Lisieux
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Lisieux

Lisieux

Normandy pilgrimage city devoted to Saint Thérèse, with a vast basilica above the town

Lisieux is an important centre of Catholic pilgrimage in Normandy, devoted to Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (Thérèse Martin, 1873–1897). Over two million pilgrims a year come to visit the Basilique Sainte-Thérèse, a vast neo-Byzantine building on the hill above town reminiscent of the Sacré-Coeur in Paris. It is one of the largest churches built in France in the 20th century.

The pilgrimage circuit takes in several sites: the basilica, the Carmel convent where Thérèse lived and is buried, Les Buissonnets (her family home), and the Bishop's chapel in the old town. From a purely architectural standpoint, the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre in the old town centre is the more interesting building — a fine 12th-century Gothic structure that survived the heavy bombing of 1944 largely intact, in a town that lost over 80 percent of its medieval fabric. Much of the rest of Lisieux was destroyed and rebuilt in functional postwar style, but the area around the cathedral retains some character.

Guide

Books

Story of a Soul by Thérèse of Lisieux (1898) — The autobiography that Thérèse wrote during the last two years of her life at the Carmel, dictated in three separate manuscripts to her sister. It is at once a spiritual document, a record of childhood in a devout bourgeois Norman family of the 1880s, and an unusually direct account of religious doubt alongside faith. Whatever your view of the theology, it is a striking piece of first-person writing by a 24-year-old dying of tuberculosis who knew she was being watched and had decided to be completely honest.

Thérèse by Noel O'Donoghue (1983) — A short, careful study of Thérèse and her thought that avoids both hagiography and the fashionable deconstruction of her cult. Useful for visitors who want to understand why this particular saint attracted the devotion she did, and what her "little way" of spirituality actually means.

Guide

Getting There

Lisieux has a direct train connection from Paris Saint-Lazare. The journey takes around two hours on trains running via Évreux. Caen is 40 minutes by regional train. By car, Lisieux sits on the N13 between Caen and Paris; it is about two hours from Paris on the A13 motorway.

The main sights are walkable from the train station — the Carmel and the basilica are each about 15 to 20 minutes on foot. The basilica is at the top of a long slope; a tourist road train runs between the central pilgrimage sites in summer if the climb is not appealing.

Guide

Things to Do

Lisieux is primarily a pilgrimage destination, and most of what there is to see relates to Saint Thérèse Martin, who lived here from 1877 until she entered the Carmelite convent in 1888. The Basilica on the hill is the centre of the pilgrimage circuit, but the older Gothic cathedral, the Carmel convent, the Bishop's chapel where Thérèse received special permission to enter the religious life at age 15, and Les Buissonnets — the family home — all form part of the itinerary for visitors.