Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1898)

This is the first of a few books you will see posted here relating to the course I'm taking in Church History. Although this isn't the first book we read, it's the first one I completed all the way through. After the semester ends, I'll "mop up" the remainders of a couple books we only read part of, just because I'm a suffering completionista.

Carmelite spirituality is very effusive! You are best friends with Jesus and use a lot of exclamation points to convey your faith! I'm not sure I could even channel a tenth of Thérèse's enthusiasm, which is saying a lot (for her), because her health was pretty awful through most of her 24 year lifespan. However, even without the bubbly prose, Therese had a lot to teach the world. As featured in the thesis statement of my paper, the late nineteenth century, the backdrop of the First Vatican Council, was one where the "regular human" was getting reduced to a speck in the sea of huge systems of industrial capitalism and nascent Marxist models of society. While Pope Leo XIII address these big concepts in his encyclical Rerum novarum, Thérèse, just a few years later, looked to the smallest things in her search for God. That is what makes her important: she makes the small things significant in a time where small things might as well have been invisible.

I read my copy from my own library, but you needn't go on an epic quest to a theological library to find your own copy. Not only is this ICS Publications's bestselling title (in fact their whole publishing house was founded on it), but it is also available from numerous public and academic libraries.