St. Louis Martin and St. Zelie Guerin married each other on July 13, 1858. The couple had nine children, but four of them died at very young age.

Their last child was born on Jan. 2, 1873. They named her Marie-Francoise-Therese Martin. Today she is known as St. Therese, the Little Flower. Baby Therese was weak and frail, and doctors feared for the infant's life. The couple, who had already lost four children, was preparing for yet another blow. Zelie wrote of her three-month-old daughter: "I have no hope of saving her. The poor little thing suffers horribly ... It breaks your heart to see her."

However, the baby girl survived the illness. Zelie noted, "The baby, is full of life, giggles a lot, and is sheer joy to everyone."

The Martins were deeply devoted. Each day, they attended early morning Mass and prayed as a family. The statue of "Our Lady of the Smile" at home was surrounded with flowers and greenery during the month of May. Family spiritual reading included The Imitation of Christ, biographies of great French saints, Chateaubriand’s The Genius of Christianity, and Dom Prosper Guéranger’s The Liturgical Year. The couple lived modestly and reached out to the poor and the needy. Louis often made local pilgrimages on foot, and Zelie made a pilgrimage to Lourdes by train while suffering from breast cancer.

Louis had a watchmaking business and Zelie was a lace maker with her own boutique. In due course, Louis gave up his business to help Zelie administer hers. Zelie and Louis were exemplary employers. They paid on time and looked after their staff’s health and well-being. They would never work on a Sunday. Zelie believed that they were blessed by the Lord with prosperity as a reward for Louis being so faithful to Sunday rest.

The couple took their vocation as Christian parents seriously. Zelie wrote of how she wanted lots of children to raise them for heaven. Her prayer was that they should each be saints. She and Louis prayed that their children might have religious vocations, and in particular that they might be given sons who would become missionary priests. It was therefore an extra blow when their two sons died. St Therese later commented that her parents’ missionary hopes were to be realized in her own work in the convent of interceding for missionaries. Pope Pius XI  proclaimed St. Therese Universal Patron of the Missions, alongside St. Francis Xavier, on Dec. 14, 1927.

When Therese was three years old, Zelie’s breast cancer was diagnosed. Zelie prayed hard for a cure and went with three of her daughters to Lourdes.

Zelie was particularly concerned for her third daughter, Leonie, who was a difficult child, frequently ill, and of much slower intelligence than her sisters. Zelie offered her Lourdes pilgrimage for Leonie. She  prayed that if she was not to receive a cure herself, the Holy Virgin would instead cure her daughter, open her intelligence, and make a saint of her. In 1899, Leonie joined the Visitation Order where she lived a holy life for 42 years. Her cause for beatification was opened in January 2015.

Zelie died of breast cancer in 1877. After her death, the Martin family moved to Lisieux, where Zelie's brother and his wife would help Louis to bring up the children.

Louis outlived Zelie by 19 years. He generously let four of his daughters enter the Carmelite Order. As an old man, he asked God for some sacrifice, and it came in the form of dementia. Louis spent three years in a dementia home before his death in 1894. Louis and Zelie were canonized by Pope Francis on Oct. 18, 2015.  

                                                          模範雙親為聖召祈求

1858年7月13日,聖類斯.馬定與聖薛妮.姬娜共譜琴瑟,他們共生育了九名子女,可惜其中四名早逝。

1873年1月2日,他們最後一名女兒出生,給她取名瑪麗.方濟.德蘭馬定,是我們後來熟悉的聖女「小花德蘭」。

嬰孩德蘭身體荏弱,而她父母有四名孩子夭折的經歷,所以對體衰的德蘭成長,不寄厚望,甚至準備另一次孩子夭折的打擊。母親薛妮在德蘭三個月大時寫下:「我没信心能把她救活,這小東西受着苦痛 … 看着她令我心碎。」

但小德蘭康復過來。薛妮注意道:「這嬰孩充滿生命力,很多笑聲,為一切人是絕對的喜樂。

馬定家庭甚為熱心,每天參與清晨彌撒,整個家庭常聚在一起祈禱。5月時, 家裡的「微笑聖母」像周圍,常擺滿鮮花綠植。他們閱讀聖書,包括「效法基督」、法國聖人行實,夏多布里昂所箸的「基督宗教的優越」,和祈可舒神父的「禮儀年」。夫婦二人過着謙遜的生活,樂於幫助貧苦的人。類斯常徒步到附近朝聖;薛妮在患上乳癌時,乘火車到露德朝聖。

類斯原作鐘錶生意而薛妮作織製阿朗松花邊並有自己的商店。後來類斯放棄他的生意來幫肋薛妮打理她的商店。類斯和薛妮是模範雇主。他們按時支付薪金,照顧僱員的健康和需要。他們從不會在主日工作。薛妮相信因為類斯忠於主日停工,天主賜他們昌盛。

夫婦兩人非常重視作父母的天職。薛妮曾筆錄自己的心聲,寫出她多麽渴望能有很多孩子並幫他到天堂。她祈求天主使他們能成聖。她和丈夫祈求天主賞賜聖召給自己的孩子,並希望兒子能當傳教士。所以當僅有的兩名男孩夭折,他們特別難受。聖小德蘭日後表示,她父母的願望,藉她在修院竭力為傳教士祈禱而得以達成。教宗庇約十一世在1927年12月14日宣佈聖女小德蘭是普世傳教士的主保,與聖方濟.沙雷齊論。

小德蘭三歲時,母親薛妮確疹患上乳癌。薛妮為求痊癒而熱切祈禱,亦特別為此帶同三名女兒到露德朝聖。

其實, 薛妮很為第三名女兒萊奧妮擔心, 因她常生病,脾性也不好,她智商又比姊妹們緩慢。薛妮把露德朝聖之旅獻給聖母,祈求萬一天主不賞她痊癒,便換取治癒女兒萊奧妮,啟發她智商,使她成聖。1899年,萊奧妮進「聖母訪親修會」,渡了四十二年聖善生活。把她宣福的查核,已在2015年1月展開。

1877年,薛妮因乳癌病逝後,馬定舉家遷住立詩岳定居,好讓孩子們的舅父母能幫忙照顧。

類斯鰥寡十九年,讓四名女兒進了加爾默羅女修會修道,晚年仍祈求天主給自己能多作犧牲。他居住在腦退化症䕶理院三年後,1894年與世長辭。

2015年10月18日,教宗方濟把類斯.馬定及薛妮.馬定夫婦宣聖。