Gifts from Saint Therese - 21 July 2025

It was getting late and one of the sacristans had laid out a veritable jungle of roses and baby’s breath on the table in the Bishop’s dining room at the Philadelphia Carmelite Monastery. For context: This was during its closure, and so the only nun left was the Prioress. I was living in the cloister as a hermit and had been given the two-fold task of keeping the cloister clean and maintaining the Carmelite charism through prayer. I heard some commotion in the extern and went to investigate. In doing so I stumbled across the sacristan and was volun-told to help make flower arrangements for the altar and to place around the relics of Saint Therese and her parents. The Prioress, not aware of what mess the ordeal was, came looking for me, but was terrified at the chaotic mess of mangled stems and detached leaves and petals strewn everywhere. Diplomatically, she suggested: perhaps…to do this in the cloister bathroom next time?

There would not be a next time. This was the last time flowers would be placed on the altar for the holy sacrifice of the Mass. It was a bright and cloudless but frigid and windy January 26th, at approximately 1:05 p.m. when I watched one of the workmen drive off with the Prioress. Her departure felt like an evisceration. Leaving the monastery was a second evisceration. Before leaving, I pulled the dying petals from the once sanguine roses and pressed them, along with some baby’s breath and ferns, between pieces of a Termini Brothers box and slid them into a plastic bag that I tried to forget for the next three years.

Just before Brother Richard left for his last retreat as a seminarian, the folder containing the dried flowers was re-discovered and I scattered them on a piece of paper to be framed.

One of the OCDS members came to me and asked “you know what day he’s being ordained, right? He’s being ordained on the 100th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Therese.”

The same Therese who may not have been canonized a saint had it not been for the Philadelphia Carmel spreading devotion to her, and the correspondence of Sister Stanislaus of the Blessed Sacrament. So true was this that the monastery was dubbed “Saint Therese Depot” as not only correspondence but all other relics and items from Lisieux passed through its gates.

The same Therese who has no doubt had at least some influence on our lives as Carmelites.

Not so long ago, the relics of Therese, Louis, and Zelie Martin from the Philadelphia Carmel were transferred to the the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

This was the first commissioned reliquary of a family which was presented by the Magnificat Foundation to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who entrusted it to the monastery.

The image of Sister Stanislaus of the Blessed Sacrament over the pressed flowers from the last Mass at the Carmel of Saint Joseph and Saint Anne.

I was happy to get a ride from a generous benefactor to pick out flowers for the first Mass in the hermitage chapel but when we arrived at the store, the selection was down to three options - red roses, baby’s breath, and ferns. The same flowers that were given in mourning to the altar during the last Mass at the Carmelite monastery in Philadelphia graced our chapel in the triumphant celebration of a great victory - the gaining of a priest and the beginning of something new for all of us.

A special thanks to Father Juan-Mora FM and our friends at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish for providing encouragement and resources for a wonderful first-Mass and celebration for Father Richard, and to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel OCDS chapter for providing a beautiful cake decorated with those same red roses.