Book Description

Therese of Lisieux died on 30 September 1897. Nine months later, the now classic Story of a Soul appeared and proved an immediate success. However, when historians had access fifty years later to manuscripts written by Therese they were surprised to discover enormous differences between these texts and the published version of Story of a Soul. Jean-Francois Six has written this new book with two purposes. First, he recalls the history of how Mother Agnes, Prioress of the Carmelite convent and sister of Therese altered and completed Therese's text so that it became a travesty of the original. Secondly he re-establishes the truth of the last months of Therese's life, her authentic spiritual message, and her contribution to the history of mysticism. In working on his book, Jean-Francois Six has relied on texts which can definitively be said to come from the hand of Threrese. In contrast to the sentimentality which is so often associated with her, he has found a powerful, lively figure, full of humor even in the depths of the spiritual night she experienced during her last months-the spiritual night which others have tried to deny or minimize.