Alençon, France Celebrates the Martin Spouses in July 2018
For the jubilee of the sanctuary in Alençon that is celebrating the 160th wedding anniversary of the Martins, parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, this year, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Major Penitentiary of the Church, will visit on July 7 and 8, 2018.
Alençon was a central part of the Martins’ family life: it is where Louis and Zélie met, on the Pont de Sarthe, in the spring of 1858.
It is also where they got married, at the town hall at 10:00 p.m. on July 12, and at midnight in the church of Notre Dame which is now a basilica. Their nine children were also born in Alençon, and the family lived there until Zélie’s death in 1877.
July 2018 is therefore a time of thanksgiving for Alençon, enhanced by the visit from Cardinal Piacenza as Major Penitentiary on July 7 and 8.
Catechesis and family time will alternate with a procession through the city in the footsteps of the Martins, led by their relics.
The couples who come will be able to entrust their marriages to the holy Martin spouses by renewing their wedding vows.
“My greatest wish for this Sanctuary is that Sts. Louis and Zélie’s message of holiness may touch as many as possible and that throughout the world, the Martin spouses may shine like their daughter Thérèse,” explained Fr. Jean-Marie Simar, rector of the basilica of Alençon, to the press agency Zenit.
Sources: Zenit / FSSPX.News – 7/6/2018
