her emerging Order, the «Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of Saint Teresa», to the world, thus developing a remarkable charitable work, in particular aimed at the formation of young women, the care of abandoned girls and missionary activity. The success of the Order and its rapid expansion, first in Tuscany and then in the rest of Italy, made a new headquarters necessary and in a few years in 1887 the new Convent with adjoining church was built, always in San Martino. On July 12, 1888, Teresa and her companions were clothed in the Carmelite habit.

In 1904, the Congregation received approval from St. Pius X (Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, 1903-1914) and, also in those years, the first foundations abroad were opened, in Lebanon and Palestine.

In 1908 Mother Teresa Mary of the Cross was struck by an incurable disease that led to her death on April 23, 1910.

Her beatification ceremony was held on October 19, 1986.

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2) If your request is accepted, we will then send you the conditions and directions for consulting the document.

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