was hiding from the soldiers. At the Guérin home, faith was rooted in their hearts even if it was tainted by the rigorous Jansenism that was rampant at that time.
Because of her sad childhood, Zélie could have been just an anxious, hypersensitive young woman full of scruples and lacking in self-confidence. She was actually all of those things, but from her youth she also demonstrated St. Paul’s axiom that “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10). Doubting her own capabilities, Zélie early on relied on God, knowing that his strength would never fail. Her relationship with him was so profound that before the age of twenty she believed she was called to religious life. As was the case for Louis, her choice of which convent to join revealed her generous personality: Zélie wanted to become part of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, apostolic sisters who combine a life of prayer and active service to the poor. But again, the Lord, who knows the hearts of his children so well, blocked her path. The superior clearly said that she didn’t believe Zélie had that vocation. For Zélie it was a hard blow, but she wasn’t one to wallow in her unhappiness. She decided to be trained in a profession.
During her years of study she had learned the basics of the noble craft of lace-making in Alençon. The Arachnean lace that Napoleon admired required intensive manual dexterity and delicacy. Zélie decided to pursue this profession and excelled at it. At first she worked in a factory in Alençon, but she attracted the persistent attentions of a member of the personnel so she decided to quit that job. On December 8, 1851, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, while she was working in her room, she heard an inner voice clearly say, “You are to make Alençon lace.” She immediately talked to her sister, Élise, who encouraged her and promised her support.
Both of them then launched an enterprise that was more than bold, as she admitted later: “How did we—without any monetary resources to speak of and without any understanding of business—end up doing well and finding establishments in Paris who would trust our work? Yet that is what happened in a very short time because we started working the very next day.”7 She wasn’t even twenty years old. Zélie established herself as a maker of Alençon-style lace and as the proprietor of that business.
Father Piat gives us another wonderful description, this time of Zélie:
Somewhat shorter than average, a very pretty and innocent face, brown hair in a simple style, a long well-shaped nose, dark eyes glowing with decision that occasionally had a shadow of melancholy, she was an attractive young woman. Everything about her was vivacious, refined, and amiable. With a lively and refined spirit, good common sense, great character, and above all an intrepid faith, this was an above-average woman who could draw people’s attention.8
As the years went by, divided between prayer and work, she bonded even more with her sister in the midst of the trials of starting up a business and the trial of an opposite vocation for Élise. Élise had been interested in cloistered life but had run into obstacle after obstacle because of health issues and attacks of scrupulosity. On April 7, 1858, she finally landed at the doorstep of the Visitation Monastery in Le Mans with the radical desire of becoming a saint. For Zélie the separation was heart-rending. At that time she could barely stand to be separated from her sister even for an afternoon. “What will you do when I am not here any more?” her sister had asked her.9 Zélie said she would leave too. And that is what she did three months after her sister entered the convent. She went in a new direction … to marry Louis.
Louis’s mother, Fanny Martin, was taking some lessons in lacemaking in Alençon and met Zélie, whom she immediately appreciated; with her solid maternal instinct, she saw in her an ideal daughter-in-law. She talked about her to Louis, doubtless presenting more arguments to him about her piety than her beauty. Louis’s resistance was overcome and he was open to meeting Zélie.
Zélie didn’t have an attentive mother to counsel her, but she had the Holy Spirit: Zélie crossed paths by chance with Louis for the first time on a bridge. Not only did his attractive appearance vividly impress her, but again an inner voice confirmed to her, “This is the one I have prepared for you.” Young people in the process of discernment could envy such clarity. But let’s not forget that Zélie, like Louis, had done all she could to find her vocation and had gone through deserts for it. She also had her heart open enough to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in this way. The Spirit didn’t have to reveal the name of “the promised one” since Fanny Martin would take care of that a few days later.
The two young people met in April 1858 and quickly grew fond of each other, rapidly establishing a rapport. They got engaged, and with the consent of the priest who prepared them for marriage they decided to get married on July 13.
Nine children were born from this union. Louis and Zélie raised them while continuing in their watchmaking and lace-making professions. Five daughters were born who lived: Marie in 1860, Pauline in 1861, Léonie in 1863, Céline in 1869, and Thérèse in 1873. Four little “angels” left early for heaven: Hélène in 1870 (at the age of 5), Joseph in 1866, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph in 1867, and their first daughter named Thérèse, in 1870.
2 Father Stéphane-Joseph Piat, O.F.M., Histoire d’une famille [The Story of a Family] (1946; repr ed., Paris: Téqui, 1997), p. 13. Future references to this work will be indicated by HF and page number.
3 People can visit the Pavilion in Alençon, and no place reveals Louis’s soul better to a pilgrim than this place.
4 HF, p. 25.
5 Correspondence familiale (1863-1885) [Family Correspondence from 1863 to 1885] (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2004), Letter 15. Future citations from this text will be listed as CF with the letter number.
6 The “Blues,” named for the color of their uniforms, were the troops supporting the new republic that fought against the peasants during the French Revolution.
7 HF, p. 29.
8 HF, p. 32.
9 CF 190.
Chapter 2
A Marriage of Love
What kind of couple were Louis and Zélie? Let’s look at their foundation in God as a couple on July 13, 1858.
They were married at the odd hour of midnight, a local tradition. Louis gave his wife a beautiful medallion representing Tobit and Sarah, the biblical couple. Tobit, during the night of his wedding, had prayed: “O Lord, I am not taking this sister of mine because of lust, but with sincerity. Grant that I may find mercy and may grow old together with her” (Tb 8:7).
Fifteen years later Zélie would tell her daughter Pauline the story of her first day of marriage, which wasn’t a typical first day for a young couple. After going to the convent to present her husband to her sister (now Sister Marie-Dosithée), she spent the day in tears. Seeing her sister as a nun awoke
