Storm of Glory

By John Beevers “Love to be unknown and accounted as nothing.” These words from the Imitation of Christ might well have been the motto of Thérèse of the Child Jesus, the “Little Flower” of Lisieux, who is now hailed as the “greatest saint of modern times.” The story of her soul is now universally known: born to Louis and Zélie Martin in 1873, she joined—in spite of stern opposition—the Carmelite community of Lisieux at the age of just fifteen. For little more than nine years, she lived the Carmelite life of prayer, silence and austerity, suffering in body from tuberculosis and striving in spirit to follow “the little way” by which she hoped to gain eternal life, until her death at the age of twenty-four in 1897. Storm of Glory: Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, originally published in 1949, is an excellent and vivid introduction to the life and lessons of the Little Flower. The fruit of John Beevers’ diligent research and careful study of the relevant materials available to date, Storm of Glory succinctly conveys the power and significance of Saint Thérèse’s message to the modern world: namely, that God is not dead, but is alive; He lives, He is life itself, and He promises that same life, in abundance, to any and all who will accept it from His crucified hands.  Whosoever is a little one, let him come to me. (Proverbs 9:4) And so I have always stayed a little child, doing nothing but gathering flowers of love and sacrifice and offering them to God to please Him. (Saint Thérèse of Lisieux)   John Beevers (1911–1975) was an English author and biographer. A convert to the Catholic faith, he found literary success with his lives of the saints, including Joan of Arc (1959), Teresa of Ávila (1961), and Damien of Molokai (1973), and his studies of Marian apparitions, including The Sun Her Mantle (1953) and Our Lady of Fatima (1959). * * * Paperback: 218pp. ISBN: 978-1685953478