St.
Thérèse of Lisieux - a petal from her promised "shower of
roses"?
"Oh! no, you will see... it will be like a shower of roses.
After my death, you will go to the mail box,
and you will find many consolations."
— Saint Therese on 9 June 1897,
after Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart
told her we would be very sorry after she died.
Where to begin? The image in the
rose
petal which you see above is a family heirloom which continues to amaze
and mystify. It came to me from my mother, Suzanne Holt Heck (known to
friends and family as "Bunny"), née Lydia Suzanne Holt (b.
Philadelphia, 1913, d. Baton Rouge, 1995). She had an uncle who was a
professional photographer named Richard T. ("Dick") Dooner. Dick
professed no particular religion. Once upon a time (as I recall the
story), probably in the 1930s, a stranger entered Dooner's shop in
Philadelphia with a rose petal that seemed to have an image on it, and
asked him if he could blow it up. Dooner placed the petal between two
plates of glass, lit it from behind, and produced a negative, from
which this print was made. The rose petal was said to be fresh
and fragrant at the time.
The image (which bears a likeness of a Catholic saint known as "The Little Flower," or Thérèse of Lisieux) caused Uncle Dooner to ask where it came from. This is the story he got, as relayed by Bunny: Evidently there lived at the time in Philadelphia a pious woman, with a husband and children, who did a lot of charitable work outside the home. She was concerned about being pulled in two directions and neglecting her family, and so prayed to St. Thérèse to ask for a sign as to whether to continue her charitable work.
One day she went to meet her husband at a busy train station (not certain whether it was Penn Station in New York or 30th-St. Station in Philadelphia), and as they were walking toward each other this rose petal fluttered down between them. They looked around thinking that it might have fallen off the hat of a woman passing by, but no flowered hats were in view. So they picked it up and folded it in a book. Some days or weeks later the woman came across the petal again, held it up to the light, and thought she saw the likeness of Thérèse in its very veins. Evidently it had a wonderful fragrance, too. Some time thereafter they brought it to be photographed, and that is the last we know of the owner or the original petal.
Fast forward to about the year 1959, when Bunny and Harold (her husband) and I (in secondary school) were living in France. Bunny decided to drive down to Lisieux from Paris, accompanied by myself, to show this picture to the nuns at the convent and ask if they had ever heard of or seen anything like it. My impression is that they said something like "Oh, another one!" and "What a nice picture! Yes, can we have a copy?" So evidently these rose petals were known to have been showered down, probably by Thérèse herself, as a response to prayers.
The writer of this account, while an active Christian Catholic, has no particular devotion to Thérèse of Lisieux. He offers this story, however, as food for reflection especially for those who might have an interest in the saint. If you are aware of any other similar stories of "Thérèse rose petals" being showered down, and have pictures in particular, please consider sharing them. Send an e-mail to Thomas Heck, heck.3"at"osu.edu (replace the "at" with an ampersand). Thank you.
The image (which bears a likeness of a Catholic saint known as "The Little Flower," or Thérèse of Lisieux) caused Uncle Dooner to ask where it came from. This is the story he got, as relayed by Bunny: Evidently there lived at the time in Philadelphia a pious woman, with a husband and children, who did a lot of charitable work outside the home. She was concerned about being pulled in two directions and neglecting her family, and so prayed to St. Thérèse to ask for a sign as to whether to continue her charitable work.
One day she went to meet her husband at a busy train station (not certain whether it was Penn Station in New York or 30th-St. Station in Philadelphia), and as they were walking toward each other this rose petal fluttered down between them. They looked around thinking that it might have fallen off the hat of a woman passing by, but no flowered hats were in view. So they picked it up and folded it in a book. Some days or weeks later the woman came across the petal again, held it up to the light, and thought she saw the likeness of Thérèse in its very veins. Evidently it had a wonderful fragrance, too. Some time thereafter they brought it to be photographed, and that is the last we know of the owner or the original petal.
Fast forward to about the year 1959, when Bunny and Harold (her husband) and I (in secondary school) were living in France. Bunny decided to drive down to Lisieux from Paris, accompanied by myself, to show this picture to the nuns at the convent and ask if they had ever heard of or seen anything like it. My impression is that they said something like "Oh, another one!" and "What a nice picture! Yes, can we have a copy?" So evidently these rose petals were known to have been showered down, probably by Thérèse herself, as a response to prayers.
The writer of this account, while an active Christian Catholic, has no particular devotion to Thérèse of Lisieux. He offers this story, however, as food for reflection especially for those who might have an interest in the saint. If you are aware of any other similar stories of "Thérèse rose petals" being showered down, and have pictures in particular, please consider sharing them. Send an e-mail to Thomas Heck, heck.3"at"osu.edu (replace the "at" with an ampersand). Thank you.
This Web page created Jan. 6,
2004.