Chai Brady
Pilgrims waiting to venerate the Martin family reliquary at Knock Basilica, 14 July 2024. Photo: Sinéad Mallee The first ever St Thérèse International Day took place at Knock Shrine on Sunday July 14 bringing together devotees from across Ireland.
The new sacred day celebrates the ‘Little Flower’, St Thérèse of Lisieux.
According to Róisín O’Toole and Sheila O’Toole, the organisers of this event, the aim is to reignite St Thérèse’s ‘Little way of Love’. They said: “We believe St Thérèse’s simple doctrine and her ‘Little way of Love’ is the guide and hope that every heart in the world needs right now.”
Rector of Knock Shrine Fr Richard Gibbons told The Irish Catholic: “It went very well, more people turned up than I expected who travelled from across the country, North and south and east and west. It was very well run and organised. The Carmelites were there as well.”
Fr Gibbons said that “there is a lot of devotion to St Thérèse, to the Little Flower as she is called, going back many years. It may become an annual event”.
“We could see that from right around the country there were devotees of St Thérèse and it is great for them to come together to pray and be in solidarity with one another, which they obviously are because of their deep felt devotion to St Thérèse of Lisieux,” he added.