An Unknown Prophecy of St. Therese by Paula Haigh

Not many people, even those most devoted to her, think of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower, as a prophet. But this is not surprising when one recalls the many passages in her Autobiography, The Story of a Soul, where she tells of her love for nature, particularly flowers and birds.

She described one day when she went fishing with her dear Papa, and “the beautiful blue sky became suddenly overcast and soon the thunder began to roll and the lightning to flash through the dark clouds. I saw it strike a short distance away, and far from being frightened, I was thrilled with delight because God seemed to be so close!” (1)

Even more significant is the passage in which Thérèse tells of her growing love for learning. Here she describes her state of spirit in her early teens:




Was it not these earlier impressions made by the emphatically empirical and materialistic science of her day (1873-1897) that prompted the Holy Spirit to show her at the end of her life where that knowledge was to lead the world? Darwin’s Origin of the Species had shocked the cultural milieu of Europe only some fourteen years before she was born (1859).

And so, during the August before her ecstatic death of love on September 30, Mother Agnes (her sister Pauline) made this entry in her Notebook:


I interject here the comment that Mother Agnes apparently is speaking here of Thérèse’s trial of faith, not seeing the broader references to the world at large. Unaware, then, of the importance of these words themselves, Mother Agnes failed to record the entire prophecy, for such it was, and simply wrote “etc.” at the end of the following words of Thérèse that she did record:


Although Mother Agnes did not record all of Thérèse’s words concerning the “discoveries” of science, we, in hindsight, can fill in the events she foresaw. The words of Thérèse warn us of the Atheism that the false science of evolutionism produces. It is the fulfillment of what the Encyclical Pascendi of St Pius X describes as the subjugation of Faith to “Science” – to what poses as true science.

St. Thérèse went on to say, as recorded by Mother Agnes, these words:



(1) The Story of a Soul, trans. By J. Clarke, ICS, 1975, pp. 37-38)
(2) Ibid.., p. 101
(3) Last Conversations, trans. By J. Clarke, ICS, 1977, p. 257
(4) Ibid.